The farm is hard to judge. We've been very good at targeting undervalued guys with a particular skill set or type and developed the hell out of them. Most agree were down, but then again most agreed back in 2020 we were down too. Since then we've called up Javier, McCormick, Meyers, Pena, Brown, Diaz, Garcia, & France.texasaggie2015 said:The farm system is nowhere close to what it's been in the past unfortunately. 2025 or 2026 (depending on how 2024 plays out) will be the years the soft rebuild will start. I've been told this is what the plan is. If you read up on the backgrounds of some of the recent front office hires (a lot of scouting experience) they want to reload the farm system as fast as possible.agproducer said:
I agree with you. The writer raises some important questions -- but it's not all doom and gloom.
The fact is: the Astros will have to get younger and rely on younger players to fill in the gaps.
They've shown they have been able to do it in the past, and there is nothing to indicate they won't do it in the future.
I'm not saying the farm system has no talent. There's some guys who very well could turn out to be excellent big league players, but the majority of prospects in the system project to be average big leaguers at best. Which is fine... but not ideal when your farm system lacks star power.
That's why Dana Brown drafted the way he did. Brice Matthews and most of the other first few picks have tremendously high ceilings but also very low floors. Most will ultimately not pan out. But if you hit on one or two.. you're in business.
The next couple years are going to be really interesting.
I do not doubt what you're saying though. What would a soft reset even look like? If we're not willing to trade away a valuable asset (they haven't yet) and you're still going to spend decent money (Crane's money machine goes brrr) - will things look any different?