I think the key is staying under the luxury tax threshold, so we got $27m to play with.
I’ve lived in Houston over 20 years and become Astros fan during that period. Between harassing female reporter and then this cheating scandal they don’t feel like team I can root for at this point. No issue with penalties and good for Crane to clean house.
In a vacuum I don't really mind letting Ozuna go and letting Carlson earn a shot. But within the larger context of the team, I really don't understand what it is the Cardinals are doing. Every team has uncertainty baked into their lineup, it's just part of the game. But for a team that supposedly considers itself a contender this lineup feels like little more than a hope and a prayer. They're either counting on guys that have been declining for years (Carpenter, Fowler) have never produced at an MLB level for an extended period of time (Bader, O'Neill, Carlson, Thomas, etc.) or have trouble with consistency (DeJong, Wong -admittedly I don't have as much concern about the two of them). Half the lineup -and the entire outfield- is a giant question mark. And for a lineup that wheezed for most of the season and got pantsed in the NLCS, I don't see how this is supposed to be a World Series contender.
In fairness, most of the 2018 sure looked like the start of his decline. He had a hot streak of about 6 weeks in the middle of the season where he batted with around a 1.400 OPS IIRC that elevated his numbers for the entire season. Most of 2018 he was awful.
He had a weird 2018, I'll admit that. The beginning and end were poor, but the middle half of his season was MVP caliber.
If his work with Berkman in the offseason gets him back to the all-fields hitter he was prior, and he comes to the realization that he should try to be a doubles hitter and the homers will come instead of trying to pull everything 500 feet, I think he can certainly live up to the two remaining years on his contract. That is one Texas-sized IF, though.
Yeah, I agree.
Currently, yeah that’s about who he is, but he’s shown power potential and walks at a decent rate. He can be a league average hitter to go along with platinum glove level defense. That’s an extremely valuable player. You can sacrifice offense for defense at critical defensive positions(catcher, shortstop, centerfield). I’d much rather have good defenders at those positions than average hitters with average defense. Defense is consistent and provides value almost every game. Even the best hitters go on multi-week slumps where they’re effectively a wasted lineup spot until they get it back together at the plate. Bader will provide value to the team nearly every game by making a catch an average defender wouldn’t.
