Astros’ questions: Your turn

Dan P wants to hear from you. Even more than normal. So, here are 10 questions with plenty of room for you to show your brilliance.

  1. This season, the Astros have had reunions with former players Carlos Correa, Hector Neris, and briefly, Jon Singleton. At the trade deadline there seemed to be interest in pitcher Charlie Morton. There has also been discussions about pursuing former closer Ryan Pressly who is floating around unsigned. Which former Astro would you be interested in the Astros pursuing for the 2026 season?
  2. Which is more critical – getting a fully functioning Yordan Alvarez back or having Lance McCullers give them a 2.27 ERA in starts down the stretch like he did when he returned in 2022?
  3. How would you rank the following three managers and why – A.J. Hinch, Dusty Baker and Joe Espada? (Yes, I know who is number 3, I think).
  4. Who is the biggest positive surprise for a position player this year? Jeremy Pena, Jake Meyers, Isaac Paredes? Someone else?
  5. Who is the biggest positive surprise pitcher for this season? Jason Alexander? Bryan King? Bennett Sousa? Steven Okert? Brandon Walter? Someone else?
  6. What are your expectations if any after the reported signing of reliever Craig Kimbrel?
  7. Daikin Park opened in 2000 as Enron field and cost $248 million ($457 million today). Harris County is planning on spending $836 million over the next 20 years to refurbish it. How do you feel about that?
  8. According to baseballreference.com Carlos Correa has accumulated 0.8 WAR in his 18 games since joining the Astros….Jose Altuve has accumulated 0.9 WAR in his 124 games this season. Does that seem right? Before you answer – realize Altuve is leading the team in runs scored (68), hits (130), home runs (22) and second in RBIs (64).
  9. Considering Isaac Paredes is likely missing the last two months of the season, Hayden Wesneski will miss the last 5 months of the season and Cam Smith is in a rookie death spiral slump (.148 BA in his last 35 games)  – how much do you like the Kyle Tucker trade at this point?
  10. If you could reverse one bad thing that happened to the Astros this season, what would it be?

Okay, as Frasier Crane used to say: I’m listening.  

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9 responses to “Astros’ questions: Your turn”

    1. Oh heck, I’d take Kyle Tucker back without a second thought, but as the owner, I sure would not pay what it would take. No to Bregman. No to Framber. I still wish someone would have listened to me following the 2023 season and moved both Framber and Alex for young talent. So my answer is that there is really no former Astro that I’d really like to have back. Time to move on.
    2. I sure want to see Yordan be successful, but if Dan’s magic wand was able to produce a 2.27 ERA version of Lance, that’s a no brainer.
    3. The first guy is the easiest. Hinch was too damn spineless to own his own dugout. He let an ugly history be made in Houston that continues today. It does not follow him. It follows Jose Altuve. He could never work for me. It still pisses me off. Dusty Baker settled the operation, but he enjoyed a loaded roster that remained relatively healthy. Joe Espada has had a very tough job over the past two seasons. He does not make the roster moves. He can only make out the line up with what’s been given to him. He’s taken a whole lot of crap. Give Joe a healthy roster just once and then judge him.
    4. In spite of Jeremy’s ability to finally become an offensive force, I think Issac had the bigger impact. He anchored the offense. He played a good enough third base to take Alex Bregman out of the discussion.
    5. Alexander, because he’s the most recent guy to save our butts. But I have not forgotten Walter.
    6. I have little to no expectations of Kimbrel. It’s a crap shoot worth taking though. He knows the job. I do wish we had kept Jose Urquidy on the payroll though. He’ll be back in a week or so and I think he’ll help the Tigers pen.
    7. I don’t care about those dynamics. Is that all to be spent on the existing ballpark building, or will it include a whole new neighborhood experience with a Ferris Wheel?
    8. Per Baseball Reference, Jose has a -1.7 dWAR on the season.
    9. Still an excellent trade. Tucker might not be healthy for the balance of the season. See hand injury. And better days are ahead for the three guys we got.
    10. I think not having Hader will keep us from going deep if we get to the post season. I’m assuming Yodan will produce.

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  3. I wouldn’t mind Charlie Morton but we lost our chance at the trade deadline. A functioning Yordan is a much better choice than LMJ as he just doesn’t have it. I liked Hinch but he wasn’t able to stop “it” or didn’t want to. I didn’t care for Dusty and the jury’s still out on Espada. Meyers definitely but Paredes is a close second. Both are needed to get us back on track but we won’t see Paredes return this year. Jason Alexander hands down based on his latest appearances. KImbrel is Meh but he might be better than some of our other RP’s. Don’t live in Houston but that’s a lot of $$$ for a “refurbish”. I think we’ll regret bring Correa back to Houston. What happens to Paredes who I believe is an all around better player and cost a heck of a lot less. The jury is sill out on the KT trade but I think it will turn out to be a good one. We were not going to give him 400MM so it’s a moot point. Should have done the same with Bregman and Framber. Kind of like the stock market (buy low and sell high). At this point losing Hader but if Yordan can’t perform to expectations, that’s a close second.

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  4. Good morning.

    So good to see some new life from the bats.

    Lance was abysmal again. ERA up to 6.89. WHIP is 1.800.

    A gritty win though.

    It took 15 outs from the pen last night after 11 on Thursday. That’s unsustainable for a bullpen that has too many of its own problems. I suppose LJM will get another start, but at some point soon, Dana has to pull the plug on Lance the starter, regardless of what his preference is.

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    1. You did not mention former player Montero, but I don’t want to see him back. I would like to see former Astro 3rd base coach Gary Pettis back, as Tony P has really made poor decisions sending/not sending runners home this year.

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  6. It’s been awhile since we had someone ask what WAR was good for. Anyhow, Altuve ranks 59th in MLB in OPS at .795. I think that says a lot about offense this year. But among LF he ranks 9th. 120th in OPS is Ian Happ of the Cubs who is also playing LF. Happ’s sexy stats are 16HR, 56RBI, 5SB .228/.328/.384. Baseball Ref gives him a WAR of 2.0. Now I know what you’re thinking…sure, his numbers are inferior to Altuve’s and Happ did K 116 times to Altuve’s 86 in fewer AB. His defense must be so superior to Altuve to give him such a lead! If we were talking about SS or CF I might be a little more convinced. I’m not worried about WAR here. I do know Altuve’s defense is a liability late in games. I also know he’s really volatile offensively and is just as likely to chase a slider a foot out of the zone to strike out with the bases loaded as to put one in the gap. He’s still more likely to come through than most players in the league, but that probability diminishes every year he gets older. I’m not going to pile on criticism here.

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  7. None!

    Alvarez. I don’t see any circumstance where McCullers improves much pitching wise.

    moved on from Hinch, Baker. Espada’s turn now.

    Parades was an anchor until that inj sidelined him. Adjustments at the plate turned both Meyers/Pena season around offensively though Pena has reverted to some old bad habits lately. Is it possible for Diaz to learn from those two?

    I’m behind the 8-ball commenting on P metrics.

    Always say can never have enough P. CK does not excite me.

    No comment

    Both need to deliver

    Still a great trade. To bad they did not cash in on Bregman and Framber

    The inj bug sucking the life out of this tm

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  8. Another entertaining, stomach wrenching game by our Astros. One good thing about getting shut out a bunch of times is that generally, teams start to hit again at some point. Can the boys do this all September? If Yordan can play and feel pretty good, then it might be possible. Correa looks rejuvenated. It kind of looks like Jose is coming out of his recent mini slump. And Sanchez looks like he’s going to hit those righties. I hesitate to mention Walker, because whenever he gets going, he reverses pretty quickly. Maybe not so this time.

    My continuing challenge is trying to do the math on the pitching staff and how all the innings in a game are going to get allocated. AJ Blubaugh sure made a timely appearance last night. I don’t think we win the game without his four serviceable innings. But what happens today if Spencer Arrighetti only goes three or four? We’ve got one fresh guy in the pen and that’s our new relic from the past! And he’s a three out guy assuming all goes well.

    I keep trying to figure out if the Astros can hold on to the division lead. I know we can’t get this kind of pitching from our starters for the next five weeks and survive. So our rehabbers have to get better, especially at throwing strikes. And Framber has to put his last four starts behind him and show some leadership.

    The other thing is that the Mariner’s seem to be missing something. Their roster looks pretty good. Unlike us, they do have a relatively complete rotation, if not erratic. They’ve got a pretty good pen. And they’ve got some hitters. They had a real opportunity to grab the division lead from our stumbling Astros. And they did not take advantage.

    I loved watching Jose score from third with that headfirst dive into the plate, followed quickly by Jesus. Jose was pleased. I was too, because we did not have to curse our Hall of Famer. We really needed those two runs. And it looked like we were not going to get them with two outs. Maybe that’s the difference between the M’s and the Stros. We figured out a way.

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  9. Thoughts

    • There should be a new post up this morning.
    • It was a good weekend as the Astros got their feet underneath them again with a 3-1 split with the O’s, but…..
    • Though it was nice to see them take those two high scoring games 10-7 and 9-8, the pitching in those games between the starters and the relievers was a big concern.
    • And…. one big hit on Sunday and they win that one too. Oh well I am getting greedy
    • Please, please, please let us see Yordan back in the lineup on Tuesday.
    • Arrighetti after a struggling start looked good on Sunday. It is a shame he kind of ran out of gas and ended up getting the loss, but it was an encouraging outing especially when he mowed down all those hitters in a row.
    • The Astros need to screw those caps down and sweep the Rockies – not win the series – sweep it.

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