texasaggie2015 said:

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I will say.. it's interesting that out of the folks I talk to that are close to the organization, nobody has expressed any concern whatsoever about Framber. Now obviously they don't tell me everything. But they seem to think last year was just a rough patch and that he'll get back on track just fine. I know he had a nagging injury of some sort.

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It seemed fairly clear there was something bothering him in the second half of the season last year. He was nails in the first half.

I seem to recall something about arm fatigue? That might have just been an Astros Org vague term for not wanting to say exactly what it was. Either way, I will also echo the sentiment that I'm not worried about Framber this year if he's healthy.

3yrs 42M for soler to the giants - seems reasonable. He strikes out a ton though

Beat40 said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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I will say.. it's interesting that out of the folks I talk to that are close to the organization, nobody has expressed any concern whatsoever about Framber. Now obviously they don't tell me everything. But they seem to think last year was just a rough patch and that he'll get back on track just fine. I know he had a nagging injury of some sort.

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It seemed fairly clear there was something bothering him in the second half of the season last year. He was nails in the first half.

I seem to recall something about arm fatigue? That might have just been an Astros Org vague term for not wanting to say exactly what it was. Either way, I will also echo the sentiment that I'm not worried about Framber this year if he's healthy.

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Seemed odd. He pitched a gazillion quality starts in a row the year prior with no negative effects, right?

Life could always be worse..... I have a daughter and I love women And although men have their fair share of bad announcers, I have yet to come across a female that hasn't made me cringe when talking about sports

Fangraphs is reviewing old Propsects Lists. Back in 2017 we had 8 top guys that were on at least one 100 list.

• Francis Martes (18, 20, 15, 37, 28) - performed poorly, got busted for performance enhancers twice, complete bust
• Kyle Tucker (63, 35, 19, 57, 37) - superstar
• Franklin Prez (101, NR, 54, 66, 84) - WHO?
• Forrest Whilet (101, 84, NR, 78, NR) - still has a shot to make the bigs
• David Paulino (101, 54, 51, NR, 83) - performed poorly, got busted for PEDs, and was included in the Osuna trade
• Ramn Laureano (101, NR, NR, NR, NR) - short but solid career for the As. Another guy that got in trouble for PEDs.
• A.J. Reed (NR, NR, 72, NR, NR) - slugger that never was.
• Derek Fisher (NR, 83, NR, NR, NR) - had one of the greatest Astros postseason moments, but another never was. Apart of the Aaron Sanchez/Biagini trade.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/hows-my-driving/

I am sure we had a highly touted farm system back in 2017, but outside of Tucker, all the best players were unknown. Yordan was ranked 14th, Valdez 30th, and pretty much everyone else that mattered was unranked and not in the system yet.

If given the option to have a bunch of highly thought-of prospects or not, of course, you take them. But I think we've learned these prospect lists and farm rankings are shaky at best.

A dear friend, a true professional & Major League Baseballs first female PxP broadcaster….

Welcome to the Town @jennycavnar I can’t wait to get it goin’ homie! pic.twitter.com/wOZYGsS3Rn

— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) February 13, 2024

As long as the play-by-play announcer shows some passion about the sport, is prepared, can guide a conversation and makes the broadcast not about them, then I don't really care who does it.

There's obviously the looks side of Julia, but a ton of you guys say her knowledge and love of baseball itself adds to the way you feel about her.

I'd absolutely give a female play-by-play announcer a chance for the Astros if she displayed the qualities above. There are a ton of HORRIBLE male play-by-play announcers out there currently.

speaking of Framber...

is he starting opening day or JV?

W said:

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speaking of Framber...

is he starting opening day or JV?

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It's JV and it's not even a question

Wabs said:

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Nevermind.....Farmer found it. 3 Years at 42 sounds like a decent deal for the Giants....

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Last 3 Seasons WAR:

• -0.3
• 0.5
• 1.9

Fangraphs has that as a value of 16.1 M (8.05 M per)

ZIPS Next 3 Seasons WAR:

• 0.9
• 0.6
• 0.2

If we keep the same 8 M per WAR projection, he's worth 13.6 M total.

The Giants are paying for ages 32, 33, and 34 for a guy who doesn't run the bases well, will need to be mainly a DH, and has a not-too-great injury history.

Sure, he hits the absolute piss out of the ball and will probably be valued more than his WAR show, but I think this is a bad deal. When you stack it next to the FA missed as well as the Lee overpay, the Giants are building a roster that is a borderline WC team.

Here in Colorado they're all talking about the dissolving of ATT Sports. Looks like Astros fans are pretty lucky to get another regional sports network.

Project Gemini said:

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Framber's injury was the pitch clock last year

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Can you please explain further what you mean?

1st half he had a 2.51 ERA and 1.054 WHIP
2nd half he had a 4.66 ERA and 1.218 WHIP

To me, if it was a pitch clock issue, I would expect those 1st and 2nd halves to be flipped. Your statement as is doesn't make sense to me, so just trying to understand.

Last year, the starters were gassed by the All Star Break. Thats your Framber issue; not the pitch clock.

So far Framber's issues last year are:

- Pitch clock
- Over pitched in 1st half
- Mental weakness

Anything else we can add here?

agdaddy04 said:

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Here in Colorado they're all talking about the dissolving of ATT Sports. Looks like Astros fans are pretty lucky to get another regional sports network.

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The Astros weren't lucky so much as the owners of the Astros and Rockets, Crane & Fertitta, bought the regional rights back and have their own channel now. They decided this path was better than fighting it in court.

I think every fan wants DTC streaming. I don't think we see that until whatever agreements AT&T had with carriers (DTV, FUBO, etc) expire. Who knows when that will be?

One issue with Soler to the giants is their ballpark. Isn't hit pretty pitcher friendly to left and left center? That takes his value down a lot if so

tjack16 said:

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One issue with Soler to the giants is their ballpark. Isn't hit pretty pitcher friendly to left and left center? That takes his value down a lot if so

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That is true for every hitter that goes there. Soler murders baseballs. >55% of his career HRs are no doubters. For comparison, Alvarez, Tucker, & Bregman are at 43%, 43%, & 33% no doubters. He should be impacted slightly less than the average hitter moving to that ballpark.

I'd agree there needs to be a direct to consumer option. I'm lucky living outside of the market so that I get to watch using mlb platform, but it's wild that they still have blackout rules in existence.

What they were talking about on the radio was losing passive watchers that would just click through and find the Rockies playing. Or the older demographic that might not be familiar with streaming platforms.

I still think we should go get Eddie Rosario for something like 2 years for $16 million. Dude was a series MVP, left hand bat, and seems we could get him back on track. I read he had eye surgery.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Nah. The pitch clock effected Javier a lot more than it did Framber. They have Javier on a really strict diet/conditioning program to get him in better shape.

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WBC also hurt Javier...

I was comparing splits from 2022 to 2023 from Framber and I think I found 3 main issues.

1. He wasn't as effective later in the game.

7-9th Inning:

• 2022: 22.1 IP, .599 OPS, 3.63 ERA
• 2023: 23.0 IP, .809 OPS, 3.52 ERA

3rd & 4th Time Thru the Order

• 2022: 3rd (233 PA), .716 OPS; 4th (37 PA), .556 OPS
• 2023: 3rd (230 PA), .760 OPS; 4th (20 PA), .773 OPS

Pitch 76-100 & 100+

• 2022: 76-100 (180 PA), .699 OPS; 100+ (23 PA), .461 OPS
• 2023: 76-100 (169 PA), .827 OPS; 100+ (11 PA), .773 OPS

I think if Espada, Miller, & Murphy monitor his batted balls, pitch metrics, etc they can pull the plug on him earlier instead of riding him. I know it puts more stress on the bullpen, but you get the best out of Framber & keep him fresher down the line.

2. Damage was done when balls weren't on the ground. We know Framber is a ground ball machine, but he did have the lowest GB% of his career @ 55.3%. For comparison, he was at 60.2% in 2020, 70.4% in 2021, & 67.4% in 2022. Launch Angfle matches, 2023 was the first season his LA wasn't a negative #.

Fly Balls

• 2022: 73 PA, .886 OPS
• 2023: 113 PA, 1.071 OPS

Line Drives

• 2022: 108 PA, 1.369 OPS
• 2023: 129 PA, 1.557 OPS

More fly balls, line drives, and damage done on those. Looking at his pitch mix, location, etc and 22/23 are very similar. The only thing that stands out is that his velo was up across the board on all his pitches. Usually, that is a good thing. Who knows.

3. He couldn't get out of the inning. Damage done with 2 outs spiked significantly.

2 Outs

• 2022: 258 PA, .585 OPS
• 2023: 263 PA, .816 OPS

2 Outs w/ RISP

• 2022: 68 PA, .525 OPS
• 2023: 80 PA, .723 OPS

I don't know if this is mental, an approach thing, the pitch clock, or what.

Farmer1906 said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Here in Colorado they're all talking about the dissolving of ATT Sports. Looks like Astros fans are pretty lucky to get another regional sports network.

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The Astros weren't lucky so much as the owners of the Astros and Rockets, Crane & Fertitta, bought the regional rights back and have their own channel now. They decided this path was better than fighting it in court.

I think every fan wants DTC streaming. I don't think we see that until whatever agreements AT&T had with carriers (DTV, FUBO, etc) expire. Who knows when that will be?

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I think we would see it sooner if the commissioner of MLB was more of a visionary for the league rather than an incremental change type of guy.

By the comments the commissioner has made, I question how much he cares about the league as a whole.

Farmer1906 said:

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2 Outs

• 2022: 258 PA, .585 OPS
• 2023: 263 PA, .816 OPS

2 Outs w/ RISP

• 2022: 68 PA, .525 OPS
• 2023: 80 PA, .723 OPS

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Yikes