[HenriS218]

I had some very high expectations for this team, after we won the 2027 World Series. Well, 2028 was a great season, but we came up short, losing the ALDS to the Oakland Athletics in 5 games. I'm gonna start off with this year's postseason roster and a few other notable players from the season along with their MLB WAR totals from the year.

# Know that whenever I write something after a hashtag like this, it's just a note/comment that didn't exactly fit in what I was writing or isn't entirely related, but I still want to say it

SP Brandon Woodruff (4.4)
SP Hayden Juenger (3.5)
SP Ryne Nelson (1.3)
SP David Leal (1.2)
SP Spencer Arrighetti (1.5)

RP Aaron Ashby (0.7)
RP Tanner Houck (0.6)
RP Evan Sisk (0.4)
RP John Schreiber (0.0)
RP Joe Jimenez (1.1)
SU Evan Phillips (2.8)
SU Edwin Díaz (4.1)
CP Ryan Pressly (0.1)
# I just wanna note that I absolutely hate OOTP's WAR calculations for relievers. Pressly put up a 1.82 ERA and 41 saves in 50 innings, but his FIP was above 4.00, so his WAR is lower than Evan Sisk and his 92 ERA+.

# a * denotes less than 200 plate appearances for the Astros this year
C Luis Campusano (1.8)
C *Ali Sanchez (0.1)
1B/DH Yordan Alvarez (2.2)
1B Ryan Clifford (3.4)
2B Cristian Gonzalez (3.7)
2B/UTL Dylan Moore (1.2)
3B/SS David Hensley (1.0)
3B Brett Baty (0.0)
SS Eric Bitonti (2.5)
LF *Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (0.0)
LF/DH Juan Soto (2.6)
CF Jackson Chourio (4.1)
RF/UTL Rece Hinds (1.1)
RF Kyle Tucker (3.5)

Alright, there's the whole roster, which I feel pretty good about right now.

Next I'll give a little overview of my prospects. The farm system is pretty weak, ranked 30th out of 32 teams.
# There was league expansion before the 2027 season, with the Columbus Bears entering the AL Central and the Las Vegas Green Jackets entering the NL West.

Here's our top five prospects with their age and Pipeline Rankings.
1. 18 yo LHP Jabari Golphin (74)
2. 18 yo LHP Jon Wilcox (109)
3. 22 yo 2B Dave Carter (140)
4. 20 yo RHP Jeremy Deckard (142)
5. 20 yo 1B Ron DeCosta (178)

Obviously the system is weak, but these guys have some potential. Carter is the one I'm following the most because he's the oldest and the best currently, so he might even make the team in 2029 as a platoon/bench bat.

A big part of my success has been my allocation of money. Cristian Gonzalez and Ryan Clifford were both just decent prospects, but I've put over $20 million a year into player development since starting this franchise, and they've become superstars. I also put about $15 million into scouting every year.

Alright, I'm almost done with all of this boring stuff, and then we can get into the offseason action. The final thing I'm gonna show is all of the team salaries. The player's age will be displayed, then the number of years they have left and their salaries. These contracts do not include 2028, so this year's free agents such as Yordan are not included. Also, these aren't the contracts as they were signed, they're just

LF Juan Soto (29) - 3 yrs, $117 million ($39 million player option 2032)
RF Kyle Tucker (31) - 2 yrs, $69.2 million (opt-out after 2029 and $33.2 million player option 2031)
SP Brandon Woodruff (35) - 2 yrs, $54.2 million ($27.2 million player option 2031)
Edwin Díaz (34) - 1 yr, $16 million ($16 million player option 2030)
C Luis Campusano (30) - 1 yr arbitration, $20.8 million projected
RP Evan Phillips (34) - 2 yrs, $21.2 million ($9.6 million player option 2031)
RP Joe Jimenez (33) - 2 yrs, $21 million (opt-out after 2029)
CP Ryan Pressly (39) - 1 yr, $8.9 million
RP Aaron Ashby (30) - $13 million club option 2029
SP Ryne Nelson (30) - 1 yr arbitration, $8 million projected
RP John Schreiber (34) - 2 yrs, $9.2 million
RP Tanner Houck (32) - 1 yr arbitration, $5.5 million projected
RP Evan Sisk (31) - 5 yrs arbitration, $2.4 million projected
LF Allan Cerda (28) - 3 yrs arbitration, $2.2 million projected
RF Rece Hinds (28) - 2 yrs auto-renew, $1.2 million, then 4 yrs arbitration
SP Spencer Arrighetti (28) - 1 yr auto-renew $810 thousand, then 4 yrs arbitration
3B Brett Baty (28) - 3 yrs arbitration, $1.4 million projected
CF Jackson Chourio (24) - 4 yrs arbitration, $6.7 million projected
1B Ryan Clifford (25) - 2 yrs auto-renew, $810 thousand, then 4 yrs arbitration
2B Cristian Gonzalez (26) - 1 yr auto-renew, $810 thousand, then 4 yrs arbitration
3B David Hensley (32) - 3 yrs arbitration, $2.2 million projected
SP Hayden Juenger (28) - 3 yrs arbitration, $2.6 million projected
SP David Leal (31) - 1 yr auto-renew, $810 thousand, then 3 yrs arbitration
C Ali Sanches (31) 1 yr auto-renew, $810 thousand, then 3 yrs arbitration

It's pretty obvious when looking at these that I like to give out a lot of player options to lower my salaries.

Now that we've done all that, it's time to get into the offseason action!