Official 2022 Astros season thread

[Jon Stewart]

JV and Max will be a good one two punch.

[rtp]

You can get the 18 wins or even 26 with lesser quality replacements!!



You just have to accept about 16 losses instead of JV’s 4.

You don’t replace 18 wins by a starter, with 2 mediocre starters, that’s not how baseball works.

I don’t believe I would pay JV what he asked for either, but to just shrug off what he was, is ignorant.


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It will be interesting to see how these comments age.

At this point Garcia nor Brown seem mediocre. Garcia already has a lot of post season experience, a 3.57 era in his 63 career games and Brown was dominate after being called up sub1 era and zero runs given up in the post season. The funny thing about him is JV is his idol being a Detroit kid. It’s crazy how his wind up and delivery is almost identical to JV.

It’s baseball so who knows what surprises are in store next year. I for one can’t wait. Outside of the As the entire division has made itself better and none of them are done improving!!


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[Rubi513]

You don’t replace 18 wins by a starter, with 2 mediocre starters, that’s not how baseball works.

I don’t believe I would pay JV what he asked for either, but to just shrug off what he was, is ignorant.


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Agreed.
I am just glad they didn’t spend 185 million on a pitcher that went 5-4 last year.

[TildenHunter]

You don’t replace 18 wins by a starter, with 2 mediocre starters, that’s not how baseball works.

I don’t believe I would pay JV what he asked for either, but to just shrug off what he was, is ignorant.


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I know exactly how baseball works. I probably averaged playing 70 games a year in High school. But not sure what the hell you are talking about. I expect Luis Garcia to be one of our top 5 starters to begin and Hunter Brown to replace him at some point. I am not shrugging off anything. I said he was a major piece of our championship team. He is also about to be 40 and has had injuries. If he would have taken $60MM over 2 years, great. I do think the Astros starters replacing him will total at least 15 games......heck, Luis Garcia did that on his own last year! He was far from a mediocre pitcher. He was 15-8 with a 3.72 ERA. I just expect Hunter Brown to eventually take his or maybe Urquidy's spot in the rotation at some point.

[TildenHunter]

I know nobody likes facts on these threads.....but it appears we have 6 legit starters on the roster without JV (I wouldn't consider any of them mediocre). I hate to lose him but I am not willing to sacrifice our other needs for a 40 year old starting pitcher who has missed 2 of the last 3 seasons with injury.

[rtp]

Twitter in a meltdown over juiced balls being provided to the yanks. Of course FRM is denying it. Evidence say’s otherwise [emoji23].


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[Dale Moser]

do think the Astros starters replacing him will total at least 15 games......heck, Luis Garcia did that on his own last year! He was far from a mediocre pitcher. He was 15-8 with a 3.72 ERA. I just expect Hunter Brown to eventually take his or maybe Urquidy's spot in the rotation at some point.

I'm aware of your credentials. And I understand Garcia is a very good up and comer, but he can't replace any of JV's wins, if he's already in the rotation. He can improve, and all signs indicate that he will, but what he did was combined with what JV did. If he becomes the ace of the staff and wins 18, there are still wins that have to be replaced otherwise. I'm not familiar with Brown, and maybe he will win 16 or so on his own, what I'm saying is that's not a guaranteed deal. I'm not saying they can't do it, but 18 game winners are tough to find, that's all.

Like I said, I don't believe I would have payed JV what he wanted either, but 18 wins from the starting rotation is still a lot to replace.

[TildenHunter]

I understand Garcia is a very good up and comer, but he can't replace any of JV's wins, if he's already in the rotation. He can improve, and all signs indicate that he will, but what he did was combined with what JV did. If he becomes the ace of the staff and wins 18, there are still wins that have to be replaced otherwise. I'm not familiar with Brown, and maybe he will win 16 or so on his own, what I'm saying is that's not a guaranteed deal. I'm not saying they can't do it, but 18 game winners are tough to find, that's all.

Like I said, I don't believe I would have payed JV what he wanted either, but 18 wins from the starting rotation is still a lot to replace.

The kicker is McCuller was the odd man out for most of the year due to injury. If he is back to full strength he should be our 2nd or 3rd starter behind Framber. Hunter Brown is a young stud who will either be a monster out of the bull pen or a solid starter. The more I think about it, Urquidy is likely to be the odd man out. He has been good in the playoffs in the past but not as good as the others in the regular season. Someone is going to get that 5th spot and they all appear to be in line to win double digit games if healthy. I do think the players we pick up with the money spent on JV will also contribute to several wins. I am not saying we can replace him with a starter who can win 18 games but I think we can get 13-15 for minimal money.

[Dale Moser]

I know nobody likes facts on these threads.....but it appears we have 6 legit starters on the roster without JV (I wouldn't consider any of them mediocre). I hate to lose him but I am not willing to sacrifice our other needs for a 40 year old starting pitcher who has missed 2 of the last 3 seasons with injury.

Your red lines constitute 24 wins, that havn't yet been replaced (I may have missed some add ons), that's what I mean.

I don't care for the astros, and I understand yall don't like my view of them, but that's not what this is about.

I'm just talking numbers because I really like this time of year, and the stros are an interesting dynamic, having been so good for quite a few years. I find it interesting the way teams maneuver to maintain/improve/re-invent/etc.

As a Rangers guy, I'm obviously watching what they are trying to do, but I watched the stros when they were dog ****, and how they got to where they are now. It's interesting stuff.

[Dale Moser]

The kicker is McCuller was the odd man out for most of the year due to injury. If he is back to full strength he should be our 2nd or 3rd starter behind Framber. Hunter Brown is a young stud who will either be a monster out of the bull pen or a solid starter. The more I think about it, Urquidy is likely to be the odd man out. He has been good in the playoffs in the past but not as good as the others in the regular season. Someone is going to get that 5th spot and they all appear to be in line to win double digit games if healthy. I do think the players we pick up with the money spent on JV will also contribute to several wins. I am not saying we can replace him with a starter who can win 18 games but I think we can get 13-15 for minimal money.

The devil is in the kickers. Depending on McCullers seems like a shaky propostition, but that's looking from afar. And prospects are just that, until they do it. The good news for you guys, is you could have gotten in with quite a few less wins than last year. lol

I'll admit, it's hard to keep up with everything MLB during the season with my son's ball schedule. So I could absolutely be wron about what's up and coming.

[Tom]

JV had one of the best years ever...on 2 years rest. The Astros paid him $44M in the last 3 years to sit home. I think they just felt that the risk was too high with him about to hit 40.

They will be fine. You will not get another 18 game winner but so what. We got into the WS in 2021 without him and we can do it again and still win 100 games with a 12-13 game winner. But we will see. nothing is a lock.

[TildenHunter]

Your red lines constitute 24 wins, that havn't yet been replaced (I may have missed some add ons), that's what I mean.

I don't care for the astros, and I understand yall don't like my view of them, but that's not what this is about.

I'm just talking numbers because I really like this time of year, and the stros are an interesting dynamic, having been so good for quite a few years. I find it interesting the way teams maneuver to maintain/improve/re-invent/etc.

As a Rangers guy, I'm obviously watching what they are trying to do, but I watched the stros when they were dog ****, and how they got to where they are now. It's interesting stuff.

18+4 is 22 last I checked

I think if McCullers can get 30 starts as opposed to 8 he should be around 15 wins so that is Net +11 wins for him over last years numbers. We should be able to get several more wins from Hunter Brown or others as needed. It might be wishful thinking that he can get 30 starts and win 15 games. I would guess at least double digits though.

[Dale Moser]

18+4 is 22 last I checked

I think if McCullers can get 30 starts as opposed to 8 he should be around 15 wins so that is Net +11 wins for him over last years numbers. We should be able to get several more wins from Hunter Brown or others as needed.

Well your **** red line was in the way!

I would say that is VERY optimistic from McCullers, but I've sure been wrong before. I know everyone down there has always had a higher opinion of him than I have, and I've been wrong before.

[TildenHunter]

Well your **** red line was in the way!

I would say that is VERY optimistic from McCullers, but I've sure been wrong before. I know everyone down there has always had a higher opinion of him than I have, and I've been wrong before.

It might be. His ERA was very good in his 8 starts this year. He is not known for making 30 starts or getting 15 wins in a season. He is only 29 though and might be able to get 25-30 starts and 12-15 wins. That is my hope for him. Now that he is one of the main guys, I am hoping he rises to the occasion! Time will tell.

[Ag 96]

I think that the Stros will have to pivot some, which is a nice way to say that they need to find more consistent offensive production than last year. Losing JV will hurt, no doubt about it, but they potentially have the arms to at least replace a fair number of those wins. Brown only made two starts as a late season call up and McCullers only 8 in his return from injury.

Odorizzi isn’t that big of a loss… maybe a slightly better than league average pitcher who was only in the rotation because McCullers was hurt. He was an all or nothing kind of guy who had frequent meltdowns on the mound that completely took his team out of the game.

Given that the vast majority of those arms (4 of the five and McCullers is locked up) are under team control and that constructing a roster is a zero sum game for most teams, that 43 mill can be spent other places… LF, catcher, and CF (if anybody can find a serviceable CF these days) being the obvious holes remaining. The issue is that a lot of those arms (Garcia and Javier especially) have problems making it into, much less past, the sixth. Gonna be a lot more stress on the BP this year unless they figure out how to get deeper or raise the offensive output a lot. That’s why they’re going after Abreu, Contreras, Benintendi, etc.

That being said… it’s baseball and anything could happen. You can lose three starters to hangnails or Maldonado could hit .290 with 30 bombs (not likely). We are just going to have to wait and see.