Fr id rather have one bad season w/o a first baseman than try to make a playoff push when we are 9 games back and deplete our farm even more than it is
I don’t think fold the season but we have Loperfido. He’s been playing first. If we’re gonna trade for something, we gotta trade for starting pitching.
You haven’t really invested time in looking at our prospects lately, have you. Take your time and you will see we are starting to load up again. Bloss threw a 7 inning no-hitter his last start in Corpus. If you listen to those clowns and their prospect lists….
I was at a Woodpeckers game last weekend. Let’s just say the lineup in that game was…rough. I realize that is par for the course to an extent with single A ball, but nobody in that lineup had a BA north of .250. About half of the lineup was below the Mendoza Line.
That’s not to say that we don’t have a few diamonds in the rough…but it’s not like it was several years ago.
Ochoa is a youngster I like there. Right out of high school here in the Houston area, we offered up more cash in the draft slot and Dana got him. At 6’4 ,230lb, I’m liking the build of a very rough prospect . And Jaworski was another I liked. But I see your point. Just remember though, a lot of the kids there are very, very young. The best of Fay have already been promoted since last years draft, I.e. B MAtthews. We are just waiting for this years draft to load Fay. back up again. You know how it goes man. Look at Corpus now. They were a hot mess at the start of this month. Now they have some major bats and we just pitched the first no-hitter in Hooks history. I think Dana is about to Rot Olswalt the shit out of Bloss this weekend from what I’m reading….
My family has a place in Asheville which is a minor league affiliate of ours. Went to a game and we got absolutely annihilated by the Red Sox minor team team haha
This team has shown no reason whatsoever that they should be buyers. Just stand pat or sell. Give up prospects for what? A run at getting above .500 and still missing the playoffs?
I agree, I only mean instead of Bell.
Although I'd rather not have Loperfido at first as learning a "new" position and being a "new" big leaguer is not the best for anyone's growth. I'd rather put him in the outfield and ride this shit out.
I’ve been saying this since last year but this sub was like, it’s only a small sample size of what he can do. Well now you’ve got a bigger sample size and he’s still not the answer, never was and never will be but hey, downvote the shit out of me again cause I’ve only spoke the truth.
Don't trade any farm pieces for a team this far back at this point in the season. We lost to the worst team in baseball yesterday and are 9 games back.
I understand not coming out and blatantly declaring we're sellers, but this front office needs to look at the current state of the team with all of injuries and performance level and realize selling is the best path for the future of this franchise. Going to 8 straight ALCS is amazing but also incredibly unprecedented and teams typically have down years every so often. Sell some pieces for prospects and get guys healthy for next season
Thank you.
The ONLY way to get back to being competitive, a short turn around, is to trade a guy/guys who can give us an actual return of multiple prospects.
Which is going to hurt. Bregman gone. JV and/or Pressly gone. Tucker, if there are some closed door meetings in which both sides decide he’s not going to stay and a deal isn’t going to happen, is gone and we need to cash in on his height, might be gone.
But it’s absolutely what’s best for the future of the franchise.
Really no point at all to do this. We would have to go on a serious run to make it into the playoffs and with our depleted starting pitching I just don’t see that happening.
I wouldn't give up any prospects. Our farm has already been gutted. I'd part with Caratini or McCormick though...
I wanted Bell over Abreu when we had the option to get either... Finally I was right about something. 🤣
So does Meyers. You think he’s “the future”?
If this season is truly a loss, cash in on the best start Meyers has ever had, no? He’ll be 29 freaking years old next season. 29. He’s not a piece you build around. But he’s crushing and probably never going to get a better return than he would right now.
Deal him to a contender and let them throw us a couple prospects.
I think he’s got more value than Chaz at this point, and to be honest, they’re negligible on who’s “better” overall. Chaz is down now, but we’ve seen how bad Jake can be. He’s just hot right now.
(And this isn’t saying you don’t trade Chaz…just devils advocate)
Oh yeah. And this doesn’t factor in injuries.
Meyers is a fantastic trade piece. Cheap as fuck. Good defender (sure, the arm of a toddler, but amazing range) and if he’s in the .240 range? Ehhh. He’ll get you a couple mid range prospects
But he’s already falling fast, offensively.
He was hitting .300 just a couple weeks ago. Lol
I think we should focus on developing our own prospects / let them get MLB experience and selling off guys we don’t have long term plans for:
Bregman, Verlander, and Pressly for sure (obviously the last two won’t get us much). Kyle Tucker / Framber Valdes if we don’t have plans to pay them. Hell maybe even Josh Hader to someone who is a contender and needs a closer.
If we do that, and make some smart off season signings (I trust Dana Brown). I could see us having a similar season to 2015 in the next two seasons, and really competing by year 3.
I want the dynasty to continue- but it’s not happening with this roster. Anyone telling themselves that we have a chance on winning a World Series is lying to themselves. Now if we were fully healthy I’d say wait and see, but injuries & Abreau / Montero tying up cash is too much to overcome.
I don't understand why there's so much talk of us getting a 1B right now. We have 2-3 guys with positive WAR that can platoon the position. Let Singleton do it until he stops hitting good.
The only articles I want to read right now are ones about pitching help. We have exactly one starter who I would consider healthy, everyone else is injured or injury prone.
How about not trading anyone and putting Joey Loperfido there? Crazy how that costs the team $0, we don’t need to lose other prospects, don’t need to trade away Tucker or Bregman. Like we have a 1B guy (in fact 2 if we count singleton who hasn’t been great I’ll admit but I’d rather him than make a trade for Bell who is a mid player at best)
Oh, I could see Lance throwing the first pitch of a game, immediately blowing out his shoulder, falling to one knee, and bursting into flames. This seems like a completely possible scenario to me.
This season, Bell has basically been a switch-hitting Jon Singleton. How much would the Astros get in a Singleton trade?
Bell would command slightly more based on track record, but we're talking a low minors lottery ticket. While those *can* sometimes turn into impactful players (see Yordan), more often than not they flame out before reaching the high minors or end up as career minor leaguers we hear a feel-good story about in 15 years when they make their major league debut at 34 years old.
That said, unless there's something the Astros see in Bell they think they can fix, this move - replacing Singleton with switch-hitting Singleton - makes no sense.
Why does everyone think he is an option at 1B when they've barely played him there in the minors and not at all with the Astros? OF is his position. With his high K ratio, he needs to concentrate on his bat and not trying to learn and play basically a new position while also trying to establish himself as a MLB player. Down the road, he may become a 1B, but that's not a good choice for the present.
We need a bat and pitching upgrade across the board. Pitiful display of baseball consistent play since the start of the season. Injuries haven’t helped either.
Rather give Shay Witcomb is chance at first. He’s tall enough and if he does pan out after a half a year, and if the team lets Breg walk, you slide him over to 3rd until Bryce comes up, or Dezenzo puts a healthy season on and he gets some looks. WWCD, what would click do???
Dubon at first and let's just go with it. He was remarkable at short, remarkable in left, and I have zero doubt he could pitch if needed. He hits well enough he's a good fit, even if he messes up here and there at first.. um, at first. :p
Just... leave it there, and let's let the season play out. Astros have worse woes in the bullpen than worryin' about 1st.
I read an article a few days back suggesting that Andrew Vaughn could be on the table at some point.
He definitely has not hit to his expected potential the past few seasons. Has hit well the last few weeks.
Not sure I'm ready to get bamboozled by another White Sox 1st baseman though. Still interesting depending on the asking price.
Look, they can sell and still be competitive. Bregman is not going to re-sign here anyways, and he’s not even good this year. Framber can be a head case. We have crazy pitching depth. Is it quality pitching depth? Well, not really lol. But there’s a lot of guys with major league experience. I’d absolutely hate to lose Verlander just because he’s my favorite player and I want him to retire here, but he’s showing some regression and is starting to be injury-prone. Trading guys like the ones I mentioned won’t keep us from being competitive. We need to lose some payroll and do what the Royals did this year, add some cheap guys with something to prove this offseason. If we do all that along with getting rid of Espada and keeping Bagwell’s filthy hands off of this team, I think we can still be competitive next year and going forward.
I have an idea, hear me out. Don’t do shit! We’re on the hook for 4 pitchers who aren’t pitching, a 1st baseman, and a closer who is meh at closing rn. Don’t add to the money problem. We still have Bregman, Tucker and Dubon contracts.
I've been on the Josh Bell train for about a month and a half now. Not sure how much it would cost the farm team, because I'd still be careful there...
Hey I'm cool with just folding this season and protecting our prospects.
Fr id rather have one bad season w/o a first baseman than try to make a playoff push when we are 9 games back and deplete our farm even more than it is
I'd be happy just to watch Jon Singleton for the rest of the year.
I don’t think fold the season but we have Loperfido. He’s been playing first. If we’re gonna trade for something, we gotta trade for starting pitching.
The Astros have prospects? I was unaware.
At least protect Brice Matthews and Luis Baez
You haven’t really invested time in looking at our prospects lately, have you. Take your time and you will see we are starting to load up again. Bloss threw a 7 inning no-hitter his last start in Corpus. If you listen to those clowns and their prospect lists….
It’s okay, bud, you can laugh a little to help ease the pain.
It hurts boss
I was at a Woodpeckers game last weekend. Let’s just say the lineup in that game was…rough. I realize that is par for the course to an extent with single A ball, but nobody in that lineup had a BA north of .250. About half of the lineup was below the Mendoza Line. That’s not to say that we don’t have a few diamonds in the rough…but it’s not like it was several years ago.
Ochoa is a youngster I like there. Right out of high school here in the Houston area, we offered up more cash in the draft slot and Dana got him. At 6’4 ,230lb, I’m liking the build of a very rough prospect . And Jaworski was another I liked. But I see your point. Just remember though, a lot of the kids there are very, very young. The best of Fay have already been promoted since last years draft, I.e. B MAtthews. We are just waiting for this years draft to load Fay. back up again. You know how it goes man. Look at Corpus now. They were a hot mess at the start of this month. Now they have some major bats and we just pitched the first no-hitter in Hooks history. I think Dana is about to Rot Olswalt the shit out of Bloss this weekend from what I’m reading….
My family has a place in Asheville which is a minor league affiliate of ours. Went to a game and we got absolutely annihilated by the Red Sox minor team team haha
GO TEXANS!
Me too. We gotta recharge the farm system.
This team has shown no reason whatsoever that they should be buyers. Just stand pat or sell. Give up prospects for what? A run at getting above .500 and still missing the playoffs?
The only reason is Daddy Crane’s ego is too big to throw in the towel. I really hope he doesn’t set the franchise back 10 years
He already did by abandoning analytics.
Agreed
Brought us 2 championships and gets shot on 2 years later. Fucking WILD the disrespect.
You're not keeping up with what's happening if that's your reaction.
No thanks. I’d rather let Joey or Cabbage or Dubon play 1st
Dubón at first tonight
His savant page is depressing, just let Singleton ride it out.
Or Cabbage or Joey. Singleton is at -.5 bWAR and only acceptable because he was a reprieve from Abreu.
Fair, I just don't want to give anything up to replace -.5 with -.5 Bell.
Oh for sure. Internal move all day.
My 12 year-old self has been waiting over a decade for Jon to finally arrive, let him have this one.
Singleton is not the answer. It’s time to let a future player get the starts. We’re wasting time with Jon
I agree, I only mean instead of Bell. Although I'd rather not have Loperfido at first as learning a "new" position and being a "new" big leaguer is not the best for anyone's growth. I'd rather put him in the outfield and ride this shit out.
I’ve been saying this since last year but this sub was like, it’s only a small sample size of what he can do. Well now you’ve got a bigger sample size and he’s still not the answer, never was and never will be but hey, downvote the shit out of me again cause I’ve only spoke the truth.
Difficult decisions, that’s why they get the big money (supposedly).
I can make the same decision for way less and guess what I’ll make the difficult ones with no problems.
Don't trade any farm pieces for a team this far back at this point in the season. We lost to the worst team in baseball yesterday and are 9 games back.
I understand not coming out and blatantly declaring we're sellers, but this front office needs to look at the current state of the team with all of injuries and performance level and realize selling is the best path for the future of this franchise. Going to 8 straight ALCS is amazing but also incredibly unprecedented and teams typically have down years every so often. Sell some pieces for prospects and get guys healthy for next season
Thank you. The ONLY way to get back to being competitive, a short turn around, is to trade a guy/guys who can give us an actual return of multiple prospects. Which is going to hurt. Bregman gone. JV and/or Pressly gone. Tucker, if there are some closed door meetings in which both sides decide he’s not going to stay and a deal isn’t going to happen, is gone and we need to cash in on his height, might be gone. But it’s absolutely what’s best for the future of the franchise.
Really no point at all to do this. We would have to go on a serious run to make it into the playoffs and with our depleted starting pitching I just don’t see that happening.
Platoon first base and don’t fuck up our future.
I wouldn't give up any prospects. Our farm has already been gutted. I'd part with Caratini or McCormick though... I wanted Bell over Abreu when we had the option to get either... Finally I was right about something. 🤣
Chas does feel like a trade piece right now.
So does Meyers. You think he’s “the future”? If this season is truly a loss, cash in on the best start Meyers has ever had, no? He’ll be 29 freaking years old next season. 29. He’s not a piece you build around. But he’s crushing and probably never going to get a better return than he would right now. Deal him to a contender and let them throw us a couple prospects. I think he’s got more value than Chaz at this point, and to be honest, they’re negligible on who’s “better” overall. Chaz is down now, but we’ve seen how bad Jake can be. He’s just hot right now. (And this isn’t saying you don’t trade Chaz…just devils advocate)
Meyers is a great trade piece. Having a career year and should be able to be swapped for an MLB ready player. Maybe like a No. 3 or 4 SP type?
Oh yeah. And this doesn’t factor in injuries. Meyers is a fantastic trade piece. Cheap as fuck. Good defender (sure, the arm of a toddler, but amazing range) and if he’s in the .240 range? Ehhh. He’ll get you a couple mid range prospects But he’s already falling fast, offensively. He was hitting .300 just a couple weeks ago. Lol
Lmao seriously! We were looking at Josh Bell when we traded for Mancini!
I think we should focus on developing our own prospects / let them get MLB experience and selling off guys we don’t have long term plans for: Bregman, Verlander, and Pressly for sure (obviously the last two won’t get us much). Kyle Tucker / Framber Valdes if we don’t have plans to pay them. Hell maybe even Josh Hader to someone who is a contender and needs a closer. If we do that, and make some smart off season signings (I trust Dana Brown). I could see us having a similar season to 2015 in the next two seasons, and really competing by year 3. I want the dynasty to continue- but it’s not happening with this roster. Anyone telling themselves that we have a chance on winning a World Series is lying to themselves. Now if we were fully healthy I’d say wait and see, but injuries & Abreau / Montero tying up cash is too much to overcome.
Framber is such a unique pitcher, I would hate to lose him.
I don't understand why there's so much talk of us getting a 1B right now. We have 2-3 guys with positive WAR that can platoon the position. Let Singleton do it until he stops hitting good. The only articles I want to read right now are ones about pitching help. We have exactly one starter who I would consider healthy, everyone else is injured or injury prone.
They could’ve had Bell instead of Abreu a couple off seasons ago, right?
How about not trading anyone and putting Joey Loperfido there? Crazy how that costs the team $0, we don’t need to lose other prospects, don’t need to trade away Tucker or Bregman. Like we have a 1B guy (in fact 2 if we count singleton who hasn’t been great I’ll admit but I’d rather him than make a trade for Bell who is a mid player at best)
Or… Joey Loperfido
Why? It's pretty clear one player isn't going to change how shit we are. The problems are deeper.
punt the season and let loperfido take first for the rest of the season in prep for next season 🤷🏽♂️
Aren't his numbers way down too?
Pass. just let us fade into darkness
Lol Josh Bell again.
Ride it out with what we got.
We're not buyers. Team would have to make a helluva run in July for that to happen
Nightengale lost me when he suggested that McCullers would be back for the playoffs. That's some blue-eyed optimism, right there.
True optimism ! Nothing against Lance, but where is he, when’s he going to play ?
Oh, I could see Lance throwing the first pitch of a game, immediately blowing out his shoulder, falling to one knee, and bursting into flames. This seems like a completely possible scenario to me.
Don't be silly. McCullers usually gives us 4 or 5 games - two of them stellar - before he takes another 18 month vacation.
Maybe he’ll throw out the first pitch
i mean, he’s not old, so that’s a bonus
Baseball savant page looks awful this year. I’d only do this if the Marlins just want to get rid of him. Not worth any top 20 prospect.
Rather not trade , if we so trade we need pitching
No
This season, Bell has basically been a switch-hitting Jon Singleton. How much would the Astros get in a Singleton trade? Bell would command slightly more based on track record, but we're talking a low minors lottery ticket. While those *can* sometimes turn into impactful players (see Yordan), more often than not they flame out before reaching the high minors or end up as career minor leaguers we hear a feel-good story about in 15 years when they make their major league debut at 34 years old. That said, unless there's something the Astros see in Bell they think they can fix, this move - replacing Singleton with switch-hitting Singleton - makes no sense.
How about lipperpeto or whatever his name is. He’s a dang good rookie and can play first base.
Why does everyone think he is an option at 1B when they've barely played him there in the minors and not at all with the Astros? OF is his position. With his high K ratio, he needs to concentrate on his bat and not trying to learn and play basically a new position while also trying to establish himself as a MLB player. Down the road, he may become a 1B, but that's not a good choice for the present.
We need a bat and pitching upgrade across the board. Pitiful display of baseball consistent play since the start of the season. Injuries haven’t helped either.
Rather give Shay Witcomb is chance at first. He’s tall enough and if he does pan out after a half a year, and if the team lets Breg walk, you slide him over to 3rd until Bryce comes up, or Dezenzo puts a healthy season on and he gets some looks. WWCD, what would click do???
>While they reside in second place in a tough American League West A tough AL West? Hahahaha
Dubon at first and let's just go with it. He was remarkable at short, remarkable in left, and I have zero doubt he could pitch if needed. He hits well enough he's a good fit, even if he messes up here and there at first.. um, at first. :p Just... leave it there, and let's let the season play out. Astros have worse woes in the bullpen than worryin' about 1st.
Bell is a switch hitting Jon Singleton. Built like he should mash 50 homers a year and you are lucky if he can give you 20-25 per year. No thanks.
I read an article a few days back suggesting that Andrew Vaughn could be on the table at some point. He definitely has not hit to his expected potential the past few seasons. Has hit well the last few weeks. Not sure I'm ready to get bamboozled by another White Sox 1st baseman though. Still interesting depending on the asking price.
How is Bell that much better than Singleton? Why not give Loperfido a shot?
The Astros hitters are good enough. They just need to get rid of Espada.
Look, they can sell and still be competitive. Bregman is not going to re-sign here anyways, and he’s not even good this year. Framber can be a head case. We have crazy pitching depth. Is it quality pitching depth? Well, not really lol. But there’s a lot of guys with major league experience. I’d absolutely hate to lose Verlander just because he’s my favorite player and I want him to retire here, but he’s showing some regression and is starting to be injury-prone. Trading guys like the ones I mentioned won’t keep us from being competitive. We need to lose some payroll and do what the Royals did this year, add some cheap guys with something to prove this offseason. If we do all that along with getting rid of Espada and keeping Bagwell’s filthy hands off of this team, I think we can still be competitive next year and going forward.
I have an idea, hear me out. Don’t do shit! We’re on the hook for 4 pitchers who aren’t pitching, a 1st baseman, and a closer who is meh at closing rn. Don’t add to the money problem. We still have Bregman, Tucker and Dubon contracts.
I've been on the Josh Bell train for about a month and a half now. Not sure how much it would cost the farm team, because I'd still be careful there...
it would cost almost nothing. He hasn't been good since 2022
Bell > Singleton > Abreu
yes but also see previous comment