A lot has happened since the last What they said, what they meant segment was published. Some of it has been down right silly and some of it comes under the heading of “Big News”. Again – the quotes are taken from chron.com (spit!!).
Silly
This is a 3 parter that actually began on May 25th……
Lloyd McClendon – Seattle manager after Dallas Keuchel gave up one unearned run in a complete game win…
- What he said – “I saw average stuff. We didn’t swing the bats very good. At some point, you’ve got to stop giving credit to average pitchers. That becomes a broken record. At some point, we’ve got to start swinging the bats.”
- What he meant – “My great aunt Mae throws harder than this dude. He had a 5+ ERA the last two seasons – why do my batters suck so bad?”
McClendon after Keuchel gave up one run in 8 innings in another win over the M’s last week…
- What he said – “He pitched well. Everybody was up in a huff about what I said last time. I wasn’t trying to downplay the kid. He’s got average stuff, but he knows how to pitch. He doesn’t have David Price type of stuff. It’s just a fact. It’s not a knock on the kid.”
- What he meant – “I’m not going to back down. He makes me want to come out of retirement and grab a bat. I don’t care if I do sound like an idiot. You can’t tell me he’s got David Price stuff now can you?”
Keuchel taking great pleasure in kicking the M’s butts again…
- What he said – “I guess it’s probably it (Keuchel knows he won’t pitch anymore this season), but pretty good for an ‘average’ season, huh? I had to put that one in there.”
- What he meant – “Yeah, I don’t have Price’s fastball – but this year Price does not have my ERA either. And by the way – McClendon does not have Tony Larussa’s brain and does not know when or how to say he was wrong. I will be especially happy if the Mariners miss the playoffs due to an ‘average’ pitcher making them look way below average.”
Big News
Craig Biggio after witnessing Jose Altuve whiz past his club record for hits in a season (210 in 1998)
- What he said – “He maximizes what he can out of his ability and his size. And I’m happy as heck for him. I hope he gets 220. What the heck, let’s keep it going.”
- What he meant – “The guys used to kid me about being small. I have children bigger than Altuve. The metal jockey at my front gate is bigger than Altuve. Amazing!”
Altuve about Biggio – the man he passed
- What he said – “He got 3,000 hits. He’s going to be in the Hall of Fame sooner than later. For me to break the record is very important. I would like to have a career of at least 80 percent of the success that Biggio did.”
- What he meant – “I’m excited and humbled at the same time. I’m being mentioned in the same breath as Craig Biggio. Baseball is so much fun right now! I cannot believe it! And I get paid to do this – what a life!”
Bigger News
Jeff Luhnow after the firing of Bo Porter
- What he said – “When you think about the relationship between a general manager and a manager, it’s complicated. It’s a day-to-day relationship. It has to work perfectly. There’s so many different components to it. I’m not going to get into specifics on what I think anybody that works for me did well or didn’t do well. At the end of the day, it came down to me feeling like, at this point going forward, a different leader in the clubhouse was in the best interest of the Astros.”
- What he meant – “He wouldn’t kiss my a$%”.
Bo Porter on his time in Houston
- What he said – “During my time in Houston I dedicated myself to do everything I could to help this Organization win, in the short-term and for the long-term. I am proud of what we were able to accomplish in Houston with an Organization in transition. I’m gratified we were able to bring some excitement to this city as a result of our improvement from 2013 to 2014.”
- What he meant – “Hell no, I wasn’t going to kiss his a$#”!!!
Jim Crane on the relationship between Porter and Luhnow
- What he said – “Those two guys have to be closely aligned and singing the same song. That wasn’t happening. I don’t think anybody has anything against Bo. It just wasn’t lined up tight. I could feel when it’s pretty cohesive and when it isn’t. Sometimes personalities don’t jell.”
- What he meant – “As best as I could tell, Jeff asked Bo to kiss his a$& and Bo thought he asked him to kick his a$@. A lot has happened since the last What they said, what they meant segment was published. Some of it has been down right silly and some of it comes under the heading of “Big News”. Again – the quotes are taken from chron.com (spit!!).Silly This is a 3 parter that actually began on May 25th……
Bonus quote – Tom Lawless on the possibility of using Sam Deduno or Sam Buchanan in Keuchel’s spot
- What he said – “We can use Buchanan to start. We can use Deduno to start if we need one of those two guys. It depends how we use them in Texas. If they go out there like they did the other night and one of them pitches 2 2/3 innings or three innings, then the other guy will probably start. We have options. Both of them have started before. Buchanan started most of the year at Triple-A, so he can go out there and start. We have options at the end of the year.”
- Your turn to say what he meant ……
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
103 responses to “What they said, what they meant: Silliness and big news”
What Tom Lawless said – “We can use Buchanan to start. We can use Deduno to start if we need one of those two guys. It depends how we use them in Texas. If they go out there like they did the other night and one of them pitches 2 2/3 innings or three innings, then the other guy will probably start. We have options. Both of them have started before. Buchanan started most of the year at Triple-A, so he can go out there and start. We have options at the end of the year.”
What he meant – I actually have not a clue as to who to start. If one starts then the other will feel slighted so I will probably use both of them in relief.
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Yes – worried about the poor babies feelings
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Oops on some typos.
I think what Altuve said and meant on Biggio is spot on.
Here’s another one.
Tom Lawless on why he pulled Altuve after a 3-for-3 performance. What he said: “He’s got something special going, and to win the batting title is a very special thing, To try to protect that for him, I’m going to do everything I can.”
What he meant: “Look, as far as games go, I’m just playing out the schedule. Win some/lose some. But if I mismanage Altuve and Martinez catches him, I can kiss goodbye any chance of removing the ‘interim’ tag from my title.”
And a fresh one from last night.
Nick Tropeano on the triple hit by Rougned Odor. What he said. “It’s one of those pitches you’ve got to bury and get them to chase and it was down, just not down enough. He did what he had to do and put a good swing on it.”
What he meant: “OK, so the pitch wasn’t perfect. But if that’s Marisnick out there, it’s a loud out and we get out of the inning unscathed. I’m not saying Dex is a bad fielder, he’s just not saving your bacon like Jake from State Farm.”.
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Nice job on both the Lawless and Tropeano quotes and true thoughts.
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What Tom Lawless meant to say about starting Buchanan or Deduno: I’ll wait for Jeff’s to tell me who to start.”
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Old pro – it looks like the time to apply tandem pitching to the major leagues…..
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I am not going there!
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It will get fixed – but above – what Crane meant to say…
What he meant – “As best as I could tell, Jeff asked Bo to kiss his a$& and Bo thought he asked him to kick his a$@.
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Off target, but: that was a great moment to be able to share with Guilder Rodriguez last night. Gotta give some credit to the Rangers for their choice there.
It reminded me of what the Astros did for Cody Clark last year after all his years in the minors.
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For anyone who missed it – Guilder Rodriguez (unrelated to Gilda Radner) is a 31 year old 3B who played 13 seasons in the minors for the Brewers and Rangers and finally debuted in the majors 2 weeks ago. Last night he got his first hit (actually 2) in the majors and knocked in a run. The Astros immediately hired him as a special hitting instructor to Jon Singleton. Note – some things I wrote may not be true.
Like Altuve – Rodriguez is from Venezuela.
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Wow! Jurickson Profar, Rangers former #1 prospect, who was in their lineup at this time last year, is back in Dallas to see team doctors. Profar tore a shoulder muscle in spring training, missed the entire year and team doctors chose rest rather than surgery. He has had his second flareup and was talking to doctors from the west coast and is back to discuss further treatment. This is a big whammy for Texas. Profar was the Rangers’ Carlos Correa, and was then going to replace Kinsler when he was traded.
At least the Rangers have Elvis and Roughned, but this is not looking good for Profar.
I hate to see this because of our own #1 prospect now rehabbing his injury. Nice and easy, Carlos, please.
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In October of last year, in this blog, Stephen suggest that Correa should probably skip Lancaster and go to Corpus Christi. Oh, had the Astros only listened to Stephen.
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And a lot of us thought he should have been promoted to CC during this season before his injury…. oh well …..ifs…ifs..ifs
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I’m a fan of Carlos. I actually thought the Astros should have brought him to camp this year with a chance to win the job.
Robin Yount debuted as a 19 year old SS in Milwaukee. Things worked out fine for him. Sometimes guys are just that kind of talent.
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Well when you have talent at the major league level like the Astros have – they just could not sit it for a lowly 1-1 pick.
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I am a huge fan of his, too. I wish the Astros had taken your advice about CC.
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Arrrgh…ENOUGH of Castro. Let him sit on the bench and daydream, like he does when he’s at bat. Why isn’t Stassi starting the rest of the way?
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What he said – “We can use Buchanan to start. We can use Deduno to start if we need one of those two guys. It depends how we use them in Texas. If they go out there like they did the other night and one of them pitches 2 2/3 innings or three innings, then the other guy will probably start. We have options. Both of them have started before. Buchanan started most of the year at Triple-A, so he can go out there and start. We have options at the end of the year.”
What he meant- ‘If Deduno starts, we’re f*cked’
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I did not know that firetrucked was a word…
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Deduno reminds me of what I used to tell some of my Soldiers on the firing range that couldn’t shoot – the only safe place to be on the range was their target. Everyone else should seek cover.
This guy can’t find the strike zone with a howitzer – and, at least at this point in his career – hasn’t been able to get people to chase. No fears here though, Brent Strom is on the case.
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Hey we’ll see what happens – those guys know more than we do – for instance none of us were probably thinking we had a top half of the rotation pitcher when they picked up McHugh.
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Entertaining write up as usual. I’m pretty sure What he said/what he meant is my favorite part of this blog. I’m sitting in my office at work laughing so hard my employees all came in to see if I was OK! To bad it’s because they don’t know what my laugh sounds like.
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I had a lot of fun writing these and Chip encouraged me to make it a regular feature. Your comments help – glad you weren’t trying to swallow liquids and laugh at the same time – could have done bad stuff to your desk.
What is amazing is there is no shortage of fodder – there are literally a couple quotes every day where someone is not saying what they mean in the world of Astros.
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Here’s my take on Tom Lawless’ last quote…
What he said – “We can use Buchanan to start. We can use Deduno to start if we need one of those two guys. It depends how we use them in Texas. If they go out there like they did the other night and one of them pitches 2 2/3 innings or three innings, then the other guy will probably start. We have options. Both of them have started before. Buchanan started most of the year at Triple-A, so he can go out there and start. We have options at the end of the year.”
What he meant – “I’m trying to win a job here with the big club. My option is sitting in the corner of the dugout grooming his beard. Let’s see – do I want the guy who has a 2.55 ERA since the All Star break including a sparkling 1.66 in September or two guys whose ERAs are up near the Jerome Williams line?”
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Hmm, remember the important standings look like this:
ARI – 63 – 94
TEX – 63 – 93
COL – 65 – 92
MIN – 66 – 90
BOS – 68 – 88
CHC – 69 – 88
HOU – 69 – 88
PHI – 71 – 85
CIN – 72 – 84
CHW – 72 – 84
MIA – 74 – 81
If I recall, the first ten picks are protected. After that, we could lose a pick due to FA signing (pls correct if I am wrong). Philly and Miami square off for three games, so the worst we could have happen is a Philly sweep, Miami losing out, and Houston winning out putting us in a tie for that #11 spot. However, if Lawson can find just the right lineups we could still grab a spot picking as high as 1.4 in the draft to go with our 1.2 and 1.31.
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Devin, since the Astros have that extra pick as a result of not signing Aiken, it’s actually the first 11 picks that are protected in 2015.
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Thanks for the clarification – Chip.
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Thanks, Chip – I wasn’t clear with the post, but I was trying to convey that:
1. We can’t finish lower than Arizona, so 1.1 is off the table
2. We can’t finish higher than both Philly and Miami, so we will be in the protected picks twice.
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Guess I’m sick of the losing – not really interested in 1-4…..though couldn’t we get 1-3 or do some of those teams play each other?
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I think the 2015 draft has a lot to do with the fate of the Astros in 2020 and beyond. The 2015 Astros are pretty much in the hands of the players in Houston right now and in the hands of that court proceedings to come soon.
The direction of the Astros of 2016-2019 are in Houston and it’s top 3 affiliates right now.
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OP, just a reminder that, at this time last year, you probably hadn’t heard of a McHugh, a Fowler, a Presley, a Feldman, a Marisnick, much less a Qualls or a Sipp. At least, not in relation to the Astros. Meaning that Luhnow could change the face of the roster and certainly impact 2015.
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What Chip Meant – Ya Never Know…..
Luhnow’s moves are always a bit of a mystery coming out of left field to use a baseball pun…..
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Court proceedings op? Did Porter file for divorce from Luhnow.
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Flash I was referring to the Comcast court drama. How the club makes out on that could determine more money to get players for next year.
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Truth there op – the guys who actually get to the majors will take that 4+ years – and of course many are just fodder filling the minors – to be replaced by a future draft class….
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Thanks Kevin, but …not even your own translation of what Lawless really meant?
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Off topic, but a nice article on playoff x-factors featuring J.D. Martinez. Had the Astros made the playoffs the article could easily have included Colin McHugh or Tony Sipp. http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/09/23/x-factors-playoffs-jd-martinez-josh-harrison-steve-pearce
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Top two guys – JDM and Pearce both played here
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What he said – “We have options. Both of them have started before. Buchanan started most of the year at Triple-A, so he can go out there and start. We have options at the end of the year.”
What he meant – “Senator, I served with Dallas Keuchel. I know Dallas Keuchel. Dallas Keuchel is a friend of mine. Senator, Buchanan and Deduno put together are no Dallas Keuchel.”
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And there you go from Lloyd “Mr. Bill” Bentsen….
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What he said – “When you think about the relationship between a general manager and a manager, it’s complicated * * * it came down to me feeling like, at this point going forward, a different leader in the clubhouse was in the best interest of the Astros.”
What he meant – “I write the checks. I chart the organization’s course. I have custody of the pink slips. Bo forgot that. Next Question?’
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Deduno on Sat. unless he blows up, and then I think we might see Folty finish the game……..unless Folty blows up, then we might see Buchanan, unless Buchanan blows up, then we might see????
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The whole team is on call Becky…Villar has 2 wild pitches and 4 HBP in mop up duty on Sunday….
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Watching a few innings of NY/Balt Jimmy Parades at SS wow and i had no idea ol Bud had 14 wins
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Is this wow for Paredes or Bud?
Bud finally has some runs scored for him
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Jimmy Parades playing major league SS on a solid team # 1 defensively in baseball.
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Not a whole lot of fire there I agree Becky. Amazing the Rangers only got 2 runs with all that traffic.
Yucky game
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Lawless may be a “laid” back interim manager, but he needs to jerk some guys up outta their chairs and tell them, 90 losses aren’t much of an improvement. Not trying to pick on Fowler, but he took two lazy routes on some balls that Marisnick, and Springer would have made. NO excuse for losing this game. NONE.
Kudos to Folty for getting out of a real mess tonight….the kid is learning.
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The more I watch Fowler the less happy I am about paying him a good chunk of money.
We are probably paying Feldman too much but I see real effort there and a good model for the younger pitchers. Fowler isn’t pure poison but he is not who I want the young OFs to look up to.
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Dan i said the weeks ago and no one jumped in. That’s the reason the Rookies ran him off. sort of a whatever attitude. That he was not a good model for Springer and the boys. Piut him in left next year if he pouts trade his ass, even if you have to eat some $.
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I made a similar comment last week and that maybe he wants out or knows he’s out. Lackadaisical comes to mind.
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Becky, I agree with the mailing it in comment. Wow, I look at the lineups now and I just cringe. It seems as if Luhnow woke up and found out that the club will not have the number 1 pick and declared the team to tank the rest of the season.
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I think the lineup of a mix of guys who are mailing it in with guys who are trying too hard. Not good results right now that is for sure.
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I think the Astros want to make sure they pick ahead of the Rangers in the draft next year. Considering the Astros have the 1-2 by losing to Texas they can drop the Rangers to 1-3 or further down. This is my only explananation for the pathetic play the past 2 days.
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It is interesting – the pitching was fine the last two days – the bullpen really backed up a short start by Obie last night and Tropeano deserved better the night before.
Again – the lack of hitting and sloppy fielding (some errors of commission and quite a few errors of omission) made for an unsettling couple of days.
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How long has it been since Singleton put the ball in play, even making an while doing so?
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It is a reasonable / sad question Tim.
Sept. 23 – 0 for 2 with 2 Ks
Sept. 21 – 0 for 1 with 1 K
Sept. 18 – 0 for 4 with 4 Ks
Sept. 17 – 0 for 2 with 1 K (and a walk)
Sept. 16 – 0 for 3 with 1 K (and a walk)
Sept. 15 – 0 for 1 with 0 Ks
Sept. 13 – 0 for 4 with 4 Ks
Sept. 12 – 0 for 2 with 0 Ks (and a walk)
Sept. 10 – 0 for 3 with 3 Ks (and a walk)
Sept. 9 – 2 for 3 (and he had the hits in first 2 ABs)
So…the last time Singleton put it in play was a groundout in the 8th inning on Sept. 17th.
He has struck out 7 straight times since then.
Overall he is on an 0 for 22 streak with 16 Ks.
When you look up ugly in the dictionary – there is a picture of a Singleton swing and miss.
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That is amazing! Thanks for the research. He is Domingo Santana, but from the opposite side of the plate.
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What is amazing is that it is worse than I thought…but yes John Mallee must be working the same kind of miracle with his swing that he did with Domingo….
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Wow, it’s gotten bad for him. Brett Wallace bad.
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JR Towles bad? Bill Hall bad?
At least he is young enough that there is a chance he will improve.
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I was doing a little research of my own. I was looking at AL Team batting stats and the Astros rank above average in four categories only and below average in all the rest. They are above average in stolen bases, drawing walks, home runs, and slugging percentage, the last two being almost the same stat.
The stats that really stood out for me were last in batting average(tied w/ Bosox) and last in doubles.. Even being above average in walks, their OBP is way below league average.
I’ll do the pitching stats later, but one pitching stat that stood out to me is Shutouts. The Astros are last in the league in shutouts with 3, but the second to last team has 6. The Astros have been virtually incapable of shutting down the other team’s hitters.
The most astounding stat I saw was that the Texas Rangers have 17 shutouts this season by their pitchers.
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old pro –
I’m with you on the batting side – they are not an effective team hitting for sure. I’m less with you on shutouts being the number to look at for whether pitching can shutdown the other team.
The Astro starters have a 3.84 ERA which is 8th in the AL, but only 0.44 behind the league leading A’s The Astros are much closer to the A’s than they are to the bottom dwelling Rangers, Bosox and Twins.
On top of that the Astros starters are 4th in the AL in innings per start – almost exactly 6 innings per start vs. 2013 when they were 13th in the AL in innings per start at 5.59.
I think the Astro starters have been very effective in keeping their team in the games – especially since the rocky early season start. The bad hitting and the bad bullpen are where the problems lie.
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You misunderstood me. I am not blaming anyone. I just thought that us having half of the shutouts of the second worst team in the shutout stat was interesting and that the Rangers would have 17 shutouts to our 3 was astounding.
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Another interesting thing here is that the Rangers have 17 shut outs – but their starters only have 4 complete game shut outs – Perez 2, Darvish 1 and Lewis 1. So they must have a lot of combo shutouts with a bullpen that is a lot better than the Astros. Heck the Astros starters are almost a run better in ERA than the Rangers – 4.79 vs. 3.84. Strange science.
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.44 is actually huge. Thats 50-60 runs at least.
To me the most important part of that 3.84 is the lack of getting deep into games consistently. Keuchel has been good at it. McHugh has at times. Feldman has been better at it in the second half. Noone else even managed to average 6 innings a start, and Peacock has seen some early dismissals thats got his season average below 5 1/3 for the year. I think the bullpens “improvement” in the second half wasn’t as much shuttling people out, some of it is that, but it’s also related to the fact that the marginals are seeing the mound a little less because all 3 of the top of the rotation guys were getting deeper and deeper, saving arms, and getting to their better relievers more often.
When you consistently hand the ball the ball to marginal relievers in the 5th and 6th inning, you lose more games. Same thing happened to Clemens when he won an ERA title and Cy Young with only 18 wins – he was always phenomonal for 5-6 innings, sometimes 7, but never got it to the better part of the bullpen, the back end, consistently. I know his offense was also not great, but it wasn’t exactly horrendous.
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i cant cope with the lack of hustle and field awareness. i know its late in the season, i know we have an interim manager, i know we arent playing for anything but holy moly these people are supposed to be MAJOR league players. gonzales should have watched the rest of the game from the bench after dogging it to first on what should have been a double. what is the excuse for that? im too cool to play hard when it looks like it’ll be an out? if you are on the field you go 100% or else you are in the wrong business. there have been several players that need a good talking to.
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IMHO Lawless has eliminated any chance of a the JOB!
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rj amd Kevin –
Kevin straight out says Lawless (who is 10-10) won’t get the job and rj you are implying that he is not straightening obvious errors by sending a “sit your butt down” message to the team.
My problem for judging (good or bad) is the small sample. If they had squeaked the last two out as wins or if they win the last 4 games in a row does that mean Lawless is back in – I’m still guessing they always intended to look elsewhere. I guess we will see.
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no dan not blaming lawless. he is just a place holder for now. who i am blaming is the player(s). a professional player needs to hustle 100% of the time while on the field. thats a fundamental characteristic, one the player himself should strive to whether he is motivated by a coach or not. i only mentioned interim manager because a player might think he can get away with more under that situation than when under a ‘permanent’ manager that wields more influence.
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Rj – it is just strange because with my meager talent – whether I was playing slo pitch softball or YMCA basketball – I always hustled my butt off. Why is that such a hard concept?
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Agreed – but I suspect he was not hired to be evaluated for the position, but rather to run out the clock and not complicate the search process.
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TheRangers, and Met’s aren’t gonna mail it in, because they have too much pride to do that. With four more games to play, I think our guys are just counting them down………..my opinion only. Maybe it’s time to rest Fowler for the last three games, and let Marisnick play center field. Obie didn’t have his best stuff last night, but the score was STILL 2-0 when he left, that was PLENTY of time to tie this game or take the lead. Any fire these guys had in their bellies last week, is gone.
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I’m not sure if it is lack of fire Becky or not. The Astros have consistently done this all year – play well for a while and then slump when their batters all go cold together. I really can’t tell from watching who is mailing it in (except Fowler) and who is so stressed from trying too hard (I think Carter is there right now – quietly wound in a knot).
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Steven –
I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you are looking for starting staffs to go deeper in the games than the Astros – there are only 3 staffs in the AL that go farther than their 6 innings a start – and the best of those is only 6.23 – not even one out more.
The Rangers starting staff is in 13th spot – next to last for innings / start at 5.67.
All I was saying about ERA is that the Astros’ staff ERA is only 0.44 behind the A’s while the Bosox are 0.56 behind the Astros, the Rangers are 0.93 behind and the Twins are (yuck) 1.28 behind.
The Astros starters are 0.88 runs better than last season in ERA.
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Yea no doubt that Keuchel and McHugh, and Feldman in the second half, are the reason this team is better. A lot of that 6.23 is Keuchel’s 6.89 – and McHugh at 6.18, and Feldman’s second half run has him at 6.22 – but I still think we need to look beyond Peacock and I’m pretty sure, when Luhnow decided to trade a pitcher, that Cosart’s below 6 was part of the equation.
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Yes – both Peacock and Oberholtzer have problems (Peacock more often) going deep into games and may be the catalyst for being traded or replaced.
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Dan……..Oberholtzer has had NO run support all year. He didn’t have his best stuff last night, but only gave up *2* runs. I still believe in this kid, and I want to give him another year to grow. Peacock is on his way out.
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I know he has not had good support, but he has also pitched overall poorly down the stretch. Last 7 starts he has had 3 starts of 4-1/3 innings and his ERA has been 5.60.
He still needs to prove a lot.
Peacock has also been struggling innings -wise but his ERA in the last 7 games is more like 3.20.
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Marisnick is in CF tonight, maybe someone has been reading our post!!! Heard Adam Everett has been working with Villar, who knows if the kid listened, but he’s
at short tonight. *ugh*
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Odd…I posted a response to you, but it ended up as a reply to another post near the top. Weird.
Not happy about the loafer Half-A$$tro starting at c…with only a few games left, we should be starting Stassi the rest of the way.
As for Villar…anybody else notice how Marwin’s playing time decreased once Lawless became interim?
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Yes, I noticed Villar playing more since Bo was let go. I have been as outspoken against Villar as Becky, but I also recognize he has more talent than MG. If anyone can get him straightened out it would be Adam Everett. Thus, I am willing to be a bit more patient with him as I am intoxicated with his ability.
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We know what Marwin gives us – we don’t know what Villar could become.
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If Gonzalez wants to win the job he needs to get his K rate back to his minor league averages of 12-14%, living around 20% while doing little else exceptionally isn’t a formula for long term job security. Now if he can do what he has done as a professional and be a difficult at bat, like an annoying nat, I’m down with him filling a utility role. Even then, though, I am suspect – he isn’t outstanding defensively at any position, he doesn’t run well, he has no power, it’s hard to see what role he could fill coming off the bench and be a big help. Can’t pinch hit, pinch run, defensive sub, not a lot.
What I wouldn’t want, and I think the Astros feel this way, at least by playing time, is not give Marwin the job because Villar can’t handle it. I would be looking for players that give me no option but to play them from their own outstanding play, not others failures.
It’s quite probable that the Astros don’t see Marwin as a solution, neither do I. I also don’t see Villar as a solution, but maybe they do.
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Ssteven – good analysis of the Marwin / Villar situation
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In that case, then why are they still starting Castro?
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I understand your question Billy but I don’t understand their actions.
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I forgot who it was that complained about the Crawfish boxes…I see what you mean there. Apparently they are die hard Castro fans there, and Stassi is VERY unpopular there.
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I’m not totlly down on Castro but I understand those who are and I would like to see more Stassi.
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Since it is garbage time, yes. But Stassi has been awful this year, across the board. At least Castro has a very good ML season under his belt. Astros’ catching surplus seems to have evaporated. I wouldn’t be kicking anyone to the curb. Let’s hope both develop the way they were trending last year, and maybe we can trade Castro next off season in favor of Stassi or Heineman (who also needs to show a little more).
I’m in favor of seeing more of Corporan.
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It was probably me. As someone else pointed out, however, there is no room for debate there. It’s a shame as some of the posters at TCB almost understand the statistics they use to make their arguments.
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It’s funny…we think Carter’s having a bad month, yet he’s .254/.448/.386 in September, He only has 4 homers, but he’s walked more than he has in any other month as well.
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Around here those are good numbers for sure.
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Uh oh. Error by Villar. Someone check on Becky.
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Last thing I heard – Becky was driving half way to Arlington with her sniper rifle on her lap. I get the feeling she is a lot more accurate than Villar.
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A drunk hits the mark in the restroom at a Walmart more accurately than Villar…
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Dear God,
Please let us not lose this series to the Rangers. Help us be able to use our bats for something else other than cooling off the umpire and the opposing team’s catcher.
Your faithful servant,
William Terry Castillo
P.S. Can I win the lottery too?
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You were in pretty bad shape here Billy since we ere already two games down in the series.
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Meant ‘last game of this series’. Gah.
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Yeah I figured – good thing I never make a mistake blogging – that I’ll admit to
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2 walks and a dinger…thank you, Jose Veras.
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Two walks and two dingers.
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Not Veras’ finest hour
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