yes, Cruz signing with the going-nowhere Twins makes one think that demand wasn't all that great for his services

Besides the big 2, the best bat left out there is Jed. He makes less sense than Cruz, but he'd be a nice bat for the collection. It would add to the already versatile roster.

with brantley, we don't NEED a bat that bad anymore. Maybe the office is saving some big time monies for bolstering the Rotation.

Maybe we don't add another bat. Between Tucker, White, and giving guys rest we can have a solid enough DH.

We do still need to add pitching. I doubt its through FA. The only guys left are Dallas, Gio, & Miley. It'll likely be a trade.

Farmer1906 said:

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Maybe we don't add another bat. Between Tucker, White, and giving guys rest we can have a solid enough DH.

We do still need to add pitching. I doubt its through FA. The only guys left are Dallas, Gio, & Miley. It'll likely be a trade.

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We can recreate Cruz in the aggregate /Moneyball

My guess is that they did not want a full time DH to take up a roster spot at this point since already have White and signed Brantley and they believe in Tucker. You can typically find and acquire a Cruz type bat via trade mid season if turns out really need one.

It sounds like we made a good offer for him but he chose to be on a losing team instead... guess he just hates winning.

I do not understand that mindset and mentality for an aging player. I get it if other offers are not competitive, but not if legitimate contending teams are making competitive offers.

shelbys99 said:

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We should sign Lowrie, and then trade him to the A's.

Wait, we have already done that twice.

You think they would do it again???

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Didn't we trade for him twice and traded him back once?

No stress or expectations, easy paycheck

Playing into the playoffs is a lot of wear and tear on your body. Maybe he didn't want to do that.

Wow this is just bad

Quote:

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The Astros have a ring, and that goes a long way when it comes to bragging rights. But their fans spent years pulling their hair out as they watched the worst team in Major League Baseball. 51 wins in 2013! The fewest season wins in Rangers' franchise history came in 1994 when they notched only 52. Houston went three straight years winning less than 57 games!

So, I guess the question is would you rather have been an Astros' fan or a Rangers' fan over the last decade?

Personally and objectively, I side with the Rangers. Give me consistent success over eventual success. Give me two World Series appearances over one.

Texas is coming off a terrible season, but that's it. They won the division three years ago and competed for a wildcard berth two years ago. It's not like they've been the laughing-stock of MLB for three straight years. Plus, their rebuild is just about complete.

With the young talent the Texas Rangers currently have, they should win more than 67 games in 2019. That's not exactly a high bar to set, but it's progress. The Rangers have already hit rock bottom, and it wasn't even that deep of a fall. Better days are coming very soon; no run of sub-60-win seasons are headed our way like they were to Astros fans just a handful of years ago.

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I love the comment that their rebuild is almost complete so they should win more than 67 games... is that the bar now??

I got news for the Rangers. Their rebuild isn't complete. Not by long shot.

mathguy86 said:

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I got news for the Rangers. Their rebuild isn't complete. Not by long shot.

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It is if they were building a .500ish team for the next several years.

With Cruz off the table I think now you make a move for Realmuto.

We need a bat and the fact he catches satisfies two needs.

Well deserved!

Dude has done some work with a bunch of additions that we've brought in.

I think pretty much everyone but Giles has worked out well for us.

He's getting annihilated on Twitter and it's pretty entertaining.

Pretty disappointed we didn't match the Cruz offer.

He hits 100 RBIs and 35+ HRs pretty reliably and it was a short contract.

What else are we going to spend our money on? He's a better slugger than Brantley and making less.

AggiEE said:

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What else are we going to spend our money on?

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Locking up Tyler White long term after he hits 35+ HRs and 100 RBIs as a DH protecting Correa.

Ag_07 said:

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AggiEE said:

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What else are we going to spend our money on?

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Locking up Tyler White long term after he hits 35+ HRs and 100 RBIs as a DH protecting Correa.

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If he hits 35+ HRs and 100 RBIs next season I won't post on TexAgs for 1 year... 0.0% chance that happens.

He will be lucky to get half those numbers.

Baseball Reference actually projects him to do less than half those numbers...

Can we find you a DH to not post for a year if that happens? You were pretty entertaining this year and I would hate to lose that.

Yeah hence the emoticon.

A legit DH who's bopper in the middle of the lineup to protect Correa has been on my wish list for a while now. In my opinion that's the one deficiency of this lineup.

Cruz would've been perfect.

While I share the sentiment that he won't come close to 35 HR and 100 RBI, the BR projection is based on White getting 325 PAs. Thats roughly 1/2 a season for a full time DH.

In other words they don't think he should be getting regular ABs either .

wow, Keuchel looking for 5 yr/100 million contract

Steamer projections are out:

https://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamer&team=21&lg=all&players=0&sort=27,d

Couple of things here...

Correa will have a better batting avg than .265
Altuve will return to hitting his normal 24 HRs and will have more than 177 hits on the year
If Stassi/Chirinos hits .216/.201 then we are in trouble

The Altuve numbers made me not look at it any more.

If these pitching numbers are correct then we are in trouble here too...

92 - 70 is the projected team record based on pitchers win/loss records.

It seems like Altuve and Correa are the tipping point between our offense being great or merely very good.

The bull case is that they're both healthy now and able to resume their MVP level production from 2017. The bear case is that their 2018 injuries were only partial explanations for their production downturns and that deeper reasons exist why they won't revert back to 2017 form.

Those projections seem more representative of the bear case. If the bear case plays out, we'll have a very good offense, but nothing close to the 2017 Astros or 2018 Red Sox. If the bull case plays out, it seems like that changes everything.