It is safe to say that we have (almost) finally seen the full year Jason Lane [save for a few weeks of limited ball in the middle of the season) and of course these last days of the regular season. So what is your verdict on him? Well mine is in. He is probably the least disciplined hitter on our team now.....well that is not that ground necessarily breaking. I like this young man but I am not sure I want to look forward to him becoming our RF (or any position) after this season if I can help it. I am not so sure what Baggy intends to do beyond this season but it is fair to say that we should be looking for two outfielders in the off season or at least one outfielder and one first baseman. Has anyone had a less impressive 23 HR season in recent memory for any team you know that Lane? His power is overrated - it gets nulified or negated by the other issues that are problematic in his offensive game. He is not clutch. He cannot draw a base on balls to save his life. He cannot hit situationally well. He is a rally killer. He is strike out machine. He just has too many holes in his hitting and swing for a team that hits lite from the CF, SS and catcher positions. Bigde will be a year older next season as well. We cannot afford this "burden" beyond this season. Yeah he is cheap but how does that help out bottomline offensively? An aside: Here is hoping that we make the playoffs and then Lane goes on to have a Beltran-like (well Beltran-like lite will be sufficient) postseason so that his value will go up or at least not become worse that is can possibly be. And I hope Purp will still be wise enough to move him following that. He is not getting younger - he turns 30 next year. His current OBP is .300 and his avearge since he came up to the bigsin 2002 is 0.318. This is pathetic especially with a perspective to the composition of our team going forward. This month of September that we need him so much to deliver especially since Morgan has missed much of it so far, he has just managed a depressing 0.216 batting average, 0.259 OBP and 0.373 slugging. He has just 1 BB (walk) this month to go with only 4 extra base hits, 6 RBIs and he is on pace to have his strike out high for a month this season (@ 0.275 per AB). Not good. He has 98 strike outs to go with a paultry 24 walks so far. He is not a reliable run producer and there is no evidence that he has intangibles that will make us want to hold on to him despeartely. Can we expect anything more that this from him after this season? I won't. I hope Purp is seriouly looking to go a different direction because I am afraid Jason is not the answer. How many more pathetic ABs like the one he had against the Brew Crew yesterday in the 9th can we afford (thank you Baggy for saving our blushes)? I am not so sure I will mind it if he decides to go on a tear to finish the season (like Brad Ausmus did following some bashing sessions here). I am afraid that what we now see is all or about all we will get or come to expect from him if we decide to keep him (shudder) beyond this campaign. I wish him the best in his ML career and I hope he finds a home that will fit "better" for him. Jason Lane related stats
he's not great, but he's productive, cheap and astros do not and will have any better alternatives in the corner.
Well that is point. Many Astros fans did not want to give on him until he is given a full season. And now he has now played in about 130 games for us which is a good enough sample for a season to determine the way forward. I would not mind adding an Aubrey Huff if we can for example. With Pinela likely out of T-Bay he could be one of the players shipped out for the new rebuilding or in-building [sic] process. Also we can look again into Dunn though I know his K ratio + his below "avearge" BA has turned some folks off. We could ship him out directly or a three team deal for lets say Overbay who will likely be pushed out for Fielder. There are so many options I believe out there either via FA or trade that we can employ to better ourselves next season.
I dunno, his ba was definitely destroyed by batting like .010 in the early months lol but he's not improved it all that much in his first full season really... I remember hearing about him in the minor's how he was tearing it up with 40 hr and 100 rbi seasons, but I guess we'll see if that pays dividends in another season or two.
My vote would be to keep Lane. That is assuming management goes after another corner outfield stick this offseason. If they get one, I have no problem keeping lane. If he were to be hitting in the 6 or 7 spot, there would certainly be less pressure and he will see more pitches. His defense has been very good, IMO. He has an above average arm and makes the tough plays. Not to mention it again, but he's also cheap.
Jason Lane Post-All Star Break He never really got sole possession of right field until a little after the All Star break, so I go by these stats.
For what he costs, Jason Lane is an absolute bargain and the Astros would be crazy to move him. He has holes at the plate but has had a very good rookie year. It's a no brainer we keep him for next year and see how much he improves.
they'll keep him. i don't think there's any question about it...unless he's part of some deal to bring in far better talent. otherwise, he's just too cheap to part with given his production. i certainly was hoping for more..and he frustrates the hell out of me. and at 30, he's hardly a traditional "rookie." but having said that...he's worth keeping around. we don't exactly have a surplus of good corner OF lying around.
Where are you getting 30? He's 28, and won't turn 29 for 3 more months. Anyway, I predicted Lane to be a 25-30 homer, 80-90 RBI type guy. He's gonna end up right in that range. His average is lowish but not terrible. He's an OK outfielder, certainly servicable and offers production at a low price. I'm not sure why we need a whole thread on Lane's contributions when he's easily our most productive OF. I'm more concerned about LF and CF.
well..uhhhh...i was rounding. it's new math. when i met frank sinatra i asked him...i said "frank, how old is jason lane." frank said, "jason lane is 137 years old." (seriously, i thought he was 30!)
This is Lane's first full season in the majors, he might be a bit too old for a rookie but i disagree that 23 homeruns (so far) is less than impresive. They have helped win ballgames and right now every game is important. And i'm not sure how much he is making, but it's less than Beltran and he has more homeruns. Yes i know comparing him to Beltran is not fair (to Jason Lane that is) because Lane is a better hitter. So i say we keep him.
Lane is a MLB starter. He has average stats for his position, but he will likely get better in his second and third MLB starting seasons.
That much I will beg to disagree. This is not about Beltran or some sort of relativity (I am not saying that relativity is a bad thing). This about the Stros moving forward. We current have a fundamental problem in terms of our constitution (at least offensively). So in this I will certainly look into explorring sending Lane away for the ultimate betterment of the club (i.e. find better "fits"). He to me for starters is not a smart hitter. He has been in this league long enough to know what is up. People on the talk radio has been saying for years that he should be giving something that resembles a full season for this kind of thoughts and talks to be justifiably entertained. And the time is nigh. We cannot carry a Jason Lane and have Adam Everret [sp], Willy Taveras, Craig Biggio [sp] (because of age and decline), Ausmus (in spite of his late resurgence) and whoever we play now on first base beyond this season and expect to be serious about scoring runs. I conceive that Jason will more than likely never become a consistent run plater or smart hitter for a long while. And we do not have time to waste - we are not a rebuilding team. We need two bats herein not one. So that means changes and sacrifices must be made to accomodate other projections and conditions. There are so many opportunities out there to be explored and I will like to believe that Purp is thinking about this as well or at least having and open mind about it. We must learn from the mistakes of Hanging too long to Daryl Ward and Moises. We must not forget about Scotty Elarton as well. I trust that the wise Purp who let Wade Miller go/walk is still the person who will make the tough call after this season (WC Champs or not).
Seriously, Jason Lane has been anything but the replacement for Beltran's offense that we thought he was. Look power is great but it's kind of worthless when you strike out all the time and have an on base percentage of .300. There's no discipline in his swing and he never walks. That's what seperates a guy like Berkman and a guy like Lane. Berkman will take some of those strikeouts and turn them into walks boosting both his batting average and his OBP. At the very least if you're going to bat in the 260s and strike out a lot, at least be like Adam Dunn and walk a lot so your OBP goes up. I can only hope he gets better but Gary Gaeti is a well respected hitting coach and if he's not getting to Lane then I dont know who will. After a big wave of prospects a few years ago (Berkman, Oswalt, etc..), we havent really gotten too much from the minors. We really better upgrade the system and start producing more. That and we need to stop being so conservative and start moving people up through the minor leagues faster. Guys like Troy Patten who everyone speaks the world of shouldn't still be an single A baseball.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/stats/players/index.php?lastName=lane The glossary... http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/statpages/glossary/
Yes he is in his peak Age wise but the guy is no where near his peak for being in the league. if he was in the league a long time ago then this would be around the time for him to peak. He is basically a Rookie in my eyes becuase he has never consistantly played. So we would have to have him play a couple more years which would be his peak performance wise cuase he will get better at the major league level.
