With the deadline coming up, the Astros are busy trading away anyone with a big contract and any bit of value. So far the Astros have moved Carlos Lee, JA Happ, Brandon Lyon, David Carpenter, Brett Myers, and now, as of last night, Wandy Rodriguez. So if you ask me, the Astros are more than likely done with their trades. But what about the lineup? Are the Astros putting out the best possible lineup? No. Absolutely not. When you have Scott Moore, Matt Downs, and Brian Bixler still on the Major League roster, you can’t be putting out the best lineup possible. Brett Wallace, Jimmy Paredes, and Brandon Barnes have done all they need to in AAA to become part of this team. Get them up, get them experience. “But Lee, the AAA and AA teams are in playoff contention, why would you want to ruin that?” Seems to be the question that pops up when I talk about bringing theses guys up. Look, championships are all good for your AAA and AA teams, but not at the expense of the Major League team. I’m obviously not a GM, but that’s just something I would do.
I may think the Astros are done trading, but no one but our Front Office truly knows if they are or not. I could see the Astros trading maybe one more player. That player being Chris Johnson. He doesn’t have a tremendous glove or bat. But he isn’t a bad third baseman. He is however, better than some teams in contention have. Take the Dodgers for example. Before they traded for Hanley Ramirez, Chris Johnson would have been their best third baseman on the team. There’s no doubt about that. But do I really think we should trade him? It honestly depends on what we get back from him. If he would help us more in the future than his return, than I vote no. But with Matt Dominguez at AAA and heating up, I think it’s time to see what he will get us.
Our great GM, Jeff Luhnow, has flirted with the idea of moving Jimmy Paredes to the outfield. What’s so significant about that 
move you may ask. Well, it would give him a better chance of making the MLB team much quicker than before. Right now, he’s at 2B and is obviously blocked by our 22 year old phenom Jose Altuve. There are some fans that would like to flirt with the idea of trade Altuve and see what type of package he brings back. Well I’m here to tell you, that is possibly the dumbest thing I’ve heard. Yes we’re rebuilding, but that doesn’t mean we need to completely rid the team of anyone with ML experience. Altuve’s a great player and will one day become the face of the Houston Astros. So, before we just go crazy over trading everyone, lets think about keeping this one player. Jose Altuve is here to stay. After the season, lets lock him up long term and keep him in Houston for good. Altuve is the type of player you build around.
–Lee White
