Altuve's track to 3K hits has really slowed down. Batting .188 last 23 games. Will he get to the milestone before his current contract is up?
***** Official Houston Astros 2026 Season Thread *****
546,450 Views |
9094 Replies |
Last: 13 sec ago by htxag09
MaxPower said:
The interesting thing to me is why Crane is so adverse to long term deals with batters of over 5 years but is perfectly fine throwing bags at the most injury prone position. By interesting I mean…..nonsensical
They did deals with Bregman, Gurriel, Brantley, Altuve, and Alvarez. Some were shorter because they were older. I generally think it's harder to get a position player to agree.
No and the odds of him making it on this deal were always extremely small.
Wabs said:
Altuve's track to 3K hits has really slowed down. Batting .188 last 23 games. Will he get to the milestone before his current contract is up?
The combination of the COVID season and his injury in 2023 at the WBC are probably going to keep him getting there. He also was terrible in the COVID year (.219 average, .629 OPS).
He lost 114 games to COVID and 72 more to his pre-season injury in 2023. He's averaging 1.2 hits per game for his career. if you have him an average of 1 hit per game for the 186 he missed in those two years, he'd be sitting at 2,606 right now and be on pace to get there, assuming he stayed healthy, near the end of the 2028 season.
It would be interesting to see what kind of teardown Luhnow would do now to this team.
Only a handful of his guys are still here.
Only a handful of his guys are still here.
My point was moreso that the risk of giving a pitcher 5 years and a hitter 5 years are not the same. If you are willing to give LMC 5 then there's no reason not to go 7 or 8 for a hitter. We seem to work backwards. The players willing to work with those parameters are generally pitchers and old guys, so they aren't solving the risk problem they think they are.Farmer1906 said:MaxPower said:
The interesting thing to me is why Crane is so adverse to long term deals with batters of over 5 years but is perfectly fine throwing bags at the most injury prone position. By interesting I mean…..nonsensical
They did deals with Bregman, Gurriel, Brantley, Altuve, and Alvarez. Some were shorter because they were older. I generally think it's harder to get a position player to agree.
I am more interested in what kind of front office staff Luhnow would put together now.
The big issues has been a twofold degradation of the front office:
- Losing gifted people as they took promotions in organizations
- Failure to keep innovating. Like Moneyball, analytics aren't a secret cheat code - it is constantly identifying inefficiencies in the game before others do and exploiting it at more efficient cost.
If you are the Dodgers (like the Yankees during their dynasty), you don't always have to do that - you just keep replenishing your roster with more established All-Stars at top dollar.
But if you are not the richest team, you have to outsmart the richest teams but gaming the system better.
We used to do that. We no longer do.
The big issues has been a twofold degradation of the front office:
- Losing gifted people as they took promotions in organizations
- Failure to keep innovating. Like Moneyball, analytics aren't a secret cheat code - it is constantly identifying inefficiencies in the game before others do and exploiting it at more efficient cost.
If you are the Dodgers (like the Yankees during their dynasty), you don't always have to do that - you just keep replenishing your roster with more established All-Stars at top dollar.
But if you are not the richest team, you have to outsmart the richest teams but gaming the system better.
We used to do that. We no longer do.
Crane should swallow pride and beg Luhnow to come home
Im looking for Ray Finkle.... and a clean pair of shorts. Im just a very big Finkle fan. This is my Graceland, sir.
.agproducer said:
It would be interesting to see what kind of teardown Luhnow would do now to this team.
Only a handful of his guys are still here.
Crane wouldn't have the stomach for what Luhnow would do. It'd be a complete tear down minus Altuve and he'd load up on Comp picks and international pool money as well as prospects. I don't believe that was allowed last time he was GM.
People looking to go back to Luhnow are clinging to the past. Crane's job is to find the next Luhnow, not chase past faded glory, IMO.
I think Luhnow himself would still be up to the job. Will he be able to hire the guys he needs for a staff?
I want to believe that Crane can revert back to his old self, but I fear he's gone full Jerry Jones.
I want to believe that Crane can revert back to his old self, but I fear he's gone full Jerry Jones.
agproducer said:
It would be interesting to see what kind of teardown Luhnow would do now to this team.
Only a handful of his guys are still here.
All of it. Sell everything of value. Start completely over.
Like I said for multiple years, you could have kept this thing going by selling Bregman in 23, and Framber in 24. Hell, both could have been deadline deals in their respective contract years. We weren't winning **** and it was obvious.
Even now, Yordan could replenish our farm alone. Add on some undervalued, high potential high risk pieces from selling guys like Parades, and then add on a great draft with a top 5 pick next year.
Do it now, and this is 2011. Try to hang on, and this is merely 2007 with much more pain to come before the same reality sets in.
linkdude said:
People looking to go back to Luhnow are clinging to the past. Crane's job is to find the next Luhnow, not chase past faded glory, IMO.
It's not a clinging-to-the-past exercise for me. It's a what-if?
I don't think there is a chance Crane would ask Luhnow back or even Luhnow taking the job.
It's just a curiousity thing.
I agree that Crane needs to find the next Luhnow and stop meddling because Dana ain't it.
agproducer said:linkdude said:
People looking to go back to Luhnow are clinging to the past. Crane's job is to find the next Luhnow, not chase past faded glory, IMO.
It's not a clinging-to-the-past exercise for me. It's a what-if?
I don't think there is a chance Crane would ask Luhnow back or even Luhnow taking the job.
It's just a curiousity thing.
I agree that Crane needs to find the next Luhnow and stop meddling because Dana ain't it.
Crane needs to sell the team. He will never allow what needs to be done to get this team back to where it needs to be. There are almost no owners that would allow a gut job to rebuild after getting a team to the top and seeing the team's value significantly raised. Crane would lose equity if he allowed a rebuild. Because of that he's going to keep us in purgatory for the long haul.
Agree. As a Cowboys fan, I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending.
wehnerhigh20 said:
Agree. As a Cowboys fan, I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending.
What ending?
It's a valid question as to whether Crane has the stomach for it. I get the impression his kids aren't as enamored with his "toy" as he is. He isn't ancient but not a spring chicken either so may make sense to get all his ducks lined up financially.
If you could go back to immediately after game 7 of the ALCS and be the GM what would you have done differently even without power of hindsight.
For me personally… I'd start the extension talks with Hunter brown, Pena, Tucker and Framber. Make them tell you no but at least exhaust all resources to try and lock them up for even 2-3 extra years I could. Then I would have tried to extend Bregman or at least get those talks rolling.
For me personally… I'd start the extension talks with Hunter brown, Pena, Tucker and Framber. Make them tell you no but at least exhaust all resources to try and lock them up for even 2-3 extra years I could. Then I would have tried to extend Bregman or at least get those talks rolling.
Ag_07 said:
I don't think it's nearly that easy
Crane and Luhnow have some serious beef and IIRC Luhnow has somewhat been blacklisted in MLB and if I'm not mistaken it wasn't just for the sign stealing stuff. He's very good at what he does but he does it very unconventionally and his approach and methods often rub people the wrong way.
I think that's one reason he went the soccer route.
Bottom line is it ain't happening. I doubt JL ever returns to baseball much less working for Crane or the Astros.
I realize it will likely never happen for the reasons you just stated. I think the biggest issue is that MLB likely has him unofficially blacklisted. If not, somebody would have hired him already.
Luhnow was great, and Click was ok. The Crane/Bagwell/Mr.October/Dana experience hasn't worked and it's time to start over for somebody like Luhnow, or even Click. Crane can has proven he can find those guys, but can he turn control over to them and get out of the way?
I've heard people compare Crane to Jerry Jones, and that comparison makes sense. Had a dynasty because you hired good people and let them do their job, but pushed his way into more direct control over the franchise with largely disappointing results.
tjack16 said:
If you could go back to immediately after game 7 of the ALCS and be the GM what would you have done differently even without power of hindsight.
For me personally… I'd start the extension talks with Hunter brown, Pena, Tucker and Framber. Make them tell you no but at least exhaust all resources to try and lock them up for even 2-3 extra years I could. Then I would have tried to extend Bregman or at least get those talks rolling.
I think you could have gotten Hunter and Framber. I think Pena wouldn't have signed. I think it was already pretty much stated early on Tucker wouldn't sign an extension and not got to FA.
Really, once you start getting rid of top prospects to help you win, it's going to be a difficult downslide unless you are willing and able (more willing) to spend to give yourself time draft new prospects to call up or just not need new prospects really at all.
Where the Astros are in kind of unfortunately where there were almost always going to be at the end of the run.
I still think the Astros can improve over the next 5 years without having to revert to 100-loss seasons.
Wasn't Crane willing to gut the franchise the first time because he needed to pay down debt? Agree with others that he isn't willing to intentionally gut equity just to increase his odds of a World Series in 5 years.
Are we saying on this board to fix the Astros is only binary? Either spend like the Dodgers and Yankees or gut everything and gamble in the 100-loss realm?
It feels the jump to gutting everything and enduring 100-loss seasons is because the organization was successful at doing it once.
Is there really no path that makes this team better over the next 5 years without gutting everything or spending at Dodgers and Yankees levels?
It feels the jump to gutting everything and enduring 100-loss seasons is because the organization was successful at doing it once.
Is there really no path that makes this team better over the next 5 years without gutting everything or spending at Dodgers and Yankees levels?
Imagine the haul we could get for Yordan, HB, Pena, Walker, and Paredes. Surely enough to reinvigorate this club with new, young talent. The problem we have is that there is literally 0 trust in the current GM to do the right deals. His track record is terrible and he should be nowhere near a rebuild.
I want a complete rebuild, but I'd rather wait until we have a new GM in place, even if that means we hold onto everything until the offseason.
I want a complete rebuild, but I'd rather wait until we have a new GM in place, even if that means we hold onto everything until the offseason.
Wabs said:
Imagine the haul we could get for Yordan, HB, Pena, Walker, and Paredes. Surely enough to reinvigorate this club with new, young talent. The problem we have is that there is literally 0 trust in the current GM to do the right deals. His track record is terrible and he should be nowhere near a rebuild.
I want a complete rebuild, but I'd rather wait until we have a new GM in place, even if that means we hold onto everything until the offseason.
This.
Beat40 said:
Are we saying on this board to fix the Astros is only binary? Either spend like the Dodgers and Yankees or gut everything and gamble in the 100-loss realm?
It feels the jump to gutting everything and enduring 100-loss seasons is because the organization was successful at doing it once.
Is there really no path that makes this team better over the next 5 years without gutting everything or spending at Dodgers and Yankees levels?
I think the binary decision set thinking was created by trading away most of our decent prospects chasing pieces to hang on to what we have over the last 3-4 years. Now we don't have the option to just get younger for a couple of years and bring up highly regarded prospects to rebuild, because we traded away nearly all of the prospects that had a plausible MLB future. So the option is to either try to outspend the Dodgers (And the Yankees, Cubs, Boston, Mets, and Toronto) or we have to mortgage our existing pieces for a larger quantity of younger talent. There is not really a middle road open to us right now.
Beat40 said:
It feels the jump to gutting everything and enduring 100-loss seasons is because the organization was successful at doing it once.
Agree here. Otherwise you would see more teams in our tier make a run.
The Rockets just gutted and they're still in the squishy good but not great category.
There's always nuance but my opinion is you prioritize 2028 going forward. If you can be ok between now and then great but that's the priority. It simplifies your thought process because you aren't trying to accomplish so much that is an becomes an unachievable goal.Beat40 said:
Are we saying on this board to fix the Astros is only binary? Either spend like the Dodgers and Yankees or gut everything and gamble in the 100-loss realm?
It feels the jump to gutting everything and enduring 100-loss seasons is because the organization was successful at doing it once.
Is there really no path that makes this team better over the next 5 years without gutting everything or spending at Dodgers and Yankees levels?
That means anyone who is a free agent before then should be dealt. Anyone who is a free agent after 2028 (HB and Yordan) you have to estimate whether you can and will sign them but if you trade Abreu, Paredes, CW, Yainer and Pena then that alone should kick start things enough where it isn't a must do. I'd add Hader to the list of guys you trade because an elite closer is a luxury and he's likely to be washed by 2028 anyway with his injury issues.
Kashchei said:wehnerhigh20 said:
Agree. As a Cowboys fan, I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending.
What ending?
Jerry Jones uses the Sith Eternal cult to continually clone himself and own the Cowboys for the next 10,000 years.
No - fire sale and gutting to 100-loss levels is not the only path to a rebuild. You will need to accept a couple of non-playoff seasons, but you can do that without brown paper bags over the head.
As has already been mentioned, the reasonable path would be to look to 2028 and beyond for new contention. You trade everyone that hits FA between now and then (unless there is a worthwhile path to extension).
You keep Altuve and Yordan. Correa's contract makes him here long term. That is your veteran core.
You trade Pena, Brown, Walker, Paredes, Yainer, Hader, Abreu, etc.
You build around your three vets and young ML guys like Cam Smith, Zach Cole, Brice Matthews, Spencer Arrighetti, etc.
Then you count on your current minor league talent (Neyens, Alcarez, etc.) plus guys acquired in trades to formulate your next wave to relevancy.
That is the St. Louis Cardinals long term model. They are never a top spender but they are never down for prolonged windows either. Take that approach with an owner willing to spend and the front office savvy of the Tampa Bay Rays and you have a long-term product.
As has already been mentioned, the reasonable path would be to look to 2028 and beyond for new contention. You trade everyone that hits FA between now and then (unless there is a worthwhile path to extension).
You keep Altuve and Yordan. Correa's contract makes him here long term. That is your veteran core.
You trade Pena, Brown, Walker, Paredes, Yainer, Hader, Abreu, etc.
You build around your three vets and young ML guys like Cam Smith, Zach Cole, Brice Matthews, Spencer Arrighetti, etc.
Then you count on your current minor league talent (Neyens, Alcarez, etc.) plus guys acquired in trades to formulate your next wave to relevancy.
That is the St. Louis Cardinals long term model. They are never a top spender but they are never down for prolonged windows either. Take that approach with an owner willing to spend and the front office savvy of the Tampa Bay Rays and you have a long-term product.
yes, that is the way
think 2028 and forward
move on from any 2026 or 2027 free agents
think 2028 and forward
move on from any 2026 or 2027 free agents
I should also add that I think we need to target college players with our early picks in the upcoming draft. Guys that can be here and producing by 2028.
I would really look at a guy like Gavin Grahovac with the comp pick at the end of Round 1. Big bat potential along with corner IF/OF versatility in outlook.
I would really look at a guy like Gavin Grahovac with the comp pick at the end of Round 1. Big bat potential along with corner IF/OF versatility in outlook.
Caden or Gavin would be awesome
Are we not at a 100 loss level right now here in 26?
Hell if that's gonna be the product might as well do it while getting something out of it.
Hell if that's gonna be the product might as well do it while getting something out of it.
It is crazy to see mock drafts with neither of those guys in Round 1. I get why the scouts love Hacopian despite his more frustrating than expected season, but it is wild to see him so high up on Round 1 boards and guys like Sorrell and GG left off.
No, I don't see us losing 100 games this year unless we fire sale during the year.
This FEELS that bad because of what we have seen for the last decade.
But this is still nowhere close to 2012-14 bad.
This FEELS that bad because of what we have seen for the last decade.
But this is still nowhere close to 2012-14 bad.
Featured Stories
See All
Scattershooting Aggie Football: Recruiting momentum & more
by Billy Liucci
REGISTER NOW: Preseason Kickoff 2026 with Coach Mike Elko
by Brandon Jones
7:39
2h ago
1.1k
Elite! Again! Singles success sends #4 A&M to Athens
by Luke Evangelist
An early outlook on the Ags based on statistical comparisons
by Olin Buchanan
LIVE: No. 9 Texas A&M at No. 20 Ole Miss (Friday)
by Richard Zane
OdessaAg
So I discovered this week Will Campbell (LSU Oline) is my neighbor
in Billy Liucci's TexAgs Premium
68
@coopercuffe
Graduated from the best University in the world tonight
in Billy Liucci's TexAgs Premium
32
RikkiTikkaTagem
So I discovered this week Will Campbell (LSU Oline) is my neighbor
in Billy Liucci's TexAgs Premium
29