MelvinUdall said:

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mathguy86 said:

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Springer and Bregman to me are the heart and soul of the team. Until last year I would have said it was Springer alone. Now I think they both are. You should not mess with the soul of your team.

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You have to have Altuve on your list of Heart and Soul of the team.

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He is but in a different way. There is just something about Springer and Bregman that help make everything work.

Mr.Ackar07 said:

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BigPuma said:

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astros4545 said:

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Carlos Hernandez

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wasn't it Xavier that was the lefty phenom that tore his shoulder to hell sliding into second?

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Xavier was the reliever from the early 90s

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You say Xavier Hernandez, all I can think of is this:

http://astrosdaily.com/video/1995Sep5_CincyBrawl_2.mpeg

Yes, it's an old-style video download, but it's worth it. Btw, they have a load of old Astros videos here. Good stuff.

Wife and I are in West Palm today. Weather is clearing up. Not many seats in this stadium, and ticket prices are through the roof with Yankees here today.

Bregman looks a little slow but that hundred mil in the back pocket must be heavy, haha...

Good day for some ball!

Marvin said:

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Wife and I are in West Palm today. Weather is clearing up. Not many seats in this stadium, and ticket prices are through the roof with Yankees here today.

Bregman looks a little slow but that hundred mil in the back pocket must be heavy, haha...

Good day for some ball!

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My parents are there as well. Y'all picked an awful weather week to go.

mazag08 said:

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Marvin said:

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Wife and I are in West Palm today. Weather is clearing up. Not many seats in this stadium, and ticket prices are through the roof with Yankees here today.

Bregman looks a little slow but that hundred mil in the back pocket must be heavy, haha...

Good day for some ball!

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My parents are there as well. Y'all picked an awful weather week to go.

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Hasn't been great, although we've really only had one bad day all around and that was yesterday. But a wet day at spring training beats a workday in Houston any time!

Marvin said:

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Wife and I are in West Palm today. Weather is clearing up. Not many seats in this stadium, and ticket prices are through the roof with Yankees here today.

Bregman looks a little slow but that hundred mil in the back pocket must be heavy, haha...

Good day for some ball!

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What were the ticket prices like today? Last year I was there for a Friday night game vs the Cardinals and they were ~$45 per seat for good ones, which I thought was pricey for spring training.

Good write up on Ryan

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/houston-rewards-presslys-liftoff-with-two-year-deal/

Nuke LaLoosh said:

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https://mlbcomparisons.com/bryce-harper-vs-george-springer-comparison/

Compares their last 3 years.

Counterpoint to my last post - could get a great deal on Springer potentially.

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If we could sign Springer for $10M less per season, I would take him over Harper all day long.

Farmer1906 said:

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Good write up on Ryan

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/houston-rewards-presslys-liftoff-with-two-year-deal/

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Nice

GarrettL_15 said:

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I think we need to keep at least one of the two, being Verlander or Cole.

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Aren't the Angels Cole's boyhood dream team?

The Milkman said:

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Marvin said:

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Wife and I are in West Palm today. Weather is clearing up. Not many seats in this stadium, and ticket prices are through the roof with Yankees here today.

Bregman looks a little slow but that hundred mil in the back pocket must be heavy, haha...

Good day for some ball!

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What were the ticket prices like today? Last year I was there for a Friday night game vs the Cardinals and they were ~$45 per seat for good ones, which I thought was pricey for spring training.

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Only available seats were going for $175 this morning. We bought lawn seating for $20, instead. Phillies in Clearwater were $35. Braves at Disney tickets were $45. We didn't have the best seats, but not the cheapest either. We always bought online about an hour before first pitch. Secondary market prices really dropped then.

Guess he wants to show he's worth "Bregman money," too.

regarding the long-term signing of Correa and thinking about Astros history...

the franchise's great playoff run from 1997 to 2005 was centered around 2 Hall of Fame position players -- not starting pitchers.

the good pitchers from the first half (1997-2000) of that run...were all allowed to leave. And a new batch of starters were found/developed for the second half (2001-2005).

so maybe that will be the plan going forward. The third big money contract could be give to a position player and not a pitcher (Cole)

and speaking of Cole...one small issue...he's not necessarily a big innings eater.

in 2018...his age 27 season...he pitched 200 innings.
in 2017...his age 26 season...he pitched 203 innings.

compare that to Verlander's age 27 season...he pitched 240 innings. In his age 26 season...he pitched 224 innings. (and in his age 28 season...he pitched 251 innings)

that's a size-able difference

I could see it. A guy like Springer is going to cost less than Cole or Correa. I don't think anything is off the table at this point.

The 2nd run was very flukie. How often do you sign 2 great pitchers on the cheap like Clemens & Andy?

I wish that they would just let the guys whose bodies are mature and whose arms have proven they can handle the load pitch the innings like JV does.

He is a freak, but more than that he's grandfathered in to a different mindset. Obviously there are guys like McCullers who can be great major league pitchers but maybe never capable of throwing 200 innings without injury and have to be on a careful pitch count . At the same time if JV had been babied like the current crop of young guys, he wouldn't have had the chance to be half the player he is.

Jackal99 said:

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Guess he wants to show he's worth "Bregman money," too.

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Correa has told Astros that he isn't interested in long term deal to buy out arbitration. He wants to be free agent as soon as possible

One week from today

Some notable pitcher numbers from spring training:

Osuna - 5 IP, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (i like clean cards)
James - 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 BB, 0 K
JBB - 10 IP, 2 ER, 5 BB, 13 K
Peacock - 12 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K (clear champion of the #5 competition)
Whitley - 12 IP, 2 ER, 4 BB, 15 K
Cole - 10.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K (ho hum)
Guduan - 9 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 13 K (this intrigues me)
Martin - 8.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (our AAA staff is going to be really really good to start the season)
Miley - 17 IP, 4 ER, 6 BB, 15 K
Pressly - 3.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
JV - 13.1 IP, 5 ER, 3 BB, 16 K
Valdez - 13.1 IP, 6 ER, 5 BB, 7 K

Devenski, Rondon, Harris, McHugh - Woof

Not feeling too great about Devo, Rondon and Harris, given how they trended toward the end of last year and their starts to 2019. Also wondering if McHugh might ultimately be better served out of the bullpen where he can tick his fastball up a few mph. We shall see.

third coast.. said:

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Sad but hilarious keuchel doesn't have a team yet.

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It is funny, but we need him to have a team by the draft in June. Surely he will, even if it take a pitcher injury somewhere.

Scott Boras is just killing it for Dallas

Frok said:

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Scott Boras is just killing it for Dallas

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But he's comparable to Tom Glavine and Patrick Corbin got a 6 year, $140 million deal!

Any idea if Bregman's $10 million signing bonus is a cap hit this year?

Deluxe said:

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Any idea if Bregman's $10 million signing bonus is a cap hit this year?

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Altuve's is spread out across the life of the contract at $3M per year. Bregman's could be a similar set up.

Hope that's right. We currently have $22 million under the cap and hoping we can retain as much of that as possible for trade deadline flexibility.

Deluxe said:

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Hope that's right. We currently have $22 million under the cap and hoping we can retain as much of that as possible for trade deadline flexibility.

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https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/payroll/

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/jose-altuve-8688/

So digging more into this... it seems the luxury tax impact of a contract is based on its AAV (Average Annual Value). For Altuve's luxury tax impact, it is $23,357,143 per year ($163,500.00/7). The signing bonus does not seem to impact the luxury tax numbers in his case.

bearkatag15 said:

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Deluxe said:

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Hope that's right. We currently have $22 million under the cap and hoping we can retain as much of that as possible for trade deadline flexibility.

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https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/payroll/

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/jose-altuve-8688/

So digging more into this... it seems the luxury tax impact of a contract is based on its AAV (Average Annual Value). For Altuve's luxury tax impact, it is $23,357.14 per year ($163,500.00/7). The signing bonus does not seem to impact the luxury tax numbers in his case.

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Correct by my understanding. It means you can't back load contracts to get around the tax (see what Jerry Jones did for decades).

Backloading in baseball is just to help your own internal finances and cash flow.

So Bregman's Luxury tax hit on his contract is $18,000,000 per year starting in 2020.