They should just go ahead and get the checkbook out, the kid is a stud and a potential MVP.................I wish I would see more fire from him from time to time, you can't tell if he's having a good game or bad game by his demeanor, but maybe that's his way of staying even keeled. Am for Pena, the kid is just awesome, he has his groove back and is slowly becoming one of the core pieces for the future
The time to lock him down would have been last off season… when everybody in here wasn’t happy with his post season and said he wasn’t worth it.
I hope Alvarez is out of his slump because Altuve, Tucker, Alvarez can be as scary as you can get. Time to move Bregman down towards the bottom of the order.
He got hurt near the all-star break last year and it impacted his mechanics and performance. He threw a lot of innings and a lot of pitches and pitched deep into the playoffs several times in a short period of time. While the workload is nothing compared to pitchers 30-40 years ago - it was/is a lot in this era of baseball, and Valdez throws harder than some in the Astros want him to.
One-Run Games After starting the season 0-7 (1-9), Astros have gone 5-2 and have 4 consecutive wins. Current record: 5-9
Because of his past (which he unfairly was vilified for), and his quiet demeanor and size - there are a lot of misconceptions about Singleton. He is actually a very smart hitter.
Management managed to mismanage Javier and Framber so poorly last season. Much of their 2nd half results were something Blanco could have easily duplicated while they got rest. Missing just two starts each could've made a positive difference health and performance-wise, but management chose to be robots stuck on auto-repeat.
He is the ideal player for the Houston Astros. He is a consummate pro, night in and night out. I love to see him win the HR title and we are more excited than he is.
There were doubts that Singleton is a smart hitter? I always thought the question was whether or not he could do enough damage when he swings to keep pitchers from just attacking him in the zone. As a prospect, that looked like it was going to be easy. Right now, I just don't know. His defense sucks so he really needs to be great offensively to play once the Astros think they have another option.
There was (and still is with some) a perception that he is a lazy player that doesn't work hard and tried to get by on sheer talent. The reality is that he was like 20 years old, dealing with a father that was very sick and his medical treatment was very expensive - and Singleton was also battling depression and anxiety. In order to deal with the family situation (he lived with his parents then) and the anxiety, he smoked a lot of mar1juana. Now a days he would likely has been given therapy and medication - and he likely would have had success a lot sooner. Singleton is really well liked by the coaches and players, and he is considered a strong father and husband. As for his defense, I would never call him good - but he is better than Abreu has been this season. At this point, he is starting to show he should at least have a spot as a pinch hittter around the league - let him get his pension, maybe some glory and then he can move on to raising his family.
A team with a deep lineup, no money, and no 1B prospects could do a lot worse than Singleton hitting 6th/7th and playing 1B everyday for the next 3-4 seasons.
I can't remember which media source was able to get old scouting reports from a team and basically determined that qualities like gamer, lazy listed in scouting reports really had little value and often were counterintuitive. While lots of lazy players failed, gamers did as well. Things like actually hitting in the minors was much more predictive. Not to say that looking at mental stuff has no value in prospect analysis, I'd just say the traditional scouts were not qualified to predict what was good and what wasn't.
Players are not fans; they do not need to be your on-field surrogates, jumping up and down and acting fanatical. Complaining - even a little bit - that Tucker needs more fire is utter nonsense. Kyle Tucker does not need to improve *any* part of his game - he's one of the 2-3 best hitters in the league.
I respect his grinding it out to get a 2nd chance with Milwaukee. and back to us. I do think it funny though that many on this board say, give him time to figure it out, when he has been around over 10 years. Bro is 32 years old. Only players older than him on the team are: Verlander Altuve Montero Pressley Graveman
A lot of it was prejudiced as well. A lot of times black players or quiet white players were labeled as lazy or soft or problems. It was and is BS. For example, I remember a scouting report from the Dodgers scout about Pedro Martinez and it claimed that he was lazy and shied away from confronting hitters...... which is silly. FWIW Scouts said Nolan Ryan was difficult and not agreeable or expressive enough..... don't forget, only a handful of years there were coaches on the Astros at the time that really disliked Tucker's personality and said he was a stick in the mud.
