Austin Hansen's final line: 6 IP, 2 H, BB, 6 K His ERA is now 0.86. Julio Robaina is now on for his 2019 debut.
Cristian Javier in game two of a doubleheader @ Frisco: 5.2 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 9 K The one run came on a solo homer.
The reality is... ...in the last 10 games, Avarez has played LF in 7 and DH in 3, based on box scores. I don't see how he can show anyone he can play first base, if he doesn't play first base, especially on a team where your CF plays half the games at SS and your catcher pitches in extra innings at least twice. Unless they already gave up on him playing 1B, or they're putting him on a timeline to learn 1B that won't allow him to be called up before Super 2, and using that as the excuse. Meanwhile he's intentionally walked 5 out of 7 of his last at bats, so he's not even getting reps to hit either, ha. #super2sucks.
Hansen had 4 walks in his previous game, tough to promote a guy after that (even w/ terrible umpires, as I shared earlier). But with the one walk in today's game along with the crazy scoreless streak, maybe that's finally enough. At least it should be.
Perhaps....just perhaps....the Astros brain trust just knows he doesn’t have what it takes to play first base and would rather him continue to get outfield reps. Straw is an exceptional athlete and oftentimes, shortstops and center fielders have the athletic ability to play either position,
In my not-so-experienced mind, the biggest differentiator of playing first base from other positions is the frequent short-hop scoop that they have to do. Positioning your body correctly to receive throws feels like something an athlete could eventually learn, but I could totally see certain types of people demonstrating that they might NEVER be able to pick up those short hops. Imagine how frustrating it would be if once or twice a game we had an error on Yordan because he couldn't scoop those throws. We would all quickly agree that the 1B thing wasn't working and he should be exclusively LF or DH. It's not a stretch of the imagination to believe the Astros brass may have already come to that conclusion.
At first I was in denial that the sad reality may be the FO has given up on Alvarez playing 1B. It's especially sad because that's not only our position of greatest need, but that it's been that for years, and Alvarez fits the offensive prototype perfectly, basically, a big guy who hits a lot of HRs. Then, by the same observation of the last 10 games, I noticed Beer has played the last 8 at 1B. At the rate he's going, he'll be in the majors not long after Alvarez. Personal deduction (not rocket science): I believe the FO has determined who's playing LF/DH/1B in the near future and the long term, and there's no way either of these guys are being traded. The one question I have though, is if Alvarez/Brantley split LF/DH, Springer will need DH time as well given the very reason he's on IR and DH'ing significantly more this year (and as Blum said, liking it). This goes back to what Luhnow was saying about keeping Alvarez down until they figure it out, but what does that look like if Alvarez doesn't touch 1B?
To be fair, Beer is one of 3 players on the corpus roster that have ever played 1B, and the other two (Toro and Robinson) are their best option at other positions. Fresno has both Reed and Jones playing 1st, so it's a lot easier to run Alvarez out there at LF. Though I do believe the Astros have said several times that they feel LF is Alvarez's best position, so it doesn't make too much sense to slow him from working on the position he'll play the most just to try and get him to alleviate the injury issues in Houston.
Ha, I was literally going to add that clip, but forgot. Perfect. Let's hope it's not too hard for Beer.
I rewatched this a couple months ago and had COMPLETELY forgotten that it was Chris Pratt that played Hatteberg. An unusually non-comedic role for him.
