txags92 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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Altuve needs to be bottom 1/3 of the lineup until further notice.

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Put him at leadoff. With our 7-8-9, he will never hit another GIDP this season.

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Yeah. Those old legs and batting avg say something different…

Hader closes the door

back to 5 under

need the sweep tomorrow

radio says Jake Marisnick hit into the Astros' previous triple play in 2019

Still didn't watch, we'll see how long this "streak" lasts.

Hornbeck said:

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txags92 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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Altuve needs to be bottom 1/3 of the lineup until further notice.

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Put him at leadoff. With our 7-8-9, he will never hit another GIDP this season.

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Yeah. Those old legs and batting avg say something different…

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He has an OPS of .830 and a wRC+ of 130 hitting leadoff this year. Hitting 5th his OPS is .721 and wRC+ is 98. He is even worse hitting 4th.

4 away from that elusive bingo square

Great, this is all we need. Giving Crane and Brown hope.

we're all just along for the ride so try and enjoy it

Kashchei said:

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Great, this is all we need. Giving Crane and Brown hope.

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In 1990, my brother was going to the University of Arizona, and my mom and I went out to visit him. We went to a Toros game since I was a huge Astros' fan. Darryl Kile pitched a 9-inning no hitter and the Toros loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth with no outs. His spot in the order was up, so they pinch hit for him, and the pinch hitter lined into a triple play.
Kile was now out of the game and the Toros lost the no-hitter and the game in extras.

troubling numbers from Altuve...

he has 14 GiDP's and 1 GiTP

with 53 at-bats with a runner on 1st and less than 2 outs (i.e. the double play is in effect)

so 28% of the time he hits into the GiDP when it's available

last night was the Marlins' 8th loss-in-a-row

they are not very good

Lambert can make it 9 tonight

by the way...where's the businessman's special?

Astros players could have had a full free day in the Windy City

Astros Bingo Update 7-22-2026
Spreadsheet link

Reasons to Smile
2 wins in a row. If we get another today, that's called a winning streak.
Isaac on pace for a respectable 20 HR, 83 RBI season after a terrible start.
Imai: 6-4 with a 5.59 ERA. How is that even possible?

Reason to Smile Bitterly
From Sports Illustrated: The lack of pop in his bat has been alarming. Tucker has posted career full-season worsts in bat speed (71.3), exit velocity (88.8), hard-hit percentage (39%), rollover groundballs (22.4%), barrel rate (5.8%), two-strike hitting (.165) and runners in scoring position (.247).

Reasons to Barf
Joe Espada is still the manager.
It's not fun watching the GOAT struggle.

Bingo note: With Imai's win last night, the Doom & Gloom jackpot is up to $12!

Astros Flashback: July 22, 1986. Nolan Ryan and the Expos' Floyd Youmans both pitch into the 10th in a masterful performance. Nolan throws 9-1/3 innings of 1 hit ball and strikes out 14 before being lifted for Dave Smith after issuing two walks in the top of the 10th. Smith gets the last two batters. Glenn Davis greets Youmans with a leadoff walkoff homer in the bottom of the 10th. Future Hall of Famers Andre Dawson and Tim Raines are a combined 0-for-8 against Ryan with 5 strikeouts.

And now, the newest sensation, sweeping the nation.

Better Know a Poster
Day 61: spotlight: martin2003



Bonus Fact: George RR Martin released the 5th "A Song of Ice and Fire Book", "A Dance with Dragons" on July 12, 2011. This was 8 days before Jose Altuve's major league debut.

Current Bingo Score: 2
Place: Tied for fourth with a ton of other people.
Squares Achieved: Rangers suck, Yordan > 25 HR,
Squares Missed: W Opening Day, 1st place June, Correa > 15 HR, Hunter > 14 W, Hunter > 190K
Predicted Astros record: 90-72, just need to finish the season 41-18 (.695) to get there

Squares that look like future wins:
Framber < 13 wins

Squares that are technically still humanly possible:
Dodgers < 102 wins
Isaac gets traded
Diaz more BB > HR

Squares that haven't aged so well:
Playoffs!
90-94 wins
Imai > 12 wins
Abreu > 30 save/holds

George ain't finishing the books and we will have to live with that putrid TV ending forever

Big Al 1992 said:

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Agree with this.

Everytime there is a clip of Yordan Alvarez hitting a baseball I watch it with the SOUND UP.

The CRACK is just different.

POP! pic.twitter.com/i1YELekdw8

— Will Kunkel (@WillKunkelV) July 21, 2026

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I went to a game in Corpus when he was on his way thru the minors. He hit an oppo bomb out of the stadium. I've been to 1,000's of baseball games at every level and I told my sons that I've never seen or heard anyone hit the ball like that. That is still my opinion. I was at Game 6 when he homered and you could hear the crack in a loud ass stadium.

W said:

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last night was the Marlins' 8th loss-in-a-row

they are not very good

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The Marlins are above .500

They may not be a very a good team but they're better than the Astros.

Anytime you beat a team and win a series against a better team that's good. We're in no spot to discount wins because teams aren't very good. We need them all.

So are we about to squander an incredible sellers market for Pena and Paredes for the hope of a wild card round loss?

EABC_AG said:

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So are we about to squander an incredible sellers market for Pena and Paredes for the hope of a wild card round loss?

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for me, both Pena and Paredes are essentially rentals given next season's uncertainty. There's a limit to the value you can gain in a trade under the current circumstances. Not saying you definitely don't make a move, but it's not gonna be a silver bullet top-50 prospect.

linkdude said:

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EABC_AG said:

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So are we about to squander an incredible sellers market for Pena and Paredes for the hope of a wild card round loss?

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for me, both Pena and Paredes are essentially rentals given next season's uncertainty. There's a limit to the value you can gain in a trade under the current circumstances. Not saying you definitely don't make a move, but it's not gonna be a silver bullet top-50 prospect.

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While I would tend to agree about next year, the experts are saying it's such a small market for RHH this year at the deadline that they could bring back much higher than usual returns.

Buster Olney on the trade deadline and the lack of RH bats:

"The one team that could change that equation dramatically would be the Astros, who have a bunch of interesting players who would shift everything; some rival executives believe Houston could absolutely crush it in this market if they dangled Jeremy Pena, Isaac Paredes and others. Houston went into play Tuesday six games under .500, and according to Fangraphs, the Astros' odds for making the playoffs stand at 16%. But so far, all the rhetoric coming out of Houston is about charging ahead."

Maybe that's true, but you certainly will get a lot less for them in the offseason than you would right now

This post is going to be part plea to Dana and part game theory (which I know nothing about), but here goes. I think we all agree that if you are in Dana's shoes your primarily objective is to find a way to get your contract extended. With that said, let's look at the scenarios he has over the next few weeks, which is effectively the only time he has to do anything to add to his resume:

Scenario A: Stand pat and hope you make the playoffs. This may be forced by Jim to avoid doing anything stupid but is a scenario that almost certainly means Dana is DOA. The best outcome is we snake into the playoff as a garbage .500-ish team and get bounced from the playoffs early, which won't be enough to impress Jim.

Scenario B: Trade prospects for rentals and hope you make a run. I don't know how deep a run is good enough to merit an extension, I'd say at least to the ALCS. Of course you could still just miss the playoffs entirely and have an even crappier farm system, which leads to a host of long-term problems (i.e. does a good GM candidate even want to take over that mess?).

Scenario C: Trade prospects in a rebuild. This would have to be a demand from Jim, one that is highly unlikely, and it's hard to envision a scenario where he would then extend Dana (there won't be enough info to tell if those trades were "good" or "bad" for years potentially).

So it seems like the only option is Scenario B. I'm going to make the case there's a 4th option and that's the one Dana should pursue. Its basically modified Scenario C. You put a monster price on anyone not named Yordan or HB for a prospect. Inevitably someone will bite in this market. However, you specifically target prospects that you can reasonably call up THIS year. Let's look at sky high but plausible scenarios:

Red Sox trade Franklin Arias for Pena
Brewers trade Andrew Fischer for Pareds

Those would be huge prices but value wise aren't so absurd they couldn't happen. Why does Dana do this and how is it different from Scenario C? If you are Dana, you are calling these guys up immediately and praying to God one or both get off to a hot start. The sell to Crane is simple, I just solved your long-term SS or CI problem (or both) and you can see it before your very eyes. You can trust me, I got this. Even if you don't make the playoffs, that may be enough to convince Crane you are a man of vision, shrewdness, and capability. So the game theory math becomes really simple. What scenario is more probable:

Scenario B: You somehow have enough prospects to trade for the right players to make a run to at least the ALCS

OR

Scenario D: You somehow trade Pena or Paredes for a prospect who immediately shows they are an impact big leaguer

To me, its seems pretty clear Scenario D is the more likely option. Beyond that, if you are a recently extended Dana do you want the future Astros 2027 based on Scenario B with an aging roster and no prospects left or Scenario D where you just traded for 1 or 2 good big leaguers with 6 years of control AND you have your entire farm intact? The answer seems clear. Now please Dana, go out and save your job.......

At this point, I'm rooting for no trades, with the hope that means that Brown and Espada both get fired the minute the season is over, and we have a new GM come in who either figures out how to sign Pena long term or trades him in the off-season, assuming there is a 2027 season to come.

Joe tied the legendary terry Collins for career wins last night as an Astros manger. I've almost got those 2 guys being the same person in my head at this point, although Collins would yell at the umps more. Collins was 45 when he became the manager in 1994. Espada was 49 in 2024. Neither one of them ever played in the majors. It was the first job for both of them as an MLB manager.

Collins: 224-197
Espada: 224-202

I mean that's better than trading top prospects for rentals or back of the rotation starters but my only counterpoint is this is a massively be sellers market. The offseason will not be so you are almost certainly passing up a better package if you wait. Also extending Pena has nothing to do with Dana. That's a Jim call and if he hasn't done it yet why would he do it at an even higher price tag this offseason?

Let's trade for Sandy this morning and have him pitch against the Marlins instead of against us. Should be a free win.

W said:

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last night was the Marlins' 8th loss-in-a-row

they are not very good

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To be fair, they are STILL 2 games above .500 after this slide.

EABC_AG said:

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So are we about to squander an incredible sellers market for Pena and Paredes for the hope of a wild card round loss?

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Yup.

MaxPower said:

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I mean that's better than trading top prospects for rentals or back of the rotation starters but my only counterpoint is this is a massively be sellers market. The offseason will not be so you are almost certainly passing up a better package if you wait. Also extending Pena has nothing to do with Dana. That's a Jim call and if he hasn't done it yet why would he do it at an even higher price tag this offseason?

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I agree that it's not a great solution. I don't think there is one. The thing with Dana's replacement / Pena is that if we can't sign Pena, I don't want Dana being the one trading him.

MaxPower said:

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Scenario A: Stand pat and hope you make the playoffs. This may be forced by Jim to avoid doing anything stupid but is a scenario that almost certainly means Dana is DOA. The best outcome is we snake into the playoff as a garbage .500-ish team and get bounced from the playoffs early, which won't be enough to impress Jim.

Scenario B: Trade prospects for rentals and hope you make a run. I don't know how deep a run is good enough to merit an extension, I'd say at least to the ALCS. Of course you could still just miss the playoffs entirely and have an even crappier farm system, which leads to a host of long-term problems (i.e. does a good GM candidate even want to take over that mess?).

Scenario C: Trade prospects in a rebuild. This would have to be a demand from Jim, one that is highly unlikely, and it's hard to envision a scenario where he would then extend Dana (there won't be enough info to tell if those trades were "good" or "bad" for years potentially).

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Scenario B is the worst option to take therefore that's the option they will take.

Wondering if 2015 has any inside information on what the front office is thinking or if they are even planning for the sell case

I would trade Pena and Paredes yesterday.. Neither of them factor into our plans in the future so get everything you can out of them. I'd consider moving Brown as well. You should be able to get quite a haul for those 3 and set up a future run, hopefully. I'd never trade Yordan.

Another exhibit of why I'm glad we did pay Tucker.

From Tom Verducci: Including the luxury tax penalty, the Dodgers are paying $119.7 million this season for Kyle Tucker’s services, more than the Opening Day payrolls of 11 teams. He has accumulated less than 1 WAR amidst the worst season of his career offensively and defensively. pic.twitter.com/EpSAFPLJmS

— Daniel Meyer (@TheAstrosLocker) July 22, 2026

I'll be pissed if we go with scenario B - which is probably what we'll end up doing. We simply do not have enough prospects to fill all the holes we have. We MAY have enough to help us "compete" for a wild card spot, but IMO even that is a long shot. So we'd be wasting what little prospects we have for a very slim chance at getting bounced in the WC round. Not worth it.

TREX01 said:

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I would trade Pena and Paredes yesterday.. Neither of them factor into our plans in the future so get everything you can out of them. I'd consider moving Brown as well. You should be able to get quite a haul for those 3 and set up a future run, hopefully. I'd never trade Yordan.

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THIS and I'd add in HB as well.

The Astros are trading reliever Nate Pearson to the Kansas City Royals, sources tell @TheAthletic

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 22, 2026