re: DAT 5/17: Astros (McCullers) @ Marlins (Urena), 11:10 CDT

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His start to the year is a fraud

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That's probably true.

Yeah, maybe supplemental though

And 2 million dollars too

Not a biggie for Astros, but would be for me

What about Whitley?

To me that has to be an attractive trade piece. He's years away with an already solid core of young starting pitching ahead of him and if you in return get a club control guy, then that's the price you pay for being in "win now" mode. Especially with the stockpile of early draft picks we have.

I realize you don't want to get a reputation for being a "draft and dump" type of club but one time to land us a TOR starter seems worth it.

u dum

Water is wet

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The Pirates (17-23) are in last place in the NL Central, and there is speculation they might look to rebuild sooner than later. A prime bargaining chip would be the 26-year-old Cole, who owns a 3.20 ERA over four-plus seasons. If traded to the Astros, Cole, who is making $3.75 million in 2017 and is arbitration eligible for two more seasons, would join a Houston rotation that already includes Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr. The Astros are also looking to add another left-hander to a bullpen that currently features just one southpaw in Tony Sipp. Watson, a lefty, has eight saves in nine chances with a 1.62 ERA this season. Rosenthal cautions that no trade is expected soon, adding that the asking price for Cole would be “exorbitant.” ESPN’s Keith Law ranked the Astros 12th in his preseason farm system rankings, so Houston would presumably have some attractive prospects to offer. Cole has previously been mentioned as a possible fit for the New York Yankees.

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Real quality reporting by ESPN just regurgitating a lower quality version of what Rosenthal said

Pitt has no place for Reed, as they have Josh Bell. I can't see any way a trade gets done without Kyle Tucker.

Exactly. Because if the Yankees are interested in Cole, you could probably get Gleyber Torres, who is their Tucker-level prospect.

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If I am Pitt I am not doing a deal unless I get Tucker and one of those top four arms (Martes Paulino Whitley Perez) plus a couple other lower ranked pieces

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Its tough to part ways with him but if Watson ends up in this deal I think I do it. Every player currently on this team except for Beltran is locked up through next year. Keuchel is the first guy to hit free agency which is in 2 years I believe and no one else will be with him.


Looking at a minimum 2 year rotation of Keuchel/Cole/McCullers/Morton is elite and wont be losing any of our offensive core as well. Tucker wont be ready until late next year at best and thats assuming that he keeps this rate of production at every level.