In the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons there was quite a bit of talk about the Astros’ untouchables as the team put together big-time trades for Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke respectively. At that time the untouchable discussions were all about prospects and frankly centered on two unproven (at that time) prospects, Kyle Tucker and Forrest Whitley. The word was that those two were untouchables and were not included in any of the discussions for the pitching triumvirate that the team reeled in back then.
Now to be truthful, I’m sure there was a price that would have pried those two gentlemen out of Jeff Luhnow’s arms. It is just that the type of offer to move them (Verlander straight up for Whitley) was not going to be made. So, both of them are still with the organization with Tucker showing well in the 2020 season and Whitley still being a very large, talented question mark. If we expand that untouchables list to not just include prospects, but to the big team also, who is on this list today?
We know that there are not likely to be any major trades right now, but let’s assume it is mid-2021 and maybe things are not going so well for the team. Who is touchable and who is untouchable (within reason)?
Kyle Tucker. If Tucker was untouchable before he had done anything worthwhile at the MLB level, he has to be untouchable today. He is just 24 years old, led the team in hits, RBIs and SBs while near the top in a lot of other stats and is controllable for 5 seasons. He is not touchable.
Forrest Whitley. The Whitley conversation has to be quite different than the Tucker conversation. He has missed time due to injury and by violating the non-PED drug rules of MLB. He has shown talent in spurts, like in his last two sessions in the Arizona Fall League. If he is untouchable it is due to what the organization knows about him and expects from him, not what he has shown in limited exposure to date. The right price might pry him away from the team, but it is not likely to be offered until he shows a bit more to the outside world.
Alex Bregman. Bregman struggled in 2020, probably due to an unhealed injury. But in 2018 and 2019 he was an All Star and in the top 5 in AL MVP voting both seasons. The Astros have him locked up through 2025 and he is going nowhere.
Jose Altuve. Jose is owed 4 seasons at $29 MM per year. If he plays up to his normal self, he is untouchable. If he plays as bad as he did in 2020 he would be considered an untouchable by other teams. He is such an icon and probably the current face of the team, so unless he just crashes for a couple seasons and they do a salary dump, he is staying here.
Yordan Alvarez. Untouchable – enuf said…..
Cristian Javier. Javier flew up through the minors culminating in being the Astros’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2019. He then jumped to the majors with so many holes in the rotation, put up a very good season (5-2, 3.48 ERA) in 2020 and came in 3rd in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. Considering he is also controlled through 2025, he has to be untouchable at this point.
Pedro Leon. Can a guy who has not played outside Cuba be considered untouchable? The Dodgers did not think Yordan Alvarez was untouchable and traded him before he played a game for them. Bet they would love to get in a Delorean and head back to that decision. It would be a great bet that at least for the near future the Astros consider the reported five-tool Leon untouchable.
Framber Valdez, A year ago this would have been a laughable conversation, but after learning how to control his world-class curveball and having a very strong showing in 2020, Valdez may well be on the cusp of untouchable. When you can fill a rotation spot ably with major league minimum $, you don’t let that go.
Untouchable, if…… Carlos Correa, Zack Greinke and Lance McCullers Jr. will all be free agents after the 2021 season. But if they are playing up to snuff and the Astros are contending, the Astros will hold tightly on to them and deal with it after the season. But if things are not going well…they all could be headed elsewhere.
Youngsters. Do any of the top youngsters (besides Whitely) rate the untouchable tag? Hunter Brown, Tyler Ivey, Jairo Solis, Luis Garcia and on and on make up a deep set of prospects waiting for their chance to show their stuff. Are any of them untouchable? Not that we know, but this team is likely going to build a cheaper sustainable team based on their young pitching. So some of them may well be untouchable.
So…..
- Do you agree with the untouchable list above?
- Would you take anyone off? Why?
- Would you add anyone to it?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
80 responses to “Who are the Astros’ untouchables?”
With Verlander, Greinke and Lance all in their last year under their current deals, I think Whitley is untouchable.
With the way the Astros have penny pinched in the area of catching over the years, and then spending a first round pick on Korey Lee, I would consider him untouchable.
I think Pedro Leon is untouchable.
I think we would need to see all our pitching prospects pitch this year before we add anyone else to the list.
Right now, I think Tucker is untouchable, as is Alvarez.
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Agree with the list. Everyone on the list except for Bregman and Altuve are young, talented and cheap. Bregman and Altuve are not cheap but getting paid what they are worth, so I’d keep them.
If the Astros have a down year, I would trade Greinke in a salary dump, and maybe McCullers. I would try to extend Correa.
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Bregman is cheap. We’re not trading him. Tucker, Alvarez, Valdez, Javier, Parades are almost free. I don’t think they are going anywhere. Brantley and some other guys are untouchable right now, but who knows what could happen in July?
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My last comment is awaiting moderation because it has two links. I haven’t tried that in years.
In the meantime, Jake Marisnick has a deal with the Cubbies.
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Duel linkage is a rather controversial. I hope you don’t cause a a crash. I also hope Jake stinks it up in Chicago so I don’t feel like we missed a reasonably priced option in center. But 1OP, you might be right about him not being welcome back here. As the stats suggest, he might have been the biggest benefactor of the funny business in 2017.
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Pitchers and Catchers are scheduled to report to Astros Spring Training facilities one week from today Feb. 18th
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No one is untouchable. Put a deal in front of me; I will consider it. Ok, push comes to shove I’m not trading Whitley Alvarez or Tucker without a Bowl-Me-Over deal. I really like Javier and Urquidy and Paredes but they could be dealt, sure. Good article though.
Aaand Jake is gone now, with Springer. Would dave still be holding out hope Click is going to get either one at this point? Asking for a friend.
Yes, very happy how this offseason has turned out for Houston. Things have happened pretty organically where we put some eggs in the McCormick Straw basket prospective “windows,” giving Siri (AAA) his big chance before Leon steps onto the scene.
We made nice with Correa, and while he and Lance McCullers have a XM podcast, one can dream of those 2 having amazing years and extending with us for the foreseeable future when Greinke and JV leave!
There were a lot of “ifs” in offseason writing, regarding Bregman and Altuve bouncebacks. For me, to have gotten to the playoffs with a horrendous showing offensively, really speaks volumes how the pitching unit did their job overall. Listening to Brantley and Breman about unfinished business … there are trade possibilities, dan, but we really gotta love the group we have.
I has a discussion with BOS guy over Benintendi in early January, and I wasn’t really happy with who they wanted of ours. Very glad that discussion is over, and Brantley came back. We used to be able to have these trade discussions more freely, but the Astros vet so hard, develop our way giving our secrets. If you’ll notice, we get rid of the cancers pretty quick, and don’t let many newcomers in. The last incident I recall was Guduan pulling a knife on Deetz, & he’s gone. Martes roiding up, and I doubt he bounces back. The “Club” is getting more exclusive and entrenched.
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You have got to be more kind to Dave. He has been wrong going back to the (Spit.com) days. But he makes all of the rest of us look very smart. Also, he is very sensitive. When he reads your comment, he will probably have to start drinking under a palapa hut earlier than normal. Maybe all day.
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Yeah, it’s 20 degrees and iced over here and Dave makes us look smart? I wonder how it is where Dave is. Palapa is really sounding good right now.
Of course, there is that tongue in cheek thing you’ve got going, right?
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My tongue is so far into my cheek right now, I look like Nellie Fox.
And anything I say negative about Dave is strictly from jealousy.
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I always forget which island Dave is on – but looked up St. Croix and the weather for the next 10 days is lows of 73 F with highs between 80 and 82 F. And basically no COVID.
Yes we are like Timothy Leary – legends in our own minds….
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I *was* being kind to dave, I didn’t even mention that Amazon still isn’t offering Taubman’s tell-all book! My best Popeye laugh Ack ack ack
And yes, I am very jealous of the Island life. Houston feels like 30 degrees with the wind. Sure my north Dallas friends are much colder.
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Since we’re talking about Dave’s island (Nevis) and 20 degrees Fahrenheit back home, I’ll share that the last time I went to Nevis was more than a decade ago during February. The weather was fantastic there. Unfortunately, the weather back home was not so fantastic causing all flights to be cancelled on Monday and shifting the return trip to Tuesday. I had to scrape a lot of ice off my car using a credit card just to get the door open to get to my ice scraper. My wife likes to tell that story to everyone who complains about cold weather.
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By the way, I’m familiar with drinking under a palapa all day.
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I’m not even familiar with a palapa
By the way as a result of your complaints about your treatment here – I am charging everyone double what they pay now for this blog…… huh? what? Oh, never mind.
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Dan, you could even charge 100% interest and nobody would ever know!
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As to Untouchables, I have no qualms with your list. I am not sure who on this list is Untouchable if the Dodgers offer Kershaw and agreed to pay $20 million of his salary this year. So with that not happening, I don’t foresee any trade that “improves” the club. Also, with no certain, for sure, major league ready, at any of the infield positions, all those guys have to be off the table for this year. Who would want our catchers? And our outfield is so thin, we couldn’t possibly trade anyone. Even the iffies. Now for the “touchables.” Anyone penciled in to be still in the minors to start the year.
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Looks like Brantley has put on 5 pounds, but Tucker remains as thin as ever.
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Here is a question. Say the Astros are doing well this season, but Greinke, McCullers or Correa are doing poorly – would you consider trading them at the deadline?
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I would not consider trading Correa at all UNLESS, he tells the club that he will not consider resigning. Greinke and McCullers… go.
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Marisnick gets a base salary of $1 MM for 2021 with incentives that could raise it by $500K. He then either gets a mutually agreed option of $4 MM for 2022 (both parties have to agree to that) or the Cubs can buy him out for $500 K. So true commitment is between $1.5 MM and 2 MM. The Astros could have done that, so I guess they were not interested or he was not interested.
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Not to toot horn or anything, but as of Nov 28, 2019, I thought we’d say good-bye to Jake and never look back.. for as little as he was offered, paired with “such a great need in Outfield in Houston,” sure seems like Astros agreed.
https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2019/11/28/20986987/taking-a-swing-at-astros-upcoming-player-decisions
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You are always allowed to toot your own horn as long as you are willing to fess up to your wrong predictions, like when I said the Astros should consider moving Altuve back in 2014 or so….
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Dan, I missed on Paulino and Feliz. Thought they could stick here and I was wrong. I was right about a year ahead of time we should have traded AJ Reed for anything while the iron was hot.
You know as I think about that for a moment. He hit bombs in practice, and against AAA. Not only did that show the great divide of minors to majors in that era, but it meant we didn’t have enough 99 mph pitchers [with control] to throw to him either, to have seen that his bat speed was terrible. Which means other teams probably knew it by whiffing him on their AAA teams, and we just wanted to play it out. Any way, it was a terrible idea to keep him.
I do run the risk of losing my entire reputation what ever that is, on Forrest Whitley in the same conversation as Reed. If Whitley is a bust, and I’d think he has 3 yrs to actually establish that true/false, well I would have been really wrong. And in that way, saying “don’t trade him” is a huge risk, if he could right now fetch fungible talent!
Trading Correa could be potentially the highest risk, and it would take a real brassy brass to pull that off. I’m adjusting the odds to 50/50, he walks. that’s better than 70/30 back in Dec. before he said he wanted to stay for life. I’d still love Jeremy Pena to make things very difficult, or for Pena to convert to OF til Altuve is gone perhaps. Heck, nowadays with the shift, by next season maybe Yuli is out and we implement another SS-type at 1B, like Pena. He’d have the glove to stop anything down the line, just a thought if he’s hitting 300+. What will ever come of Toro?
So much to be excited about. Today I’m going to fill in blanks on who should be the NRI’s.
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You are an excellent tooter. You are the best tooter in the bunch.
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GoStros1, by the way, if Whitley turns into a bust, I certainly will not give you the business, because you’ll be pissed enough on your own, and truly, we need to have the guy make it. I want him to make it. But yes, I remain dubious.
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That deal with the Cubs pretty much convinces me that Jake was not welcome back in Houston. And probably has smelly feet too.
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Good one, uncle dave!
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Since the scandal became news, I have not heard a thing about the Astros bringing back any of the guys from the 2017 that have left.
I hear a lot of fans talking about bringing this guy or that guy back, but not from reliable sources.
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Dan, Dave is on Nevis
And Timothy Leary’s dead. On the outside, looking in.
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So their weather is Lows between 71 and 74F and highs between 82 and 84F. I wonder how Dr. Leary felt about that Moody Blues song – I mean he was only 48 on the way to 75. Of course, it was really singing the praises of the doc and his pill…..
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I can tell you how Dr. Leary felt about it. His exact words were “Oh, wow, man. Coooool.”
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I enjoy the satire on this account. Your post reminded me of this one.
“Unimpressed by his LSD no-hitter, Gary Nolan tells Dock Ellis about the time he once pitched a shutout on Tylenol.”
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I made it through the fog.
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Dan, can I file an official protest against insensitive and harsh treatment? This gang of scoundrels ganging up on me is appalling.
On a separate note, our little outpost is Nevis. Check out the press from Tuesday below. Those 50 nice movie making folks from the UK, now out of their quarantine facilities, have all moved to our little place on the beach for three months. Amazing how we can go from being empty to full without any real tourists!
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/hollywood-caribbean-covid-free-island-124408387.html
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Love this! I read your article to the Mrs. and she said it all reminded her of Death in Paradise, which we watched until we ran out of shows.
Then, the article mentioned Death in Paradise at the end.
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I’m not sure we have any untouchables right now. There are always a lot of factors, but the biggest for me is that Click didn’t draft any of them. The next biggest is that we’re set to lose a lot of salary after 2021 with Correa and LMJ clearly targets to be brought back with much fuller pockets. It would greatly surprise me to see them make any moves before the season starts. However, if the team is not playing winning baseball and a postseason run doesn’t look promising then we should expect quite a few rumors to pop up that include just about every player on the roster. I think Alvarez is the one position player I would not move, but the Astros know a lot more about his health than I do.
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Devin, not even Bregman or Tucker?
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I’m not sure I would find any in season offers that make sense to pry either of them away, but in your scenario of things not going well for the Astros mid-season I’d have to start looking toward 2022 and what might occur. If you do end up signing Correa to an extension, those 2023/2024 seasons of Bregman may be a problem. If a team made you an offer for Tucker that potentially fixed your rotation problems in coming years you’d have to at least listen. But I’d rate any move involving either of those guys during the season as having an incredibly low probability.
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Derek Fisher was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays
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We touted Fisher as a “5-tool player” to them. Springer pushes him out, I suppose. Of little consequence, we didn’t get much in return and in retrospect. Shame Aaron Sanchez couldn’t have been all we’d hoped!
Even so, now there’s a guy who should have given us prospect fatigue. How long was he on a list?! He was probably held back too long, and then he got blocked when we did the Nori Aoki experiment. “The Travails of AAAA Players”, we could title it.
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In more former Astro news – Marwin signs with the Red Sox and Ken Giles signs with the M’s
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I know this is a taboo subject, but I think we have turned the corner on sports leagues trying to be political. For me, that is a welcome sign. So if this post is out of bounds, then banish me to ….. Nevis….. immediately.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/sports/mavericks-mark-cuban-relents-on-anthem-after-nba-reiterates-policy/
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I’ll need two tickets to Nevis if you have to go.
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You guys let me know. I’ll just have to get a larger palapa installed. It would certainly be a memorable rum drinking day at the beach. Or maybe we wouldn’t remember.
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And in even more former Astro news – McHugh is close to signing with the Rays
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The only thing I have to say is baseball will be a welcome guest in my house after spending every single day in this house watching “Swamp people” reruns and politics for a year! Mark Cuban is an idiot. Period.
I don’t know enough about the young guys you listed Dan, I’ll just have to see them play before I have an opinion. But I won’t she’d a tear if they trade McCullers…I’m so over his drama queen attitude, and Greinke has become one of my favorites…I love how quirky he is! I read a great article about Joe Smith on Fanside yesterday….I have a lot of respect for that kid, he had the weight of the world on his shoulders last spring. God love him❤
Keep posting…I’m always reading!
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I know what you are saying about Lance, Becky – he just needs to control himself, can’t crash when errors or bad umping occur.
Interestingly, he and Greinke were very similar pitchers last year.
Zack 3-3 / 4.03 ERA/ 1.134 WHIP / 9 Ks per 9 innings / 0.8 HRs per 9 innings
Lance 3-3 / 3.93 ERA/ 1.164 WHIP / 9.2 Ks per 9 IP/ 0.8 HRs per 9 IP
Biggest difference (and not surprising when you watch them pitch) – Zack only gave up 1.2 walks per 9 innings, while Lance gave up 3.3 per nine. Of course Zack gave up about 2 more hits per 9 innings than Lance
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So many cannot stand LMJ’s impetuous and demonstrative ways. The time he used his pouty face after a Yuli error and Altuve let him have it in the dugout — “don’t ever show up my guys on the field!” Even last season, he seemed to be yelling at Strom between innings. Listening to Brent’s interviews, though, he loves that competitive nature and feedback; he loves that Lance came into camp in superlative condition, and never “worries about him.”
For me, Lance cares almost too much. It matters, every little thing. Listening to him ramble on in video games and in his podcast with Correa, his mind just works way faster than normal humans. Clay Hensley former pitcher said on Locked On Astros the other night that Doug Brocail told him after his first Tommy John not to get frustrated that exactly 18 months, it will just click, and you’ll be better than ever. He recalls that was exactly the timeframe.
I’ll always love McCullers more than I ever had realizing he chose to throw with a completely torn UCL the entire season (gave us 24 straight curveballs to defeat the Yankees in 2018), because he was cut out of the 2016 Keuchel mold that even though his shoulder was killing him, he wasn’t about to miss the start that his team counted on. I remember seeing those two on their way to the gym before dawn. Warriors.
This season will be his first full one after TJ and I expect him to become our Ace finally. Hi expectations — I’m not betting against his drive, his stuff and his mental makeup. We groomed him for this season, and certainly the plan is to re-eval after the season & extend him. If he falls flat instead, we have eggs in other baskets too.
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Hey Dan, don’t forget about former Astro Jed Lowrie who signed with the A’s.
Then again, we probably should forget about him :-p
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I missed that news about Jed signing a minor league deal with the A’s. I always screwed up and called him Jeb instead of Jed back when he was here.
We traded for him once, signed him as an FA once and traded him away twice.
If he finds a spot with the A’s this will be his third stint with them.
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Since a moderator is not available, my lost comment will get divided into two parts. The first part is an article from 5 years ago about Cuba not letting there best prospects play because of fear of defection. The two highest rated players were Luis Robert, now starting for the White Sox and Norel Gonzalez, who couldn’t get out until late 2019 and then sat out the pandemic, before signing with the Astros last month.
https://diariodecuba.com/deportes/1470916836_24522.html
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The next part was the last season Gonzalez was allowed to play. In that year, late 2018 and early 2019 Gonzalaez was great in Cuba’s highest league and then managed to defect and work out for the next two years. Look at his slash line and Ks vs BB in that last season in Cuba: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gonzal002nor
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Think I posted here the moment I first saw Luis Robert’s video at age 16. Gosh, 7 yrs ago?! Anyone in CWS “fatigued” by now since he’s only put up 1.8 WAR? I doubt it, what an incredible future ahead for him. Of course that will cost you $26,000,000 before you ever get to see him hit an A-ball pitcher too. I’ll gladly wait on Colin Barber who against his own mother’s wishes, turned down a full ride at Univ of Oregon to come play for the H right out of high school for $1m, which was $600K over-slot! We’re not quite the big spenders, but hopefully the smarter ones in the end.
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Thanks for pointing this out about Gonzalez, OP. He was in Leon’s shadow this off-season being a good bit older (26) but may be ready to help out sooner.
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The Oi….. Texans have agreed to release JJ Watt at his request. I understand everything about this, having read every article about him for the last week or so. Still, this one hurts like hell. The dark soul of Bud Adams has to be snickering about this.
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Yeah, heard that on the radio as I was coming back from a blood draw at the lab.
J.J. at his peak was the best I’ve ever seen. Affected game after game with sacks, tackles for loss, tipped passes, interceptions, QB pressures, forced fumbles.
This has been a sad time for Houston sports, I hope the Astros make me forget about it all.
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Everything is falling into place for the Texan’s 2021 season. I’m not sure if anyone has ever been so good at destroying an NFL franchise so quickly. But then again, 72,000 knuckleheads will probably fill NRC for the opener in September as usual.
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Glad I haven’t wasted one minute of care for the bumbling, fumbling, bafoons known as the Texans franchise.
Hands down the best thing about them is the fellowship & food during tailgating.
Sure miss the Oilers, though.
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Becky talked about this article in her comment above….
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/joe-smith-returns-to-astros-after-sitting-out-2020
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Tough year for Joe after having lost his mom. I can sympathize, as I did the same for mine — left my job, moved out of State to be by her bedside that last year. Baseball, the game pales in comparison to priorities.
Joe said on Astroline the games he actually was able to catch on TV, Enoli Paredes’ energy was most memorable. That sensibility if you will says so much about Smith and the bullpen unit comaraderie. It will be nice having his veteran presence back. And maybe we’ll get our 1st full season from him, having been drailed by injury as well.
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In 2019, he missed the first half of the season due to Achilles surgery and then he came back and was great – 1-0 / 1.80 ERA/ 0.960 WHIP in 28 appearances. Getting that Joe back would be a nice shot in the arm.
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I found this to be an interesting round robin on the AL West as Brian McTaggart really stands up strongly for the Astros.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/roundtable-what-team-will-win-al-west
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Maybe a topic for another day but when we talk about JV and Greinke and signing them for another year (2022 or more) I can’t see us throwing $30MM or even $20MM a year for either one. Time to move on.
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McCullers is make $6.5 MM this year. What if you could get him for 5 years / $60 MM ($12 MM a year) after a solid season?
I get the feeling Greinke will be looking for the big $$ per year (well to you and me $1 MM is big $$ – yet I digress) – so I don’t see them re-signing him for huge dollars.
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Kevin Gausman signed with SF for 1 year and $18.9M. Charlie Morton got 1 yr $15M from Atlanta. Marcus Stroman got 1 year and $18.9M from the Mets. I think the only way we can LMJ signed for $12M aav will be if he has an awful 2021…which I don’t want.
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Devin – what if he is good, but only throws 120-130 innings – as is his wont?
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I think if LMJ’s innings are limited this year it would impact his ability to sign for multiple years, but the AAV will still be pretty high. But I like the way you think.
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I would like to see JV sign a personal services contract, with the Astros, when he hangs the cleats up.
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I usually never disagree with you sarge, but definitely I do here. JV already proved to me he has no interest in helping the rookies, number 1. And too, with a new arm, he will go chum up with Hinch, sign a lifetime deal there almost assuredly to retire a Tiger. All on the coattails of receiving $33m this year for sitting the bench. Crane would pay 20% presumably after insurance pays the rest. It would go a LONG way if Verlander put a substantial amount of that money into the minor leaguers pockets, like David Price did in LA.
Conversely relating to above chatter on Lance, we paid him $4m to re-hab and neither party argued over $6m this season. We’ve had a great relationship with Boras over the way we groomed and handled LMJ through his injury, consulting with James Andrews and allowing Lance to make final decision. I agree with Devin on AAV, but I can see too where McCullers may give us a discount long-term.
JV claims he will pitch this season, but has anyone ever done that within 10 months of TJ? I don’t see the point in it …. at all! As always, open to possibilities though.
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Sorry, you did say hangs his cleats up. Still think that will be in DET. If Michigan still exists then Ha!
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Another tidbit that I just thoughts of. Just not sure about it. I was just notified of my MLB subscription for the 2021 season. Since I’m in NC I get to see almost all of the games although I’m not always crazy about those late starts out on the west coast. It’s always after midnight when they finish. If some of you viewers in Texas who can’t see Astro games due to the blackout or other reasons were to use a VPN, could you then get the games? I am told that this should work. For me I can’t get the games that the Astros play against the Orioles but if I used a VPN and set the geographical area outside of here I could see those games. I’m not an expert on the subject but I hear some of our group saying they can’t get the games. Of course this is on the internet and not the TV so I may be wrong on this. Just food for thought for our fan base out there.
Come on April 1!
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I’ll let you know as we draw closer, Z. A lot of guys on the other blog are more wizardly than myself, and they discuss before many of the games since lots are abroad too. There’s one other source that I’ll go ahead and name reddit which brings this up during reg season, as well.
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Yes, I know it is supposed to be illegal. But 3-4 years ago, I had an MLB subscription and used several VPN to watch. One humorous example was one game I was using a Hong Kong VPN. In the middle of the game, I decided to look up a player or stats or something. Opened another tab and did a Yahoo search. I got my answer but it was all in Chinese.
After that year, I had Direct TV. But last year, we moved to Suddenlink Territory, and I was going to do as before. Then Covid, then MLB charged me for 1/2 the season, and it really irritated me the way they handled it. So I am still undecided if I will subscribe (Probably will), and my assumption is an out of area VPN will work again.
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I think our original trades with JV and Greinke worked out great. Make a trade for them and then let them walk after their deals expire and we would have been fine.
It’s when we tried the extension route on an old pitcher that we got burned.
Let us not do that again.
If LMJ has a good year, I don’t mind working a deal with him because he’s an Astros lifer and he’s young.
But there are a lot of young pitchers the Astros have that would like to be lifers with LMJ. Let’s go that route.
If we are so great at developing pitchers, then we need to go with pitchers we develop.
If Whitley doesn’t work out, then we aren’t as good at this as people say we are. The guy has the stuff. If we can’t turn him into a pitcher, then we aren’t really like the Dodgers or the Rays, are we?
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I always use Glasnow as Whitley’s comp, and it took him SIX full major league seasons. Other examples of recent successes are Jack Flaherty and Max Fried. Both of them have taken 4 yrs, and still developing. They can’t all be Mike Soroka… For these reasons, I await patiently and welcome Abreu Javier Garcia Ivey Solis Brown Torres Conine and others to fill-in while Whitley earns his stripes.
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Speaking of, I can say without reservation Cristian Javier has been completely overlooked by the press, even as he finished #1 in rookie voting for a AL pitcher!
I can only conclude that writers continue to snub us because any time MLB Rumors, or Fangraphs does an article on us, the comments are from 12-yr olds about “trash cans.” What’s the point, when very few can speak intelligibly on our system?
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Sorry, didn’t know how to post this any other way. Think my only quibble would have been Freure over LaRue. Interesting names Martes and Emanuel if they aren’t even eligible. I’m whispering this part — sure looks like Astros gave them the go ahead to roid up, no?! In their last ditch effort to make it..
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Wow, just noticed they are bringing in Alex Santos from straight out of high school! That is a HUGE vote of confidence for him. Hopefully this will get under Valente Bellozo, and Jairo Lopez’ skin all year. Those two are going to absolute stud relievers in the 2023 range.
One other note is Kit Scheetz. Here’s a guy who doesn’t show up well on stats, lefty little guy. But boy he packs a punch. I recall Steve Sparks was really impressed with him last Spring. A complete afterthought with Ryan Hartman in same boat.
That reminds me of Angel Macuare and JP Lopez didn’t make it either. two other examples where Astros don’t want to draw much attention to them since they became Rule 5 eligible this year. Smart!
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Besides the list of camp invites, MLB also listed all the new minor leagues with divisions and who will be playing in each section for all four of the levels. It is very interesting and informative.
They also added a schedule of preseason games with teams divided up into six divisions of five local teams each. They will only play the other four teams in the preseason. Houston in with the Nats, the Mets, The Cards and the Marlins. They will play 24 games. All this is on the Astros website.
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