love the move. One of the few guys in our system that can actually get on base and have very good on base percentages. Call me crazy but out the gate I would bat him 2nd behind Altuve and move everyone down a rung in the order. Play him in LF and move Rasmus to CF. welcome to the show Kemp!
time to necrobump that kemp thread. if he lives up to 1/4 of the hype he was getting there, it would be an immense boost.
The trio of Gomez, Marisnick, and Tucker simply left the Astros no choice. Tucker is the odd man out because he has basically no value if he's not hitting. Don't expect Gomez to suddenly start riding the pine, but he won't be in the lineup every day anymore. People really need to temper their expectations for Kemp. Don't expect him to start getting on base at a 40% clip. Having said that if he can get on at all that makes him an upgrade.
I am thrilled for the move. Rasmus in center, Springer in Right, and Kemp in Left (though I think he should be able to play center). What oh what has happened to Gomez!!!! I'm thinking all his hot dogging, baseball karma is coming back at him.
Several of us, self included, called this one. Good to see some roster movement. Guys (Tucker) with no offense or defense have no place. We desperately need some guys in the bottom of the order to get on base so our 1-3 guys are not constantly facing empty bases, often with a couple outs.
Kemp in the 9 spot will be great for the top of the order, especially Altuve. If Castro keeps it up, this lineup will be fine regardless of what happens in the 5-7 part of the order.
Love this move Gomez was already sitting about every other day, I would think this puts him in a straight platoon to only face LHP, which he is actually hitting .280 against Unfortunately we face 4 LHP this week so will be interesting to see how they handle it As for Kemp, I would bat him 9th in front of Altuve and would move Castro up vs RHP, probably all the way to 5th. Castro vs RHP has a .872 OPS
Its not? There was more than one asinine/wildly off-base previous discussion about him?? Anyways, I expect him to bat 9th to possibly be able to get on/provide speed for the top of the order. The top of the order has really carried the offense as of late... if they merely get replacement level production elsewhere, the offense will be fine. The starting pitching though...
The more I think about it the more this move doesn't make sense unless they intend to get rid of Gomez. Otherwise they would have sent Marisnick down. There's no reason to carry 5 OF who can all play CF. Gomez busting could singlehandedly ruin this season. Houston had so much riding on him. That said, it will be nice to get another low strikeout bat in the bottom of the lineup.
He is a considerably better prospect than DeShields in my eyes. Better at pretty much everything besides running the base paths.