texasaggie2015 said:

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Lots of speculation in that article. He definitely seems to think SP is the biggest need and it's hard to disagree.

Quote:

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Finding a pitcher that Houston's analytics team can alter be it in his pitch usage or selection feels like a more logical outcome than a large splash.

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This is 100% what I've been hearing as well.

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Aaron Sanchez?

redline248 said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Lots of speculation in that article. He definitely seems to think SP is the biggest need and it's hard to disagree.

Quote:

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Finding a pitcher that Houston's analytics team can alter be it in his pitch usage or selection feels like a more logical outcome than a large splash.

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This is 100% what I've been hearing as well.

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Aaron Sanchez?

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He mentioned Lance Lynn in there...I do not want anything to do with that bloated whale carcass.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Lots of speculation in that article. He definitely seems to think SP is the biggest need and it's hard to disagree.

Quote:

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Finding a pitcher that Houston's analytics team can alter be it in his pitch usage or selection feels like a more logical outcome than a large splash.

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This is 100% what I've been hearing as well. Think of a guy like Aaron Bummer on the White Sox. He's been great in the past but he's awful this year. How much of that is pitch usage? Or something slightly off mechanically that the Astros can fix? He has years of team control left and Houston could be confident that they can turn him into a high leverage arm again.

Same thing with starting pitching. The bigger names will have quite the bidding war for them.

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You have always had some good insight, and I'm sorry if you've discussed this already, but does the Astros brass think that Brantley is going to play this year?

Will he play? I would say probably. Will he make an impact? Doubtful.

I've been told a few times the front office isn't taking Brantley's return into consideration when approaching the deadline. Anything they get from him this year will be considered sort of a bonus at this point.

I expect the Astros to go out and trade for a veteran Left handed relief pitcher who had some very good recent success the past couple years. Has high spin rate.

He sure would... but I don't see them trading away valuable assets for a rental out of the pen. Everything I've been told leads me to believe that any bullpen arm they acquire will at least have one more year of team control.

Seems like the FO is mostly concerned with talent being a decent factor but club control beyond this year being the main one.

When it comes to the bullpen, absolutely.

Neris, Stanek and Maton are all free agents after this season. That's three pretty big holes. They have internal options but they would love to add one (or two) solid bullpen arms at the deadline who will be able to contribute this year and also fill those holes next year and possibly beyond.

They would be more likely to consider a rental bat and SP. Team control at those positions isn't as high of a priority.

For example: It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Jake Meyers dealt for a reliever with a couple years of control (think Straw for Maton). It won't be the sexiest trade, but Meyers is dispensable with our surplus of outfielders and the bullpen arm fills a need this year and beyond.

They'll also obviously push for SP depth and a bat. If they can snag a rental SP for a couple mid-level prospects, maybe we see them dangle one of those young arms (Blanco, Bielak, France, Dubin) for a bat.

Buster Olney says the Yankees are most likely to acquire Shohei Ohtani in a trade this year pic.twitter.com/pA03wmYGZU

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 13, 2023

First of all, I don't think the Angels owner is going to want the egg on his legacy forever of trading what many think is the best player ever, so I don't think he'll do it. That being said, I really hope he doesn't end up on the Rays or Rangers. Rangers don't need to get their hands on more offensive firepower. The Rays would be pretty scary with him on board.

The Yankees, well, they're the Yankees, and they're in a murderers row division, and they'll eventually Yankee it up and make an early exit regardless.

he lives here (and in Madrid) and his company is headquartered here

The Rangers have been following the Angels way of "building a champion" for several years, so I assume they'll try very hard to get Ohtani. Give up multiple prospects and maybe even MLBers to get him for 2 months.

Buster looking for clicks. No chance yanks do that, rangers however I can see going all in. They are tired of being a little ***** in the division and with them leading the division they are going to make a splash in the next week or so no doubt.

The big question is would the Rangers get him as a rental or go all in for the long term?

Can they afford that with what they have locked up already all those SSs and DeGrom's bum arm?

Just wanted to chime in on the Ohtani discussion and then I'll go **** off

I can tell y'all with 99.999999999999% certainty the Rangers are not going after Ohtani at the trade deadline. That's like saying we want to go after a World Series this year, and then try again in maybe 10 years. The Angels are going to ask a King's ransom even for just a rental. And then resigning him in the off-season will be next to impossible. It's not happening.

Now flag me into a oblivion

Sounds like Yordan may be back with the big club in a week or so. Hopefully the same for Urquidy.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Yordan Alvarez and José Urquidy are starting rehab assignments tomorrow with Triple-A Sugar Land.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 13, 2023

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Reinforcements are on the way.

Ag_07 said:

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Yordan didn't have a ST and started out mashing.

His rehab assignment is gonna last about as long I would with Kate Upton.

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Could the lack of buildup in spring training have led to soft muscle issues? Same question for Altuve...I know we love to marvel at how quick and amazing their returns were, but I wonder if it caused these issues.

I could be wrong but I always understood that the rehab assignments are for baseball things like timing, seeing pitches, etc. You don't get on those until you're 100% then from there it's just getting up to speed on the baseball side of things.

They both typically come of the IL and start producing quickly.

pic.twitter.com/otDCf6QmFz

— Houston Astros (@astros) July 13, 2023