Jacob Melton, Zach Dezenzo and Spencer Arrighetti lead the next wave of Houston top performers.

Here are the #Astros 2023 Organization All-Stars: https://t.co/O4oCIik16j pic.twitter.com/arKL6UNqWR

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) December 11, 2023

AgLA06 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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Yall are some haters.

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I usually agree.

But when you might have just had the worst sophomore slump in recent memory at the plate it doesn't exactly exude confidence that the priority appears to he bicep curls instead of hours of work with a hitting coach to try and be able to recognize a breaking ball.

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"The worst sophomore slump in recent memory"??

He went from
102 to 96 wRC+
.300 to .302 xwOBA
.309 to .310 wOBA

He was very similar overall at the plate in 22 as 23. He just did it in a different way. Less power and more on base. It's almost like he worked really hard and figured out how to not chase that breaking ball. His K% 8 Whiff% dropped while his BB% rose.

1 photo on Instagram looking pumped means he's not in the cage? How did everyone draw that conclusion?

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You essentially just restated from the highs of 2023 to the lows of 2022 was a catastrophic slump. There was just a bunch of pretty fluff with it to make it sound more elegant. If you have to justify it not being "that bad", it was in fact that bad.

And it fell when we needed him the most and our manager to be thanked later paired him with Maldy to kill a third of our offensive innings each game.

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I am not following you at all.

Pena was about average at the plate in 2022 and stayed about average in 2023. Was he slightly worse? Probably, but we're not talking about slump from year 1 to 2.

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That's heavily skewed by one month. June, July and Sept his OPS+ was well below 100.

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True. His Aug was just that good. My point was that even without the HRs in the 2nd half, he was still a productive player.

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Understandable. But there's a the difference between working hard and actual results. I like him as a player / person, but that doesn't get us wins.

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I 100% agree with your statement. He may never totally figure there breaking ball out and might not be a whole lot better than 2023 Pena. Doesn't mean he's not trying to figure out the breaking ball.

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Pena 100% got better at not chasing and whiffing at breaking stuff from year 1 to year 2. His problem was that he didn't punish mistakes and dominate 4 seamers like he did as a rookie. His run value on 4 seamers went fom +6 to -2. His % of meatballs were slightly up 6.5% to 6.9% yet his swings on those pitches were down from 83.1% to 79.2%.

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I think he'll be better than 2023, but I don't expect much but league SS average or just below league SS average. Honestly, until he can recognize the fastball in the low and away location faster, he's going to rarely be in control of his ABs.

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Even though there are a handful of really good SSs, it's still a weaker hitting position overall. I believe only catcher is worse.

League Avg SS
.249 BA
.311 OBP
.401 SLG
.712 OPS
94 wRC+

Offensively, Pena is already at just above league avg SS. Add in his very good defense and solid base running and he's an above-average SS overall. Avd his WAR agrees with that assessment.

WAR ('22-'23)
1. Lindor - 12.5 WAR
2. Swanson - 11.4 WAR
3. Bogaers - 10.7 WAR
4. Seager - 10.5 WAR
5. Turner - 10.2 WAR
6. Bichette - 8.3 WAR
...
11. Pena - 6.2 WAR
12. Correa - 5.4 WAR

FanFest presented by @HEB is officially back in 2024 on January 20th. Find out more information at https://t.co/geFSQOkdcX!

Join us at Minute Maid Park to meet the players for the official kickoff to the 2024 season. pic.twitter.com/RTVVPjAld8

— Houston Astros (@astros) December 11, 2023

So of the 4 team needs in the OP. We've addressed 1 of them. Backup catcher

Beat40 said:

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tjack16 said:

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So of the 4 team needs in the OP. We've addressed 1 of them. Backup catcher

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It's a long winter, boys!

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Let's be honest, when was the last offseason where all the needs were actually addressed rather than relying on guys from the minors or longshot last chance guys?

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Beat40 said:

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tjack16 said:

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So of the 4 team needs in the OP. We've addressed 1 of them. Backup catcher

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It's a long winter, boys!

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Let's be honest, when was the last offseason where all the needs were actually addressed rather than relying on guys from the minors or longshot last chance guys?

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I mean, the Astros did address areas of need just last offseason. Now, it didn't work out well, but they did!

Farmer1906 said:

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2022-23

We signed the biggest name FA we could at first base & extended two of our best two free agents.

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They have also gone out and made some pretty big moves during the trade deadline.

Other that that, the Astros only rely on their farm system and scrap heap signings.

With $68 million of the $70 million annual salary deferred, that works out to an AAV of about $46 million, per source. Essentially, Ohtani agreed to defer this much money in order for the Dodgers to have payroll flexibility to continue building a winning team.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 11, 2023

Gonna be seeing that guy in a lot more than just New Balance "we got now" commercials I think.

Am I the only one confused as hell by "deferrals"? I understand it lowers the CBT, but when the hell is it being deferred to? I mean they'll pay it at some point, does it not go against the CBT then?

LA Private wealth managers salivating at the opportunity to monetize that contract for a fee

htxag09 said:

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Am I the only one confused as hell by "deferrals"? I understand it lowers the CBT, but when the hell is it being deferred to? I mean they'll pay it at some point, does it not go against the CBT then?

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It's going to be deferred to after the 10 years of the contract, is my understanding (the old Bobby Bonilla deal, but up front).

Shohei Ohtani's $700 million contract calls for him to be paid only $2 million a year for the next 10 seasons, with $680 million deferred until the end of the deal, sources confirm to ESPN.

The CBT hit on the contract is going to be around $46 million, a huge discount for L.A.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 11, 2023

So will it be going against their CBT amount when they're paying it in 10+ years even though he's not on the team? Or no, they calculate present and future dollars now so it's calculated and done?

htxag09 said:

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Am I the only one confused as hell by "deferrals"? I understand it lowers the CBT, but when the hell is it being deferred to? I mean they'll pay it at some point, does it not go against the CBT then?

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They Bobby Bonilla'ed the contract to lower the AAV so that the Dodgers still have money now and stay lower on the CBT levels.

So how much of that $700MM is interest and how much is that actual salary?

I'm guessing he makes so much from endorsements that he's fine with a smaller salary.

I'd imagine he makes the most of any player endorsement wise

tjack16 said:

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I'm guessing he makes so much from endorsements that he's fine with a smaller salary.

I'd imagine he makes the most of any player endorsement wise

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He makes 40. The next closest makes like 2-4.

Mathguy64 said:

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So how much of that $700MM is interest and how much is that actual salary?

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Aren't you the math guy?

But as far as cash flow to Ohtani, this deal at a 6.5% rate is equivalent to a 10/382.5 deal. Assuming a 5% rate and it's closer to a 10/437.5 deal. Not perfect because I don't have time to model weekly or monthly payments over that time, but the delay in salary is substantial.

New idea.

Give Tucker 10 years 500, but defer 450 of it

Dodgers are probably going to get Yamamoto now.

Buck Compton said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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So how much of that $700MM is interest and how much is that actual salary?

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Aren't you the math guy?

But as far as cash flow to Ohtani, this deal at a 6.5% rate is equivalent to a 10/382.5 deal. Assuming a 5% rate and it's closer to a 10/437.5 deal. Not perfect because I don't have time to model weekly or monthly payments over that time, but the delay in salary is substantial.

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If he's taking 5% in today's world he's an idiot. Hell the Dodgers might actually come out ahead. You can get 4+ in CDs.