I never considered Altuve deadweight, so 8 was our nadir. The fact that much deadweight has been removed makes me even more anxious to see what this club could look like by removing the rest. Part of utilizing a good farm is knowing when its harvest time.
Not to mention you have to account for the adjustment period time... something which Singleton is still going through, and Springer has to re-adjust after the league makes (or has made) adjustments to him. Takes at least half a season before you know whether or not a highly touted player can or will stick... might as well start that process now.
We have such a bipolar lineup... a border-line elite 1-2, a promising but rookie/young 3-4, a disappointing/struggling yet still dangerous 5-6, and a usually overmatched 7-9 with two positions that are traditionally supposed to be strong offensively (LF, DH). That being said, its nice to see when 1-6 all clicks around the same time.
Porter loves those lefty-righty matchups... but I'd let Sipp try to figure it out here. The more righties he gets out, the more he separates himself from being just a situational lefty.
That and Marwin is always the default pinch-runner... even though he's not much faster than Castro and is not a threat to steal a base.
I was clearly exaggerating. I actually think the number's probably even less than that between Pence, Altuve, Lowrie, and Castro all having good production during the past few years.
um, Fontana and Santana are not ready. Why bring them up so they can suck here? They are not being "Springered" at all; they're clearly not ready for the show. Replacing guys who suck with guys who will suck (because they're not ready) just because they might be good big-leaguers one day just doesn't make sense to me. It's a full-system rebuild--from short-season all the way to MLB. It takes a minute. We're a little over halfway there, and things are looking up.
That being said, there is no timetable for anybody to be "ready" or "not ready" based simply on age or minor league production. They're all likely going to suck when they're first called up, regardless of if they're 21 years old or 25. The special ones figure it out... the ones that don't have it fade away, regardless of how highly touted they may be (cough - Appel). All that can be said is that Grossman is looking more and more like he's not an everyday player. He's had over 350 AB's, both on a team with absolutely no pressure, as well as on a team that is starting to find their stride... he did turn it on after the second call up last year, but the same magic has not happened this year.
I wasn't being too factual either. DH, SS and LF are obvious areas for improvement. But on top of this, am I the only one wondering about C as well? Castro just hasn't been the player of 2013, or 2012 either.
On a fangraphs podcast, one of the writers or editors mentioned that Castro was getting better at framing pitches that were low in the zone. This was brought up in a discussion on Keuchel and McHugh.
I was just trying to point out that his defense may be keeping around. I'm not an expert on catching, but I do know that the pitcher-catcher tandem is the first line of the defense.
Pointing out a catchers defense is a worthwhile point to be sure. But if your thinking about a teams long term goals for starting catcher, I think you want a guy better than .223/.305/.363
I want the best team. If you can get a better catcher at right opportunity cost, you do it. Castro is a solid starter who will regress (or is it progress when his stats should improve slightly) to the mean. No reason the be enamored or freak out by his production. SS and LF are positions that the Astros are getting sub-MLB production. As much hate as Carter gets, the Astros are getting average DH production.
