While every team that doesn’t have a 17-game lead in their respective division is furiously scanning scouting reports and pounding cell phones, the Houston Astros sit happily atop the American League Western Division, as the hours tick down to the July 31 trade deadline.

The orange and blue-clad Houston nine don’t own the most wins in baseball (67-34 coming into play July 28). That honor goes to the LA Dodgers, with a lofty 71-31 record.

But, while the Astros look down from their perch, King Kong-like, onto the ant-like traffic below, they see four pitiably languishing teams, all of them hauling around the weight of several million tons of grumbling season ticket holders, with none of them closer than 17 games back, and none with a record over .500. The Dodgers, about whom no more will be written here, have about a dozen-game lead in what is, apparently, a more competitive division (NL West), with two other teams over .500.

What Do You Get the Team That Has Everything?

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow has the envy of every other GM in baseball, most of whom have to answer this annual dogged question every July: “Are we gonna be sellers or buyers?” Sell too soon, and you might signal your fans and players you’ve thrown in the towel on 2017. Buy lacking the traction and proximity to ascend, and you may be just wasting assets. And, what about the prospects just given away? You may have just shot yourself in the franchise fanny for a handful of years moving forward, on top of missing out on the October dance this year.

Here are Luhnow’s and the Astros’ questions to ponder this week:

Do the Astros need any pieces? No. They could stand pat, and many, if not most pundits would agree the West is theirs, hands down. With several of the team’s starting pitchers on and off the disabled list this season, they’ve still managed to dominate. Oh, and those previously disabled pitchers like Dallas Keuchel, Collin McHugh, and Lance McCullers, Jr. are either back, or moments away from returning. Plus, the emergence of Mike Fiers, Charlie Morton, and Brad Peacock as surprisingly consistent and reliable starters seems to preclude any real rumors about bringing in an outside “ace,” or the like. Do the Astros want any pieces? Here’s where it gets interesting, and also, what separates the Crush City men from the coin-flipping buy/sell boys littering the MLB landscape for the remaining 60 games.

Both points above were asserted with the understanding that Houston, like every other competing team this week, is looking to add talent…..just to get to the playoffs. But, that will not be the Astros’ goal this week. The assumption, as well it should be, is that the Houston Astros will win the AL West, and therein lies the rub.



The Genius of Luhnow, and a Peek Behind the Curtain of Certainty

Here it is, right over the plate: Anything done, trade-wise (including nothing), by the Astros, will be, and only be, with the goal of getting past whoever stands in their way on the 163rd game of the season. No other team will say, or can say that. Even the Dodgers. With Colorado and Arizona still within a dozen-game striking distance of the Chavez Ravine occupants, any move LA makes this week will be geared to assure their claim to the NL West pennant.

“We were thinking we may have to go out and get a depth starter — a fourth, fifth starter guy to help us get through the season,” Luhnow said, in an astoundingly candid admission on Astros Radio over the weekend. “That’s no longer the case. If anything, we’re going to have to put guys in the bullpen.”

Related: Keuchel and McHugh Pitch Back-to-Back Double-A Rehabs

The Astros have a surplus of quality starting pitching. Put that in your Torchy’s queso!

Hear that, Oakland? Sonny Gray and the Astros have been linked so many times in trade rumors, a restraining order was being considered. The National Enquirer was drawing up a cover piece, so certain they were of a long-term relationship brewing. Rumors of Orbit and Gray seen dining at Brennan’s were quickly shot down.

The available starting pitching pickin’s are slim, to say the least. That, together with the luxury of the fat lead the Astros enjoy, leads to a possible logical conclusion of Houston only pulling the trigger on another bullpen piece…a Brad Hand or Justin Wilson, say. That same bullpen which is now fuller, with the return of Keuchel, and earlier, McCullers off the DL, that has sent Peacock from his rotation spot to a relief role.

“We’re not going to overpay dramatically, because we’re not in a situation where we have to,” Luhnow told ESPN at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, earlier this week. “We have a pretty good team, and if we can improve it without giving up too much of our future, we will.”

As it happens, the Twins’ Jaime Garcia and Detroit’s Justin Verlander had been oft-mentioned as Houston-bound starters, too, among others. Now, I’m not here to predict whom the Astros will or might get. I’ll let other writers and pundits bang their heads against that ultimately pointless wall.

But, if the Astros pull the trigger for a Gray, a Verlander, or Nolan Ryan or Christy Mathewson, for that matter, know that it will only be for the purpose of matching up favorably with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, or Cleveland Indians, the Astros’ likely (at this moment) toss-up of first-round playoff opponents.

For the next five dozen games, then, Sonny Gray might actually have to work out of the bullpen.

Related: All Rise, Indeed! Jose Altuve Propelling Astros With Jaw-Dropping Numbers, and

Astros’ Busy Weekend: Keuchel’s Return, Bagwell’s HOF Induction, Altuve Finishing Hot July, and Trade Deadline Looms