Astros’ off-season: Would you rather?

The Astros entered the last off-season as the World Champions facing minimal turnover and very few personnel decisions. That was then and this is now as the Astros come off a very good season with a lot more question marks and personnel decisions on their plate. So, to check the pulse of the fanatics, today we will play a little game of “Would You Rather”.

Would you rather…

  1. The Astros re-sign Marwin Gonzalez or Charlie Morton?
  2. Have a return to greatness of Jose Altuve or Carlos Correa?
  3. The Astros sign Gerrit Cole or George Springer to an extension?
  4. Have a repeat of 2018 by Alex Bregman or Justin Verlander?
  5. J.B Bukauskas or Forrest Whitley come up to the big club in 2019?
  6. Have Josh James join the rotation or the back-end of the bullpen?
  7. The Astros pursue Catcher J.T. Realmuto in a trade or sign Wilson Ramos or Yasmani Grandal as a free agent?
  8. Have Kyle Tucker break camp as the full-time left fielder or use him as the centerpiece of an off-season trade?
  9. The Astros fill open rotation spot(s) with internal options (James, Collin McHugh, Brad Peacock, Framber Valdez) or with a Charlie Morton (circa 2017) free agent or trade pickup?
  10. The Astros make Ryan Pressly the new closer or keep Roberto Osuna as the closer or pursue a free agent closer like Zach Britton?

Just a few questions to whet the Astro appetite today and feel free to throw in a few “Would You Rathers” of your own…..

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108 responses to “Astros’ off-season: Would you rather?”

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  1. daveb – What we really want to know is the skinny about the House Hunters International….
    – They always show 3 home choices on the show – how many properties did you have to show them before you got it down to the three
    – They try to have two people on the show (normally husband and wife) who have diametric opposite wants – “I want a French Tudor in the middle of downtown that’s a fix ’em up, while my wife wants a mid-century modern condo on a hill out of town that is move-in ready – make us both happy.” How much of that is TV hooey drama?
    – Any truth to the rumors that they already have one picked out and even bought before the show is filmed?

    Enquiring minds want to know….

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    • If I tell you I’ll have to kill you……..The show is a very abbreviated reenactment. The property was purchased well prior to taping. The new owners applied to be on the show. In this case, I think I only showed the owners about a dozen properties. Based on their wants, I pretty much knew which property they’d buy. There is plenty of hooey. They try to create drama. There is the obligatory “lock your wife in the closet” scene. And all the great, witty comments of mine were left on the cutting floor. But it was my 15 minutes.

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      • You are the guy that comes into the room which you are watching a movie and says “Did she already kill her husband?” Those shows are on the up and up. These people have never been there before except to have a vacation or honeymoon. They are really having that argument, and having completely opposite taste. I think now that I have read your post, I may have KILL YOU.

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  2. “We are getting hit pretty hard.” Those are discouraging words coming from Jeff Luhnow. Guess I’ll have to trust OP: “I think a lot of really brilliant people will be applying for jobs with the Astros.”

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      • I am not sure Diane. I certainly can talk fairly intelligently about the loss of players, but I am whistling in the wind on the loss of others. And a lot of that ties to who they will get for replacements. I’ll think about it

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  3. Some thoughts:
    -Almost every guy in your lineup drops 30 points in the same year and two different teams come in and snatch up your hitting coaches? Thank you, ever so much!
    – In prime time, guys like Scott Boras crawl out of their hole and remind us why we couldn’t stand him in the first place. And after listening to professional politicians for months, now we have to listen to him try to turn Bryce Harper into a deity.
    -Having one of the top minor league systems in baseball for years, doesn’t mean diddly if you don’t graduate some of them into your system. Let’s get these arms on the roster and start using them.
    -Yep, we kept Collin McHugh in case we needed him. Here he is and he’s a hell of a lot better pitcher than Jake Marisnick is a hitter.
    -We lose a bunch of people out of the blue, but, after 123 interviews Joe Espada is still here.
    -I am experiencing back discomfort but am still hitting this keyboard with high exit velocity.
    -I’m learning to pay close attention to everything Alex Bregman does on the field and nothing he does off the field.

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    • – Well it is easier to replace the two hitting coaches than all the guys who dropped 30 points last year
      – Boras is a carnival hawker, but (most of) the people making the decisions with the teams are not the rubes right off the farm anymore (apologies to old pro who is right off the farm, but is not a rube)
      – Yes, we saw some good pitching from the farm last year (Cionel, Framber, James) – so yes, it is time to keep those arms coming
      – Collin did a tremendous job last year turning what could have been considered a demotion into a terrific role with the club
      – I have no idea how good, bad or indifferent Joe Espada is
      – But at what angle are your words leaving the keyboard
      – With Millenials you need to concentrate on actions and not on words

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      • Definitely have a high launch angle, because, at my age, I don’t want to run hard on the base paths. I’m like Manny. Hustle is not in my vocabulary and I want lots of money. This trailer home is so dated!

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  8. In other news….
    – It was announced that Minute Maid Park has decided to move on and will be the new home park for the expansion Las Vegas Roulette Wheels. The only thing left behind will be the Fowl Poles and the $12 beer stands
    – Robert Ford has moved on and will be the host on the 1200th season of Survivor. Steve Sparks will accompany him and will be lighting the torches
    – Jeff Bagwell’s shaggy goatee has been sold at auction to the members of ZZ Top as a back-up replacement beard for their next tour. Jeff’s wife donated it without his knowledge…
    – A spaceship from the Planet Twylo landed yesterday causing Jeff Luhnow to confess that he was not actually born in Mexico and that he would be going back to his planet ahead of their “friendly” invasion of the earth by real illegal aliens next spring
    – Blummer has left the TV booth and will be spending the off-season and most of 2019 touring the US at various Comedy Clubs along the way
    – Dan P will be taking his literary stylings to North Texas saying they desperately need him there for a rebuilding of the team and their fan blogs

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  9. I’m with OP on having a definitive answer on McCullers. I hope with some sense of confidence that McHugh will be as effective as McCullers and certainly more durable. I think him pitching in relief this year was a boost for his arm and let him develop more confidence in his slider. His higher level of maturity will be welcome as well. I’d almost like to see Peacock back in the long relief role although I wonder if the uncertainty of his use out of the bullpen vs the certainty of a starter’s routine contributed to his lack of dominance this year.

    I hate to see Marwin go but it sure looks like Yuli is going to be the utility infielder. If that happens I’m hoping Tucker and Straw shine in the spring. If they do then Jake is a luxury. What I’ve seen of Straw is encouraging. He could be Jake with a bat.

    I’m glad to see Hudgens go. 2017 was the only year the Astros offense approached its potential and I think that was more Beltran and Cora. I don’t think AJ would have let him go so I’m glad his hand has been forced. I sure would like to see Beltran back in our dugout but I can’t see him being tempted by anything less than bench coach. Maybe Espada will get hired away as well.

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  10. I know it is the off season, but when one considers the song parodies, 1OP off on a tangent, the ladies being too quiet, Dave ruining House Hunters for everyone, and now a Friends reference, DanP you have lost total control of this blog. And add to that your outer space references, it has really gone down hill in November.

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  11. Well AC, I could tell you about my selling one house, downsizing and buying another and the moving from 2850 sq ft to 1630. It’s like putting 10 lbs of potatoes in a 5 lb bag. Not fun at all. Rather have wisdom teeth extracted. Finally got Internet again. So despite all of the catching up I had to do it seems a lot going on as usual on the blog. I missed it over the past few days.

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