Yordan Alvarez—Astros Frickin Monster

[Hy Feiber]

Already 17 home runs, recent call-up, just 22!

DH

Their lineup’s an AllStar Team.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... yo01.shtml

[Donn Beach]

yea, pointed out awhile ago how the Astros got him, they picked up Josh Fields in the rule five draft from Boston and traded him to the Dodgers for Alvarez, Alvarez had not even played a game for the Dodgers organization, they had just signed him out of Cuba.


went through a number of other prospects before settling on Alvarez

“Looking back on it now,” Friedman said recently with a rueful smile earlier, “we obviously wish we would have said yes to other names they asked for before him. It’s pretty special watching what he’s doing in the batter’s box.”

[Juliooooo]

Josh Fields, former Mariners first round pick... The last Bavasi first round pick, or had he basically given up the reigns by that point?

[Donn Beach]

yeah, he was drafted by Bavasi and signed by Z...seems like insult to injury, Astros grab him and turn him flip him for a star

[tehmc]

Josh Fields the gift that keeps on giving......
Relief Pitcher drafted in 1st round by Bavasi in 2008, waited until Feb 2009 to sign by Z so instead of the 1st round comp pick (possibly Mike Trout) he gets lost in the Rule 5 draft. Later he is traded for Yordan Alvarez who has an 1.175 OPS through his first 45 games and is looking like a monster.

[Hy Feiber]

yea, pointed out awhile ago how the Astros got him, they picked up Josh Fields in the rule five draft from Boston and traded him to the Dodgers for Alvarez, Alvarez had not even played a game for the Dodgers organization, they had just signed him out of Cuba.


went through a number of other prospects before settling on Alvarez

“Looking back on it now,” Friedman said recently with a rueful smile earlier, “we obviously wish we would have said yes to other names they asked for before him. It’s pretty special watching what he’s doing in the batter’s box.”

Josh Fields, yea, Bavasi’s Number 1 pick!

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Why would anyone trade any kind of a halfway decent prospect for Josh freakin Fields? Was Bavasi or Zduriencik working in the Dodgers front office when that deal went down?

[Juliooooo]

Why would anyone trade any kind of a halfway decent prospect for Josh freakin Fields? Was Bavasi or Zduriencik working in the Dodgers front office when that deal went down?

He was an international signing that hadn't played yet. You read the quote, they said no on other prospects. He was a total unknown. Definition of a lottery ticket

[Donn Beach]

Astros were very high on Alverez coming out of cuba but didn't have the international cap space to sign him, the Dodgers signed him for $4 mil. Here is a description of the trade

Hindsight proves Houston was trying to clear its 40-man roster of an unreliable major league reliever with impressive minor league numbers. Fields yielded 23 hits in 15⅔ big league innings that season. His ERA was 6.89.

Two or three other clubs, in addition to the Dodgers, expressed interest. Luhnow asked Los Angeles GM Farhan Zaidi for "three or four" players. All were at full-season affiliates. The Dodgers declined each request.

"We got to the point where, literally, our evaluators were saying, 'That's it. Fields is too valuable to trade for anybody below this line,' " Luhnow said. "Finally, kind of out of options, and I remembered that they'd signed Álvarez."

Luhnow asked Zaidi for Álvarez. Zaidi reacted with incredulity, according to Luhnow, rattling off the large sum of money his franchise just invested in this Cuban player. The Astros general manager was puzzled. He asked Zaidi if perhaps there was another Álvarez in the system.

"Yeah, Zaidi said, "we have a Cuban hitter."

Yadier Álvarez was an 18-year-old Cuban pitcher to whom the Dodgers gave a $16 million signing bonus during the 2014-15 international free agent period. It was, at the time, the second-largest bonus given to an international amateur free agent. Luhnow assumes this was the other Álvarez that Zaidi assumed he was asking for.

Luhnow clarified that he meant Yordan Álvarez. Even when he pitched it, Luhnow acknowledged he "wasn't sure I'd do that deal yet." Yordan Álvarez had not yet played a professional game on American soil. Gonzalez doesn't think he even had a Dodgers jersey.

"I was trying to downplay it," Luhnow said. "(Zaidi) said, 'OK, we may be able to do that.' "

Luhnow called Gonzalez back. Assistant general manager Brandon Taubman listened in.

"Charlie, what would you think if we got you Yordan Álvarez?" Luhnow asked.

"BROOOOO!" Gonzalez yelled. "BROOOOO!"

"He was so excited," Luhnow said. "Brandon still makes fun of him for his bro comment. He was just so excited about it. I said, 'OK, let's do it.' Farhan did it."

"We had very strong conviction that he'd be here and be doing what he's doing," said Oz Ocampo, the Astros' former director of international scouting who now serves as the team interpreter and a special assistant to general manager Jeff Luhnow. "Not to this extent, obviously — so immediately – but we knew he was going to be an impact player at the big league level."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports ... 073735.php

[Hy Feiber]

Seems only yesterday we were “lickin our chops” with anticipation of say, a 15-4 record against the lowly Astros coming to our division.

Who knew they’d be The Best Team in the Majors?

“Your Seattle Curse!”