Look at Ray Ray Run

What you just stated is literally the definition of an assumption.

I point to this trade to remind them that they certainly deserve credit for acquiring the right pieces: Pirates acquire: Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran, Michael Feliz, and Jason Martin Astros acquire: Gerrit Cole Ouch

The Sox dont need another low average high power bat coming over from the NL. They dont exactly have the world's greatest track record there. Schwarber has improved nothing since his first big league season. Why do I want to acquire a guy who has made no advancement in 1884 big league plate appearances? Better yet, why would I trade assets for that when I can acquire players with similar skill set for free? Also, who cares that he's 27 when he only has 2 years of control?

How do you assume he can play first base if he's never played there? All I can say is I'm glad you're not the GM of the White Sox.

He has better slider command than fastball command. He also changes speeds on it. The pitch is built for 3 batters. He could certainly skate by with his slider - assuming the pitch bounces back post surgery. If he's John Danks 2.0 then he's fucked. Either way, non-tendering him would be cheap - not creative or rational.

I think you missed the point. His floor is a reliever. Given that one of his pitches still grades out as elite, that's usually a good recipe for success in relief. He's still likely a starter. Even at his floor he's worth it, that was the point.

Would like to see how he bounces back with consistent reps. He can strike out a lot and hit 40 Homer's and it won't matter. He has to make enough contact to get to his power though. He could run 30% k rates and still succeed probably Micker also actually adds value defensively too which cant be overlooked.

Sure, but he also didnt need to answer the question in that way - he actually didnt need to answer at all.

He could become a high leverage bullpen arm and be worth 10 million alone. I'm not sure how anyone can rationalize saving 4.5 million on the guy.

It makes zero sense. Money spent is all about value. Rodon is controlled next year as well and due to limited innings this year his arbitration raise will not be substantial. That means hes likely under 6-7 million next year as well as either a starter or a bullpen piece. Given his stuff, no organization would release a guy like Rodon because hes set to make 11 million over 2 years with one being an injury. Pineda signed a 2 year deal post injury in which hed sit out the entire first year for 10 million. Rodon is better and can likely go to the bullpen easier than pineda. If you keep rodon and he bounces back you could move him next off season for a piece if you felt the need. He's worth more than his contract. If you're non tendering him to save 4.5 million then you arent an organization that's ready to win. Also who cares who his agent is? Do you think Carlos is going to demand some huge payday with his track record?

Rodon would be worth more than 4.5 million as a reliever if that's where he needs to go. That Slider is still an 80 grade and if he uses that out of the bullpen he would be a legit back end stud imo.

Yes, I'd rather go all pitching and then throwing big money at Betts or Springer to fill your OF hole. Maybe you sign a Dickerson or someone like that to DH.

What? He's a gold glove elite caliber second baseman. Why would you move that around? Why would you sign a 2nd baseman and a CF'er if your rebuild involves Robert and Madrigal.

How can someone be a LOOGY in baseball going forward when you cannot face one batter anymore?

Say what? Who in their right mind would non-tender Carlos Rodon?

I think the Angels end up signing Cole, as well.

The Astros didn't reinvent the wheel with Cole. They eliminated his sinker and told him to elevate his fastball in the zone. They increased his spin rate on the slider too but that's not going to stop when he leaves.

Yes, they do individualize their pitching reports but Cole has learned what he needs to learn. Similarly to how a company may pay to teach you a new code language, and that's very valuable to your career but you dont need to stay with that company to retain the information. Cole has attacked hitters the same way since he got to Houston. Sometimes I think we give too much credit to analytics and not enough credit to the players skill set. Houston taught gerrit Cole how to maximize his skill set - that should be something he can take with him everywhere. Just my opinion.

Astros owner hinted that the only way they'd keep Cole is if they won the World Series and got that WS revenue. Who knows how true that is.

This is working off some assumption that Cole requires frequent changes to remain where he is - which just isn't true. His pitch distribution changed a lot when he first got to Houston but has remained constant since. His release point has remained constant as well. It's not as if he is making constant changes game to game, or even year to year in houston. He'll go where the most money as every free agent does.

I noticed my link did not work on my phone, so I re-uploaded it to imgur:

They could address pretty much every area of concern with a good player and be at 110 so i wouldn't be mad at that. Wheeler, Smith, RF, JD Martinez would get you to about 110.

Not this again... ha, I don't think there are going to be many leaks nor do I think the team is going to build expectations (even internally) as they did last off season. If they learned one lesson, it's to strike in silence and fail in silence.

I just want to say, I wouldn't touch Keuchel with a 10 foot pole personally. He has been trending down every single year since 2015, culminating into this year where he's been dreadful when you ignore his ERA. After his peak in 2015, he flat lined in 2016, 2017 and 2018 remaining constantly average but this year he took a hell of a nose dive down to well below average. If you believe it was due to him sitting out, fine, but then you're just hoping he returns to his middling level of 2016-2018. Any regression from that makes him Ivan Nova bad.

Strasburg would be fine, but I do want to emphasize that his regression has already started. He peaked in 2017 and has been below that level in 2018 and 2019 despite being healthier than usual. It's not dramatic, and if he ages gracefully he should still be good the next 3-4 years, but at 1500 innings already he's really close (500-700 innings) away from a point that most arms (90%+ of this group) fell off a cliff. From 2013-2017 he saw a rise in production every single year, in 2018 he regressed and 2019 he bounced back a little. I don't think he'll ever return to his 2017 outputs though based on the trends showing now. He's learned how to pitch with lesser stuff so he may stabilize where his is now until his stuff deteriorates further and we will see another year that will require adjustments to succeed.