txags92 said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

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We can agree to disagree. Too early to start bickering. My opinion is that we made a bunch of cap room and as you said needed a couple of pieces to be truly competitive. If we were going to do that path and not trade Pena or any other players we will be losing soon. We needed to make those moves and spend the money. Not doing anything (other than the laughable Varsho catastrophe) was the worst possible path. Just getting to the playoffs as the worst division winner ever is nothing to crow about and losing in two at home without being competitive was embarrassing.

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I don't think mid season is the time to make major roster moves like that and sell the team out in the middle of a division race.

I still don't think we should be in total rebuild mode, but if you can get a Tucker like trade for some pieces that may not bring back any superstars but make our team collectively better and with more years, why not?

Plenty of time to do that in the offseason.

txags92 said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

---

We can agree to disagree. Too early to start bickering. My opinion is that we made a bunch of cap room and as you said needed a couple of pieces to be truly competitive. If we were going to do that path and not trade Pena or any other players we will be losing soon. We needed to make those moves and spend the money. Not doing anything (other than the laughable Varsho catastrophe) was the worst possible path. Just getting to the playoffs as the worst division winner ever is nothing to crow about and losing in two at home without being competitive was embarrassing.

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It's almost as if the organizational goal this past year was to get under the luxury tax. Oh wait, it was.

Astros Playoff Bingo Update

Mathguy64, spadilly, and JoeAggie1010 all pick up a square for Braves in 3.

We're all disappointed that the people who picked "Espada gets fired the day after the season ends." didn't pick up a square.

2-7 days, you are now on the clock.

I know technically that Espada is currently NOT the manager of the Astros because his contract expired after the season, but clearly at some point an announcement has to be made saying he's coming back or he's not.

Espada's quote after the season was, "Jim has been very clear about his process and when he wants to have that conversation," Espada said. "I respect the process and how blessed I've been of being here for over nine years and experienced so many division titles, championship series, World Series, winning one. As a bench coach, as a manager, I have witnessed so many great moments, so obviously I would like to continue enjoying those moments."

AggiEE said:

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txags92 said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

---

We can agree to disagree. Too early to start bickering. My opinion is that we made a bunch of cap room and as you said needed a couple of pieces to be truly competitive. If we were going to do that path and not trade Pena or any other players we will be losing soon. We needed to make those moves and spend the money. Not doing anything (other than the laughable Varsho catastrophe) was the worst possible path. Just getting to the playoffs as the worst division winner ever is nothing to crow about and losing in two at home without being competitive was embarrassing.

---

I don't think mid season is the time to make major roster moves like that and sell the team out in the middle of a division race.

I still don't think we should be in total rebuild mode, but if you can get a Tucker like trade for some pieces that may not bring back any superstars but make our team collectively better and with more years, why not?

Plenty of time to do that in the offseason.

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I think the problem is setting our sights on a division race. Even the untrained eye could see that this lineup didn't have what it took to really compete for a pennant. Sure, could some angels in the outfield thing happen? Yes, but short of that we absolutely knew there were deep flaws.

It's the job of the front office to see that and make tough decisions. To sacrifice some short term benefit for long term success. Franchises with no history aim to catch lightning in a bottle and eke out a division title and who knows? But I'm proud of our fan base, who for the most part said we're ok with some pain and foregoing hanging a division sign if we can rebuild and return to real glory.

I think the booing was largely a result of fans feeling like ownership had taken us to be suckers who are just happy to be in the playoffs

Wabs said:

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txags92 said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

---

We can agree to disagree. Too early to start bickering. My opinion is that we made a bunch of cap room and as you said needed a couple of pieces to be truly competitive. If we were going to do that path and not trade Pena or any other players we will be losing soon. We needed to make those moves and spend the money. Not doing anything (other than the laughable Varsho catastrophe) was the worst possible path. Just getting to the playoffs as the worst division winner ever is nothing to crow about and losing in two at home without being competitive was embarrassing.

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It's almost as if the organizational goal this past year was to get under the luxury tax. Oh wait, it was.

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Yeah, but we ended up well under it and could have made some moves that spent some of that money to improve. My impression is that Jim and Bagwell thought with the division as bad as it was, we could make the playoffs without major changes and that would be good enough. I am still ticked about the Varsho for Spaghetti trade. We gave up a relatively proven pitcher with multiple years of control for a mediocre OF rental who was already injured when we got him. Varsho didn't give us anything we didn't already have sitting in Sugarland.

The stats are in and Altuve led the lead in projected runs gained via ABS challenges with 5.6, whatever the hell that means.

As a whole, the Astros were exactly middle of the pack at 15th with 0.8 runs lost for the year.
By persective, the Reds were first at 16.8 and the Indians were last at -13.4.

Pallilo is thinking we're in for a Friday news dump re: Espada.

Friday news dump alert.
Late in day Friday is when companies often release news they're not bragging about.
For instance, firing a manager.

— Charlie Pallilo (@Pallilo) October 2, 2026

linkdude said:

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Pallilo is thinking we're in for a Friday news dump re: Espada.

Friday news dump alert.
Late in day Friday is when companies often release news they're not bragging about.
For instance, firing a manager.

— Charlie Pallilo (@Pallilo) October 2, 2026

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Can you really Friday news dump when the next round of the playoffs is opening tomorrow?

linkdude said:

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Pallilo is thinking we're in for a Friday news dump re: Espada.

Friday news dump alert.
Late in day Friday is when companies often release news they're not bragging about.
For instance, firing a manager.

— Charlie Pallilo (@Pallilo) October 2, 2026

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I'm here for it.

His contract is up, or will be very shortly. I see Crane taking the early way out, letting it expire and just hiring someone else. It lets him get off the hook easier.

Unless you want to hire someone and beat another team to the punch fast I just don't see Crane firing someone when their contract is up.

You should do a "parting ways" announcement so you thank him for his time. The guy was a part of a pretty amazing run. But yes, sliding it in there 2 days before Texans and Cowboys is particularly smart. Tomorrow everything will be college-football centric as well.

Maybe Crane will give Joe the option of coming back next year. That seems like what he likes to do.

Your final AL batting stat leaders

Runs: Yordan 3rd (105), Pena 15th (82, despite missing 50 games)
Hits: Yordan 2nd (179)
Average: Yordan 1st (.316)
Doubles: Yordan 4th (34)
Triples: Cam T-2nd (6)
HR: Yordan T-2nd (42); Walker 9th (29); Isaac T-19th (25).
RBI: Yordan 2nd (106); Isaac T-6th (94); Walker T-13th (87)
Total Bases: Yordan 1st (341); Isaac T-15th (251)
Walks: Yordan 1st (109), Isaac 13th (71)
OBP: Yordan 1st (.432 - first by 46 points); Isaac 14th (.360)
SLG: Yordan 1st (.601 - by 67 points); Isaac 16th (.447)
OPS: Yordan 1st (1.033 - by 132 points); Isaac T-13th (.806)
WAR: Yordan 2nd (6.8); Isaac T-20th (3.7), TPena T-20th (3.7)


The exasperation of Jeremy Pena's health continues. He played 112 games. Over 162 games his stats project to:
162 games
646 AB
119 runs scored
179 hits
27 2B
3 3B
32 HR
81 RBI
19 SB

That's a second straight season of healthy Pena would have been the best season by an Astros' shortstop ever.

it's part of the Pena enigma

Milo would say that he got too bulked up

TarponChaser said:

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🚨 THE ASTROS FOOLED THEMSELVES

They weren’t a great team. They were a **FAKE GOOD TEAM** taking advantage of a historically bad AL West.

Instead of buying at the deadline… they should’ve been SELLING. 📉

🤔 Did the Astros completely misjudge their own roster?

👇 YES or NO? pic.twitter.com/hAOrn6X9ia

— Will Kunkel (@WillKunkelV) October 1, 2026

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Ground breaking!

Hey yall it's all good we got JV back for one last ride

🚨 TRADE ALERT 🚨

Astros reportedly acquire RHP Justin Verlander from the Giants, per multiple reports including Fax Sports insider @HollyBaylorMLB.

Verlander will get the start tonight in Cancun 👀 pic.twitter.com/gLAn998ICG

— (Parody) FAX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFAX) October 2, 2026

txags92 said:

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HarryRocket said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

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I agree
Chip and a chair.

We're spoiled in many ways, one of those is good deadline deals. Some work, some don't, but we have tried in the past. This year felt like putting on cargo shorts and trying to get laid.

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The Varsho deal was particularly egregious though. Varsho was reportedly already dealing with the cysts prior to the trade. There are two possibilities. Either Dana knew about the potential injury and still made the trade to give away a quality pitcher with multiple years of control; in which case he should have been fired on the spot. Or he didn't know about the injury and did not do his medical due diligence prior to the trade; in which case he should have been fired on the spot. We WAY overpaid for something we already had in Sugarland.

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You didn't even need to look at Varsho's injury history either.

You just had to look at the back of his baseball card to know he wasn't any better recently than any of our existing options. Yet he made the trade anyways.

I still stand by my statement that we could have traded for a reliver and picked up a better bat than what we did and the team would get significantly better down the stretch and better positioned for the playoffs.

Also, we could have tried using Imai as an effective reliver and used some of the extra cap space available. But no, Crane got his feelings hurt and ego busted on the Imai signing not being what we expected and made the Astros and fans suffer for his bad contract. A punitive punishment that hurt the fans more than Crane will miss the extra $2 million or whatever in bonus money

The reliance on King and Sousa was devastating down the stretch.

Too damn soon, but dumping Espada can't happen fast enough. Of course, I'm not expecting a good GM hire, so what does it matter?

AggiEE said:

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txags92 said:

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HarryRocket said:

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AggiEE said:

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Astros won their division, who cares if it's a weak division. I'd rather have another flag for 2026 than to miss out and never have had chance in the playoffs at all

Our team didn't need that many pieces to fill to be more competitive, but our incompetent owner and GM didn't pursue any

We should have been buyers, instead we went shopping at the dollar store

---

I agree
Chip and a chair.

We're spoiled in many ways, one of those is good deadline deals. Some work, some don't, but we have tried in the past. This year felt like putting on cargo shorts and trying to get laid.

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The Varsho deal was particularly egregious though. Varsho was reportedly already dealing with the cysts prior to the trade. There are two possibilities. Either Dana knew about the potential injury and still made the trade to give away a quality pitcher with multiple years of control; in which case he should have been fired on the spot. Or he didn't know about the injury and did not do his medical due diligence prior to the trade; in which case he should have been fired on the spot. We WAY overpaid for something we already had in Sugarland.

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You didn't even need to look at Varsho's injury history either.

You just had to look at the back of his baseball card to know he wasn't any better recently than any of our existing options. Yet he made the trade anyways.

I still stand by my statement that we could have traded for a reliver and picked up a better bat than what we did and the team would get significantly better down the stretch and better positioned for the playoffs.

Also, we could have tried using Imai as an effective reliver and used some of the extra cap space available. But no, Crane got his feelings hurt and ego busted on the Imai signing not being what we expected and made the Astros and fans suffer for his bad contract. A punitive punishment that hurt the fans more than Crane will miss the extra $2 million or whatever in bonus money

The reliance on King and Sousa was devastating down the stretch.

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Pretty much all of it starts and stops with Crane (and by extension, Bagwell). Until they accept that #s mean more than baseball cards, nothing will really change. And given how Espada used King and Sousa in leverage situations down the stretch, you won't convince me that he didn't know what he was setting up.