Maybe. But Altuve has hit a lot better with Yordan behind him this year.

tjack16 said:

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Maybe. But Altuve has hit a lot better with Yordan behind him this year.

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I agree with that, but I also think Paredes is a better situational hitter than Altuve. So given the choice of hitting him 2nd where his only real chances will be to move Pena over or whoever from 7-8-9 gets on base, or putting him behind 3-4 guys who I expect to get on base, I like hitting him later in the lineup. I also think the pressure of hitting with more guys on base ahead of him gets to Altuve sometimes and he starts swinging at pitches he has no business reaching for when he thinks it is his job to drive guys in instead of getting on base. Altuve's bunting ability also could come in handy with Pena's speed on base ahead of him.

Lineup talk is like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic. Just put the best hitters at the top, which is basically 3 guys (Pena, Yordan and Isaac). Everyone else sucks so who cares

Probably true. But you never know. If stats favor a guy hitting in a certain spot in the order (Walker out of the 4 hole and Altuve at 1/2) then why not do that? Even if it doesn't result in more wins, don't you still need to try?

MaxPower said:

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Lineup talk is like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic. Just put the best hitters at the top, which is basically 3 guys (Pena, Yordan and Isaac). Everyone else sucks so who cares

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Agree. But when you have to put 9 guys on the sheet every day and the other teams consistently pitch around your best hitter of those three, who you stack behind him matters. The difference between Walker, Pena, and Paredes is pretty miniscule at this point. Sad day for the Astros when Altuve's numbers are not significantly better than Diaz.

Quote:

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Sad day for the Astros when Altuve's numbers are not significantly better than Diaz.

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Since Yainer returned to action on June 16:

Diaz - .266/.309/.516, 127 wRC+, 68 PA
Jose - .228/.283/.413, 92 wRC+, 99 PA

Diaz sucks so much, he gave Altuve his no-hit cooties.

Chandler did a live q&a on the deadline today and floated several times the idea of trading Bryan Abreu,as well as other teams possibly being interested in him. If we can get anything for him, I'm sure you could get a line around the ballpark to contribute to his airfare out of town.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Chandler did a live q&a on the deadline today and floated several times the idea of trading Bryan Abreu,as well as other trans possibly being interested in him. If we can get anything for him, I'm sure you could get a line around the ballpark to contribute to his airfare out of town.

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I mean, if that's who we trade him to, he might just quit and pay his own way home.

I swear I'm so sick of Google keyboards autocorrect. I have to go back and fix that every time...I know it would sneak through one of these times.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Chandler did a live q&a on the deadline today and floated several times the idea of trading Bryan Abreu,as well as other trans possibly being interested in him. If we can get anything for him, I'm sure you could get a line around the ballpark to contribute to his airfare out of town.

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They were spot on. There are only two options for a team with a crap farm. We can either take on a bad contract (Giants seem ripe to dump guys) or we have to trade from the big league roster. They floated Blubagh again, which makes perfect sense to me given we have Ullola in AAA and Javier seeming better suited for the bullpen. However, they did at least mention Pena with the thought being if you are going to trade him this winter aka Tucker why not do it now? I'm not sure Crane or Dana have the creative intuitiveness for this type of move. Potential scenario:

Dodgers - You could get Edman backfill with a young starter like River Ryan or Sheehan and prospect

Red Sox / Giants - Trade Peña to the Red Sox for an OF and Jake Bennett then trade for Adames from the Giants with SF eating some of the contract.

I'm pretty sure Abreu has 0 saves and 0 holds since Hader came back.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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I'm pretty sure Abreu has 0 saves and 0 holds since Hader came back.

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And I'm pretty sure you are correct.

The Red Sox/Giants combo is my favorite thing we could do at this deadline

Adames has been horrible at SS. So bad that he should be moved off the position bad. If we're basically giving up on the short term, why even add someone like him? His contract, even if partial being covered by SF is terrible.

Farmer1906 said:

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Adames has been horrible at SS. So bad that he should be moved off the position bad. If we're basically giving up on the short term, why even add someone like him? His contract, even if partial being covered by SF is terrible.

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It's awful this year but was good to very good last year. I just don't believe a guy can fall off a cliff like that without some underlying fixable reason.

As for why, it's all predicated on the idea you want to compete this year. I agree with you I'd just rebuild and take advantage of a sellers market. There are no risk free answers if you are trying to compete this year. The team as is isn't going to cut it and your farm blows. There are no unicorn solutions.

Yep - if you were to move Pena, the smarter move would have been to hold on to someone like Shewmake and live with his production there. Now, you would pretty much have to roll the dice with Delgado (no way Nick Allen's bat can start).

If you want to vomit here's a nice visual reality check

Here's a WAY-TOO-EARLY look at the 2028 Astros

❓Why 2028
◾️1st year w/o SS Peña, INF Paredes, + 1B Walker
◾️Final year for DH Alvarez, SP Brown, CL Hader, 3B Correa, + C Diaz

📒 Key Notes
◾️Must extend Peña, Yordan, + Brown to be competitive 2028 + beyond
◾️Oof, the rotation pic.twitter.com/J8W7zwKgHd

— Astros Josh (@AstrosJosh) July 13, 2026

At that point, if crane allows that to happen he needs to sell the team.

SpaceCityAg05 said:

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Unlike guys like Biggio who wisely started cheating more on their swing to get to power in their twilight years, I think Altuve needs to go full circle. Eaely Altuve was an average/contact hitter who learned in time to sacrifice slightly to get to power.

As he ages, he will still have the uncanny ability to get bat to ball - it is an innate quality he has that I don't see slipping easily. But as he ages, he has to sacrifice too much to get to power.

I think he will be his beat getting back to being a bat to ball facilitator who frustrates pitchers and continues to have the ability to ambush fastballs early in the count before protecting in 2-strike counts.

His approach (not just results as anyone will look better in front of an MVP candidate) looks night and day different when hitting in front of Yordan.

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All of that requires someone in the clubhouse advising him, which we don't have.

txags92 said:

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Beau Holder said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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I've seen multiple people complain about Walker hitting 4th. Who would you rather see there? He has a better avg and OPS than anyone else we have to put there. You wouldn't bat Yordan there.

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It really just reinforces that the real problem is this is just a roster that's exactly as mediocre as its record suggests, not a contender underperforming.

Altuve is too old.
Walker is too streaky.
Peña is too unreliable.
Smith isn't there yet.
Everyone else isn't a starter on a serious major league team.

Pitch around Yordan and all you've got is Paredes being asked to save them repeatedly when he can only do so much. There isn't any lineup magic to be made with these ingredients.

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It is a small sample from last year, but I would try Cam 4th and let him see what he can do with Walker and Paredes hitting behind him. He had an .897 OPS in 62 PAs batting cleanup in 2025.

Maybe something like:

Pena
Altuve
Yordan
Cam
Paredes
Walker
Wade
Mathews
Vasquez

You could switch Altuve and Paredes in that lineup as well.

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Switch Altuve and Pena. Pena is much less likely to hit into a DP with his speed. Switch Paredes and Cam. You want Paredes at the plate if any of the first 3 are on base. You would still have Walker behind Cam.

MaxPower said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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Chandler did a live q&a on the deadline today and floated several times the idea of trading Bryan Abreu,as well as other trans possibly being interested in him. If we can get anything for him, I'm sure you could get a line around the ballpark to contribute to his airfare out of town.

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They were spot on. There are only two options for a team with a crap farm. We can either take on a bad contract (Giants seem ripe to dump guys) or we have to trade from the big league roster. They floated Blubagh again, which makes perfect sense to me given we have Ullola in AAA and Javier seeming better suited for the bullpen. However, they did at least mention Pena with the thought being if you are going to trade him this winter aka Tucker why not do it now? I'm not sure Crane or Dana have the creative intuitiveness for this type of move. Potential scenario:

Dodgers - You could get Edman backfill with a young starter like River Ryan or Sheehan and prospect

Red Sox / Giants - Trade Peña to the Red Sox for an OF and Jake Bennett then trade for Adames from the Giants with SF eating some of the contract.

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Pena and Paredes to Cubs for Bregman and McCormick
Walker, Abreu, Meyers, Whitcomb, Dezenzo, Wade, to Blue Jays for Springer.
Cash to Diamonbacks for Gurriel's brother.
Michael Brantley out of retirement (still a better outfield than we have now).

Next year..

CF Springer
2B Altuve
DH Yordan
3B Bregman
SS Correa
RF Smith
C Diaz
LF Brantley
1B Gurriel

Can get Marisnick, Gattis, and Yuli out of retirement to go with McCormick on the bench

Boom. Fixed our team.

the Astros will get taken to the cleaners by Boras with a Pena extension

have to let him go unfortunately

MaxPower said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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Adames has been horrible at SS. So bad that he should be moved off the position bad. If we're basically giving up on the short term, why even add someone like him? His contract, even if partial being covered by SF is terrible.

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It's awful this year but was good to very good last year. I just don't believe a guy can fall off a cliff like that without some underlying fixable reason.

As for why, it's all predicated on the idea you want to compete this year. I agree with you I'd just rebuild and take advantage of a sellers market. There are no risk free answers if you are trying to compete this year. The team as is isn't going to cut it and your farm blows. There are no unicorn solutions.

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This team can barely complete as it is. Flipping players feels more like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic. We need to add a significant piece or two or three to push this year. If we can't then it's better off to start selling for a quick rebuild (IMO). In my head, we needed to be .500 at the ASB. We fell short. Unless we get super hot for the rest of July, the deadline needs to be a sell off.

Agree with everything you said

I ultimately just don't think this team can be a playoff team (barring insane heaters from like 5-6 guys including starting pitchers) or a collapse by division foes to where 84 wins gets the division.

I say just maximize what you've got with the best lineups and matchups analytics tells you to play. And then see if you can make any cheap moves that make you a bit better at the deadline.

But this offseason should be huge for this club. We need to be seeing extensions for Pena, brown, cam… or trades to get rid of some veterans and getting big hauls for hunter and Pena if you wont extend them.

Just keep Carlos, Yordan and Jose. Anybody else is up for trade

Here's some more info on our 4th rounder. We don't have any real SS in the organization so wouldn't be surprised if he's starting for us at some point.

Mizzou SS Kam Durnin went to the @astros the 4th round. Great swing decisions, plus contact skills, and an elite SS defender. Great pickup https://t.co/srIRlK2Lc2 pic.twitter.com/kLZ1ZdwvFE

— College Baseball Savant (@therealsavant1) July 13, 2026

I'm not saying this guy won't work out. But won't pretty much all college position players drafted early grade out very well statistically? Find me the position player drafted top 5 rounds who is below average analytically across the board.

How many years will it be before the all star game comes back to Houston?

MLB treats their fans like saps. Why put the HR derby on Netflix? Thats stupid.

JYDog90 said:

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MLB treats their fans like saps. Why put the HR derby on Netflix? Thats stupid.

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The whole production is just plain silly.

I'm well aware of what the derby could do to ones swing and im glad Yordan isn't participating..... that being said it would be freaking awesome to see him hit 500 foot mammoth shots in one of these things.

Based on the lack of a press release, I assume Jim and Dana are riding this season completely into the ditch with Joe Espada. So disappointing.

Probably but I was more interested in how he graded out defensively. We have taken a lot of "SS" who have almost no shot of sticking there. This guy will be a SS.

Another interesting pick is Ben Tryon in the 18th. A corner OF / 1B with only 11 HR for Dallas Baptist probably doesn't sound appealing but he was raking in the MLB development league (1.066 OPS) and his advanced hitting metrics were very good across the board (80+ percentile whiff and chase rate with 75th percentile EV90).

Marvin said:

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Based on the lack of a press release, I assume Jim and Dana are riding this season completely into the ditch with Joe Espada. So disappointing.

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Yes it's disappointing. I fully expected to hear today that Joe was fired and Omar was being promoted to manager. I'm thinking that maybe they are deciding on Dana's status after the trade deadline.