Houston Astros has a lot on the table in Winter Meetings - MLB Update
The annual Winter Meetings are just around the corner and the Houston Astros have a very good idea about what they want to achieve from the event taking place in Nashville, Tennessee this year.
Last year the Houston Astros ended up hiring Jeff Luhnow, their current general manager who was with the St. Louis Cardinals at that time. Jeff helped the team build its farm system and played his part in the two World Series victories for the Cardinals.
He has been strengthening the Minor League system in the Astros as well.
Luhnow believes that it is not possible to predict what exactly will happen in the meetings. He added that the Astros will be looking for the players that will benefit the team and will not be getting carried away by the hype, be it in Nashville or afterwards.
"It's always hard to predict where something is going to happen before, during or after the Winter Meetings, but our expectation is we're going to get some work done," he said. "We're not going to let who we sign be driven by the timing. We're going to sign
the players that we feel have the best fit."
There are several matters that the Astros will be looking to address. They need to reverse their poor form which has seen them lose over a hundred games in each of the last two seasons. The team needs to build a strong pitching rotation as well as a good
bullpen and setup a batting line-up that can produce more runs.
Luhnow sees the Winter Meetings as a good opportunity to see what trade options as well as free agents are around the block. He expects that the process of negotiations will certainly get rolling in the December meet up.
"It's a good opportunity, first of all, to discuss possible trade matches with other clubs, and we're going to be doing a lot of that," Jeff said. "…a lot of the free agents and their representatives/agents are there at the Winter Meetings, so it's a good
opportunity to talk to them first hand and to get the ball rolling."
The starting rotation is somewhat settled but one can expect at least one other strong pitcher added to it. The bullpen will likely have more changes though. The general manager expects pitchers to fetch a high price which is generally the case with multiple
teams showing interest in the same person.
The Astros, who are expected to spend the lowest amount in the Major League, around $30 million dollars on their payroll at the start of 2013 season, may not be a part of any aggressive bidding on the pitchers.
Astros will have to create a balance in their priorities in the Winter Meetings. They will need to put more of the emphasis on the pitching while keeping a low budget at hand in mind. They will also be looking to bounce back from two successive years of
Major League drubbings. It will not be an easy task and Jeff Luhnow and his staff will do well to juggle all the matters carefully.
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