With much of the talk around the deadline centered around this team's short- and long-term needs, I thought the RF situation would be a good discussion for what plan the Astros should take into the offseason. Quietly, Scott has turned it on of late. He's up to a .833 OPS for the season, which is quality in right field, with a .341 OBP and 33 extra-base hits (13 homers) in 250 at-bats. Around the All-Star break, some posters were conceding he wasn't a long-term starter and that RF would be a position to upgrade in the offseason. But with the numbers he's at now, he's a decent starter. He's like Wigginton in the sense that he's not among the elite at his position, but he's not a black hole that's killing the offense. If Luke continues for the rest of the season at his current pace, I think he holds onto the RF job for another year and allows the Astros to put all their money into rebuilding the starting rotation. What do you guys think? To me, unless there's an absolute corner OF stud on the market wanting to come to Houston, I'd concentrate the resources on starting pitching and keep Scott as the starter.
I'm out of town... and basically I have two roles. When the Astros are home, I do the day-to-day coverage like last week. When they're on the road, I do feature stories and other longer assignments... and not the day-to-day operations (Alyson takes over those). So in a sense, I'm "off" this week from game and trade stuff.
I don't have a problem with Scott coming to spring training as the starter in right because we are going to focus our spending on the starting rotation, what I do have a problem with is Scott coming into Spring training with nobody competing with him for the job. I will puke if it's Lane vs Scott for the job next season, we either need to bring in Josh Anderson (does not look like he will be an impact player) or bring in someone on the cheap who might have something to prove ie. a guy off an injury
I wouldn't worry about it too much. I think Scott's a good player. I think he deserves a shot. If it doesn't work out, Colin DeLome will be ready to take his spot.
Luke Scott needs to go. Yes, he has gotten hot lately, but that's what he does. He is the epitome of a streaky hitter. He gets hot, but then also gets ice cold for weeks and contributes nothing during that time. He is definately adequate in RF, but I'd still consider RF an area that needs immediate improvement. I'd rather have a mediocre guy hitting for a mediocre average all year than a guy that hits .400 for a month, and then .194 the next. I agree that if he is not gone, we at least need to bring in some competition.
I really would like to see Luke be the opening day starter next year. I think he can be a consistent .850 - .900 OPS guy year in and year out for not much money...and we need to spend all the money we can muster on starting pitching. Sign an impact SP or two, and let the outfield be Lee, Pence, Scott...I think that's a fantastic outfield, one of the best in the league.
As long as you have a reasonable 'plan b' in place, he hasn't had so many MLB at bats that you can say he will never have any consistancy. Looking at his stats, he has a giant split between home and road (Home BA .195 SLG .407 OBP .286, Road BA .299 SLG .575 OBP .395). I wonder what that is about.
I like Scott and I want him to be the everyday RF. He still gets benched too often against lefties for my liking. Scott and Lamb should both be starting every day. Management is pretty stupid not to see this...
Take a look at Scott's BABIP, though. It's well below the league average. Is he really that inconsistent, or did he simply have a run of terrible luck earlier in the season that's now evening out? I'm as much of a Chris Burke supporter as anyone, but I don't think he and Scott are parallels. So far, Scott's taken advantage of his opportunity this year and played relatively well, at least at the league average (and probably slightly above) for his position. Burke has not. I think he can if/when his sample size increases, but as much as I like him, he hasn't gotten it done to this point in 2007, and that's clear cut. It's more open for debate with Scott. Furthermore, I'd disagree that Scott is a horrible fielder. I think his arm is below average, but I think his range and his reads (save that embarassing late-inning play Sunday) have been a lot better than I expected. All in all, he's certainly not a good defender, but I don't think he's terrible.
Luke should have been given a longer shot of consistent play in RF, he always has peaks and valleys like any player, but he has not had the chance to get comfortable at the plate. He should be played in RF the rest of the season to see who he can do. He has barely had a full year in the majors.....just one year.......we need to stop giving up on guys so quickly....it take a while for them to get comfortable...... He hit well last year, and pitchers adjusted, and now he needs to adjust...it is part of becoming a major league player IMO. He is a career .274 batter and is arguably having a better year than Berkman, or at least comparible..... Just stick him in there. And as I look, the brilliant Phil Garner has him on the bench tonight, even though he is 6 for his last 8. and looking at his game logs, his only real bad month was April, the rest have been ok to pretty good. DD
I still see a lot of breaks in the wrong direction and just bizarre paths to the ball from Scott. He does have enough speed to make up for most of those, but I've yet to have any confidence in his ability in the outfield. If he stays, he'll be one of the ones who is replaced in late innings.
Scott's a career 280/366/534 hitter in the minors and a career 274 /365 /513 over 600 + PA's in the majors. He's streaky but over the course of the season, i think he'll give you about what carlos lee will give you. Lee cost 100 million to obtain and adequate replacement for scott will probably be similar. You can get a better player, but it seems like a massive misallocation of resources for a team on a budget. There are many other more pressing holes which need to be replaced first. a Lee/pence/scott outfield may be the best hitting outfield in the league and despite Lee's contract won't be that expensive given pence's and scott salary. The team might have struggled alot the last two year, but NONE of that is scott's fault.
Sign a Center Fielder in the offseason and move Pence to right. Scott is just another Jason Lane waiting to happen.
That is not even fair. Lane has NEVER had a good year in the majors. Scott has. Looking at the logs that DaDa provided, he hit: .194 in April .273 in May .250 in June .280 in July He, for the season, has an OPS of .833. Not great, but not bad either. Until I saw the numbers, I was under the impression that he had been bad all year until 2 weeks ago. Not true.
In '05 Lane DID, in fact, have a productive year with a .316avg, .815ops, and 26hr's. I just think the Astros need a new look, and Scott shouldn't be what they're looking at.
Jason Lane hit .267 with a .316 OBP in 2005. http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/laneja01.shtml Edit: Lane's most similar batter is the one with the best name ever in baseball.
