moonslav59

I'd rather we stock up the rotation and keep Houck and Whitlock in the pen. I feel better about them than any los cost FA signings.

It's the elbow, per local reports. Yes, they are saying "out."

Even the mastermind genius, Bloom has had a very hard time finding RP'ers that can help on a consistent basis. If you want, I can provide a list of over 30 RP'ers Bloom tried over the last 2 years, most were acquired by him. He spent rather big on Ottavino, and just gave Barnes an extension. Andriese & Sawamura were a couple he signed for more than the min, this past winter. Looking at who we can trust going into 2022, I'm not seeing much, especially if we move Houck & Whitlock to the rotation. A lot of luck will be needed.

Exactly why spending a lot of resources (money and prospects in trade) for RP'ers is almost always a huge gamble.

This is the 5th straight ALCS appearance by the Astros, but it should be pointed out that this is not the same team. Sure, they added Tucker and other very good players, but there is no George Springer, and these were their best SP'ers in those 5 years: 2017: 1.06 Verlander (5 starts after the trade) 2.90 Keuchel 3.55 McHugh 3.62 Morton 4.25 McCullers 4.77 Musgrove 2018 2.52 Verlander 2.88 Cole 3.13 Morton 3.74 Keuchel 3.86 McCullers (2.19 F Valdez in 5 GS) 2019 2.58 Verlander 2.50 Cole 3.02 Greinke 3.98 Miley 4.12 Peacock 4.70 McHugh 2020 2.73 Urquidy (5 GS) 3.48 Javier 3.57 Valdez 3.93 McCullers 4.03 Greinke 2021 3.16 McCullers (uncertain health) 3.14 Valdez (27 yrs old) 3.30 L Garcia (rookie- 24 y/o) 3.62 Urquidy (26 yrs old) 4.16 Greinke (29GS but not expected to start, at all) While their starters' numbers look pretty good, there isn't a whole lot of experience there. I like our match-ups, especially without McCullers. The Astros pen had these numbers: 4.06 ERA 1.303 WHIP .700 OPS Against

Not even close. Would we have been better had we traded for Kimbrel, one of the best MLB RP'er before the deadline?

The hard part is assembling one. Even if you spend big money on RP'ers, it is a still a crap shoot. Remember when the Rockies signed like 3 big FA RP'ers? I think they all flopped. It's largely hit or miss. Getting quantity works, sometimes, as you hit or miss it until you find 4-6 that work out, but it can lead to a lot of early losses as you work through your long list. We used 37 pitchers, this year, and the make-up of our pen changed radically as did the roles of many of those who remained from day one. '

It's my feeling the plan was always to spend big in 2022.

Helped us get farther than where we are now? Are we sure that Bloom's "extra" pen signings would have done well? Better than Robles, Davis, Brasier... Look at Ottavino & Andriese. Any other signings might have messed with the clubhouse gel, too. ' We'll never know.

Of course not, and Price didn't do all that great on the front end, either, but I still think there are times a team just need to take the plunge. It's not something you plan overnight. It's not just about thinking a certain point in time marks the spot for a big deal. There has to be the right player available. I thought Price was the type of guy you wait for- you plan for. Some might say, this winter is "THE time," but to me, Stroman is not "THE guy" you wait several years for. I do see some SSs that might fit that bill, but then we'd have to move Bogey or trade him for pitching.

Indeed. Only 2 guys were signed for more than 1 year, and they were... Kike- 2 yrs Sawamura- 2 yrs

Heard on the HOU radio, this morning... 538 has HOU at 61% winners Fangraphs has BOS 50.1%

I don't see a Price type deal, this winter, because nobody jumps out like Price did, but someday, I think we might do one. We may see Devers and or Bogey get the large and long deal. I do think we go higher than the $10M for Richards deal, this winter.

I have to think, if they thought we had an excellent chance to win it all this year, Henry would have allowed Bloom to spend more. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have helped! Gotta like the character of this club.

I'm liking our chances more and more as time goes by. Some complained this team wasn't as good as the team from the first half. I said it then and will say it again: this team is better than that team and better- right now- than we've ever been in 2021. Yes, just win, baby. One game at a time. Keep the mojo risin'. And all the other appropriate cliches.

A couple interesting moves by Cora got some talk, but not as much as I expected. He put Schwarber up first and Kike second, and bam! He moved Verdugo to the 5 slot and JD to 6th, and bam! He's used a pen that looked like they were in shambles a few weeks and all the way back a couple months, and somehow made every call to the pen work out masterfully. (In hindsight, of course. We all know some of the posters here were actually right, and Cora just got lucky.) Another tip of the cap to Cora for not being afraid to step out of the box and shake things up.

Weird thing to say. Rumor was the Astros were the other team trying to sign Eovaldi after 2018. (He was born in Houston.) He's a FA after 2022. Did he just take away a possible bidder?

I've been saying I think we will go large, this winter or next, but maybe it will not be like the Price deal. I see a few other scenarios: 1) A deal like Scherzer, Greinke or Verlander for large and short. 2) Two $15-20M deals for 3-5 years. 3) Four $10M deals- hopefully better than the Richards' deal. 4) Some sort of mix and match. I can't see him continually signing 10 guys to between $3 and $10M, every year. For one, we don't have enough roster slots for him to do that even one more year (this winter). With a bigger budget, he's almost forced to step out of his previous philosophy. One can look at his 3 biggest deals, last winter, he swung and missed twice (Richards & Perez). He hit big with Kike. If you count Ottavino's trade as a big deal, he was 1 for 4. Out of his next biggest deals, he went 1 for 3, again. Renfroe- hit, Andriese- miss, Marwin The next 2? Sawamura- OK and Santana- miss. One could argue, he shouldn't focus on FA signings, but I guess the Beni trade is not viewed as a winner, yet. Getting Pivetta, last summer, Whitlock with Rule 5, Schwarber and others mid season and the Kike-Renfroe signings were big keys, but there were a lot of misses alog the way, too.

I think he meant the brain trust was thinking the WS was a year or more away. That is likely why he limited the spending.

Bloom is not about glitzy headlines that placate the casual fans. There were reasons, beyond finances and wanting to save the farm as much as possible, for not getting Rizzo, Kimbrel and other headline names. There were reasons for taking a chance on Schwarber, Robles, Davis, Iggy and Shaw. The guy basically went 5 for 5 in the clutch, and in this case, this might be a repeatable skill. (I thought you'd like that, Kimmi.)

As much as it saddens me to see Bobby Dee at oh for 10 in the post season, my jaw drops when I look over the OPS numbers: 1.266 Kike (What a great signing- one of only two multiyear deals, last winter) 1.200 JD (Rumors of his loss of bat speed were just that- rumors.) 1.085 Bogey (Gotta wonder if that IL stint helped heal his wrist.) 1.041 Schwarber (Everything we'd hoped he'd be- ok, except on D.) 1.017 Devers (If he can do this one-handed & blind-folded...) 1.000 Shaw (He's done a lot in such few PAs for us.) .913 Verdugo (I was beginning to wonder if '19-'20 was a dream.) .882 Vaz (Saving all this for the playoffs- GENIUS!) .750 Plawecki (Eovaldi's private caddy keeping the CERA talk relevant.) .741 Renfroe (This wouldn't look so bad, if it wasn't for the GIDPs!) .579 Arroyo (Keeping the defense real at 2B after Iggy's departure.) .000 Dalbec (He's working on losing even a platoon.) The pitching is not too bad, either: 4.2 IP of scoreless pitching by Taylor, Barnes, Ottavino, Davis & Richards 2.08 Whitlock in 4.1 IP (All year, this guy has carried us.) 2.57 Houck in 7.0 (The 2 kids giving us 11.1 IP of 2.38 combined!) 2.61 Big Nate in 10.1 (Talk about carrying us...) 3.12 Pivetta in 8.2 (Seemingly out of nowhere, but has shown this B4.) 5.40 ERod in 6.2 (His bounce back start was the best of our playoffs.) 6.75 Brasier in 2.2 (Faith has been tested but is not gone.) 6.75 Robles in 2.2 (Same as Brasier) 45.00 Sale in 1 IP (Gotta think he can improve on this. LOL)

No wonder I can never get past step one!

I've done that several times. What's the second step in the 12?

Casas? BTW, Dalbec ended up at .730 v RHPs, and while that is pretty bad for a 1Bman, his .763 career number over his first 327 PAs vs righties is not bad for anyone's start to a ML career. I do think insurance is wise, but we might not have enough money or a roster spot for someone like Shaw. If we swap out Schwarber for JD, and try to get KS to workout hard at 1B over the winter, maybe he would hold us over if and until Casas is ready.

I'm thinking Schwarber might get $60M/4 or $70M/5. If the NL gets a DH, it might be more. BTW, I'm not good at projecting contracts or arb numbers.