An Astros offense built around a healthy Alvarez, Altuve, and Tucker is going to be good.

If you make a deal for an elite arm this summer and Garcia, Javier, and Urquidy return to their former levels, Framber continues to pitch at a high level, then congrats, you have a great staff.

I am assuming that McCullers is going to continue to have injury struggles. Maybe Brown will take the next step, it's still early in his career.

tldr the potential return of the injured and struggling SPs shouldn't dissuade you from making a reasonable trade for another young elite SP

Yep - imagine it with Altuve and Alvarez back and Meyers riding the pine. Only question is will Dusty go back to back lefties, that seemed to work okay or does he keep abre-boo in the clean up spot and move Tucker back to 5th?

Anyone else going to be at Coors Field later? Me and the fam will be in between the Stros dugout and home plate.

f1ghtintexasaggie said:

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Might get flamed for this but unless Bregs either (1) elevates his game much closer to 2019, or (2) takes a substantial pay-cut, I don't see us resigning him. He's not been worth the 30M he's been making since the extension.

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This is the first year making big money. It's 28.5 M. His 100 M deal averaged out to be 20 M per. Less if you factor in the Covid year.

I'd rather see Julks in the outfield and maybe Meyer as DH because Meyers arm in the OF costs us runs.

I'd argue he's not been worth 20M. He's just so damn streaky (except for the BB rate).

Deluxe said:

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Yep. In the 2017-18 offseason, we didn't "need" starting pitching. A staff of JV, Keuchel, LMJ, Morton and McHugh would have been just fine. But we went and got Cole anyway. Turned out pretty good.

Not saying Cease (or whoever else) would be as good as Cole. Just in theory, it's almost impossible to have too much high quality starting pitching.

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Starting pitching is what makes post-season runs deep. I will take 3 guys that can run me 6 deep in the post-season and feel really good about it.

Big Al 1992 said:

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I'd rather see Julks in the outfield and maybe Meyer as DH because Meyers arm in the OF costs us runs.

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And you can do this when Alvarez is in Left or switch them when Alvarez is DH. You have to incorporate Dubon in there some unless his Cinderella season is over

Maybe I've had one too many beers already this afternoon, but I'd be all for trading Peña and some prospects if it meant an elite SP. this teams core is only here a couple more years and to be Frank the world series clock is ticking.

Bregs most likely won't be resigned, signs point to tucker being gone, our current pitching staff has been overused and will regress sooner than later.

Make a big trade and try to go get another one this year and pray the chas' and Dubons of the world get hot come October.

Or go get an elite bat, lord knows we need another one.

Beat40 said:

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Deluxe said:

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Yep. In the 2017-18 offseason, we didn't "need" starting pitching. A staff of JV, Keuchel, LMJ, Morton and McHugh would have been just fine. But we went and got Cole anyway. Turned out pretty good.

Not saying Cease (or whoever else) would be as good as Cole. Just in theory, it's almost impossible to have too much high quality starting pitching.

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Starting pitching is what makes post-season runs deep. I will take 3 guys that can run me 6 deep in the post-season and feel really good about it.

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i agree but this team currently doesn't have a single pitcher that's consistently going 6 deep.

"The most expensive team in history...perhaps the biggest flop of all time"@Ken_Rosenthal was NOT holding back on the @Mets

Watch the full episode: https://t.co/EQCtWr0AkQ pic.twitter.com/HRYtrHtsue

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) July 18, 2023

Beat40 said:

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Deluxe said:

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Yep. In the 2017-18 offseason, we didn't "need" starting pitching. A staff of JV, Keuchel, LMJ, Morton and McHugh would have been just fine. But we went and got Cole anyway. Turned out pretty good.

Not saying Cease (or whoever else) would be as good as Cole. Just in theory, it's almost impossible to have too much high quality starting pitching.

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Starting pitching is what makes post-season runs deep. I will take 3 guys that can run me 6 deep in the post-season and feel really good about it.

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Yea. We've had some headline offenses during this 6+ year run but pitching (specifically starting pitching) has been our biggest advantage in October IMO.

Some concerns this year, no doubt. But I also remember going into the 2020 playoffs wondering where the F we were going to get innings from. Same with the 2021 playoffs post LMJ injury. We have a weird knack for finding a way.

Here's how we line up in tonight's series opener against the Isotopes!

🆚: @ABQTopes
🚪: 5:00 PM
⚾️: 6:05 PM
📺: https://t.co/5wiNTgID3M
📻: https://t.co/iTn9juf9qP#ReadyToRide x @RegionsBank pic.twitter.com/kDGj3NllpS

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 18, 2023

Still no Yordan. At this point I'm very skeptical of him being "under the weather" and wonder if they just don't want to give all the details with the deadline so close.

Quality starts so far this year:

47 SEA
46 MIN
45 TOR
44 HOU
43 SD
42 TEX
41 CHC
40 MIL PHI
39 PIT
38
37
36 BAL
35 CLE
34 ARI ATL
33 CWS LAD SF
32
31
30 LAA MIA TB
29 BOS NYM NYY
28 WSH
27 STL
26
25
24 CIN
23
22
21 COL
20 DET
19
18 KC OAK

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 18, 2023

Haha... I'm not Michael but I do know him very well. He's a good dude.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Here's how we line up in tonight's series opener against the Isotopes!

🆚: @ABQTopes
🚪: 5:00 PM
⚾️: 6:05 PM
📺: https://t.co/5wiNTgID3M
📻: https://t.co/iTn9juf9qP#ReadyToRide x @RegionsBank pic.twitter.com/kDGj3NllpS

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 18, 2023

Still no Yordan. At this point I'm very skeptical of him being "under the weather" and wonder if they just don't want to give all the details with the deadline so close.

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What the hell? So he's Michael Brantley 2023?

texasaggie2015 said:

---

Here's how we line up in tonight's series opener against the Isotopes!

🆚: @ABQTopes
🚪: 5:00 PM
⚾️: 6:05 PM
📺: https://t.co/5wiNTgID3M
📻: https://t.co/iTn9juf9qP#ReadyToRide x @RegionsBank pic.twitter.com/kDGj3NllpS

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 18, 2023

Still no Yordan. At this point I'm very skeptical of him being "under the weather" and wonder if they just don't want to give all the details with the deadline so close.

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Yeah, this is my assumption too. He's not ready for rehab, but doesn't want teams to turn the screws trying to up the ante on deals.

I at least need Altuve to come back when he's supposed to.

texasaggie2015 said:

---

Here's how we line up in tonight's series opener against the Isotopes!

🆚: @ABQTopes
🚪: 5:00 PM
⚾️: 6:05 PM
📺: https://t.co/5wiNTgID3M
📻: https://t.co/iTn9juf9qP#ReadyToRide x @RegionsBank pic.twitter.com/kDGj3NllpS

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 18, 2023

Still no Yordan. At this point I'm very skeptical of him being "under the weather" and wonder if they just don't want to give all the details with the deadline so close.

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Unrelated to Yordan, Pedro Leon was red hot. He's not longer. -13 wRC+ over the last 12 games.

Drew Gilbert, Spencer Arrighetti, Jacob Melton, Jake Meyers, Korey Lee and Pedro Leon are going to look so good in black & grey

*whispers: “we’ll take Graveman off your hands too”* pic.twitter.com/UEks8MVhZ8

— Climbing Tal's Hill (@astrosCTH) July 18, 2023

As much as I'd love to have Cease that is A LOT of players to trade. Maybe if we got Graveman back too

That kneecaps all of our depth in the OF.

It would be idiotic to trade 4 OF (3 of them prospects) with Tuck being gone after 2025.

Sorry, I'm doing some catch up right now...

Quote:

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All Batters from these teams with 110 wRC+

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I was wondering how the Royals were so bad. Do they really not have any good hitters?

Tonight's lineup is good, but I'm still not a fan of Dubon leadiing off. This isn't my attempt to be all "grr Dusty dumb mother f-cker!" but just look...

As leadoff: .264 average, 2% BB, 15% K, .280 wOBA, 76 wRC+ (239 PA)
Batting 8th: .368 average, 5% BB, 2.5% K, .363 wOBA, 134 wRC+ (40 PA)
Batting 9th: .286 average, 12.5% BB, 0%K, .354 wOBA, 127 wRC+ (8 PA)

Obviously small samples for 8/9, even if combined, but I think it's not insignificant.

All I do is Nguyen said:

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Drew Gilbert, Spencer Arrighetti, Jacob Melton, Jake Meyers, Korey Lee and Pedro Leon are going to look so good in black & grey

*whispers: “we’ll take Graveman off your hands too”* pic.twitter.com/UEks8MVhZ8

— Climbing Tal's Hill (@astrosCTH) July 18, 2023

As much as I'd love to have Cease that is A LOT of players to trade. Maybe if we got Graveman back too

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Instead of Gilbert and Spaghetti I'd give them Julks and France and call it a day

Who are we trading to acquire top 10 prospects? We don't have any of those, we have what 1 top 100 prospect?

All I do is Nguyen said:

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Drew Gilbert, Spencer Arrighetti, Jacob Melton, Jake Meyers, Korey Lee and Pedro Leon are going to look so good in black & grey

*whispers: “we’ll take Graveman off your hands too”* pic.twitter.com/UEks8MVhZ8

— Climbing Tal's Hill (@astrosCTH) July 18, 2023

As much as I'd love to have Cease that is A LOT of players to trade. Maybe if we got Graveman back too

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Throw in Liam Hendricks

Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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Who are we trading to acquire top 10 prospects? We don't have any of those, we have what 1 top 100 prospect?

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Not even that anymore. Pretty sure they are talking top 10 Astros organization prospects