Trade: [TOR / HOU] Francisco Liriano to Astros

Gunnar Staal

Registered User
Mar 17, 2004
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Do the Jays have to trade a few prospects for the Astros to swallow his salary, though. That is the real question.
 

MS

1%er
Mar 18, 2002
53,595
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Vancouver, BC
Addition by subtraction for the Jays, although maybe he'll be better as a reliever elsewhere. Such a frustrating player to watch and I'm glad he's gone, frankly.

Assume the prospect coming back won't be much of anything.
 

Quid Pro Clowe

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Dec 28, 2008
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Houston really needed to add a bit before the deadline and this is all they do?

Granted, they have another minth, but it will be more difficult.
 

Duke33

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Oct 9, 2009
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Houston, TX
Houston really needed to add a bit before the deadline and this is all they do?

Granted, they have another minth, but it will be more difficult.

It's always interesting when the talking heads say a team needed to add something before the deadline. Why? Deadline deals almost never push teams over the edge, given what a crapshoot the playoffs are. That team is 30+ games over .500. Their offense can give even the best pitching staff fits, and their pitching is probably ok esp. if Keuchel recovers.

Clearly if Houston felt they needed to do something, they would have. They're loaded with good prospects and spending money isn't an issue. You don't want to make a move just to make one, especially with what some teams were asking for.

Gray and potentially Darvish were the only starters I thought Houston might make a play for, but neither were very realistic given the gap between Houston and the rest of the AL West is so large right now, I couldn't see either of those teams trading within the division to make that gap even wider.

Liriano will be good for them, they need a lefty reliever and this opens a spot on the roster for Derek Fisher who's really good, to get a full time roster spot.
 

c9777666

Registered User
Aug 31, 2016
19,892
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Deadline deals are tough to gauge.

Look at 2014- Tigers trade for David Price, Oakland trades for Jon Lester.

Both get beaten by KC/Baltimore teams with less impressive starting pitching.

I mean, the Tigers- with Price/Scherzer/Verlander- got swept by a Baltimore team who started Tillman/Bud Norris/Wei-Yin Chen
 

Quid Pro Clowe

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Dec 28, 2008
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They had plenty of prospects at their disposal to improve their rotation and chose not to. I don't see the current rotation winning a world series, but there is still a month to improve.

To say a team didn't make moves because they're great already and chose not to is foolish. Every team could use more depth. They decided their assets weren't worth it, which I agree to an extent, but there are only so many major league positions, and guys like Correa, Altuve and Springer aren't going anywhere soon.
 

Duke33

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Oct 9, 2009
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They had plenty of prospects at their disposal to improve their rotation and chose not to. I don't see the current rotation winning a world series, but there is still a month to improve.

To say a team didn't make moves because they're great already and chose not to is foolish. Every team could use more depth. They decided their assets weren't worth it, which I agree to an extent, but there are only so many major league positions, and guys like Correa, Altuve and Springer aren't going anywhere soon.

Houston's not in this for one WS run from what I've seen and read. Unlike say LA, who's going all-in after multiple playoff failures, or the Cubs who are trying for a second title but have gutted their once impressive farm system and probably aren't as good to beat DC or LA in a series.

Everyone talks about pitching, you need great pitching to win in the postseason. But looking back at the last few years in the WS and playoffs how many slugfests have there been? Houston's lineup gets no attention but is remarkably good when fully loaded, and can score runs vs. anyone.

The A's and Rangers weren't going to trade their guys to Houston even for a haul of prospects. Why give your division leader, who's miles ahead of you in not only the standings but also talent for probably several seasons, another key asset? Who else could Houston get? Verlander maybe? There wasn't a lot out there that really would have been a huge upgrade over what they have now.
 

punk_o_holic

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Mar 1, 2002
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N. Vancouver, B.C.
Disappointed that this was the only move they made and out of all people, they traded the Japanese player(I'm Japanese). Apparently they were close to getting Britton but the asking price kept on going up from the owner. Owner wouldn't approve unless it was a big haul. Whats going to be interesting is how the team reacts. When they sold last year at the deadline, the players mood inside the locker room was dejected. This year, they have a shot at the World Series but they only made a little move while other teams made big moves. I would be more bummed out compared to last year.
 

MMC

Global Moderator
May 11, 2014
48,261
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Houston's not in this for one WS run from what I've seen and read. Unlike say LA, who's going all-in after multiple playoff failures, or the Cubs who are trying for a second title but have gutted their once impressive farm system and probably aren't as good to beat DC or LA in a series.

Everyone talks about pitching, you need great pitching to win in the postseason. But looking back at the last few years in the WS and playoffs how many slugfests have there been? Houston's lineup gets no attention but is remarkably good when fully loaded, and can score runs vs. anyone.

The A's and Rangers weren't going to trade their guys to Houston even for a haul of prospects. Why give your division leader, who's miles ahead of you in not only the standings but also talent for probably several seasons, another key asset? Who else could Houston get? Verlander maybe? There wasn't a lot out there that really would have been a huge upgrade over what they have now.

Lynn.
 

Duke33

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
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Houston, TX
Disappointed that this was the only move they made and out of all people, they traded the Japanese player(I'm Japanese). Apparently they were close to getting Britton but the asking price kept on going up from the owner. Owner wouldn't approve unless it was a big haul. Whats going to be interesting is how the team reacts. When they sold last year at the deadline, the players mood inside the locker room was dejected. This year, they have a shot at the World Series but they only made a little move while other teams made big moves. I would be more bummed out compared to last year.

Aoki's been moved around quite a bit. He's been a great backup player but this means Fisher will get much more regular playing time, so no loss there.

I'm in Houston and never heard anything last year about them being dejected, they were miles behind the Rangers and the wild card was even a stretch. And they didn't sell all that much anyway.

From what I've seen and heard this year, this team is very confident, having fun, and believes they can go far with what they have. The great thing about the Astros is except on days like this, nobody pays any attention to them. All the media cares about is LA, NY, the Cubs etc. The rare times the Astros are on ESPN or Fox, the morons can't even get player names right half the time.
 

KaylaJ

i bent my wookie
Mar 12, 2009
18,771
46
hell
Teams are damned if they do and damned if they don't at trade deadline. How many experts talk every year about which team "won" and then they crash and burn in the playoffs and all of a sudden it's "well, maybe they shouldn't have traded this player who turned out to be better than expected". It is what it is and I'm not going to be upset by it.
 

punk_o_holic

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Mar 1, 2002
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N. Vancouver, B.C.
Aoki's been moved around quite a bit. He's been a great backup player but this means Fisher will get much more regular playing time, so no loss there.

I'm in Houston and never heard anything last year about them being dejected, they were miles behind the Rangers and the wild card was even a stretch. And they didn't sell all that much anyway.

From what I've seen and heard this year, this team is very confident, having fun, and believes they can go far with what they have. The great thing about the Astros is except on days like this, nobody pays any attention to them. All the media cares about is LA, NY, the Cubs etc. The rare times the Astros are on ESPN or Fox, the morons can't even get player names right half the time.

I can't remember who tweeted it but some reporter tweeted last week. I want to say another guy tweeted the same thing yesterday as well. Weren't they like 2 and half games back of a wild card spot? But there were a bunch of teams that they would have had to leap frog. If I find the tweet Ill edit my post.

1 tweet I found was from Brian T. Smith. Think he's a reporter for the Chron.

https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith...io/iframe/twitter.min.html#891769759783628800

Only good thing is they kept Kyle Tucker.
 
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Duke33

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
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Houston, TX
I can't remember who tweeted it but some reporter tweeted last week. I want to say another guy tweeted the same thing yesterday as well. Weren't they like 2 and half games back of a wild card spot? But there were a bunch of teams that they would have had to leap frog. If I find the tweet Ill edit my post.

Probably was the same reporters who were saying today how bummed the Astros would be today after a major move wasn't made. Based on what they're doing tonight, they look just fine.
 

punk_o_holic

Registered User
Mar 1, 2002
10,036
713
N. Vancouver, B.C.
Probably was the same reporters who were saying today how bummed the Astros would be today after a major move wasn't made. Based on what they're doing tonight, they look just fine.
Edited my response as I found one of the tweets. Anyhow good to have another Astros fan around here. Three of us now(KaylaJ) being the other.:yo:
 

Reality Check

Registered User
May 28, 2008
16,730
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Astros were screwed in that the top 2 SP on the market were both in their division. Gray could have happened if Houston really overpaid but no way was Texas going to send Darvish to Houston.
 

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