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we are going to get passed by fucking Seattle aren't we??

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Scraps said:

we are going to get passed by fucking Seattle aren't we??

We really might. 

 

More like James Click lol.  
Dusty can only work with what the fuck is on the roster and it is all shit

Not a huge fan of Dusy’s managing, but the bullpen is on Click. Forget about the restart. In the first spring training the team signed zero bullpen arms. The plan was for Biagini and Devo to have spots. Sure, sucks Joe Smith and Osuna aren’t with the team, but no excuse for not bringing in cheap outside options to challenge this garbage.

I bet JV coming back will depend on where we are at in the standings. If you were watching this shit team play would you want to come back? Rest up and come back next year is probably what JV will end up doing.

10 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

I bet JV coming back will depend on where we are at in the standings. If you were watching this shit team play would you want to come back? Rest up and come back next year is probably what JV will end up doing.

Tha Astros will make the playoffs. If JV can come back, he will. 

The two best things to happen for me yesterday...  Astros didn’t lose another nut crushing one run game and my air conditioner shit itself.  Fuck yesterday. 

Just now, TonyTexas said:

Tha Astros will make the playoffs. If JV can come back, he will. 

Even if we are a fringe playoff team with this bullpen? I’m sure he will but if his arm is that bad could he sit out unless he thinks there is a legit chance at a World Series? As we stand right now this bullpen would be the worst of every playoff team and it’s not even close. I know JV is a competitor so I’m sure he will was just spitballing. 

14 hours ago, Scraps said:

More like James Click lol.  

Dusty can only work with what the fuck is on the roster and it is all shit

Altuve has to be having the worst season in MLB history 3 years removed from an MVP award.

Good to see Reddick in the lineup. Disappointed Bregman isn’t playing. 

 

Professional hitter.  Leadoff runner on, maybe score some runs?

How nice would it be to still have Kemp instead of Straw/Mayfield/Toro? Yes, we ultimately traded him for Machete last year, but that was after DFAing him to keep Straw up. That was under the assumption that there would always be plenty of hitting available and backups were just speed/defense.

 

Maybe I’m wrong statistically and just thinking back fondly, but as I sit here I’d much rather be forced to give Jake and Kemp major at bats because of injuries than Straw, Toro, Mayfield.

29 minutes ago, DLev said:

How nice would it be to still have Kemp instead of Straw/Mayfield/Toro? Yes, we ultimately traded him for Machete last year, but that was after DFAing him to keep Straw up. That was under the assumption that there would always be plenty of hitting available and backups were just speed/defense.

 

Maybe I’m wrong statistically and just thinking back fondly, but as I sit here I’d much rather be forced to give Jake and Kemp major at bats because of injuries than Straw, Toro, Mayfield.

Straw over Kemp is still the right answer...don’t let the absurdity of the 2020 cloud your judgement. You really think we’d be rolling in to a pennant race with Mayfield, Straw, Toro as the first guys off the bench in a normal year?
 

Straw over Kemp is still the right answer...don’t let the absurdity of the 2020 cloud your judgement. You really think we’d be rolling in to a pennant race with Mayfield, Straw, Toro as the first guys off the bench in a normal year?
 

Why? What long term does Straw bring? There’s no indication he can develop into an average hitter. And we’ve got three outfield spots open next year.

And, yes, I do think we’d be rolling into a pennant race with Mayfield, Straw, and Toro. 2019 was just as injury-riddled for the position players as this year.

 Kemp is better than Straw in every aspect of baseball other than speed and age

If we don't make that trade then we don't have Maldanado and we have complete trash at catcher this year. 

26 minutes ago, The Dog said:

If we don't make that trade then we don't have Maldanado and we have complete trash at catcher this year. 

Not true.  Machete was a free agent after the season.  We still could have signed him.  

If we don't make that trade then we don't have Maldanado and we have complete trash at catcher this year. 

I’m pretty sure Maldonado was a free agent this offseason. We could have signed him just the same. And I’m not denying the value of Maldonado last year. The issue is Kemp was DFAed before he was traded. This was a pure decision of preferring to lose Kemp outright rather than send Straw to minors. That we got Machete in exchange is a plus, but the two weren’t perfectly linked.

Keep in mind Kemp is on the A’s because the Cubs didn’t have a spot for him on their 26 man roster, so it’s not like he’s universally valued. But I’d sure like to have him.

I just don't understand why we don't ever give Tanielu a shot.  Main reason I would guess is he isn't on the 40 man so it would take some moves for someone who hopefully won't play much once Bregman/Altuve are back, but he can't be worse than fucking Toro or Mayfield.  

He has hit well  at all minor league levels and had a really nice season last year at AAA. 

27 minutes ago, DLev said:


I’m pretty sure Maldonado was a free agent this offseason. We could have signed him just the same. And I’m not denying the value of Maldonado last year. The issue is Kemp was DFAed before he was traded. This was a pure decision of preferring to lose Kemp outright rather than send Straw to minors. That we got Machete in exchange is a plus, but the two weren’t perfectly linked.

Keep in mind Kemp is on the A’s because the Cubs didn’t have a spot for him on their 26 man roster, so it’s not like he’s universally valued. But I’d sure like to have him.

You’re only looking at the Kemp situation as Kemp vs Straw.

There was waaaay more to the picture and Kemp wasn't going to have a place on the team post-2019 trade deadline (assuming Luhnow made more deals after DFA’ing Kemp...which he did).

Kemp was (and likely always will be) a role player (which is what he’s going back to being in Oakland after they acquired La Stella).

The Astros in 2019 had other role players they valued more (e.g. Straw’s speed) that they felt would give them the best chance for another ring.

If we’re kicking ourselves that we don’t have Kemp right about now, that says a whole more about what was (wasn’t) done in the off-season or at the 2020 deadline than anything else.

1 hour ago, Scraps said:

 Kemp is better than Straw in every aspect of baseball other than speed and age

Especially Kempin'.  It ain't easy.

It sucks but it all goes back more the short season than anything I think.  If we were at the quarter pole in late May right now, would you be worried?  I'd think that once we got guys back from injury and guys broke out of their slumps and started hitting that we'd be fine and still favored to come back and win the division. 

The bullpen would be the only thing that concerned me.  I wasn't a fan of letting Harris go but even in a normal year we'd have Joe Smith at least.

On paper, the rotation would worry me but Framber and Javier have been pleasant surprises there and hopefully Urquidy can round into shape.

I still think we end up coasting into the playoffs after Seattle remembers who they are.  Or maybe we'll both make it and knock the Yankees out.  Anything can happen once you get there.

Edited by WBT

Yeah like we could get swept first round lol

Some days, you're the windshield...

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...and some days, you're the bug.

You’re only looking at the Kemp situation as Kemp vs Straw.
There was waaaay more to the picture and Kemp wasn't going to have a place on the team post-2019 trade deadline (assuming Luhnow made more deals after DFA’ing Kemp...which he did).
Kemp was (and likely always will be) a role player (which is what he’s going back to being in Oakland after they acquired La Stella).
The Astros in 2019 had other role players they valued more (e.g. Straw’s speed) that they felt would give them the best chance for another ring.
If we’re kicking ourselves that we don’t have Kemp right about now, that says a whole more about what was (wasn’t) done in the off-season or at the 2020 deadline than anything else.

I agree with most of this. I don’t think Lunhow thought he was selling out the future by getting rid of the current role players for legitimate roster management reasons. But it turns out in retrospect he was selling out the NEAR future because this year’s role players are not up to the challenge. Given this year was also supposed to be part of the team’s window, those moves have to be questioned.

Signing someone else’s cheap veterans in the offseason was also an option that wasn’t done and is another failure. Basically, very little of the back end hole plugging has worked over the past few years other than Machete x3. Diaz has not been Marwin (maybe he could have if not for injuries), but that wasn’t a bad gamble. Not signing some veterans to at least compete was a bad gamble.

So in this abomination of a season, with who knows how many pitchers making their major league debut (I've lost track) why have we not seen Whitley? He can't be worse than anything we've seen so far, and if he is it isn't worth holding him back. We are past any time of service issues for this year, and if they want to save that for next year then we won't see him until late June of 2021. I googled for any injury news, but maybe I missed it. 

41 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

So in this abomination of a season, with who knows how many pitchers making their major league debut (I've lost track) why have we not seen Whitley? He can't be worse than anything we've seen so far, and if he is it isn't worth holding him back. We are past any time of service issues for this year, and if they want to save that for next year then we won't see him until late June of 2021. I googled for any injury news, but maybe I missed it. 

I'm guessing it's prevention of injury at this point

49 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

So in this abomination of a season, with who knows how many pitchers making their major league debut (I've lost track) why have we not seen Whitley? He can't be worse than anything we've seen so far, and if he is it isn't worth holding him back. We are past any time of service issues for this year, and if they want to save that for next year then we won't see him until late June of 2021. I googled for any injury news, but maybe I missed it. 

He had some minor injury type thing I'm almost positive.  Had him not ready for camp or camp 2.  With all the suck that has been the last 18 months for him just sit on that rather than have him in this goofy thing.  

At this point I am holding out zero hope that Whitley does anything but suck in the majors.  

That way if he actually does show a pulse I will be pleasantly surprised.  

They should have signed someone to replace Harris in the off-season, but the replacing the GM thing got in the way.  I don't really have a problem with Click wasting one or more of the farm arms for a mediocre reliever or two which wouldn't have solved anything anyways.  I do not understand, however, why they keep going back to Castellanos and De Jong as the last options in the pen when Conine, Dubin, and Torres are supposedly in Corpus.  Ivey is another one who could be useful but I'm not sure what he's up to these days.  None of those guys are good enough prospects to make it worth playing games with their service time but each has better stuff than Castellanos for sure.  Why not cycle through all of these guys and see what they can do when its blindingly obvious the bottom 3-4 pitchers in the pen are about as effective as your typical position player pitching?  

I don’t think you can really blame Click for the anemic off-season moves.  He had some pretty strong headwinds this off-season.  
 

Teams are wary of dealing with the Astros for a couple of reasons:

1. The Astros have done really well with some recent trades, particularly Cole.  No one wants to be a trade “loser” to the Astros.  
2. How do you accurately value an Astro player’s production at the plate over recent years considering the scandal?  No one wants to get another Marwin. 

I’m sure free agents are wary of signing with the Astros until this mostly blows over.

To be fair, we should hold off on evaluating Click until after next off-season and at least one real baseball season   

 

well that's like your opinion man

He already sucks to me.  I am not impressed by his performance, so he is going to have to win me over.  

Getting a deal done with Springer/Brantley would be a good start

Edited by Scraps

Yeah, I’ve heard from someone in the know that Click is in over his head.

He’s certainly done nothing to dispel that since he was hired but a) its also early, b) 2020 is unlike anything anyone has ever seen in the sport, c) he inherited a shitshow of a front office that even an HOF GM may have had trouble doing much with in year 1.

I would be surprised if Click is in over his head.  He was VP for baseball ops with the Rays, one of the best orgs in baseball, for three years before being hired here.  I'm not expecting him to be as proactive and as creative as Luhnow in his management of the org but he should be at least competent.  

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