***Official Houston Astros 2023-24 Offseason Thread*** [Staff Warning - OP]

985,111 Views | 11245 Replies | Last: 8 mo ago by Lonestar_Ag09
Mathguy64
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EastCoastAgNc said:


The White Sox are so bad that maldy is batting 7th.
8th. But who's counting?
EastCoastAgNc
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bearkatag15 said:

EastCoastAgNc said:


The White Sox are so bad that maldy is batting 7th.
He's batting 8th though

It's Friday, counting is hard. I'm a dumbass
Beat40
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AggieJ2002 said:

Beat40 said:

I didn't have the Diamondbacks on my bingo card as the first to do this. Let's go. Astros need to get this done.




Padres had it last year and again this year. Fallout of RSNs going down


Thanks! I'd be curious the data from the Padres and Rockies from last season.
EastCoastAgNc
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texasaggie2015
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EastCoastAgNc
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texasaggie2015 said:


Soon to be the first Olympic cyclist to break the bike over his leg after a race.
BCEDAg
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Farmer1906 said:

BCEDAg said:

Robbie Grossman is still available. Would the Astros have interest in signing him as bench depth?
No, because we have plenty of outfielders who crush lefties in Chas, Jake, & Doobie. If we add anything, I think it needs to be an OFer who can hit RHP well. We may roll the dice with someone like Melton or Loperfido since they're LHH.


Thought Grossman hit left handed
Farmer1906
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BCEDAg said:

Farmer1906 said:

BCEDAg said:

Robbie Grossman is still available. Would the Astros have interest in signing him as bench depth?
No, because we have plenty of outfielders who crush lefties in Chas, Jake, & Doobie. If we add anything, I think it needs to be an OFer who can hit RHP well. We may roll the dice with someone like Melton or Loperfido since they're LHH.


Thought Grossman hit left handed


He's a Switch Hitter, but hits LHP much better.
iamtheglove
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CFTXAG10 said:

So its through MLB, but the blackout restrictions are lifted. Please get in on this Astros.

Edit to add: "MLB is able to lift the blackout for D-backs games previously distributed on Bally Sports Arizona." I am guessing this is what gives MLB the ability to do it. No contract restrictions.


This is because Bally defaulted on their rights deal with Arizona last year. The 2023 MLB solution to offer free streaming didn't replace the rights fee the DBacks lost. They were paid 80% of it from an MLB "rainy day fund". MLB is trying to find a solution for all the Bally's rights that may be defaulted on due to bankruptcy proceedings as soon as this season. This offer is an attempt to generate some revenue for dbacks (and probably padres) as the rainy day fund may not be available in 2024. Any team willfully doing this is only because they have lost traditional tv distribution. It will not come close to refilling their rights fees lost.
iamtheglove
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Mathguy64 said:

So maybe I'm dense. Ok it's not maybe. I know I am.

Someone help the old guy here.

Out of market this new Dbacks stream won't work. You use MLB TV if you live out of market and want to watch the Dbacks.

In market they have a new streaming service. But the definition of in market means you already have an in market solution. Right? So this stream is an option in place of what you already have.

I'm trying to imagine it here. I have DTV so I get all Astros games. I'm in market. Why would I want to pay for another version of that?


Bally walked away from the Dbacks rights mid season 2023. MLB stepped in to get games produced and distributed but didn't generate revenue (games free to watch on mlb app). They can't do that again so this is an attempt to generate revenue without having an RSN outlet
iamtheglove
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CFTXAG10 said:

I imagine that when the Astros and Rockets teamed together to acquire ATTSN from Warner Brothers and re-brand to SCHN they inherited the same contracts with the DirecTV, Fubo, XFinity, etc. of the world that doesn't allow them to offer a la carte. Just me speculating.


This is correct. And to Farmers point, even with cable and satellite at 55% of peak subscribers some se (circa 2012) it still delivers more revenue than an alaccarte subscription
iamtheglove
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One of the dilemmas for mlb is that 50+ demo is by far the highest viewership. Younger demos only show up when a team is playing well and leave when they aren't. As logical as it is to cater to younger demos it would be a money losing proposition
Beat40
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iamtheglove said:

One of the dilemmas for mlb is that 50+ demo is by far the highest viewership. Younger demos only show up when a team is playing well and leave when they aren't. As logical as it is to cater to younger demos it would be a money losing proposition
The TV situation a large part of the reason they are in the predicament they are in. The blackouts are bad. They are so tied into RSNs that they can't take advantage of the fact the younger generation is consuming TV, including sports, via streaming. There are 2,430 games per regular season and maybe 50-60 games are nationally televised. That's with no NFL, NBA, college football, or college basketball on in the dead of summer.

Manfred has said they literally view baseball as a regional only sport. Owners feel similarly. They continue to feel this way in an age where you can follow a team from anywhere in the world.

They do the absolute bare minimum to get eyeballs on the game. They tinker with the rules to try to get the younger generation in and then fail to put the game in front of their eyes on the screen.

MLB needs a commissioner that is a visionary and can convince the owners to be more forward thinking. Honestly, they probably need some younger owners too. Most of these owners have taken risks for themselves and their business for future success. Do they believe in baseball or not? If they do, they are going to have to take some risk to invest in the younger generation now for the future of their sport. If they don't, and stick to what they are currently doing, their sport will literally die off.
Mr.Bond
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EastCoastAgNc said:

texasaggie2015 said:


Soon to be the first Olympic cyclist to break the bike over his leg after a race.



Zero chance his helmet stays on
Im looking for Ray Finkle.... and a clean pair of shorts. Im just a very big Finkle fan. This is my Graceland, sir.


MAGA

EastCoastAgNc
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Mr.Bond said:

EastCoastAgNc said:

texasaggie2015 said:


Soon to be the first Olympic cyclist to break the bike over his leg after a race.



Zero chance his helmet stays on

At the final turn on the course, he will go left while everyone else follows the course right, leaving spectators reacting like...
07ag
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for many years at my house, the ONLY option to watch the Astros was to buy a xfinity bundle for $200/month. no fubo,yttv. no competitors for xfinity. $200 bundle, or pirate the games

fubo and youtubetv are steps in the right direction, but if mlb offered an affordable accessible option i'd bet younger viewership would increase, regardless of how the team is doing
https://ts.la/eric59704
bearkatag15
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07ag said:

for many years at my house, the ONLY option to watch the Astros was to buy a xfinity bundle for $200/month. no fubo,yttv. no competitors for xfinity. $200 bundle, or pirate the games

fubo and youtubetv are steps in the right direction, but if mlb offered an affordable accessible option i'd bet younger viewership would increase, regardless of how the team is doing


The problem with fubo or YTTV is that the cost of internet by itself plus those services is pretty much the same price as the $200 xfinity bundle give or take $20-$30. It's no longer the savings they started out being.
EastCoastAgNc
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There is Astros baseball today
Twisted Helix
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"Eleven of the games will be broadcast from Palm Beach Feb. 24 against Washington, Feb. 25 against St. Louis, Feb. 27 against Washington, March 5 against Miami, March 6 against the New York Mets, March 9 against Washington, March 11 against Detroit, March 15 against Philadelphia, March 18 against Washington, March 22 against Washington and March 24 against St. Louis."
EastCoastAgNc
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Twisted Helix said:

"Eleven of the games will be broadcast from Palm Beach Feb. 24 against Washington, Feb. 25 against St. Louis, Feb. 27 against Washington, March 5 against Miami, March 6 against the New York Mets, March 9 against Washington, March 11 against Detroit, March 15 against Philadelphia, March 18 against Washington, March 22 against Washington and March 24 against St. Louis."

And those are just the games that SCHN is broadcasting. Usually you can catch more if you can stand the opposing teams announcers
Deluxe
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EastCoastAgNc said:


Those two are the key to our playoff success. We have a few recipes to succeed in the regular season and win the division. But it's hard to imagine a World Series winning recipe without those two being right.

It still bums me out that after everything that went wrong last year (injuries, mismanagement, bad breaks, etc) we were still one game away from advancing to a World Series that we likely would have won. Framber and Javier went 1-3 in that ALCS against the Rangers. All we needed was 2-2. Oh well.

Been super busy with my new job so I haven't posted much in a while. Hope everyone is doing well.

Since I've got a few minutes on a Saturday morning, I wanted to share a feeling I've had lately: That our buildup to this year feels similar to the build-up to the 2019 season.

After winning the title in 2017, we had a nice 2018 season all things considered. Mostly spearheaded by an insane starting pitching staff. But by the end of the year we were running on fumes (especially on offense). We went down in flames against a team of destiny in the ALCS.

That offseason wasn't great for us. We lost Keuchel, Chuck, LMJ had his TJ. Didn't do much to replace them in free agency... although we did boost the lineup a little with Uncle Mike.

Going into the 2019 season, everyone expected us to be good and likely win the division, but some of the "Stros luster" from 2017 had been lost. I don't think many (including myself) expected us to storm out of the gate, have the division basically put away by June and win 107 games.

My point: Given how the 2018 season ended and how the 18-19 offseason went, people forgot how effing good the Astros were heading into 2019. We went into that year on a mission and killed everyone.

I feel like the same type of storm might be brewing this year.

Our repeat campaign in 2023 was underwhelming. We still came really close despite a number of obstacles. It's easy to forget how much separation there was between us and the rest of the AL in 2022.

We're expected to win the division this year and do well, but after a full offseason of getting healthy and motivated by the taste of losing in the ALCS, I think we might remind everyone early this year that the AL goes through Houston.
Pahdz
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I'm here for it
DeProfundis
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How do we watch the ST games?
Twisted Helix
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Space City HN, it's the old AT&T Sports. 674 on dtv where I am.
DeProfundis
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Twisted Helix said:

Space City HN, it's the old AT&T Sports. 674 on dtv where I am.


Does it stream to Fubo?
OKCAg2002
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Yes
CFTXAG10
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We will see how it goes but I just canceled all of my services with Xfinity and put them all in the ribs name for new customer pricing. Looks like it'll be about $160 bucks a month after taxes and fees. Forgot I get a $10 discount for paperless/linked banking. 800/mbps unlimited internet + tv and one box. Not terrible.
DeProfundis
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How sweet it is
tjack16
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My two year contract with xfinity was up… but I got them to lower mine to renew.

$155 for internet and tv combined. So I'm pretty happy with them for the time being.
07ag
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bearkatag15 said:

07ag said:

for many years at my house, the ONLY option to watch the Astros was to buy a xfinity bundle for $200/month. no fubo,yttv. no competitors for xfinity. $200 bundle, or pirate the games

fubo and youtubetv are steps in the right direction, but if mlb offered an affordable accessible option i'd bet younger viewership would increase, regardless of how the team is doing


The problem with fubo or YTTV is that the cost of internet by itself plus those services is pretty much the same price as the $200 xfinity bundle give or take $20-$30. It's no longer the savings they started out being.
agreed 100%
https://ts.la/eric59704
linkdude
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EastCoastAgNc
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htxag09
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tjack16 said:

My two year contract with xfinity was up… but I got them to lower mine to renew.

$155 for internet and tv combined. So I'm pretty happy with them for the time being.

Yeah, confused by the $200+ comments, unless they just have every channel out there. Our promo deal was about $120/month for a year. Now it's similar to yours, $150-$160. Either way, cheaper than doing just internet then doing fubo. Advantage of fubo would be the ability to cancel and add as we want, but I really just don't see us doing that.
Lonestar_Ag09
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Shhhh people want to just complain and cut the cord. And then spend more to have 18 streaming services.

I've had DIRECTV and have for nearly 15 years or more. I have a mid tier package with HBO and pay like $87

That also gives me Max and DIRECTV streaming and espn streaming for most things like Aggie baseball
PrestigeWorldwideAg12
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Between ATT 2G Fiber internet and my Directv Stream, I'm at like $225 or something a month.

We like the channels we get for us and the kids plus I get Astros and the Stars. Win win for us.
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