Personally I think we trade for relief help and sooner rather than later. The last thing we need in the pen is on the job training.

 

Someone I'd personally love to see us go after is Jose Valverde. Certainly doesn't have the best control, but I wouldn't really say he has control problems, and dude is absolute legit. Been playing in hitters park his entire career, I think he'd be awesome in DS where his HR numbers would go down bigtime.

 

Houston is not going to be competing, their farm system is absolute ass, and Valverde is a FA at the end of the year. And he'll be a Type A FA, so we get two picks back.

 

There's four big things against it though

 

1) Hou doesn't know they suck lol so if they make him available, it probably won't be until July. And I'm with you on our bullpen, need help now. Plus, he'd be the closer. And while it'd be good for us to keep Lindstrom from getting saves so his arbitration doesn't get high, it's also f***ed up for us to tell him "You the man now, dawg" all offseason, than tell him otherwise once the season starts. Especially if we go into July and he's not Gregg-ing it. Not only that, but this is the Astros, they might lock him up long-term instead.

 

2) His cost. Big saves, type A FA at the end, and you know others will be on him. What we do have on our side is plenty of near-MLB ready pieces that are expendable. Gaby Sanchez is expendable with Logan in AA and Cantu in the majors. C.C. is expendable with Emilio. Several of our minor league OF options are expendable with all the options we have. I mean, certainly I'd much rather keep these guys, especially comebody like C.C. But with our depth, it doesn't really hurt us long term. One of those hitters plus an ok arm (i.e. Tim Wood?) and I'd say that's value for Houston with just how horrible their farm system is. I mean, again, these are very good prospects, but with our depth it does not hurt us longterm and it helps us big short term. (Then again, I'm sure the "no harm long term" arguement was made when we traded Adrian Gonzalez, when we had him, Jason Stokes, and another dude I'm blanking on lol)

 

3) his money. 8 mil. The more Hou picks up, the more we have to give them in term of prospects. And while it's possible we could take on 8 mil, that also gives us less money to than lock up JJ, pay arbitration to peeps, ect. If this isn't until July, that's only 4m though, which isn't nearly as bad.

 

4) His Type A status. The arguement of "We'll give up prospects because we can refill our system in the draft" only works if you actually get picks. But 1) Have we EVER offered arbitration to a closer? Urbina: No. Borowski: No. Any idea on Benitez/Jones? And this offseason showed that type A guys aren't just gonna be picked up without thought anymore, look at Juan Cruz last season. Now I don't think this will be a problem with Valverde, but just bringing it up.

Personally I think we trade for relief help and sooner rather than later. The last thing we need in the pen is on the job training.

 

Someone I'd personally love to see us go after is Jose Valverde. Certainly doesn't have the best control, but I wouldn't really say he has control problems, and dude is absolute legit. Been playing in hitters park his entire career, I think he'd be awesome in DS where his HR numbers would go down bigtime.

 

Houston is not going to be competing, their farm system is absolute ass, and Valverde is a FA at the end of the year. And he'll be a Type A FA, so we get two picks back.

 

There's four big things against it though

 

1) Hou doesn't know they suck lol so if they make him available, it probably won't be until July. And I'm with you on our bullpen, need help now. Plus, he'd be the closer. And while it'd be good for us to keep Lindstrom from getting saves so his arbitration doesn't get high, it's also f***ed up for us to tell him "You the man now, dawg" all offseason, than tell him otherwise once the season starts. Especially if we go into July and he's not Gregg-ing it. Not only that, but this is the Astros, they might lock him up long-term instead.

 

2) His cost. Big saves, type A FA at the end, and you know others will be on him. What we do have on our side is plenty of near-MLB ready pieces that are expendable. Gaby Sanchez is expendable with Logan in AA and Cantu in the majors. C.C. is expendable with Emilio. Several of our minor league OF options are expendable with all the options we have. I mean, certainly I'd much rather keep these guys, especially comebody like C.C. But with our depth, it doesn't really hurt us long term. One of those hitters plus an ok arm (i.e. Tim Wood?) and I'd say that's value for Houston with just how horrible their farm system is. I mean, again, these are very good prospects, but with our depth it does not hurt us longterm and it helps us big short term. (Then again, I'm sure the "no harm long term" arguement was made when we traded Adrian Gonzalez, when we had him, Jason Stokes, and another dude I'm blanking on lol)

 

3) his money. 8 mil. The more Hou picks up, the more we have to give them in term of prospects. And while it's possible we could take on 8 mil, that also gives us less money to than lock up JJ, pay arbitration to peeps, ect. If this isn't until July, that's only 4m though, which isn't nearly as bad.

 

4) His Type A status. The arguement of "We'll give up prospects because we can refill our system in the draft" only works if you actually get picks. But 1) Have we EVER offered arbitration to a closer? Urbina: No. Borowski: No. Any idea on Benitez/Jones? And this offseason showed that type A guys aren't just gonna be picked up without thought anymore, look at Juan Cruz last season. Now I don't think this will be a problem with Valverde, but just bringing it up.

 

I can't stand Valverde. He's so overpaid and really annoying. He's worse than KRod with his celebrations after saves. As if saves were so hard to get...

I don't care if a guy took a dump on the mound after he recorded every save, as long as he does his job and we win.

I don't care if a guy took a dump on the mound after he recorded every save, as long as he does his job and we win.

 

I would. Thats nasty.

right now