Watching Brantley today, and I can’t help but wonder if his plate discipline will be infectious. Bregman was elite the second half of last year, if any of this rubs off on Altuve, Springer, Correa. Brantley’s accusation will be immeasurably impactful.
Besides for Yuli and Altuve, Astros have good plate discipline. Brantley has elite hand-eye coordination.
Did the Astros ever say anything about giving Brantley extra rest during the season considering his numerous injury issues? Getting him somewhere near 130 games played or giving him time at the DH spot would seem to be optimal.
Luhnow’s track record on free agents isn’t bad. Reddick had a great 1st season. Chirinos is playing extremely well. Gurriel has been worth his salary until now. Rasmus and Lowrie panned out. Only guy who didn’t pan out was Beltran and they won the WS with him. Carlos Pena, Jack Cust, and Chris Snyder were cheap.
https://www.fantraxhq.com/sabermetric-series-part-3-plate-discipline/ After skimming the above, I decided not to pursue who else might belong on your list. But its a good article on the subject. Lots to account for if your really going to make a plate discipline assessment.
I'd say it is hard to separate the good from the great. Chase rate is usually pretty good at identifying a large percentage of the players with bad plate discipline. Reddick and Diaz are the only Astros with high chase rates this year as Yuli and Altuve are both being more selective this season. Reddick is seeing a lot more strikes than normal which likely has him in swing mode (his swinging percentage at strikes is up more than his chase rate).
I’d say it’s quite good. Add Charlie Morton to your list and while there’s been times we’ve hated him, I’d say Rondon has been overall a good signing. Gurriel could never play another game and he’d be still be worth what we paid him IMO just for that huge 3 run bomb he hit off Kershaw in the WS. Reddick appears to have found himself again this year so he’s not looking bad either as you said. Lunhow’s waivers pick ups in McHugh and Harris have been good too. Edit: Also, regarding Chirinos, everyone dogged that signing (I wasn’t that excited myself) and was upset we didn’t trade for Realmuto. FWIW Chirinos has been the better offensive player thus far this year.
Luhnow is finding great FA’s that fit amazingly into the team. What a great find. And let’s not forget Tucker and Alvarez are getting their reps in at the AAA level; themselves getting that much closer to the bigs. But as of now, Springer, Reddick, and Brantley are patrolling the outfield like bosses, and swinging the bats with authority. Astros are in such an enviable position with talent, youth, and prospects!
Chirinos was an absolute steal by Luhnow. I assumed he had some glaring defensive issues given how sparingly Texas used him, but watching him regularly he's a fine defensive catcher and his arm is good enough to keep runners honest. He's been a very good hitting catcher for a while now. If he stays healthy he's gonna put up 3 WAR at least. I always expected Brantley to be great if he stayed healthy, so it's not really news that he's been good.
Not to be that guy but I liked the Chirinos signing and posted regarding it. That said, he has even exceeded my expectations
Yeah, now that I’ve watched him play this much, I’d much rather have Chirinos and the prospects we would have given up than Realmuto. And it’s not even close.
I didn’t really have any feelings one way or the other about the signing. It was just “meh I guess he’ll be okay” to me. As Seal mentioned, I was worried about his defense a bit but he’s much better than I expected. While I didn’t want to trade for Realmuto as I didn’t think it was necessary and more of a luxury, I think the reason a lot of people didn’t like the signing was it meant the end of their Realmuto fantasies.
