AustinCountyAg said:

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As much as I love this team this is the least confident I've been in them winning in a long time. Even with JV I don't think it pushes us past TX, or the O's. Our offense is avg at best and our starting pitching gives me no confidence when it's nut cutting time.

I'd love to be proved wrong, but I just don't see it or believe it right now.

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I think JV would propel us to another division win. I just can't decide if it's worth it long term.

BadAggie said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Jon Singleton continues to swing a 🔥 bat!

His sixth home run in the last nine games pulls the Space Cowboys back within three! #ReadyToRide pic.twitter.com/iifGFyiW7H

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 31, 2023

Goodness

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Surely Singleton will be called up?

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There's your left handed power bat

AggiEE said:

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BadAggie said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Jon Singleton continues to swing a 🔥 bat!

His sixth home run in the last nine games pulls the Space Cowboys back within three! #ReadyToRide pic.twitter.com/iifGFyiW7H

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 31, 2023

Goodness

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Surely Singleton will be called up?

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There's your left handed power bat

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Looking at the trade market, might as well.

What do you mean there's no new trade deadline updates at 4:45 am ?!?!

Wabs said:

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Less than 2 full days to be "aggressive".

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"We're going to get greedy about winning" was the quote I remember from the off-season

Monday morning updates (or kinda lack thereof):

- Feeling less confident about JV. Houston wanted him back but I think the option in his contract is the dealbreaker. It's hard to blame them for that. Either way, I expect it to come down to the last minute, but like Farmer said above I expect him to stay in New York.

- The White Sox said Cease and Robert are off the market but Rosenthal reported last night that they're still listening to offers on both. I was able to confirm that Houston has remained in contact with them on Cease. I would imagine the likelihood of this happening is very low.

- The cost of SP this deadline is very high and it may have caused Houston to pivot to bullpen arms. They're still trying on guys like Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Lorenzen, etc but I know the asking price has been higher than Houston wants to pay for a rental. That being said, as we get closer to the deadline, asking prices may go down and we could very well acquire a SP.

- They would still like one more bat but I haven't heard any names.

- They still have an offer on the table for Scott Barlow and Carlos Hernandez (an offer for each player, not both) but I expect this to come down to the wire as well. The Astros aren't the only interested team.

- They've at the very least inquired about every name you can imagine who may be available. There's been no lack of effort. They've been more active on the phones than pretty much every team in the league, it's just hard with the current state of the farm system. They're still willing to deal some of the guys we've discussed on the big league roster but it's been hard finding a trade partner.

- As of right now, I expect at minimum one more move and probably no more than two.

I know this is another one of those updates where there's nothing definitive, but that's kinda how things are this time of year. Things change so fast. Should be an interesting day across the league.

BadAggie said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Jon Singleton continues to swing a 🔥 bat!

His sixth home run in the last nine games pulls the Space Cowboys back within three! #ReadyToRide pic.twitter.com/iifGFyiW7H

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) July 31, 2023

Goodness

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Surely Singleton will be called up?

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Would it even matter? Our dumbass manager won't play him in favor of veteran presence. He routinely sits the hot hand(s). I am simply astounded that last year's team was so strong to overcome his piss poor management.

/insertbigbraindusty

Fire Dusty. Promote Espada.

And that's why I'm glad I'm not calling the shots. It's tough. Do you overpay for rentals in hopes that you win a championship this year but possibly sacrifice the future? Or do you upgrade where you can and hope to get hot down the stretch and contend- and then make moves where needed over the offseason?

I've always been a believer in that if you have a chance to win now you do whatever it takes to get it done. But I'm not sure if there's enough assets available to make moves that fill every hole on this roster.

That being said, I do think stacking bullpen depth could help tremendously. The best thing that can happen for Houston is Framber and Javier returning to form.

We don't need no stinking trades.

We just need Maldonado sent to the Savannah Bananas for 2 season tickets, monogramed jorts and a banana hat..

Mr.Bond said:

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I appreciate all the insight and I think we all realize Dana and his staff are working diligently that being said if we all recognize this team as it stands from a starting pitching standpoint has little to no shot at a World Series then surely the front office sees that as well. So then what do you do overpay for a World Series run or just essentially admit the fact that you don't have the starting pitching to get it done in the postseason

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If we stand pat, this is essentially an admission that Crane is full of **** about wanting/planning to sustain the winning culture. His actions since this off-season have proven otherwise:

(1) chased off Click in favor of Dusty
(2) let people with no business making personnel decisions make two critical deals that will hamper our payroll flexibility moving forward, not to mention their horrid on-field performance
(3) made no move to bolster starting rotation after letting V walk
(4) claims to be willing to pay to keep the window open (which, with our depleted farm, ought to be our primary asset to offer if the owner is willing to spend), but fails to make meaningful and necessary additions at the deadline

If Urquidy can come back and eat up a bunch of innings that might be the best "deadline acquisition" any team adds

f1ghtintexasaggie said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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I appreciate all the insight and I think we all realize Dana and his staff are working diligently that being said if we all recognize this team as it stands from a starting pitching standpoint has little to no shot at a World Series then surely the front office sees that as well. So then what do you do overpay for a World Series run or just essentially admit the fact that you don't have the starting pitching to get it done in the postseason

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If we stand pat, this is essentially an admission that Crane is full of **** about wanting/planning to sustain the winning culture. His actions since this off-season have proven otherwise:

(1) chased off Click in favor of Dusty
(2) let people with no business making personnel decisions make two critical deals that will hamper our payroll flexibility moving forward, not to mention their horrid on-field performance
(3) made no move to bolster starting rotation after letting V walk
(4) claims to be willing to pay to keep the window open (which, with our depleted farm, ought to be our primary asset to offer if the owner is willing to spend), but fails to make meaningful and necessary additions at the deadline

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I'm not knocking you because I know most aren't aware of the details, I'm just using this as an opportunity to clear some things up for everyone:


- Crane didn't really chase off Click in favor of Dusty. Click and Crane did not get along. At all. Click was good at his job but there was a major personality clash and it would have never worked out.

- Crane 100% wants to be aggressive and keep the winning culture. I expect him to do that. It's just a weird spot to be in. The Astros have been so fortunate the last 7 years or so- this is the first time we've really had a season where we had so much bad luck. Worst case is this year is a step back and then we're right back into contending this year. It's frustrating but it happens.

- The whole thing I see on Twitter about "Bagwell ruining the season" is just false. Bagwell never had the final say in any decisions. He would advise Crane on certain things, but at the end of the day, any move was Crane's decision. Crane was the one who wanted Montero re-signed and that was going to happen regardless. Bagwell pushed for Abreu- and that hasn't worked out but nobody expected this big of a decline.

texasaggie2015 said:

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That doesn't solve many of Houston's problems. I cannot stand having Maldy in the lineup every day, but I feel like he's sort of been the scapegoat in that he's far from the biggest problem on this team.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not defending him. I just think the problems start with the rotation and an overworked bullpen.

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The rotation obviously has been an issue and of course that naturally comes with an overworked bullpen but overall our pitching numbers aren't that bad.

Our biggest problem is the donkey filling out the lineup card who refuses to bat our two lefties back-to-back, despite having better numbers against lefties, which means the best left-handed hitter in the league usually bats in the 2nd inning.

He also refuses to play the best hitting catcher our organization has ever seen because of super advanced metrics like "he doesn't hit lefties well" even when we're not facing any.

If we could have a CONSISTENT lineup like this:
Altuve
Bregman
Yordan
Tucker
Chas
Diaz
Abreu
Pena
Meyers/Julks/Singleton

We could go a major run but Donkey won't do that because...reasons.