Here's my lengthy breakdown of potential playoff teams that may be a fit (need for the player, sufficient prospects and appropriate payroll situation).

Tucker

#1 Phillies - I've mentioned them before but Crawford and Miller are two key pieces. Doubt you can get Painter and I don't like Abel. Would target Klassen. Just drafted last year but has high end stuff with good early success. Kerkering or Pan would be nice 4th pieces as guys with two high end pitches that can be top tier RP. It might be worthwhile to include Abreu to get both of those relievers to get more control and increase depth in an area of weakness. Really the only issue with this trade is you are getting no one who provides immediate help so if your plan is to keep the team competitive this year then you may need to combine with another trade below that fills RF.

#2 Cubs - Any team is a distant second to the Phillies in terms of fit, need a prospect capital. The Cubs don't have a big need in the corner OF but they do have a very deep farm. Matt Shaw would be interesting at 3B with a similar profile to Bregman. Horton can be a potential ace so that's always appealing. Think to make this work you do Tucker, Bregman and a prospect and get Happ (due $20M each of next two years), Shaw and Horton.

Framber / JV (Everyone needs pitching…except the Phillies)

#1 Orioles - Not a huge need anywhere for this team but they may be in the best division and Framber can help them this year and next without being a huge $ expenditure. Kjerstad makes the most sense for both sides as he's already 25 and has no place to play.

#2 Padres - They have a big need if Musgrove doesn't return to form and love making big trades. Snelling or Lesko and Mazur makes sense.

#3 Reds - Another playoff contender who needs a starter. As Marte can't play in the playoffs, they could have interest in a Framber / Bregman package. Marte would be a great headliner to take over the hot corner. Otherwise, think Lowder is the only other guy who moves the needle enough to pull the trigger for Framber.

#4 Braves - Makes more sense for JV as I don't think they have the horses for Framber. Schwellenbach and Ritchie are the two I'm targeting.

#5 Rays - This may seem an odd move given the Rays typically trade away guys nearing free agency but the Rays need pitching and they may be able to add payroll with the new stadium. They also have a lot of guys coming back from injury so may think they can fade Framber's departure. Maybe the Astros get Springer back to help in 2025 and 2026 (who will cost similar $ to Framber anyway) while also getting someone like Shenton for 1B who is blocked on their team right now.

#6 Dodgers - Rushing has the most appeal, though he wouldn't be a catcher for us so not as valuable. They have a pile of similar interesting arms. JV probably makes more sense here.

#7 Cubs - Their pitching looks ok right now but same guys as mentioned above. Framber a better fit than JV, just not sure they would move either Shaw or Horton for him and I don't like anyone else enough to move for him.

Bregman
#1 Reds - See above

#2 Cubs - Morel has been a butcher at 3B. I could conceivably see them try to resign Bregman if this were to happen. Bregman isn't enough for Shaw or Horton so a package with Tuck may make more sense if that's your target (possibly for both).

#3 Yankees - Surprisingly offense has been a bigger issue that pitching. Cabrera is coming back to reality and nothing about his past suggests he is what he was the first two weeks. If LeMahieu continues to be hurt or ineffective this may be their biggest need. You aren't getting Dominguez for Bregman. Pereira is a legit CF but K's too much. Lombard looks like a legit 3B prospect but is years away. Hampton is their best pitching prospect but he's battling a mysterious elbow issue. You would be trading with a hated rival so think you can only trade with them if it's a guy you really believe in (just Dominguez for me). I've mentioned previously including prospects so maybe Bregman and Baez for Dominguez could work.

#4 Dodgers - They could move Muncy to 2B in this scenario. You maybe also package with JV. If your goal is only to trade Bregman (pending free agent) and JV (old and with a player option) and no one else then the Dodgers are your dance partner.

Noble07 said:

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I couldn't find where to stream it, ended up buying a DVD of it on Amazon for ~$6

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I don't even think about DVDs anymore. I was surprised it wasn't on D+. I thought it was a Disney movie. I'll track it down. Thanks!

The Porkchop Express said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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“It’s tough,” Chas McCormick said. “Things aren’t going our way. But we need to be mentally strong and get through this. It’s going to show us who we really are.”https://t.co/LBm7fR0PLW

— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) April 21, 2024

Bad news dude, y'all have already shown us who you are

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2017-2023 mean nothing compared to 23 games of a 162-game season.

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Because this team and players are exactly like those teams and players. How many remain from 2017, again?

it's nice for Chas to say that...

but the raw math is looking daunting each passing day

for the Astros to finish with 90 wins...

the club has to go 83-56 the rest of the way -- play 27 games over .500

A win total is irrelevant now. Just have to play well enough to get past the end of the regular season.

It's not about win totals per se but 89 is what it took to make the playoffs last year. I think 90 is a reasonable target to safely make the playoffs.

Farmer1906 said:

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W said:

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it's nice for Chas to say that...

but the raw math is looking daunting each passing day

for the Astros to finish with 90 wins...

the club has to go 83-56 the rest of the way -- play 27 games over .500

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Pretty rough but I'm willing to bet we've done that before.

90 might not be needed. Based on how the rest of the division has looked, we might only need 89, 88, or 87.

Then there is the WC. I know the East is stacked but they're going to beat each other up somewhat. Lots of tough NL teams have made it with mid 80s wins.

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Maybe but probably not. Also, nothing would be worse for this franchise than to barely miss the playoffs. With all the guys we have hitting free agency this year and next you really have to be a playoff team to justify the pain that's coming.

Wabs said:

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I knew the golden era was going to end at some point, but man this has been a very steep fall off the cliff. From one game away from 3 straight WS to one of the bottom five teams in MLB. And the interesting thing is we didn't do it the Marlins way by having a fire sale after the season. This is essentially the same roster. Everyone just looks uninterested and despondent. Crazy.

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Getting to game 7 of the Alcs might have been a run. They started stinking in mid August and thru September

All the doom and gloom.

This season has been a **** show. No doubt.

With that being said, Fangraphs still has the Astros:

54.7% chance of making the playoffs (highest in the division)
38.4% chance of winning AL West (highest in the division)
84 wins (tied with Seattle for most wins in division) NYY projected 91, BAL 88.
13.3% chance of going to the World Series.
6.7% chance of winning it.

I'm not giving up on this team yet. If they are still sucking this bad in late June, then we can call it.

I hate the rangers even when we're not playing them head-to-head.

I mean thank God for Blanco, I guess.

Yesterday's game was the new normal for this team, Blanco gives up two runs, some parts of the bullpen including Montero(!) did their job and then one of the elite members of the bullpen coughs up the lead and they lose.

Maybe we get lucky and they split the last six games of this month to finish 10-19 at the end of April.

There's 29 games in May and 25 in June. To get to .500 by the end of June they'll need to go 32-22 in May and June. Of course they'll need to do better if they can't win 3 of the remaining six games this month.

The black hole that is the platoon at 1st base will have to be fixed at some point.

We're gonna be using Montero to close games soon aren't we?

Another troubling development is Javier joining Framber with 'discomfort' and missing a start. This team has entered an early hole even with most of the regular starters turning in good starts.

take the over in Mexico City

So how many games have we truly lost due to the pitching injuries?

Everybody seems to blame that but I can only count 1. That was the Arighetti start in KC.

They are 7-16 so you're not going to see a lot of happy posts. Point taken that it will almost certainly get better. Whether that's better enough, I don't know. Think you need to try anything at 1B as you noted, see where you are end of June and go from there.

The board will self-correct as some bandwagoners jump ship. Then we'll get back to some better in-game discussion and fewer OMG FU EVERYONE posts. It won't be the worst thing.

Will it get better? Yes, I don't see us going 49-113 like we are on track to do.

Will we win 90 games and be back in the playoffs? I mean maybe if they right the ship immediately but I don't see it happening this year.

I think we end up around between 84-87 wins and push for the final wild card spot.

It's feeling like it'll be an East team winning the AL this year.

Three takeaways from the Astros’ offense through 23 games - https://t.co/nNSonYGaQh

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) April 22, 2024

We had two different 8-13 stretches last season. Combine those and you get a 16-26 over the course of 42 games. If we go 9-10 in our next 19 games, guess what our record will be?

We were still a 90-win division champ last season, so we could still be again based on the division standings to date. The pieces are there if we can get guys healthy, get other guys performing closer to their career numbers, and find a solution at first base.

However, what this team has done is eliminate any wiggle room. Like I said, last year, we had two bad stretches of games. We're going to have to right the ship pretty quickly and keep it up throughout the season, as we're using up all of our rough patches now.

What this team really needs to do is win division games at a very high clip to keep those teams' win totals down. That will help us stay in the division race, and then we'll see what happens.

It's not time to etch the tombstone just yet.