Dan P’s brain is more clogged than normal – so it is time for a bit of a brain dump.
– What do you really want to happen with Jose Abreu? I want to see him fix that back and return to the top-notch run producer he has been his whole career. But I don’t want him to come back too soon (or at all) if he’s going to gimp along as he has. Jon Singleton is a nice story, but I’d rather have the good Abreu.
– What would a Michael Brantley return mean?
Houston Astros: Michael Brantley approaching rehab assignment (houstonchronicle.com)
I’m picturing a lineup like this….
- Altuve 2B
- Bregman 3B
- Tucker RF
- Alvarez LF/DH
- McCormick CF
- Brantley DH/LF
- Diaz C
- Singleton/Abreu 1B
- Peña SS
Yeah, I know we are stuck with Maldy for a while, but that is one deep lineup, even with Maldy screwing it up.
– If Lance McCullers returns healthy in 2024, is it time to look at using him differently? Is it any easier on his arm to pitch one inning at a time but warm up every other day? The final solution might be to try and get half a season out of him and try to trade him. You could just continue to ride his very good but inconsistently available arm, or you could buy your way out from under the contract.
– The Astros seem to waver between piling on and struggling to score. You can glance back over the recent past and see where they scored 11 runs in a win followed by 1 in a loss, 7 in a win followed by 1 in a loss, 17 in a win followed by 2 in a loss (and on and on.). Since the beginning of June, they have a 36-28 record, which is a 91-win rate. Good, but not great. In that approximate 10-week period, the longest win streak they have is 4 games. They have not put together a consistent string of offensive games to go on a 10-game streak, let’s say, that might flip this pennant race. Their pitching has just been more consistent all year than their offense, and that needs to get evened out if they hope to go on a long roll.
– With the trade for Justin Verlander, the Astros have set themselves up to have a very strong rotation returning. This will be an off-season area of discussion, but they could have Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, J.P. France, Hunter Brown, Jose Urquidy, and Lance McCullers Jr. available at the beginning of next season, with Luis Garcia possibly available during the season. That does not even count the potential development of a pitcher like Spencer Arrighetti or one of the other arms in the minors. An area that looked like it was falling off the table a month into the season may carry the team again.
So, just a few things to chew on today. What is your brain dying to dump?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
67 responses to “Astros Brain Dump”
I’m trying to avoid talking about 2024 at this point.
But we’ve lost 2 of our last 4 by a run, both when Yainer Díaz was on the bench. It really disgusts me.
And right now, he’s still sitting. One of our best bats. He should be at first base when there is no other place to put him.
I’m wavering again. Dan, going back to a question way earlier in the season, I keep thinking that maybe it’s better to have this club crash and burn with Baker at the helm and getting a fresh start with a new manager this winter.
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Wouldn’t it have been nice to have Diaz taking swings in the middle of the order in the 2nd when we left the bases loaded yet again?
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Maldy’s leadership is on full display tonight. Passed ball. Pop up with the bases loaded. Cranberry getting smacked around again. Some will say: Don’t fear the Yainer. I say more cowbell!
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Framber has a fantastic new nickname, thanks to autocorrect!
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And another passed ball, this time for a run by our catcher. By the way, how many teams let their starters choose their backstop? My take is that the ace and maybe an older veteran get that opportunity if it BENEFITS the club. Why do I think this is another Dusty Baker created monster? To me it’s incredible that our #2 catcher has never caught Framber.
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Does anyone remember that offensive stat ‘RBI’? It’s been so long since we had one, I’ve forgotten what the letters stand for.
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Another very frustrating game for our team. They hit the ball hard a times but no results. The two out rally by the Marlins in the 8th disguised what a close game it was.
For somebody who looks out of shape, Maldy never gets hurt.
I’m really sick of Diaz getting tossed in there for single at bats at the end of the game. Not fair to him or to us.
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Having Diaz hit for Maldy in the 9th was insulting. And I don’t understand the continued rationale behind trying to squeeze late outs from the starters. If it’s 2-1 going into the 9th, it might be manageable. I don’t like the way this week is shaping up. If the manager can’t play his best team, I don’t have confidence in a reversal of fortune for the Astros. We’re making it too easy for the Rangers.
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Everytime Diaz pinch hits for Maldy in the 9th my nose curls. It just stinks. It’s so frustrating to see these 2-1, uh, 5-1 losses where Maldy strikes out 2 or 3 times and we see Diaz get one last ditch effort. Second inning, bases loaded, two outs, I don’t know that Diaz would have done anything different, but we know what Maldy is going to do. I guess to be fair, he didn’t strike out?
Not to mention, Diaz is not a pinch hitter. When I think pinch hitters, I think professional hitters like Orlando Palmeiro was. That was a guy who would go out there and scratch out an at bat. He didn’t have crazy LD rates, exit velocities, but he didn’t chase, and he was going to make the pitcher work for it, and he could take advantage of a mistake. Not a guy for 500 PA’s, just a guy that went and scratched. That’s the kind of guy you give 1 AB a game too in a picked out spot with a picked out matchup. Diaz is not a PH’er, he is going to chase, he will expand. He is a rhythm hitter, the kind you start and give 500 PAs too. He isn’t a scratcher. But Diaz will make up for it with a 3 run HR and some doubles in there.
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Who knows how this all plays out. In 2020 I was sure, based on how the regular season finished, that we’d be Swept by Minnesota. But we darned near went back to the World Series. That could still happen. However, I’d kinda suspect this is not our year. Too many holes in the lineup and the starting pitching is too inconsistent. I’ve been a defender of DB but sometimes it’s time for change. This could be one of these times.
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The responses to this new post bristled with frustration, and rightly so. This tm is 6-4 with consecutive losses (both winnable gms). My brain dump is this:
I am so over Dusty, Verlander & Valdez being all in their feelings for Maldy. I have nothing personal against Dusty or Maldy, nor would I diminish the contributions they have made to this tm. But the bottom line is winning, not a popularity contest to help bridle one’s insecurities. What is the chance the P staff or offense goes to $*#& with Diaz behind the dish?
Dan, that lineup needs to be etched in granite. No musical chairs except (off days, situations, inj, ect). When cream puffs fill in they go to the back of the bus. Don’t kill the continuity of the hitters or take away their protection.
Mr. Bill, our RISP/LOB stinks. We can’t keep loading a gaggle of ducks into the pond then leave them sit.
UK, I’m feeling your fresh start.
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The sense I get from this team – the players – is that they know they are not good enough to get to the world series this year so they are just ‘playing out the string’. They know that the combination of pitching injuries, the ill-advised, albatross contract awarded to Jose Abreu, and the black holes in the line-up that go by the names Maldonado, Meyers, Dubon, and occasionally Kessinger make it impossible for them to stay up with truly inspired and talented teams like this year’s Rangers, Rays, Dodgers, Braves, and Orioles. Individual players are focusing on making their personal stats look as good as they can so they can build their case for arbitration and/or free agency.
They still can make the playoffs – but that will require Yordan Alvarez to find his bat the way Altuve has, for somebody far better with the bat than Jon Singleton to come out of the minors, and for Dusty to finally fess up and admit the Martin Maldonado era is just over. NOT … GOING … TO … HAPPEN.
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Well I hold much more confidence than some of your towards to the bunch.
I will say Maldy is a hill Dusty is willing to die on.
Astros media is having a field day with the Maldy/Diaz comparisions. Some of the numbers are appallingly bad for Maldy. When that reporter asked Dusty why Kessinger was 1B giving Abreu a breather instead of Diaz, Dusty responded with “I make the lineup card. Everyone knows Diaz is hitting .170 against lefties.” Great logic, the problem is Maldonado hits .170 against everyone. Dusty should have just said look we got to get Grae at bats too can’t ask him to sit for a month without playing and then stick him out there because someone got hurt.
That said I am optimistic. Six weeks left. A week of fire, two more of very good baseball, and just don’t have any bad streaks, and they can get there. If they can get there the rotation is not as solid as it was last year – with the exact same guys minus McCullers – but if Framber and Javier can catch fire they can make some noise. I don’t think they will win it all – at this point they look like terrible matchups for the Rangers or Rays for different reasons, but those guys believe in themselves and that is half the battle. It’s the other half of the battle I’m worried about.
All that clamoring I did for Singleton and he seems to be shooting for the fences every swing. He is drawing walks, so that is a plus (more on that in a second) but that upper cut in his swing just leads to a lot of easy, lazy fly balls. I looked at numbers and wanted to see the guy get a shot (I love comeback stories) but in the end I see why he hits south of Mendoza. It’s like he is Bregman, but WAY worse.
As for the LOB’s – they can be frustrating. But they are way less frustrating then when you lose a game 4-1 and only left 2 on base. Getting ducks on the pond is the point of it. You are going to go through little stretches of 2-18 with RISP, EVERY team does, what frustrates me is when you lose 4-1 and no one got on base. This offense is much more threatening than it was in June. They will get some timely hitting and get some ducks as long as they stay patient and don’t start expanding. Dusty’s goal right now should be to keep that vibe in the clubhouse that they are doing it the right way this month and keep getting on base. Well, and play Diaz. But Dusty don’t care.
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Steven, I don’t really care that much at this point. Maybe I’m selfish. My biggest concern is that the Astros will get hot ( and they are capable of that with anyone at the helm) ) and go deep into the post season with Dusty getting enough credit to be rewarded with a contract to come back in 2024 along with his man Maldy. I don’t want to experience that. And I don’t want Diaz or any other young player in the organization to experience that. It’s simply not a healthy way to do business.
This mornings stat is simple.
Diaz is 9-3 behind the plate in July and August.
Maldy is 14 -13.
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If Baker is back next year I may take a break from baseball for a year. I’m pretty frustrated by his lineup choices, and his incessant love for “veterans” that he just night and night out does not play the best lineup possible.
It’s not like Yainer Diaz came out of nowhere. Heck, we are baseball casuals in the sense of comparing us to real baseball minds, and most us were clamoring for Yainer before opening day.
Baker didn’t give Abreu 60M (though he may have been in the room when the decision was made), but he doesn’t have to play excessively to the point that it is detrimental.
Like I said (and you pointed out more specifically), this team is markedly better when Maldonado is NOT in the lineup, and to see this 73 year old baseball veteran of 53 years continue to insist it is against all empirical evidence to the contrary is frustrating beyond belief.
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On the radio this morning they said that the Astros are 46-40 when Maldy starts and 22-11 when he doesn’t (which I assume includes a couple Salazar starts).
When Maldy starts they out score the opposition something like 4.5 to 4.3 runs (I’m doing this from memory) and when he doesn’t start they outscore the opposition something like 5.3 to 3.3 runs on the average.
Sean Pendergast said he was mad about the three back to back home runs last night, not because Framber was out there in the 8th inning for the first two (his pitch count was reasonable), but because it moved the score from 2-1 to 5-1 and disguised the fact that Maldy’s passed ball on a very catchable ball was the difference in the game.
To me, if Maldy is playing because certain pitchers would rather he catch and Dusty won’t stand up to them – it reminds me of another manager who is gone because he couldn’t stand up to his players.
I’ve had enough.
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I hate to say it but I don’t believe anything is going to change. I think it was has been said on one of the SportsmapHOU segments that Dusty is hard headed and is going to do what he wants to do come hell or high water. His stubbornness is the reason that he never won a WS previous to his tenure with the Astros and the reason that he was fired from those teams. He just refused to be flexible. https://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/bakerdu01.shtml
I wish I were wrong but I don’t think it will change. If for some strange reason he’s given another year and of course You get Maldy back too, we can look for further demise of the Astros. If that’s the case, if I were Yanier, I’d demand a trade. If the team is smart they’d back him but those chances are slim and none.
If we want to return to the post season this year we have to play at least .600 baseball. The Rangers are the better team and at this point I believe the M’s are also a better (hotter) team. Seattle is only 2 games back in the WC standings and they a 7-3 over the last 10. Starting Thursday we have 3 games with the M’s and 4 with the Red Sox. Our playoff hopes could be made or broke on this home stand. Better get with the program or it’s going to be a long winter.
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The Astros are 2-2 in Salazar starts, which makes us 20-9 in Diaz starts behind the plate.
As good as the Astro organization has been for years now, it’s a dysfunctional group if there is no way to stop a runaway manager from jeopardizing a season.
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There’s a balance between overexposing guys and keeping them out of the lineup too much. There have been a lot of situations where Chas should have been in the starting lineup…if healthy. Is there justification for Diaz not being in the lineup 80% of the time or more? He can play C/1B/DH…but some of those missed games coincide with giving guys like Altuve a day at DH. It’s believable he lacks some knowledge that the pitchers wants and needs to bridge that gap…but the results on the field show he is probably already among the top 5 catchers in the league. Maldonado isn’t making so much money Crane would mandate it. If we shift to first base, the reason Singleton is trying to do damage with every swing is because he knows the only way he is getting a roster spot is if he is seen as the guy who might provide a pinch hit HR in the postseason. He’s not versatile defensively. He’s not taking Abreu’s spot and isn’t better than him. I really like Singleton and have seen him multiple times at AAA. He’s just got a limited shot is all.
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As for your write up Dan-
LMJ reminds me of old used car me and wife were arguing about selling. We probably could have sold it for $4000 but it was probably more valuable as a 3rd emergency vehicle than anything we could have gotten for it. It sounds like a sell off. His history isn’t netting you a real prospect, and you might even have to absorb salary to get rid of him. But a healthy LMJ is a plus pitcher. Do we just sell him off for next to nothing as a salary dump (if you can get someone to take on that salary), or do we stick him in the rotation next year and see if this is the year you finally get 30 starts? This is a guy that can go 15-8 in a season, or can he? Depends on if he pitches.
Sidenote on the car – my wife would still drive it ever so often – she had it for 14 years – and a guy ran a stop sign and crushed the side of it. No one was hurt, but the car was totaled by the insurance company. Sometimes no matter what choice you make it is destined to not work out. Of course, unlike me, LMJ and the Astros they won’t get a check if someone totals him.
Might as well hope for the best with Abreu because the Astros are paying him 40+M more dollars like it or not. I think he has lost a tick in his head – but we have seen plenty of good hitters in their later 30s adjust to losing that millisecond by just becoming pull hitters. So far he has resisted that, hitting to the right side as much as the left this year – but I think if he wants anymore 25 HR seasons he is going to have to start selling out, forget about hitting .290 anymore, and cheat fastball more often. I could live with a Abreu that strikes out a bit if his average just comes up a smidgen and the power is back.
I don’t know what you do with Brantley. I can’t imagine in over a year break he is suddenly going to start hitting lefties. So about 1/3rd of the time he shouldn’t be in the lineup. But Dusty don’t care. It could work against us because the master of untold lineups that make no sense will bat him second against Chris Sale.
I think I mentioned last week – 2024 could be a crowded starting pitcher room. You never know what the offseason brings but opening ST with 7 guys competing for a spot is a good problem to have. Every franchise in baseball would like to have those 8 names on their dry erase board.
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Not really a ‘Stros brain dump…but I think it’s funny that MLB wants to expand by 2 teams when the league already has TERRIBLE pitching. There are at least 30-40 guys who should be playing in Korea and it’s only going to get worse. Yuck.
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Gary, I’ll bet Jordan Lyles is a proponent. No hurry for him though. He’s already booked up next year.
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Here it is in black and white with the reverse value of MLB players with at least 250 ABs:
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=250&type=8&season=2023&month=0&season1=2023&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2023-01-01&enddate=2023-12-31&sort=22,a
I hope this posts.
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We have been carrying 2 of the worst 5 players in baseball with a starting job for months on in.
And we wonder why we lose so many 3-1 games.
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Mr. Bill – I think this team will make the playoffs, but like UK (daveb) I am afraid that this will only let Dusty continue on…. But certainly, the margin of error is narrow and while I keep waiting for that big winning streak that might boost them into the playoffs, maybe I should fear that they will have a team splitting big losing streak that leaves them short.
Steven – I love your analogy of LMJ to that used car that you just can’t quite let go, but don’t know what to do with if you keep it.
Gary – there are about 4-5 billion reasons why MLB might want to expand. When they expanded to Tampa and Arizona in 1998, those teams paid $130 MM each in an expansion (extortion) fee. In 2021 when Manfred was talking about potential expansion – he mentioned $2.2 billion as a starting point for his thinking as this was the average value of teams or some such rot. So, let’s say this happens 5 years from now – that is likely to be a $5 billion total expansion fee between the two teams – so how many current teams are going to turn down another $166 MM in windfall. Bad pitching? Who cares as fans (they think) love the big offensive games. Well, the casual fans may.
Devin – you are right on about Maldy and Chas and Singleton.
Z – What you are saying about Dusty reminds me of something my wife and I always say after dealing with our aging (and 3 out of 4 passed on) parents. Whatever people’s personalities in life are – it only intensifies as they get older.
Oldpro – I think what you are telling me with that fangraphs info – we are lucky we have Maldy catching instead of Kike Hernandz or Jurickson Profar…..
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Shocker, Diaz catching Javier tonight!
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Will anything be enough to reverse this team’s pathological aversion to touching home plate? It is as if someone in the crowd yelled ‘the plate is lava’, and every player on the Astros’ roster reverted to his childhood. Come on guys – it’s not really lava. It won’t hurt you to step on it!
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I just hope Javier has a good game tonight, because Diaz might not get this shot again.
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The usage of Lance as a reliever would depend on him buying into that sense of thinking. I do not believe he can do that.
The team scoring lots of runs in a game then struggling in the next can be attributed to Dusty changing the lineup thus removing the hot batter or two and realigning the lineup, in my humble opinion.
The “glut” of starting pitchers, for next season, is a blessing.
I wonder to myself, if the ownership does divest itself of Johnny Baker Jr., who would be considered to take the reins next season? Espada is there, Hinch, if he is free of Detroit, is in the conversation. Then who else? Omar Lopez?
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My son texted me that Brantley is supposed to start at Sugar Land tonight
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And now Altuve’s injured and out of the game. NOT … OUR … YEAR.
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Soler has our number. (Then again, who doesn’t?)
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I was going to say that if we got out of the 5th with the game tied, we should be very happy. Damn. Something is just not right with this club.
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Astros slowly caught up and took the lead.
Brantley with a 2 run homer in Sugar Land!!
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A much needed win tonight as it looks like The M’s and Rangers are going to win. Singleton is hitting the ball hard about 50% of time but right at someone. He’s due to break out. Glad they were able to overcome the 2 error brain fart by Dubon and Javier. Diaz continues to hit and Tucker is amazing. Chaz with a winning long ball. I’ll have to give kudos to Dusty tonight for bringing in Hunter Brown to cool off the Marlins scoring spree. He looked good after a shaky start. Would love to find another 2 hole hitter instead of Bregman but probably not.
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Maybe the 2 hole hitter hit a 2 run homer in Sugar Land last night.
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I’ve figured it out. Pressly is being paid by my cardiologist.
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I think a healthy Abreu is likely to outhit an improved Singleton, but I’ve been wrong before.
I’d like to see this lineup, but I doubt Dusty would:
Tucker – RF
Altuve – 2B
Alvarez – DH
Diaz – C
Brantley – LF
McCormick – CF
Bregman – 3B
Abreu/Singleton – 1B
Pena – SS
Our offense will score consistently when everyone is healthy. Praying that Altuve’s shin will recover quickly.
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We played a less worse game than the guys we were playing.
Diaz has 16 homers in 256 at bats. That’s one every 16 AB’s. Only Yordan hits them more frequently on the Astros. One day Yainer will learn the strike zone and be a real terror.
But he’ll likely sit today unless Yordan gets a scheduled day off. I think he’d play a serviceable first base.
As discussed by others, will Bregman ever get himself back into a sustained period of driving the ball? This is the time.
Maybe Javier should get the next skipped start.
If Frenchy has a previous obligation in center today, does that mean we get Kessinger at second? Todays line up is coming into focus.
Our catcher personally accounted for a third of our runs. Our biggest problem has such a simple solution.
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I forgot to mention a couple of things;
Chas should not sit for any reason.
Hunter did a heck of a job, even as he did not look very comfortable out there. And solid work by the pen overall.
Verlander needs to own this game today.
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Note that Diaz has 10 homers and 26 RBIs in 124 ABs – which is a homer every 12.4 ABs when he plays as a catcher. If he got 400 ABs like many starting catchers – that would be the equivalent of 40 homers and 104 RBIs.
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“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.” – Tommy Lasorda. These first two games have been mid 54s. Even at 6 weeks left it feels like a must win tonight.
Baseball is such a game on the margins. Javier’s velocity difference is about half back from last year but he just gets in these moments of putting the hitter in a hitters count so often, challenging, and losing the challenge. It seems to me and my eye that the “rising” fastball from last year is not staying on the same plane – that gravity is doing the same work to him it does to everyone else – and that slight drop is leaving more pitches where the hitter is used to seeing that trajectory and they are getting more barrel on it than last year. He also seems to be throwing fewer pitches up at the top anyway. I’m not saying I would do it definitively, but if I am the Astros coaching staff with the door closed we are having a discussion about returning him to the bullpen for a month.
One day maybe Dusty is going to figure out, I play Yainer, I win 6-5 games, I play Maldy, I lose 3-1 games. It’s like a Pavlov test where the buzzer goes off, the food drops, the dog eats, next time the buzzer goes off the dog goes to the food bowl thinking food is going to drop. Is the dog better at the buzzer test than Dusty?
Jon is a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma. It’s a heckuva a chance to take. I’m a fan of it only because the guy he is replacing has been terrible. On one hand he is hitting .136. There have been a lot of lazy fly balls. Last night it was routine grounders. But he isn’t going out of the zone practically at all. If you told me a guy was going to show up and swing out of the zone 10% less than the average major leaguer, and make contact on 93% of the pitches he swings at, I would tell you he will walk alot and hit better than .136. It’s crazy, even at .136 his OBP is .296! So far he has barreled only 5.4% of swings and has a hard hit of 35% and his EV is 89.8. There will definitely be a tick upward in average, heck right now a small streak of 6 hits in 4 games will increase his average significantly, but I am concerned with what he is doing with his contact. Yainer is at 13.7% barrel rate and a hard hit of 45.5%. If Dusty is going to continue to insist on Maldy catching 60-70% of the time Diaz should see some games at 1B. But I agree with Dave, I’m betting its likely Yainer won’t even be in the lineup tonight.
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Every year we see a postseason run end because a manager gets cute and tries to use players in roles they haven’t seen. Since Dusty likes to shuffle lineups so often it would seem now is the right time to ensure Diaz has some games receiving Framber and Verlander. It would also make sense to give him some time at 1B…just in case.
I think even if the team falls apart and misses the postseason my biggest disappointment this year would be Altuve missing so much time. Of course, I think it’s reasonable to assume had he not missed so much time the team would be leading the division and cruising towards October.
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WS hangover
WBC messing up Spring training.
Altuve’s WBC injury
Loss of Verlander
Abreu playing every ST game and then having nothing left for the regular season.
Maldonado losing weight and losing ability.
McCormick playing well and sitting on the bench
Luis Garcia having baseball take his windup away and blowing out his elbow
Brantley not playing
Oblique injuries to two key players
Hensley’s ineffective play
Urquidy and LMJ absent
Diaz hitting and sitting
No relievers in Sugarland to rely on
Bregman playing good defense but not hitting well and umpires expanding the zone constantly on him
Relying on Pena’s bat and not having it
Dusty Baker
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Hey and the 3 month collapse of Montero and Stanek….
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We’ve had plenty of adversity.
Excellent point on Bregman.
And we’ve had Dusty Baker.
But this team has not gone away in spite of all.
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And I’ll give you one guess which team’s system is last…..
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/mlb-pipeline-2023-midseason-system-rankings?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
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I also find it interesting that on mlbtraderumors.com that the latest article on the Astros is from Sunday saying Brantley may rehab soon. And no mention of Altuve’s injury yesterday. They are usually on top of everything.
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I guess Altuve understands the importance of every game right now.
Would you rather have Singleton or Diaz at first base tonight?
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Fair question.
It would depend on the matchup with the pitcher.
Part of me wants to see Singleton get 75-100 PAs before we pull it – more if we weren’t contending but we can’t afford to sit and wait to see if he finds that rhythm and doesn’t treat every swing like he needs to do something now for the sake of his livelihood – but alas, we are contending. He needs to do it now or he will be a minor league signee of the Royals next year.
But I really, really want Yainer Diaz to play EVERY game the rest of the year. He will frustrate you with the two dumbest swings you ever seen – yesterday he swung at consecutive pitches that literally might have hit him if he hadn’t swung – and then hit a 2 HR homerun. If that pitcher makes a mistake and leaves it in the zone, he punishes it. I think he has one of the higher exit velo’s on the team.
We can go back and look, but I think at one point, before we signed Abreu, in a discussion about Yuli, I said I would just give 1B to Yainer. I did find a spot where I literally said however Dusty needs to give Yainer at least 450 plate appearances and he wouldn’t regret it. I thought Yainer was a cheap answer to 1B and I knew he could hit. Instead we put 60M in a garbage bag and gave it to the guy who currently has the 5th worst WAR in the game.
I’ve never minded Maldy not hitting before. I do mind it now because Altuve, Alvarez and Brantley have not played as much, Pena is no Correa, and Meyers and Dubon and Julks have received a lot of at bats not to mention the aforementioned Abreu. But Dusty ain’t replacing Maldy in season. He wouldn’t do it with an experienced catcher like Vazquez last year, he won’t do it for a rookie this year.
So, the short answer (not my forte), Diaz at 1B.
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mlb.com:
“So what will it take for the Astros to get “clicking on all cylinders?”
“I don’t know,” Baker said.”
He ain’t lying. He doesn’t know. Not a freaking clue……
Re: earlier reference to Pavlov’s bell experiment. The canine was smarter than Baker.
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Is it fair to say? –
The Astros have a .700 winning percentage with Yainer behind the plate.
They have a .535 winning percentage with Maldy.
Suppose Yainer had 86 games and Maldy 30 games. Now, I don’t pretend like if Yainer was the full time guy they could literally win at .700, no one else does, thats like record setting pace (113 wins). But, maybe, .630? That would 10% higher. In 56 games, 5 or 6 wins. Team is in first place if that happened. Now baseball is still played on the field, not in a what if comparison of winning percentages, but they are obviously markedly better with Yainer than Maldy, probably enough to be the difference in the standings with the Rangers right now.
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Hate to see Luzardo get pulled while he is serving snacks
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The Astros should have put this game away in the third. Verlander has nothing.
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“I’m leaving Verlander in there because……he’s Verlander.” – Dusty Baker
welp…..
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I’ll be fair on that one – I leave Verlander in to finish the 5th too or at least until it is tied. There are a ton of problems I have with Baker but letting Verlander finish the 5th or lose the lead isn’t one of them. If I can’t trust my hall of fame horse to get me through that inning we aren’t winning a playoff series anyway.
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FDB
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Good morning everyone. Hello tired old fan. Welcome back. I tried to post a somewhat cynical response to last nights game, basically my annoyance over our inability to play a clean game. Bad base running, 2 run throwing errors, getting thrown 6 balls and still insisting on striking out with the bases loaded. If we are going to run off that streak of ten or more games that our GM keeps promising, well then it’s time to play like we belong in the post season.
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And our Great White Hope sure did not impress last night. He was terrible. I hope we didn’t wear him out last year. I don’t want to think about what happens if his turns into another stinker deal. Last Friday night was quite a fairy tale for Jon Singleton. But he can’t run, besides being slow he’s fat, and he ran out of gas between third and home. He’s not a good first baseman either. He’s just not in playing shape. We could have managed without him.
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I think when he got that 5 run 1st inning lead he relaxed. He was sitting 92 until he had traffic. Then he ramped up to 96, and promptly went back to 92 with no traffic again. He probably is just as disappointed as we are, but his velo is still there, his stuff looks fine, he was hitting spots at times, he will be fine.
I concur on Singleton. Between 3rd and home I thought he was gonna pass out. He kind of stumbled into that slide. Yuli would have been good enough to reel in that Pena throw and maybe end that inning right there still 6-2. Abreu probably would not, and we know Singleton will not. The assignment is on Pena to make the throw but a 1B that can help his SS out sometimes helps for sure.
Still dude is getting on base. His ability to find 1B even when he isn’t hitting is part of the reason this offense has been better since Abreu went out. In his 8 games with us, only 3 hits including the 2HR game, but 12 walks. And he is helping get pitch counts up. I have loved his at bats even if some of them have ended in frustrating pop flies but the rest of his game is not helpful.
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I have some hope though. We’re only 2.5 out. Gosh we’ve got some guys hitting. And that only halfway includes Bregman, Alvarez and Diaz. What if they all heat up and Diaz is allowed to play? We’ve got four guys with an OPS well over .900. Brantley, I don’t know. He’s a tough fit right now even for even the best of managers. But the pen is getting outs. All of a sudden, our rotation is our biggest question mark. I still think we’ll see the best of Hunter Brown.
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Brantley is only a tough fit because Baker makes it tough. He probably will bench Chas to play him some. Of course he will have the excuse that Brantley is just getting back and needs to be eased in so he will only play every other game at most anyway.
Imagine Yordan/Brantley in LF/DH, Chas in CF, Tucker in RF, Bregman, Pena, Altuve and Abreu around the IF with Diaz behind the dish – you will have pitchers in the playoffs looking forward to Abreu’s AB. Not a fan of Jose, but I have to admit if you are looking at a lineup where a diminished Abreu is your hope to get out of an inning thats one good lineup.
Of course, that won’t be what happens, because Dubon needs to play CF, Maldy has to catch, Meyers has to spend time in CF because there will be a voodoo hex on this team the first time you actually put your best lineup on the field all at one time. Or at least that is what Dusty’s tarot card reader told him.
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Sorry, this is my last post for awhile. I’m stuck having to throw a paragraph together hoping it will go through before the silent buzzer rejects it. I don’t think we can blame Frenchy playing center on Verlander. I don’t think anyone has confirmed that. And suddenly this week Diaz caught Javier for just the second time of the year. If Verlander insists on having Maldy behind the plate, I don’t mind calling him a diva, small d. For a veteran that knows the game inside out, there is nothing any catcher could have done for him last night. And when Framber freaks out, Maldy’s hugs don’t work either. Ultimately, I think all of the battery mate match ups could be managed, if we had a manager that managed.
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We’ve talked JV’s diva-ness before. When your team is in the WS and you are injured, and you’re not even in the state, you are a diva. An “anonymous” Mets player said right after the trade that he was a diva. I assume he is insisting that Dubon is in CF and Maldy is catching when he pitches because there is zero variance to it, diva.
I still love that diva though because, last night aside, he knows how to pitch. It’s Baker’s fault for not realizing what the best lineup is, and then saying, “Justin, get the outs, I’ll do the card.”
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Thoughts
– Pretty ironic that Detmers shut down the Rangers last night – no hitter deep into the game and left after 7.1 innings and 1 hit allowed. Last start against the Astros – 7 runs in 2.1 innings and the two Singleton home runs.
– Speaking of Singleton since coming back here – he is hitting .160 BA with a crazy .344 OBP. In his defense, his .105 BAbip (batting average on balls in play) is about .200 points lower than the league average, a bit unlucky. He’s not bad at grabbing groundballs in my opinion, but he is not great at scooping errant throws. And yes he is definitely too heavy. Don’t know if that will change.
– To me, it looks like Tucker has shortened his swing a bit, which is only a good thing
– Days off are coming at a good time, I think it helps with giving the pitching a bit of a rest.
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So we can bring him up and have Dusty reduce Diaz’s ABs?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/houston-astros
Yeah, I know they need more depth after trading Korey Lee and he looks like he could at least bring you Maldy+ numbers.
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Uncharacteristically, I’m still optimistic the team will both make the playoffs and have a chance to make a deep run. Unlike many people here, I don’t think Justin Verlander being added to the team changes much. He’s going to give you a chance to win most games…but all of our starters have done that. He’s probably 50/50 to give you a really good game or a stinker in the playoffs. It is what it is. My optimism stems from seeing guys like Bregman and Tucker willing to go the other way for singles. I’m annoyed Pena boots easy ones or makes lazy throws sometimes, but he also made a stop and assist on Tues night that few, if any, other SS in the league would make. Things could all come crashing down where we get 2 hits and 14 strikeouts in a deciding game, but I’m choosing to believe we won’t. Also, I feel pretty good about the bullpen if the starters can go far enough to keep their arms from falling off before October.
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