This is usually my least favorite thread of the year, not this year. I don't even care that the 2026 dead body of a season is still warm. I think we're all ready to move on.



I think we all agree this offseason will dramatically move the franchise in a new direction. The real question is: are we heading back toward Astroball, or are we about to become the new Angels?

In

Wishlist
1) New GM that has FULL control (from outside the current org)
2) New manager that is hand selected by #1 (from outside the current org)
3) PITCHING. PITCHING. PITCHING.
4) Get a deal in front of JP asap and if he won't play ball find a trade partner
5) Take out the trash, looking at you Sousa

First in HRs, but way down the list in RBIs. Solo-shot kings.

Dead last in stolen bases with only 50 on the season. Next lowest is Detroit at 58. WTF.

Garbage pitching.

Those are the things to stand out to me.

Let me be the first to say on this thread... Fire Jeff Bagwell

I'll go ahead and post to put this on my watchlist. And I'm taking the season thread off of it permanently.

It's going to be a very long offseason. Sanity and reason may eventually come to the MLBPA and owners but I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

Up until 3 weeks ago I would have said that there needed to be controls to address the money and contract tricks the Dodgers and others have been using/exploiting and that the players would balk at anything like that.

Now I think what we know about the Dodgers and their owner makes it worse. The players will just laugh and say "not our problem. Police yourself". And they wouldn't be wrong. But I can't see the owners and MLB having the guts to call out the LAD for cheating. That's what they did. They cheated and almost assuredly broke financial laws in doing it. But I can't see MLB wanting to be the one to admit and deal with it. They will let the feds handle that for financial fraud.

So the system won't get fixed. Deferred contracts won't get fixed. And the massive spending by owners willing to just ignore spending penalties won't get fixed.

And that means a very very long stoppage and offseason.

Time to right the ship, in it for the long haul.

On the positive side, our worst season in a decade was 81-81 and making the playoffs.

On the flip side, about the only person I would want making critical decisions less than Bagwell and Crane would probably be me.

I have a really bad feeling that our new GM and manger are going to be either 2 people I know really well because they played with Bagwell or two people I've never heard of who are yes men and totally unqualified.

Now on to the Astros offseason.

I'll be shocked if Espada is still in charge when the WS ends. If he is things won't be any better. He's just not a good strategic manager.

This team has some fixes that need to happen.

The OF needs to get addressed. Cam will be in RF and it guess for now Spence gets CF. Time will tell if that actually will work. We definitely need a LF. And a backup OF or 2.

INF is a mess, partly because I expect Pena will be a FA before we play again and he's walking. And Paredes will be a FA. And Walker with his massive baggage will be a FA.

Starting pitching is a mess. The pen is a mess.

This whole roster will be completely different. And we have no GM to lay out a direction and plan.

This is going to be the most important offseason in team history. And second place is 2 laps down.

Needs for the offseason

- if their name isn't Yordan, Altuve, Hader, Pena (see below) or Correa get a good deal for them
- pitching, pitching and more pitching
- try to extend Peña and if you can't, cash in

I did a deep dive last night, and if there is no 2027 season, it doesn't necessarily mean all those guys are free agents. It will depend on what the ultimate agreement is between players and owners and how contracts are worded. A lot of them say that the contract extends "until the end of the 2027 post-season", but what if there is no 2027 post-season? I read a few different things that said depending on who caves the most, during the final negotiations. It's hard to imagine owners paying players when they didn't play the year at all.

It feels gross to say, but I'd be willing to lose a whole season to get a salary cap, a salary floor, and a means to getting rid of these long-term deferred contracts. Basically, I want to destroy the Dodgers.

In. This could be a 2 year thread.

I was going to say if we want to be competitive, we need to dump Walker and sign a true impact outfielder on a high AAV deal. That said, I just took a look at the free agent hitter class, and it's bleak. Not sure what the path forward is to improving the offense.

Maybe the best approach is to go all in on defense like the Brewers and sign 1 or 2 impact starters..

But I'm sure Crane will instead find 3 non impact players to throw 15-20 million at for the next 3 years instead

Put me on record (again) that anyone not named Altuve ought to be available to be moved for the right price. Focus on controllable starting pitching and restocking the farm for a couple years. Pencil in 2030 as the year we start becoming competitive again (and not a .500 division winner competitive).

Dr. Doctor said:

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Much like the mid-90's.

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In the mid to late '00s we were pretty forgettable too. I remember being able to 2 tickets for like $2 with 2 coke products on Tuesdays. For a persistently broke grad student, that was a great way to waste an evening.

That said, I'd prefer the Astros to be good.

Just as a last reference to this year, Altuve hitting the home run (and taking another good hack with the game in the balance) really gave me some hope at him hanging around. The 31 ft/s sprint was also elite for anyone, especially at 36...

Next manager needs to be serious about resting him more during the regular season. Injuries put some rest options/plans on ice this year, but they have to do more to give him the best chance of succeeding.

CFTXAG10 said:

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In

Wishlist
1) New GM that has FULL control (from outside the current org)
2) New manager that is hand selected by #1 (from outside the current org)
3) PITCHING. PITCHING. PITCHING.
4) Get a deal in front of JP asap and if he won't play ball find a trade partner
5) Take out the trash, looking at you Sousa

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I'm on board with this but I think 4 is unrealistic. There's no way Boras lets Pena resign here.

IMHO, every single player except Altuve is on the block. Altuve because we need that veteran presence and he's earned the right to go out as an Astro. I would put Yordan on that "never trading him" list if I had confidence we could build a lineup around him but I don't and so his generational talent with the bat is going to be wasted.

I have zero clue who we could reasonably get but we need to burn it to the ground and start over with prospects and better drafting.Over half of the position players on the 2017 roster were either Astros' draft picks or international signees and developed in the farm system. They need to get back there.