Burning Astros’ question: Can Peacock put out Fiers?

Brad Peacock has been more than a cup of coffee guy as far as major league experience goes. He has been up for a number of meals, they have just not been very good on the whole. This is the sixth season that he has made an appearance in the major leagues, but the only extended times he has spent in the majors (83.1 IP in 2013 and 131.2 IP in 2014) with the Astros he pitched pretty poorly (5.18 ERA and 4.72 ERA respectively).

Even though he was a 41st round signee by the Nats back in 2006, he worked his way up to become the 36th rated prospect in all of baseball in the 2012 preseason by Baseball America. He was part of two fairly high-profile trades – to the A’s with others for Gio Gonzalez and again with Max Stassi and Chris Carter to the Astros for Jed Lowrie.

He has struggled through injuries. He has struggled with having small tastes of the majors (263 IP before this season) and big gulps of the minors (927 IP heading into 2017). If Colin McHugh had been healthy coming out of spring training this year, his bullpen spot probably would have belonged to Mike Fiers and he would have been back in the minors or gone.

But Peacock came into the season with his own good health and a new, sharper slider thanks to Jordan Jankowski, who ironically just was called up this week as bullpen insurance with Peacock taking a spot start.

Peacock has been Devenski-strong coming out of the bullpen this season and after that 4.1 IP, ten K, one hit effort Monday night his numbers are pristine. In 13 games he has pitched 20.1 IP, has a 0.82 ERA, a 0.968 WHIP and 30 Ks. He has a career WAR of 1.3 and 0.8 of that has come in the first 7 weeks of this season.

Both Mike Fiers (5.17 ERA and a major league leading 17 HRs allowed) and Joe Musgrove (5.63 ERA and 1.554 WHIP) have been inconsistent and a threat to not make it through the early innings in many or their starts.

Is it time to flip-flop bottom of the rotation starters? Could they slide Keuchel back in at one of those two spots when he is ready to go and let Peacock pitch on 4 days rest in Keuchel’s old spot?

At the very least a change is tempting.

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151 responses to “Burning Astros’ question: Can Peacock put out Fiers?”

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  1. Saw on twitter that starting Peacock again is still up in the air. They have to give him another one or they think Musgrove and Fiers out of the bullpen is useless.

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  2. I’m not sure what to do. When they flip flopped the rotation, Fiers ended up facing all the other team’s #1 starters, including his upcoming start against Verlander.
    The thought of Fiers coming out of the pen doesn’t seem to work for me because Fiers is a guy who gets in trouble right away and then finds a way to hang in the game for a few innings. I don’t like the idea of having him come into a game and giving up the other guy’s runs and then trying to work out of more messes.
    I think you let Fiers make his Thursday start and use Jankowski in relief of him, if the team is trailing, hold Peacock out until it is determined if Keuchel is ready for his next start and then make the switch out for Fiers or Musgrove, if needed after the the next couple of series play out.
    Stand pat until Keuchel is cleared and has made a start before deciding what to do with Peacock.

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  3. To move the conversation along a bit – let’s look at the options here.

    Option 1 – Do nothing. When Keuchel returns move Peacock into his role as impact reliever. Keep Fiers and Musgrove in the rotation and hope for better results.

    Option 2 – Replace Fiers with Peacock in the rotation.
    Sub options …
    a) Put Fiers in the bullpen in Peacock’s spot
    b) DFA Fiers and see if he makes it through and send him to minors
    c) Try to trade Fiers for some lower ranked prospect(s)

    Option 3 – Replace Musgrove with Peacock in the rotation.
    Sub options …
    a) Put Musgrove in the bullpen in Peacock’s spot
    b) Send Musgrove down to AAA to start and work on his stuff
    c) Maybe package Musgrove in whatever big time trade you are thinking of…..

    What do you prefer

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    • I suspect we’re going to see option 4 – try to use Peacock in small bursts to keep his trade value at a maximum. This likely means some spot starts where they pull him early and continued usage out of the pen with the same pattern they have been employing. Given the depth of the pen they don’t need to try to push him into a higher profile role as long as he’s still getting consistent innings.

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  4. The more I see George Springer’s offense, the less I want to trade Kyle Tucker. Springer will be 28 in September.

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    • OP couldn’t agree more soon he will hitting .220 . Love the kid but man he is underachieving. I have never seen anyone foul off more good pitches and then ground out , Ugh

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    • George will end up with about 30 homers, he’ll drive in about 80 runs in the wrong place in the lineup for him, he’ll get his average up over .250 and his OBP over .350 and his .OPS over .800. Not what I expected out of him a few years ago, but he’s also an excellent outfielder and a strong presence in the dugout. Come October we’ll be happy with him again.

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      • You mat be right Dave I don’t see it, 22 65 .240 not worried about his defense and presence in the dug out . He just hasn’t blossomed like I thought he would at almost 28.

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      • Cynical as I am Kevin, I think George gives us at least what he’s done lifetime. And that includes an .800 plus OPS which I think is a pretty big stat.

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  5. It is something when Marisnick’s average is higher than Springers. Maybe they should switch places in the batting order.

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  6. As it stands right now, Morton is getting killed the 3rd time through the order. Fiers and Musgrove are getting hit hard early. DK is hurt. LMJ is at 100 pitches with 1/2 the game to go.

    So suit up Nolan, Seaver, and either Maddox or Glavine.

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    • I think both Peacock and Morton have starter stuff. They each have four major league pitches and they are trying to build up stamina to make it through that third time around in the batting order.
      Four pitches that work is the key to making it through six/seven innings and their past injuries have limited their stamina and they can work through that as the season progresses.
      Fiers does not have four reliable pitches. His loss of curveball command has batters sitting on all his pitches, until they get what they are looking for. Musgrove does have four quality pitches but does not have the confidence to throw them when and where he wants. He isn’t fully developed yet, but he has the stuff.
      Keuchel, LMJ, Morton, Peacock and Musgrove have the stuff to carry this team if they are matched up in that order against the other team’s 1-5. I firmly believe that.
      And I love the idea of McHugh being available at the season’s end, if it works out that way, because he is a four-pitch guy with iron nerves in the clutch in the last two months of the year. He has always been great late in the year.

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      • Interesting comment on Musgrove and confidence. It seems like he hasn’t had the ‘good’ fastball in many starts and kept throwing it off the plate as if he was afraid to let them hit it. When hitters didn’t extend the zone, he was forced to give them something in hitter’s counts. The other possibility is that his command is poor right now…and that would be worrisome as well.

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  7. A month ago I was screaming for Fiers to be pulled from the rotation. I still think he’s the weakest link, but I also think we’re best served by sending Musgrove down to regroup. This is a guy who has always been a strike thrower. Not right now though. He’s lost confidence in his stuff. Assuming Keuchel is ready to go, I give Peacock a few more starts in Musgrove’s place.

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    • Not sure anyone has noticed, but Rio Ruiz has been playing 3B while Adonis Garcia has been on the DL. Ruiz probably heads back to Gwinnett this weekend. Ruiz was a good pick and sign by Luhnow. My Braves’ fan friends are excited about him.

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  10. Don’t know if one has to do with the other but a couple games back, Footer and McTaggert both tweeted mid-game that Correa didn’t run out a ground ball or he would have been safe.

    He is not starting again tonight.

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    • I remember that situation – I think it was the 2B who flubbed it bad but had time to get him because he was 1/2 a$$-ing it out of the box. I would think he must have something wrong with him physically to miss two games in a row

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      • Correa needs a wake up call. Far too many situations on the field where he’s semi hot dogged a ball. He’s much better than that and will learn. I’m glad a 16 million guy like Beltran is around to help him understand fully his profession.

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  13. This is my 3rd season enjoying the Stros & looking forward to them meeting my Cubs in the WS this yr or whichever NL rep makes it. Sorry to get of subject but OP, I thought by now George would figure it out and become the .280-300 hitter he has the potential to be. It’s disheartening watching him go through extended periods of swing & miss, get hot briefly then drop down again. He does everything else well but hit consistently. Why does Hinch insists on keeping him in the lead off spot? Other than on base machine Altuve, who might be another candidate for the lead off spot?
    Is Beltran historically a slow starter or might he be pressing? Impressed with how Marisnick, after appearing to sink south, has picked his avg up again. Hope he continues swinging the stick. Would love to see Correa’s avg inch further north, he’s way to good to be middle of the pack.
    Lastly, I truly believe the Astros are on the cusp of greatness depending on their pitching situation. I fully expect reinforcements to come via trade in particular, who, I do not know. I keep seeing names like Gerrit, Archer, Quintana pop up online. While there are no guarantees, the window is wide open for that huge push with the right moves to acquire pitching help.

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    • Andre, George has been playing RF since being called up and delivering negative numbers according to the stat guys. He is now in center, where he has always belonged and is finally delivering positive defensive numbers there.
      But Springer’s offensive numbers are way down across the board and he has ceased being an above average baserunner, according to Fangraphs.
      He has been a big disappointment to me because he was so promising with big time averages and stolen bases and he has not been able to deliver those at this level.
      Leading off with Springer is the doings of Hinch, who believes he is smarter than everyone else, except his boss. But, all he has to do is point out the team’s record in his defense and smugly grin and say it is because the no-hit, no steal, big strikeout guy has carried the team on his shoulders to this great start. Of course, he sticks Marisnick in CF and moves Springer to RF to show how he is so far out in front in his thinking. I have no idea how he explains Springer sucky numbers in RF and the team’s disappointing 2016, especially with Springer’s highlight videos in RF. I do know Springer constantly gets burned by being out of position in outfield shifts, with a lot of triples being hit to the RF corner because Springer is moved too far to right center.
      Your guess is as good as mine as to why the Astros don’t play as well at home this year as on the road, where the entire team hits better.
      We might have to blame that on a lack of focus when they are in town. That is the only thing I can think of.

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      • My wife is forced to watch the Astros if she walks through the room. Last night on the triple down first baseline, with no throw to 3rd, in late innings, in a close game, she walks in, sees Springer pick the ball and said “Why did the centerfielder have to go get the ball.”

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      • AC45 – your wife made me chuckle this morning and that took some work after last night’s game

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  15. Well, still up by 7. Would have liked to see Jake take ball four and give Springer a shot to tie it up. George will suddenly hit a batch of homers again soon.

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  16. Morton gives up two runs in seven innings and then the bullpen folds. So weird. But
    it seems like the Astros should have scored five runs in the first four inning but cannot hit with runners on. I’m glad that game is over. Can’t wait for Fiers to outduel Verlander tomorrow night. OMG!
    Angels, Rangers and Mariners all lose.

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  17. I think we need to leave Quintana’s, name off our wish list. He lasted a tad over 4 innings and gave up 8 runs tonight. He’s either hurt, or all the talks of trading him are making him lose focus. I’m still going to lobby for Chris Archer!
    Tough loss tonight…..and for the very first time Charlie actually got through 6 innings! Will wonders never cease!

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  18. I saw where the Tigers are trying to convert speedy OF Anthony Gose from OF to pitcher. If you remember, Gose was a pass through as part of the Roy Oswalt trade with the Phillies – being passed on to the Blue Jays for Brett Wallace.
    While he has been a pretty good base stealer in his time in the bigs, he could not steal 1st base. Now he is returning to pitching (he was a 2 way player when drafted) with a fast ball that gets up to 99 mph at Class A.

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  19. Correa is back in the lineup tonight. Centeno is catching, Gattis at DH and Beltran is getting a much needed day off. Aoki is in LF. The rest of the lineup is as expected vs. RH Verlander.

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    • Beltran is the most expensive baby sitter I’ve ever known. He needs to do more for me to justify giving the guy $16 million for 2017. Who knows, after a day off he might actually hit the ball.

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      • I’m not going to give up on Beltran yet, but he has been a major disappointment so far. I didn’t expect him to repeat last year’s numbers, but I thought we would get around a .250-.260 average with 20 HRs. He may still get there, but he is going to need to kick it in gear. If he is still struggling like this at the ASB then I will be ready to end the Beltran experiment, but I’m not there yet.

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      • He looked strong in March. He looked tired in April and May. I think he’s exhibit A of why the WBC is hurting the MLB product. I expect him to hit a hot streak and make us believe he’s as good as he was in 2016 still.

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  21. Situational hitting is raising it’s ugly head again. Just think how many more runs they could have if they could hit with guys on base…..*.like last night.*

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  24. For crying out loud Gov, what’s the rush? We’ve still got the best record in MLB and lead our division by 7 games. Right now, Marwin has earned the right to play most nights. Aoki might not see the end of the season in an Astro uniform, but we don’t need Fisher today. Give the kid some more time. Let’s see how he handles his first AAA slump. And he’s still striking out too much.

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    • Yeah that’s the spirit – let’s see how he handles a slump. Lol! I’ll be watching for him to play poorer.

      I’m repeating what the article says and you hand me my shirt…

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      • Morning Gov. Well, you don’t have to repeat everything you read! Maybe if Fisher was a starter? Thing is, considering the way Marwin and Jake are playing right now, Aoki is not going to be getting a whole lot of starts. Why bring the kid up when he’d be on the bench more oftern than not? His job is not a pressing need right now. We’re fortunate.

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    • Also, didn’t you say during Spring that you mostly didn’t care ’til the season starts? I watched virtually every ST inning, and Derek Fisher belongs – period. He doesn’t belong in AAA, and when he makes the team, I’ll remind you like I did a year ago last Spring how good Marwin really is. What’s the rush? No rush, except he deserves a shot when he’s good enough, like every other minor leaguer trying to catch a break.

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      • I’m encouraged by Fisher, but really, are you ready to release Aoki and take playing time away from Jake and Marwin so that Fisher can play five days a week? Because it does not make good sense to bring up a 23 year old with 60 or 70 AAA games under his belt to be a part time player on this team right now. If we were struggling and playing .500 ball, then maybe I make a move for a new bat. But I think the focus right now is to figure out a way to make the pitching staff stronger. And I hate to say this Gov, but Fisher could end up being part of the pitching solution.

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    • He needs to get pulled off the damn roster. I think he may be my least favorite Astros pitcher since Jason Jennings, and that’s saying a hell of a lot.

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  29. If we ever cut bait with Beltran, we should move Gattis to DH and use Centeno as our backup C.I’m liking what I’m seeing.

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  33. I like Aoki, but Jake definitely needs to be starting now. He’s had a couple of months of success offensively in years past, but this doesn’t look like a fluke. His swing looks massively different, and if Hudgens has been working with him on it, he needs kudos.

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  35. The Astros take three out of four and I feel like I watched Houdini , because I don’t have a clue how they did it.
    Fiers is terrible. I’m ready if Keuchel and Peacock are ready. Maybe Fiers can go on the DL from the windburn of line drives whizzing close to him, skinned knees from ducking out of the way, or a neck sprain from jerking around and following the flight of the ball out of the stadium.
    Our #5 against their #1, three of our relievers pitch lousy, the opponent had 14 hits and 5 walks, the Astros are 1 for 5 W/RISP and somehow still win the game. Crazy.
    The # 8 and #9 spots tonight were 4-8 with 2 HRs and 2 RBIs.

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    • It helps when you treat first base and home plate as “scoring position”.
      Two guys were knocked in from first and four knocked themselves in with homers and voila…
      Funny – I felt like they played better ball against the Indians and were swept. Baseball is so weird.

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    • There were at least two hints . A couple were hit so hard by the Tigers that they were DPs in less than 1second.

      The usual suspects this year are keeping us in the game hitting at the bottom of the order.

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  37. Not defending Aoki because it is apparent to me why Mariners DFA’d him. He has a dismal OBP of .313. However Yuli, Beltran, and Hinch’s lead off hitter all are worse at getting on base.

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  38. 45, our OBP is still 6th best in the game. And I think Beltran, Springer, Altuve and Aoki will all improve on their present OBP’s.

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  39. The Rangers were 8.5 games back before their 10-game winning streak. We wake up this morning to see the Rangers are now 8 games back of the Astros. Have a great weekend, Chipalatta family!

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  40. I watched the game last night and I wanted to point out some things I saw that made the Astros win so improbable
    Nori Aoki looked like 68 year-old me going after Cabrera’s hit in the first inning. He handled the ball like it was a puppy, then made a perfect throw to second base that would have gotten Cabrera out, but Correa cut it off and then made a 25 foot relay throw. Cabrera and Clark then do a perfect Astros imitation to get thrown out at home on the next play. You knew Fiers was not going to last long after those two line drive singles in the first.
    Astros strand two in the first.
    Fiers walks the leadoff guy in the second and then gets charged with an error on a pickoff attempt that Marwin Gonzalez totally whiffs on the catch.
    Jose Altuve screws up on a short flyball to center that he should have let Springer get that falls in for a hit. Then Cabrea nearly takes Fiers’ head off with a line drive hit to a shifted Altuve for a double play.
    Springer forces Aoki at second base in the third inning and then gets doubled off 1B on a flyout to RF for the second time this week.
    In the fourth inning, a Fiers fastball, which almost anyone can hit out of the park, rips open their catcher’s hand and puts him out of the game. I’m pretty sure this is the same left hand that got hit the night before on catcher’s interference that a smash from a baseball bat could not get him knocked out of the game. Oh, irony!
    In the bottom of the fourth, Gattis gets a wind aided single that should have been a popup to SS. Then Marwin hits a ball so high to RF that the wind keeps it from going foul and he gets a HR. I think Marwin didn’t run on this particular homer because he thought it was going foul.
    In th fifth inning VMart hits a rocket right to mMarwin for a DP costing the Tigers two runs that would have scored when JD hits a ball off the yellow line in CF.
    Marisnick hits the game winning Hr in the 8th after entering as a pinch runner in the sixth.
    Fleiz lets Fiers’s last run score.
    Harris gives up a homer.
    Gregerson walks the leadoff guy, doesn’t hold the runner at all on the steal of second in the eighth and gives up a run on a double.
    All night long, the home plate ump doesn’t know where the strike zone is.
    Verlander threw over 100 pitches plus 48 fastballs to IB.
    This win was nuts!

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    • Just an odd-wad game op. Even in the 8th inning when Gregerson gave up the tying run – both Springer and Marisnick had to go way back on a couple of well hit balls. That inning could have been a lot messier as he stranded a couple.
      You could see the OFs were struggling with the wind most of the night which is sure not normal at MMP – not Wrigley or Candlestick bad but unusual here.
      So it is two months into the season and Marisnick is still hitting very well. Of course he is doing it on a very limited number of ABs. But between his homers and his fielding especially his walk off throw out a few weeks ago – he has made the winning plays in a handful of games. If they played him more would he sag back towards normalcy? Or did he finally grow into his body.

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      • I just want to point out that Marisnick has a .429 BABIP and his K rate is still a very high 39.4%. He is walking more with a 9.1% BB rate, but this Jake reminds me oh so much of April 2015 Jake. His BB rate indicates he is swinging at better pitches and it might be a contributing factor to his very high K rate (taking more pitches), but I see major regression coming with Jake and probably fairly soon.

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      • Maybe, but it also looks like he has changed both his stance and approach. If he continues this, we definitely have to give credit to Hudgens

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      • Tim, that Jake of April 2015 seems different than this one. I remember that Jake going the oppo side a lot and hitting a lot of dinkers that were falling in.
        This Jake seams to be hitting the ball harder and farther, with the BABIP being from velocity off the bat rather than the luck of no fielder being in the area. Just my impression, do not have MPH stats to back it up.

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      • I am actually fine with the K rate if he keeps up the BB rate and power. Jake is never going to be a contact hitter, but I could live with more Ks if it results in more BBs and HRs. I don’t think he’ll ever be a strong hitter, but he gets on base more and hits more HRs, with his exceptional defense, he is a serviceable starting OFer.

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      • I’m having almost as much fun watching Jake play as he’s having playing. As long as he keeps hitting the ball over the fence, I guess that .429 BABIP is sustainable. But alas, he’s fooled me before. That said, I’d love to see a .750 OPS out of him, high K rate and all. Can he do that?

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      • He might be able to. He had some success in the minors. Some of his struggles might have been from being brought up too early (if I recall correctly, he was about 21 or 22 when he made his debut with the Marlins). He might just be coming into his own after making the proper adjustments

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      • Funny Sandy – last night during the game my son texted me a picture from that movie after some of the plays that were happening with an angel “helping” one of the players

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  41. Our YTD OPS from the 7th slot is .848, from the 8th slot .965 and from the 9th slot, .718. This is one compelling reason why we’ve got the best record in baseball.

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      • Astros leadoff stats – .240 BA (11th in AL), .329 OBP (9th), .747 OPS (9th), 31 Runs (9th), 9 HR (3rd), 28 RBIs (2nd)

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      • And for perspective
        If someone else (just for fun let’s talk about Jose Altuve) was leading off
        .298 BA would be 2nd for AL leadoff
        .367 OBP would be 1st
        .861 OPS would be 2nd
        29 R would be 10th (wanna bet he would score more than 29 if in the leadoff spot
        7 HR Tied 5th
        22 RBI – 8th

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      • Thank you Dan. One thing about Springer, whether leading off or not, I think he’ll end up with the OPS over .800 before it’s all over and if 7,8,9 keep hitting, George should lead the league in leadoff guy RBI’s. But remember, Keith Law says RBI’s are overrated!

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  42. If I were manager for one day :

    2B Altuve
    LF Reddick
    SS Correa
    RF Springer
    DH Gattis
    C McCann
    1B Gurriel / Gonzalez
    3B Bregman
    CF Marisnick

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  45. Is anybody else glad to have Blum back and be rid of Mike Stanton in the TV booth? He was not much fun to listen to this week. He kept talking over Kalas and had the same cliché’s.

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    • Got to be demoralizing for the Rangers to win ten straight in May but still be 9 games out a week later. Becky, how do you feel about that?

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  50. Well, this one did not turn out as I had envisioned. But this offense is getting ready to wake up again.

    If they want to give Peacock another start, it’s a much easier call on who to sit.

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