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Posted
4 minutes ago, Mez2 said:

I want a new training staff

List of 2025 Astros Injuries:

SP Spencer Arrighetti - Missed all but 7 starts
SP Ronel Blanco - Tommy John after 9 starts
SP Luis Garcia - Elbow injury after 2 starts (after missing most of season returning from TJ)
CL Josh Hader - Missed final 2 months
SP Lance McCullers Jr. - On and off IL after return from missing two seasons
RP Kaleb Ort - Missed final month, also some other time
RP John Rooney - Elbow surgery after 1 appearance
RP Bennett Sousa - Missed final 6 weeks
SP Brandon Walter - Tommy John after 9 starts
SP Hayden Wesneski - Tommy John after 6 starts

That’s just the pitchers…

IF Isaac Paredes - Missed 2 months with hamstring strain
SS Jeremy Peña - Missed ~35 games with broken rib+sore oblique
2B Brendan Rodgers - Missed final 3.5 months (various)
LF/DH Yordan Alvarez - Limited to 48 games (Hand, then ankle)
OF Zach Dezenzo - Missed final 4 months with hand injury
OF Chas McCormick - Missed 6 weeks with oblique strain
OF Jacob Melton - Missed 6 weeks with ankle sprain, had some back stuff early in season
OF Jake Meyers - Missed 2 months with calf injury
OF Taylor Trammell - Missed 4 months with calf injury, then missed some time after running into wall in August.
 

 

 

 

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Posted

I retire in 2 days and we are working on our visas to move to Spain. The plan is to be there no later than early 2026, so I'll have to follow the Astros from afar next year. I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. Listened to Larry Dirker pitching on my transistor radio when I was supposed to be asleep. Jose Cruz, Casar Cedeño, and the rest. Hell, I remember Joe Morgan as an Astro. The last few years have been immensely fun and I'm sad to see the run end, but the memories are priceless. And hopefully more to come. Y'all keep cheering them on and I'll watch and check in as I can. 

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

I retire in 2 days and we are working on our visas to move to Spain. The plan is to be there no later than early 2026, so I'll have to follow the Astros from afar next year. I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. Listened to Larry Dirker pitching on my transistor radio when I was supposed to be asleep. Jose Cruz, Casar Cedeño, and the rest. Hell, I remember Joe Morgan as an Astro. The last few years have been immensely fun and I'm sad to see the run end, but the memories are priceless. And hopefully more to come. Y'all keep cheering them on and I'll watch and check in as I can. 

 

imo, the run ends when pena's time here has expired. 

if healthy, we're the #1 seed this year. next year, top 2 seed (if healthy). younger players have to take that next step, more pitching needed. going to be a fun season. 

can't wait for opening day 

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Posted

Missing the playoffs on a tie-breaker or 1 win is pretty sad. So many games they could have made up that 1 game and didn't.  Only 7 games behind #1 overall in the AL, nobody is really dominating this league this year. 97 wins by the Brewers was #1 overall, which feels kind of low. A moderately more healthy Astros team this year would have been fighting for that #1 spot and winning the division. Too bad, but can't be too upset after 8 years of dominance. Still a good team that will be back in the mix next year. 

Posted

Former Astros in the playoffs ...

•    ⁠Alex Bregman (Red Sox)
•    ⁠Abraham Toro (Red Sox)
•    ⁠Kyle Tucker (Cubs)
•    ⁠Rafael Montero (Tigers)
•    ⁠George Springer (Blue Jays)
•    ⁠Joey Loperfido (Blue Jays)
•    ⁠Myles Straw (Blue Jays)
•    ⁠Teoscar Hernández (Dodgers)
•    ⁠Kike Hernández (Dodgers)

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Posted
4 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

chandler rome note ...

image.thumb.png.8ad39c65bd68721c908f8263365e96e1.png

This problem has been clear to Surly for a good while, but even after the loss of Tucker, Bregman and Alvarez I'm not sure it registered fully with the front office. Maybe they just assumed someone would magically fill the obvious voids or that Paredes would come back much sooner, but neither  happened. Cole isn't the full answer going forward, though he looks to be part of it. Jury obviously is still out on Matthews and Melton, among others coming up from the farm. 

Posted

Hell of a run, hate the way the season ended but it felt like since the all star break could never get in a groove.   I play injuries for the low morale and think next year will be different. 

 

Lets dump Walker and Sanchez , and try to get more speed and a starter.   Either trade Matthews or make him the new Dubon.     

Posted (edited)
50 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

This problem has been clear to Surly for a good while, but even after the loss of Tucker, Bregman and Alvarez I'm not sure it registered fully with the front office. Maybe they just assumed someone would magically fill the obvious voids or that Paredes would come back much sooner, but neither  happened. Cole isn't the full answer going forward, though he looks to be part of it. Jury obviously is still out on Matthews and Melton, among others coming up from the farm. 

Cole looks like he could be a strong side platoon guy in CF. His SSS in the majors was in line with his minor leauge splits, but they need to be active in the trade market for 2nd tier non-QO free agents to fill holes at 2B and CF.

Edited by HtownHorn
Posted

Sanchez is actually an interesting comp for Jacob Melton.  Both were athlete over skills prospects with platoon handicaps.  
 

I will be very surprised is Sanchez has much trade value going to his third team after that second half.  I think it’s more necessary to upgrade there than at second.  Non-tender or trade Dubon, let Uriah play second and give Matthews a chance to either beat him out or see if he can play OF.  

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Posted

Would Dubon not have any trade value if you tender him?  Not sure why they would let him walk for nothing when they could have him as a cheap, 1 year rental option for a team looking for a utility man. 

Posted

Going into the offseason, the Astros have the following:

Under Contract - Javier, McCullers, Hader, Walker, Correa, Altuve and Yordan

Arb Eligible - Garcia, Brown, Wesneski, Abreu, Okert, Sousa, Santos, Diaz, Paredes, Dubon, Pena, Urias, Meyers, McCormick, Sanchez and Trammell

Pre-Arb - Blanco, Spaghetti, Walter, Blubaugh, Ort, King, France, Gordon, Alexander, Murray, Dezenzo, Matthews, Leon, Smith, Melton and Cole

Free Agents - Framber and Caratini

For the arbitration eligible players, I would non-tender Garcia, Santos, Chas and Trammell. I would also consider non-tendering Sanchez as he somewhat blocks Cam from getting ABs assuming that Altuve/Yordan split time in LF.

Paredes needs to spend every day working on double play turns from 2B and Walker needs to take live BP in Daikon on a regular basis. Walker’s OPS was 916 when the Astros won and 464 in losses. From a hitting perspective, it looks like you basically run the same lineup back out there and pray for Yordan’s health. They should be able to resign Caratini on a reasonable deal to keep him around. Can someone convince Yainer to chase a little less?

From a pitching perspective, who’s going to be healthy for opening day? We know Blanco and Wesneski are out. What about Hader, Spaghetti, Walter and Sousa? Also, I don’t want to count on King and Okert maintaining their 2025 performance.

I don’t want to resign Framber but losing his innings will really hurt this team. Counting on Javier and McCullers to pitch well for a whole season appears to be a stretch. The rotation appears to be Brown, Javier, Alexander, McCullers and Blubaugh based on the history of the Astros medical staff.

They will need to find some affordable options to eat innings in the rotation and bullpen to survive 162 games.

Posted
52 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

Would Dubon not have any trade value if you tender him?

Gemini says 1 WAR in 2025 is worth about $8m, and Dubon is about to get a bump in his last year of arbitration eligibility.  
 

That said, he’s 31 and most of that is for defense and ideally he’s getting no more than 300 AB’s (if that) as a infield sub.  That makes me think there’s going to be little demand for him in the market at $7m, and even at that amount you maybe get a lotto ticket back as a prospect.  
 

Urias, for example, is basically Dubon at half the cost and his market (based on trade value) was a 19th round 2024 draftee pitcher in low A.  
 

Anyway, I think it’s worth pointing that out because the Astros are very much as stars and scrubs team at the moment and there’s a number of Dubons that need to go the moment they cost more than a penny.  

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Posted
7 minutes ago, hornmpa96 said:

I don’t want to resign Framber but losing his innings will really hurt this team.

I don’t want to re-sign him, either, but more than replacing his innings, we need a pitcher besides Brown that can reasonably expect to start in the playoffs.  That usually means someone who can miss bats, and it’s why the Dodgers have been filling up their roster with high strikeout pitchers while taking a chance on the injury prone.  
 

I’d kick the tires on Chris Sale, heck maybe even see if the Braves want to get out of that Spencer Strider contract.  Dylan Cease is going to want all the money but I’d inquire there, too.  

Crediting @Wulaw Horn on this, but he wrote a year or so ago that the window was open as long as the Astros could turn out cheap starters, but unfortunately injuries have made all our in-house options unreliable bets for 2026.  

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Posted

It's hard to want Framber back after his 2nd half swoon was a very big reason they missed the playoffs.  Investing a bunch of money in a headcase isn't ideal.

Posted (edited)

There is pretty decent market on starting pitchers after the big names like Sale, Framber, Giolito, Bassitt, and Cease come off the board.

Guys that have had quality seasons in the past but have an injury, age, or poor performances

Jordan Montgomery

Frankie Montas

Tyler Anderson

Steven Matz

Tyler Mahle

Aaron Civale

Martin Perez

Jose Quintana

All these guys project under $10M for next season.

We really only have 1 guy in our rotation that we can count on in Hunter Brown. So I think you are going to need to sign at least 2 guys from the list of 2nd/3rd tier. I don't think Crane will spend for a true #2 guy. McCullers, Blubuagh, Javier, Arrighetti, France, and Ullola are all wild cards, but if healthy those guys are all capable of delivering 3-6 rotational results.

Wesneski, Blanco, Walter, and Garcia are obviously out for most if not all the season.

Edited by HtownHorn
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Posted
12 minutes ago, kevwun said:

It's hard to want Framber back after his 2nd half swoon was a very big reason they missed the playoffs.  Investing a bunch of money in a headcase isn't ideal.

Spotrac has him at $33M which is the most of all the FA pitchers. Just no way the Astros should do that.

Posted

I’ll add one more thought in regards to prospects for MLB consolidation trades-we tend to overrate our own around here, some of it supported by the diamonds in the rough that keep turning up and Brown’s bonafides as a scout.  
 

That said, I disagree with folks like @Snake Diggity that our farm is just a few stolen 1st round draft picks from being a mid-tier farm.  Almost everyone with any prospect sheen has major warts, too, and I think now is probably a good time to not be over precious about trading away youth.  I really don’t see anyone below the MLB roster that should be considered untouchable.  

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Posted
Just now, LCHorn said:

I’ll add one more thought in regards to prospects for MLB consolidation trades-we tend to overrate our own around here, some of it supported by the diamonds in the rough that keep turning up and Brown’s bonafides as a scout.  
 

That said, I disagree with folks like @Snake Diggity that our farm is just a few stolen 1st round draft picks from being a mid-tier farm.  Almost everyone with any prospect sheen has major warts, too, and I think now is probably a good time to not be over precious about trading away youth.  I really don’t see anyone below the MLB roster that should be considered untouchable.  

I don’t want them to trade away pitchers Ethan Pecko, Bryce Mayer, or Anderson Brito, and they should avoid offering up their very high ceiling guys in the lower levels (namely Xavier Neyens and Kevin Alvarez), but yeah, any number of their power/speed/k guys from the upper levels (Melton, Cole, Dezenzo, Leon, Corona, Matthews, Sullivan, Whitcomb) would probably be best used as trade chips.

Posted (edited)

They need to stop drafting so many prospects with strikeout issues.  It seems like every half way decent one they have in the org is a strikeout machine.

Edited by kevwun
Posted
13 hours ago, David Dennison said:

We need to talk about Jose.

I’m actually encouraged by him saying his foot was hurting him.  He needs to play less next season but I still think he can finish out his contract/career as a ~2 win player who can hit in the middle of the order.  But his days of playing 150 games a season and playing the field 110+ games a year should probably be over.

1 hour ago, Dutchrudder said:

Would Dubon not have any trade value if you tender him?  Not sure why they would let him walk for nothing when they could have him as a cheap, 1 year rental option for a team looking for a utility man. 

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.  There might be a team out there that views Dubon as a stopgap 1-year solution to a vacant everyday SS spot and would be willing to toss Houston a 3rd tier prospect for him.  For Houston I think the $7M+ he’s gonna cost would be better used to add pitching.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, kevwun said:

They need to stop drafting so many prospects with strikeout issues.  It seems like every half way decent one they have in the org is a strikeout machine.

That is at least partially a product of how late they’ve drafted the last 7 years.  Prospects who have both hit and power tools get drafted in the top 15 picks.  After that you’re choosing between Jacob Melton types (power/speed with k issues) or Grae Kessinger types (guys who make contact but can’t hit for power).

Posted
43 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I don’t want to re-sign him, either, but more than replacing his innings, we need a pitcher besides Brown that can reasonably expect to start in the playoffs.  That usually means someone who can miss bats, and it’s why the Dodgers have been filling up their roster with high strikeout pitchers while taking a chance on the injury prone.  
 

I’d kick the tires on Chris Sale, heck maybe even see if the Braves want to get out of that Spencer Strider contract.  Dylan Cease is going to want all the money but I’d inquire there, too.  

Crediting @Wulaw Horn on this, but he wrote a year or so ago that the window was open as long as the Astros could turn out cheap starters, but unfortunately injuries have made all our in-house options unreliable bets for 2026.  

We've got more internal options than you think, imo. 

Hunter Brown is established as a Cy Young level guy now that's beyond a doubt a thing that exists.  

Cristian Javier looked fine to me- his velocity was back and good, he was missing bats with the invisiiball again.  3.65 FIP is just fine. He's a guy you will be fine with starting in the playoffs. 

Arrighetti, if his elbow is structurally sound (they say it is- but you never know with those guys) is just fine as a guy you can trust to be a quality pitcher. 

Blubaugh, I think, showed out as to why I was so excited about him this offseason. I think it was a big problem that we didn't go to him earlier in the year and give him a bigger role. I'd have had him up with the big league club all year from when he made his debut. 

Ullola has Cy Young ceiling to me. I feel about him the same way I felt about Hunter Brown.  I really like guys who keep the ball on the ground and miss bats. If anyone can get away with walks it's that type of guy. I think that's a guy that you should feel pretty comfortable giving you innings at a qualiy level. 

Jason Alexander- What a wonderful memory that guy will always have about the summer of George.  4-2 with a 3.66 era 14 games with 12 of them being quality apperances. I think the team was something like 11-3 in games he pitched.  He would have been an all time legendary deep cut guy (like Brandon Backe or the great Bill Spiers) if we'd have made the playoffs and he'd have had a moment there.  We should immediately forget everything he did well there and consider it all fools gold and make no plan for him being a part of the plans going forward.

LMJ- tell him he's a RP or not on the team.  Tell him he's going to throw curve balls until his elbow explodes 1 inning at a time or be DFA'd.  And then if that doesn't work so be it. Not part of the plan. 

AAA Fodder (guys I would trust down there to come up on a temporary basis- like 3 turns through the rotation).

JP France

Colton Gordon

TJ candidates that should be back sometime in July:

Ronel Blanco- Don't know that I'm buying on him ever replicating 2024 season, but fine with him as a BOR starter

Wesneski- DItto Blanco. 

Guys that are out for 2026

Walter- too bad- of all the guys that came up from the Law Firm he had the stuff that made me think he was going to be ok. 

Luis Garcia- Have to think he's going to get DFA'd. Makes no sense to do anything other than that or sign him to like a 2 year deal for 3M or something- but I'd be opposed to that. 


Intruiging guys in the minor leagues:

Ethan Pecko- I'd probably like to see him get the entire year in AAA next year, but I'd go to him right now before JP France or Gordon if it was a matter of replacing a guy for the year

Alonzo Tredwell- Big Dude that uses his leverage to shorten distance to home plate as opposed to thorw hard- but he had a really interesting last month of the season.  Very young in an innings pitched sense if not age as he was hurt out of college.  I'm interested. 

Jose Fleury- I've heard they like him. Who knows. 

 

TLDR Summary:

You have an ace in Hunter Brown, you have a guy I'd trust in a playoff series right now in Cristian Javier, you have Arrighetti, Blubaugh and Ullola who I'm excited to see pitch as regulars in MLB, then you have 3 guys at AAA in Alexander, Gordon and France that probably won't shit the bed, 2 guys that should be back from TJ next year and then 3 or 4 intruiging propsects that could pitch in 2026.  I think we have BOR and emergency guys covered.  I think an Ace makes sense.  Chris Sale, Dylan Cease, Ranger Suarez would be my free agent list of guys. If I can't get one of them I think I'd pass on any FA pitcher. 

You should have up to about 35M to spend and be able to stay under the tax line.  

 

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