DH was my guess

Rasmus is a 1 year solution. Ces could be a multi year deal. It also makes someone like Springer more expendable. Now I don't want to trade Springer even a little, but he name gets mentioned in trades.

Isn't this Gomez' last year under contract as well?

I don't like the frequency that Springer's name is brought up in trades, and something we've seen is that no one is off the trade table.

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Isn't this Gomez' last year under contract as well?

I don't like the frequency that Springer's name is brought up in trades, and something we've seen is that no one is off the trade table.

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Oh that is right. I would be fine with playing Ces. But I imagine Ces is going to be worth 5 year, 90 M? He's already 30.

His production and numbers have been pretty great, and it's not my money, so sure I'd be ok with paying him that with the understanding we probably have about three years of solid production left.

Sign Ces to DH, let Gattis catch, and get Jason Castro the eff off this team.

But seriously, I'd love fir to Ces to DH. Gattis is a good guy and his story is nice and all but he's not good enough to DH on a contender. Add Ces to the middle of the order behind Correa and that lineup is very potent. He's a true cleanup hitter.

As stated before ID*** about the amount of money. It's time we spend. I would just be hesitant with the length of the contract. Think maybe 4 years is what I'd shoot for.

He'd be a nice piece to have on this team.

Reports are Cespedes is looking for close to what Chris Davis got from the O's

5 years @ 90M

I would think the issue with Gattis at catcher is his defense probably isn't very good

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I would think the issue with Gattis at catcher is his defense probably isn't very good

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Yup. Either Gattis plays DH or he doesn't play.

Sign Ces, release/trade Gattis, keep Castro (unfortunately).

I was 75% kidding.

I'd love Cespedes as a DH and would love to get Castro off this team, but I'm not letting Gattis see the field defensively.

You have to take advantage of Cespedes, arm... Dude has a cannon.

So hypothetically who do you bench? Gomez is a gold glove winner, Colby is a blue collar guy goes all out and springer has a cannon too

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So hypothetically who do you bench? Gomez is a gold glove winner, Colby is a blue collar guy goes all out and springer has a cannon too

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Don't ask me these tough questions lol I think we have to deal Marsinick or Tucker.

Can't Gattis play first base? Wouldn't all of us rather see him there than Singleton?

Im confused at the hesitation to play gattis anywhere by our management. He has been a utility type of player (LF,C,1B) throughout his career so why not try it

Trading Jake or Preston doesn't solve the problem of working in Cepedes in around Gomez, Rasmus, and Springer.

If you want to play Cespedes I think you let Rasmus DH and trade/release Gattis. Maybe try and pair Gattis and Tucker or Marisnick for a starter.

Wouldn't say you have to do that. Like others have said, Rasmus and Gomez are in contract years. if no trade happens, I think you'll just see a rotation in the outfield and DH.

Rasmus/Gattis DH platoon. Cespedes in left. Rasmus as 1st lefty outfielder off bench, Marisnick as 1st righty. Preston as 6th outfielder, backup 1B

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Trading Jake or Preston doesn't solve the problem of working in Cepedes in around Gomez, Rasmus, and Springer.

If you want to play Cespedes I think you let Rasmus DH and trade/release Gattis. Maybe try and pair Gattis and Tucker or Marisnick for a starter.

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This. Except I want to hang onto Tucker.

Going to Boston in May...just got my tickets for the Thursday game at Fenway! Can't freaking wait!!

Fenway is certainly on the bucket list. Would love to do that trip.

We just bought our tickets to watch the Good Guys take it to the Yanks in Yankee Stadium on Opening Day.

Welp, Drellich said that a Cespedes to Houston deal is unlikely. Just don't think ownership would approve a 100+ million dollar contract... Also, we never acquired about Chris Davis.

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Also, we never acquired about Chris Davis.

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I'm sure this had more to do with confidence in at least one of Reed, White, Duffy, and/or Singleton than the price tag on Davis.

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Just don't think ownership would approve a 100+ million dollar contract... Also, we never acquired about Chris Davis.

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Yet we keep getting this lip service that this front office is ready to spend and has some extra money saved up now the tv deal is a revenue stream and we're ready to be contenders and expand through free agency. Blah, blah, blah....

And many on here will blame the upcoming contracts of Keuchel, McCugh, Springer, etc but I'm not buying it. This front office has proven to be a penny pinching outfit and I see no signs of that changing anytime soon.

To date their biggest acquisition, not via trade, is Scott fcking Feldman. That right there is incredibly sad and disappointing.

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Just don't think ownership would approve a 100+ million dollar contract... Also, we never acquired about Chris Davis.

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Yet we keep getting this lip service that this front office is ready to spend and has some extra money saved up now the tv deal is a revenue stream and we're ready to be contenders and expand through free agency. Blah, blah, blah....

And many on here will blame the upcoming contracts of Keuchel, McCugh, Springer, etc but I'm not buying it. This front office has proven to be a penny pinching outfit and I see no signs of that changing anytime soon.

To date their biggest acquisition, not via trade, is Scott fcking Feldman. That right there is incredibly sad and disappointing.

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What we don't need is to be saddled with another Carlos Lee type contract.

Chris Davis in a down year can be the exact player Chris Carter was last year. We don't need a strike out machine.

There's obviously some concern in locking up a 30-year-old to a six-year deal, which Cespedes is likely to get. He also only has four big league seasons under his belt and his stats suggest that he'll regress from the numbers he put up last year. I think the bigger concern for the Astros, however, is who to trade to make room for Cespedes and what kind of return they can get. I think it's going to be hard to trade guys like Marisnick, Tucker, and Gattis without also throwing in a prospect.

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What we don't need is to be saddled with another Carlos Lee type contract.

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I get that, but with what little payroll we have we can afford it. Plus back then we had a team full or old overpaid players. Now it's a bit different and we need a veteran power hitter with some consistency. FA singing is going to be the best way to get that.

I just hate seeing this team approach things so safely and conservatively. I said it back when Kazmir signed that it was stupid money for him, but that I'd actually like us to spend some stupid money.

Splurge a bit and get a valuable piece without giving up a valuable piece. Sometimes risky, big money contracts are just the price of doing business and I think now while our team is young and our payroll is next to nill, is a time to take that risk.

Instead we're just gonna sit back on our hands and field the exact same (if not a worse) team than we did last year. Over this off season we've gotten no better than we were. We've regressed

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Instead we're just gonna sit back on our hands and field the exact same (if not a worse) team than we did last year. Over this off season we've gotten no better than we were. We've regressed

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How have we regressed? We have basically the same starting lineup and rotation from a year ago and have the continued development of young players (such as Correa, Springer, and Tucker), have the potential rebound year for Gomez, have a couple of young players with upside (such as Reed), and acquired a top of the line closer. We have lost some depth in terms of pitching in the system, but I do not see how anyone could think we have regressed at the major league level at this point.

The bullpen hasn't regressed. I'll say that. we added Giles and cut bait with Qualls.

The offense is the same minus Lowrie and Carter and adding Singleton. I'm not including Reed because he's not here and the job is Singleton's to lose. I expect Carter 2.0 without the power at 1B and a long wait until they pull the plug on Jon.

The rotation has lost Kazmir, and while some say that's addition by subtraction we'll have to wait and see who they replace him with.

At the end of the season we needed to improve in 3 areas...backe end relief, starting pitching, and add a bat either a corner infielder, OF, or DH. Well we got our back end RP, but we lost a starter (who ended being a ho hum rental), gave the 1B job to a floundering prospect who can't hit ML pitching, and are sticking with the mediocrity of Gattis at DH.

I'm not saying I think we're 100 loss team again, but in my opinion this has been a very disappointing offseason. At best we're even keel with what we ended last season with, and I was really hoping we would add some significant pieces that would push us to the top of the AL.

SP may regress..

Keuchel will be hard pressed to have another Cy Young year, and McHugh is due a little more regression. McCullers is the wild card.

Other than that, I don't see any way we don't get better with the rest of the roster. 1st and 3rd base can't get worse, SS and 2B look to be even at worst. Outfield could potentially regress, but has more of a chance to be better than worse, and catcher can't possibly be offensively worse.

Why does everyone assume that pitchers have to regress?

Because there are very few pitchers who have multiple Cy Young seasons.

And I tend to agree mazag. I was just expecting/hoping for some nice acquisitions that ended up to be pipe dreams. And I just feel like it was a bunch of lip service from the front office about going out to find guys and spend money.

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Because there are very few pitchers who have multiple Cy Young seasons.

And I tend to agree mazag. I was just expecting/hoping for some nice acquisitions that ended up to be pipe dreams. And I just feel like it was a bunch of lip service from the front office about going out to find guys and spend money.

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To me, if you can get a Cespedes without killing your budget 3-4 years down the line, you do it.

I'm assuming that our front office has models for paying our main players.. Correa, Springer, Altuve, Keuchel, etc. down the line, and a guy making 20-30 mil at a position where we are already decently strong, isn't a priority at this point in time. And certainly not an Upton type.

I think the money we will be spending will be on top of the line starters and hoping for a free agent 3B, C, or 1B/DH type in the next year or so.

As of today, our starting pitching, bullpen, and position players are all better than what we started 2015 with. We started last year with Hernandez and Wojo in our rotation, Correa and McCullers were in AA, and Gomez and Fiers were with the Brewers. I think it's reasonable to assume that we'll have contributors in 2016 that aren't currently on the 25-man roster.

I just think that is a very pessimistic and short-sided outlook. Although it is Singleton's job to lose, he will have a short leash and there are plenty of people with potential in line to replace him. I am confident that we will not be any worse at first base than last season and believe that we will be significantly better over the entire season. We added a significant piece in Giles, and did not lose any other significant contributors. When you combine that with the expected improvement of young players who already have significant big league experience, this off season has not been disappointing in my view. I think we definitely made ourselves better this off season and still have a lot of flexibility going forward.