Farmer1906 said:

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We better sign everyone.

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Just to give you an idea of what we are up against with signing the HS guys

The Braves signed third round RHP Jensen Hirschkorn to a $3,997,500 deal. Slot value for the 84th overall pick is $973,700. A $3,023,800 over slot deal.https://t.co/z72Id3U3ln

— Carlos Collazo (@CarlosACollazo) July 14, 2026

MaxPower said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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We better sign everyone.

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Just to give you an idea of what we are up against with signing the HS guys

The Braves signed third round RHP Jensen Hirschkorn to a $3,997,500 deal. Slot value for the 84th overall pick is $973,700. A $3,023,800 over slot deal.https://t.co/z72Id3U3ln

— Carlos Collazo (@CarlosACollazo) July 14, 2026

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That is crazy, but I stand by my statement. If we drafted them in the first 10 rounds, we'd better have a plan to sign them all. This is the first season in a long time where we actually had halfway decent picks (quantity and how early they were).

*pounds the table so we can sign high upside picks*

If you're in a position like the Astros and desperately want to keep things going, investing an extra $10M in the draft might give you a chance. A new regime taking over a crappy roster could accelerate the buildup by a huge amount investing in amateurs instead of journeymen.

— Spencer Morris (@ProspectSpencer) July 14, 2026

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Wow I didn't realize how much we sucked last year after the All-Star break. had to look it up.

31-35 down the stretch + 47-51 this year = 78-86. A full year of mediocrity.

Last 66 games of last year: -35 run differential
First 98 games of this year: -48 run differential

Someone call Acme to get the TNT ready to blow this thing up.

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This is where I disagree...there's really no reason to "blow this thing up" as I think the logical fallacy is that you're going as far as your talent will take you; Joe Espada inherited a team which had been to the ALCS (at least) for 7-straight seasons and managed to essentially miss the playoffs his first year (getting swept at home in the Wildcard round is as close to missing as you get) and flat-out missing the playoffs his second year.

He did all of that initially with a roster that still had Bregman and Kyle Tucker.

A team loaded with veterans looked like they were hapless clowns in April of 2024 as soon as Joe took over and they have looked that same way repeatedly for long stretches in the two years since.

It's absolutely infuriating that we're still talking about this f***ing guy....he has NO business still being employed and I'm absolutely shocked that the organization is putting up with it. What has Joe Espada done well since taking over?

He isn't winning, the offense has been bad and wildly inconsistent, the pitching has been trending downward and has also been inconsistent, the mental mistakes on the bases get more-and-more braindead, there are some terrific fundamental fails out in the field, his in-game strategy is laughably erradic and sometimes just stupid and then we're just supposed to believe we lose more service time to the IL than any other organization due to soft tissue injuries just b/c it's "bad luck"???

I guess if it were a competition to see how many unique lineups can be used in a single season (while also doing nothing about players who aren't producing in certain holes and just leaving them there repeatedly) or to see how many times you can give a player a day off after a breakout performance; then s***, Espada is the f***ing man!

This is so infuriating b/c you want so badly to believe that they actually want to win, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to care about watching with Espada's dumb ass in the dugout against Baltimore on Friday. They went on a run and then went 5-7 into the break, losing 3 of 4 series; there's just no excuse for him to be with this organization any longer.

College has NIL money that beats Minor League money a lot of times.

The 2nd half of 2026 will be a mirror image or worse than the 1st half.

If there was going to be a change at the head coaching position in 2026, it would have already happened. Buckle up, it's going to be ugly the 2nd half of 2026.

linkdude said:

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*pounds the table so we can sign high upside picks*

If you're in a position like the Astros and desperately want to keep things going, investing an extra $10M in the draft might give you a chance. A new regime taking over a crappy roster could accelerate the buildup by a huge amount investing in amateurs instead of journeymen.

— Spencer Morris (@ProspectSpencer) July 14, 2026

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This is a no-go for most of the owners. Think about it. It turns the draft into free agency… so now the Dodgers can stockpile minor league talent, too and not even have it hit their luxury tax.

I've been an Astros fan since they started off as the Colt 45's. I can't even watch the product they're putting on the field (blacked out in San Antonio) and don't really care to. I do keep up with Yordan on Bleacher Report.

Hornbeck said:

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I can't imagine that Jim Crane would keep a VP at Crane Worldwide Logistics that was performing as badly as Dana or Joe.

Just an observation.

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Depends on the company. Some places, being VP or higher gives you license to suck thanks to the massive golden parachute.

Agree on the first 10 rounds but we took a HS guy in rounds 13 and 15. That's where I think we will be happy if we can sign one

linkdude said:

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*pounds the table so we can sign high upside picks*

If you're in a position like the Astros and desperately want to keep things going, investing an extra $10M in the draft might give you a chance. A new regime taking over a crappy roster could accelerate the buildup by a huge amount investing in amateurs instead of journeymen.

— Spencer Morris (@ProspectSpencer) July 14, 2026

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This idea is horrible. It gives the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets an even bigger advantage than now.

Hornbeck said:

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I can't imagine that Jim Crane would keep a VP at Crane Worldwide Logistics that was performing as badly as Dana or Joe.

Just an observation.

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Crane should do a promo video like Prestige Worldwide.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Hornbeck said:

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I can't imagine that Jim Crane would keep a VP at Crane Worldwide Logistics that was performing as badly as Dana or Joe.

Just an observation.

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Crane should do a promo video like Prestige Worldwide.

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Perfect analogy of Dana and Joe.....

I'm not defending Espada's performance, as I do think he has some questionable choices, but I not certain that getting rid of him changes the team all that much...

If you go off of sabermetrics, this team is actually performing slightly better than expected if you believe the Pythagorean W/L. If the team is doing better or worse than the numbers suggest, who gets the blame or credit?

If you go off the eyeball test, this outfield should tell you everything you need to know. Cam is the only outfielder that has an argument to be a starter on a competitive team. Hard to win when the 3 outfield hitters are an average MLB player and 2 rotating replacement players. The pitching rotation has Peter Lambert as the ace. Brown has been injured and Spencer is reverting to the mean.

The reality is the team has some huge gaps. Infield is solid when healthy, outfield is a black hole, starting pitching is 1 reliable pitcher, and injured HB, and 3 wildcards. Relief pitching is solid.

Hard to win with a roster that has these gaps. The team has lost too much talent that hasn't been replaced--From the starting rotation, Framber, JV, and Javier hasn't return to his previous form. Tucker, Brantley, Bregman, Gurriel in the field.

MaxPower said:

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Agree on the first 10 rounds but we took a HS guy in rounds 13 and 15. That's where I think we will be happy if we can sign one

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Gotcha. I was assuming you were talking about Johnson and Peterson only.

If I'm understanding correctly, we can offer 150k then dip into the bonus pool money from the first 10 rounds. Based on the guys we took early, we should be able to go under slot on several.

Let's see if Dana can cook here.

superaggie73 said:

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linkdude said:

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*pounds the table so we can sign high upside picks*

If you're in a position like the Astros and desperately want to keep things going, investing an extra $10M in the draft might give you a chance. A new regime taking over a crappy roster could accelerate the buildup by a huge amount investing in amateurs instead of journeymen.

— Spencer Morris (@ProspectSpencer) July 14, 2026

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This idea is horrible. It gives the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets an even bigger advantage than now.

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100% agree. You can't allow this, even if we tried to take advantage of it. Others would outdo us.

Dana's "big" deadline acquisition?

Source: #Royals OF Rudy Martin, Jr. will be triggering his upward mobility clause tomorrow, allowing 29 other teams to add him to their 40-man roster.

Between AA and AAA this season, he has 33 SB and 127 wRC+ in 64 games. pic.twitter.com/Z7YGvwFO61

— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) July 14, 2026

MLB Playoff Odds pic.twitter.com/ipW9x54SQC

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) July 14, 2026

Jim and Dana:

RIP Mrs McNair

For those without an account, the most interesting tidbit was a question about how other front offices view the Astros. Rome said:

"…..An assortment of scouts, agents and rival front-office executives I have canvassed all of whom have been granted anonymity for their candor are almost unanimous in their thought that it would behoove the Astros to consider trading some of their controllable major-league talent, be it Peña, Hader, Paredes or Walker.

All of them are also aware that Brown is in the final year of his contract and he works for one of the sport's most demanding owners."

Which organization does this remind you of? Sounds a lot closer to the 2015-2024 Angels than the 2015-2024 Astros…..

Astros trade deadline mailbag: Which major leaguers are expendable? -https://t.co/9A5DjhnX7z

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 14, 2026

It really strikes me that Crane doesn't 100% understand how he wound up with a 7 year run that is fairly unique in MLB history. He seems to think he can just keep giving up prospects to stay in that space indefinitely. He had the benefit of a team built by what was probably the best analytics group in MLB history up to that point working under Luhnow and now we have let nearly all of those guys leave and go elsewhere, same with much of the best talent that propelled the run.

At some point he is going to have to realize that the prospect capital has been expended and it is time to restock. We can't just keep letting prime MLB talent walk out the door for a single draft pick, especially if we lose two draft picks if we sign another FA with a QO to replace them. We have to start getting more for guys like Brown, Pena, etc. before they leave if we are not going to resign them.

I will caveat this post with the disclaimer that I am not advocating for this trade. There has just been a lot of talk that teams may need to exchange big leaguers because so many teams are competing so I was trying to come up with a viable scenario this is what I got with the Twins.

Why the Astros do it: Jeffers is clearly an upgrade on Yainer. The offense is light years ahead and defensively he's less crappy. Roden is a guy I've really liked for awhile who hasn't stuck yet in the bigs but has always hit in the minors and is good defensively. Could he be a AAAA guy? Maybe but he does at least have a low k, high walk profile that fits what we want much better than Joey or Trammel. I would also put Jeffers at the top of my free agent target list this offseason so this gives you a leg up (or an opportunity to extend in season). Losing Pecko hurts but at least it isn't one of your top prospects.

Why Twins do it: Jeffers is a free agent and, while they'd like to get something, they are in the thick of it. Their bullpen depth is also poor. In this scenario they get a solid stop gap catcher, bullpen help and a decent prospect arm.

I just don't see how that trade makes us better for the future honestly. I'd rather get an outfielder with more upside. Seems like he's just a copy of what we've got with Joey, Cole, Trammell

It doesn't. Any trade we make aimed at increasing our playoff chances this year will make us worse long-term. Theoretically that's how any trade works. I'd much prefer we were more focused on the future than this year but Jim and Dana just aren't going to do that. I'm more interested in just minimizing the future damage from their idiocracy.

I just don't think we should be trading our mediocre MLB guys for slightly less mediocre MLB guys and giving up more players than we get back. We need to be selling guys that are getting to the end of their team control and that we are unlikely to re-sign (Boras clients, etc.) and getting back multiple guys with longer team control and high upside potential, even if they are not MLB quality yet.

I wouldn't call Jeffers mediocre. He has 2 WAR in 40 games

Jordan first hit in the ASG!

rausr said:

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Jordan first hit in the ASG!

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Jordan first run in the ASG!

The "Cuban Missile Crisis" does his part.

Having the players mic'd up is making this almost unwatchable with the terrible background audio

Broken finger?

Great now people really gonna start opting out. Brice will be starting CF next year in ASG

WACHA WACHA WACHA

I'm rather enjoying the guy's that are mic'd up. It has to be distracting for the players tho. Kibitzing with Schwarber during his AB maybe is taking it a little far.