Should the Houston Astros Really Become Buyers?

Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that the Houston Astros could become buyers at the trade deadline.

More specifically, Luhnow said:

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I don’t necessarily know if we’ll take on a whole bunch of salary. But we’ll look at every opportunity that comes our way, evaluate it in terms of short-term impact and medium and long-term impact.It’s not out of the realm of possibility, if we feel like we’re lacking in a certain area, for us to make a move and give up something to get something if that can help us now.

"

In a year of surprises, the Astros are definitely one of the biggest surprises, and actually might be the absolute biggest surprise so far.

Just to quickly address that claim, the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals have both been surprising, but with the young talent that they had been developing, it was somewhat evident that they would both emerge eventually.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are their main competitor for surprise of the year since I personally really didn't see much beyond Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

I was wrong about the Dodgers, but I was even more wrong about the Houston Astros, so that is why they very well might be the biggest surprise of the season.

Anyway, the Astros are still below .500 at 22-25, but they are currently only five games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds.

The National League Central is a rather weak division this year, so perhaps there is a reason for the Astros to become buyers.

That being said, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds are both talented teams that Houston will need to overcome.

To do that, the Astros need to look for a powerful bat. Yes, their pitching staff is probably overachieving right now, and they might eventually cool down. However, they are pitching extremely well right now, and they need to continue supporting these performances.

The Astros might cool down, but if there is any glimmer of hope that they can legitimately make a run at the National League Central, they need to buy. They need to buy a power bat who can pair with Carlos Lee in the middle of their lineup and produce even more runs.

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