How much longer is Pujols on the books? That ended up being a MIGHTY anchor.

They have him under team control until 2026 so I imagine they'll build around him.

Ag_07 said:

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Wonder how long Kyle Lewis stays in Seattle? My bet is he's traded away and has a great career elsewhere.

He's gonna be a stud.

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Seager is the trade piece that'll get moved

Ag_07 said:

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Wonder how long Kyle Lewis stays in Seattle? My bet is he's traded away and has a great career elsewhere.

He's gonna be a stud.

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I'm guessing he would be the building block so to speak; and Kyle Seager will be on the trading block in the offseason. Likely FA after 2021. M's probably decline the 2022 option

Poot said:

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How much longer is Pujols on the books? That ended up being a MIGHTY anchor.

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one more year on the Pujols contract. Then it finally expires after 2021. It has been great for the Astros.

however Upton's contact runs thru 2022 at $25 MM per season. It's another millstone for LAAA.

and another piece of misfortune...Dylan Bundy has been great in the short season so far, but the Angels only have him under control for one more year. Then he's a free agent

That would be the smart play.

But that's not taking into account Dipoto and his addiction to tinkering.

bearkatag15 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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Wonder how long Kyle Lewis stays in Seattle? My bet is he's traded away and has a great career elsewhere.

He's gonna be a stud.

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Seager is the trade piece that'll get moved

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Good thing pretty much all the top AL teams are set at 3B so they shouldn't look to add him (Olsen, Donaldson/Marwin, Gio, Ramirez). I guess Tampa could always use an upgrade, but they're so cheap.

speaking of the trading block...J.D. Martinez will be available soon. As the Red Sox (6-16) give up on the season.

however he still has 2 more years on his contract (2021 & 2022) at $19 MM per. Boston would have to agree to eat some of that amount.

maybe an NL team would be interested (if the DH is here to stay)

W said:

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so checking in with the Mariners (7-16) and the Angels (7-15)...

yeah, they are who we thought they were.

it's good to be in the West division with these teams.

Seattle has major talent problems and LAAA has major pitching & payroll problems.

and it's going to take some time (seasons) to get those fixed

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Crazy that Angels were supposedly Cole's second choice after the Yankees.

Cole seems at least smart enough to see the difference between a winner and pile of crap

Big Al 1992 said:

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W said:

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so checking in with the Mariners (7-16) and the Angels (7-15)...

yeah, they are who we thought they were.

it's good to be in the West division with these teams.

Seattle has major talent problems and LAAA has major pitching & payroll problems.

and it's going to take some time (seasons) to get those fixed

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Crazy that Angels were supposedly Cole's second choice after the Yankees.

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Baseball players, their agents and the union only care about the highest bidder. And Arte Moreno isn't shy about spending money. He's just not smart about it.

Random factoid loosely related to current conversation: Trout already has 9 home runs (17 games)

W said:

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speaking of the trading block...J.D. Martinez will be available soon. As the Red Sox (6-16) give up on the season.

however he still has 2 more years on his contract (2021 & 2022) at $19 MM per. Boston would have to agree to eat some of that amount.

maybe an NL team would be interested (if the DH is here to stay)

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He's a 32-year-old DH who hasn't gotten off to a hot start. I am not so sure there are any takers.

Farmer1906 said:

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W said:

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speaking of the trading block...J.D. Martinez will be available soon. As the Red Sox (6-16) give up on the season.

however he still has 2 more years on his contract (2021 & 2022) at $19 MM per. Boston would have to agree to eat some of that amount.

maybe an NL team would be interested (if the DH is here to stay)

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He's a 32-year-old DH who hasn't gotten off to a hot start. I am not so sure there are any takers.

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He would absolutely rake at MMP. I'd be down to trade for him if we didn't have to give up too much. Especially with Yordan's knee issues

tjack16 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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W said:

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speaking of the trading block...J.D. Martinez will be available soon. As the Red Sox (6-16) give up on the season.

however he still has 2 more years on his contract (2021 & 2022) at $19 MM per. Boston would have to agree to eat some of that amount.

maybe an NL team would be interested (if the DH is here to stay)

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He's a 32-year-old DH who hasn't gotten off to a hot start. I am not so sure there are any takers.

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He would absolutely rake at MMP. I'd be down to trade for him if we didn't have to give up too much. Especially with Yordan's knee issues

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No trade for us. our system is too depleted and I don't want to sink 20 M a year into a DH when we already have an elite one regardless of his knees.

the Rangers will have money to spend after the season. Choo's contract finally expires after this year. That was another bad one.

could be in the market for J.D. or Seager or some of the Astros' free agents. They have a lot of holes to fill

checking in with the NL Central...

the Cubs and Cardinals are set to play a 5-game series in 3 days at Wrigley starting on Monday.

doubleheader on Monday
single game on Tuesday
doubleheader on Wednesday

that doesn't seem fair to the Cubs, but it is what it is in 2020.

too bad fans are not allowed. Would be a lot of fun and a lot of baseball for the diehards

Did MLB end up going with 7 innings for the 2nd games?

both games are 7 innings

Well that's not fair to the rest of the league.

Everyone else has to navigate 9 innings for each win but for some games for some teams they only have to navigate 7. With our BP I'd love a handful of 7 inning games.

So dumb

I was curious was 7 innings would have done to us so I went back and looked at the game recaps to see the score after 7, the outcome that would have made versus the actual W/L outcome. Up until yesterday the games were all decided by the end of the 7th with an outcome of W/L. two of the games we actually lost would have changed to wins and one win would have changed to a loss. So basically a wash. The game Sunday was the only one tied after 7 so I guess you could call that one the same outcome but in extra innings.

So our 7 inning record would be 12-9 instead of 11-10.

I didn't do the A's, but they have had two walk off slams, a walk off 3 run shot and a game tying slam in the 9th. I'm guessing their 7 inning record would look very different.

Farmer1906 said:

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tjack16 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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W said:

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speaking of the trading block...J.D. Martinez will be available soon. As the Red Sox (6-16) give up on the season.

however he still has 2 more years on his contract (2021 & 2022) at $19 MM per. Boston would have to agree to eat some of that amount.

maybe an NL team would be interested (if the DH is here to stay)

---

He's a 32-year-old DH who hasn't gotten off to a hot start. I am not so sure there are any takers.

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He would absolutely rake at MMP. I'd be down to trade for him if we didn't have to give up too much. Especially with Yordan's knee issues

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No trade for us. our system is too depleted and I don't want to sink 20 M a year into a DH when we already have an elite one regardless of his knees.

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I'm just saying I'd be okay with it because we potentially lose Brantley and Springer next year. Martinez can play left at least 80 games in a season and he's still insanely good as a hitter given his stats last year.

Harry Dunne said:

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What Happens the 80 games JD needs to DH?

Unfortunately I think Yordan needs to be thought of as David Ortiz.

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You could probably stretch JD to play left most of the season. His fielding is below average but you can't argue with his bat. He's hit over .310 the last two seasons with almost 80 homeruns. He's only played 80 games combined in the OF the last two seasons, but that's more due to them having a good defensive outfield with Betts in RF, Pillar or JBJ in CF, and Benintendi in LF. Martinez would have played more games out there if he had to.
Especially given the Crawford boxes in left, he'd crush it here. Offer the Red Sox Josh James and another younger arm that we don't see much value in. They need the pitching

I'm only open to trading for him IF we know we are losing both Brantley and Springer.

I imagine he has a some aspect of a no trade clause in his contract.

If that's the case it ain't happening. He took being cut pretty personally and has publicly said so.

I doubt he ever willingly plays here.

Yeah for the right price you could make it work, esp. @ MMP, but if he's going to be playing in the field every day you have to factor him for that.

I think you might pay a whole lot less for a guy who is a slightly lesser hitter (and therefore lesser name) but who is a better fielder and ends up being a wash.

True. I just don't feel comfortable at all going into 2021 with an Outfield of Straw, Tucker and a rookie or lower level FA

tjack16 said:

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True. I just don't feel comfortable at all going into 2021 with an Outfield of Straw, Tucker and a rookie or lower level FA

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If that happens then Click has failed and he isn't gonna be worth a shlt.

Ag_07 said:

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tjack16 said:

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True. I just don't feel comfortable at all going into 2021 with an Outfield of Straw, Tucker and a rookie or lower level FA

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If that happens then Click has failed and he isn't gonna be worth a shlt.

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Doesn't it depend on how much money Crane gives him to spend? Not really fair to judge a GM as a failure in free agency if he isn't given any money.

Personally, I think Brantley or Springer will be an Astro next year. If Springer (And Brantley to some extent) resigns, it will be because Crane agreed to pay him. So hard for me to credit Click for that if it happens.

If click goes out and gets someone that our performs what he's signed for, then that's worth lauding him for

True

I'm just assuming Crane lets him spend reasonably. I think that's a safe assumption because I don't think he's yet to hold back on budget.

Say what you will about Crane and his handling of all the crap last year but he's spent money very wisely and has shown he'll shell out for the right pieces.

tjack16 said:

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True. I just don't feel comfortable at all going into 2021 with an Outfield of Straw, Tucker and a rookie or lower level FA

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Trades sending away depth for guys like Cole and Greinke that put us right at the doorstep of winning another title were no-brainers, but trading away so much OF depth was a miscalculation.

I would guess that Luhnow's backup plan in the unlikely event that the guys we kept couldn't produce at least 2 MLB-caliber starting OF was that there are always OF bargains out there in free agency and he was genius at finding them.

Ag_07 said:

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I imagine he has a some aspect of a no trade clause in his contract.

If that's the case it ain't happening. He took being cut pretty personally and has publicly said so.

I doubt he ever willingly plays here.

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Especially if he feels the same as Joe Kelly, that Astros players are snitches.

We could also get the band back together. Jake Marisnick, Robbie Grossman, Domingo Santana, Hunter Pence, Cameron Maybin, & Jonathan Villar will all be free agents this offseason.