Remember that the OPS crowd thought Morgan Ensberg was going to be Mike Schmidt cause he walked occasionally....then he stopped hitting for power and pitchers got the idea..why not throw him strikes..and he took those too and was out of baseball. Tejada might not be worth big bucks to THIS team though....rather see us save the money and rebuild not reload.
Yikes. At least Norris is pitching really well. With his and Paulino's starts lately I like their chances of cracking the rotation next year or at least the team.
Pretty sure it was a shoulder injury he never recovered from. You don't go from 4th in the MVP balloting on a World Series team to .230 by forgetting how to be a big league hitter. Tejada's not worth the big bucks. The Astros might have known about the steroids allegations before he came here, but they couldn't have anticipated that he'd age 2 years overnight. I'll pass on giving big money to a 35 year old SS with an average bat and an average glove. I wouldn't mind keeping him on the cheap, because Manzella is a 26 year old non-prospect, but more than $4 mil per season is too much.
I dunno...1.3 trillion batting stance changes might have had something to do with it. I dunno maybe the injury caused the changes..but my guess is it was a fluke season. I dunno...but the same bunch who loved Morgan whined incessantly about what was left of Craig Biggio "blocking' Chris Burke who was going to be Rogers Hornsby....far as I know Burke didn't get hurt.
I don't know but I do know that a lot of Astros fans grossly overrated Maysonet because he had a handful of good ABs. In over 2600 minor league PAs, the guy is hitting something like .255 with an OPS barely over .700. He's also 28-years-old.
Pretty much my exact thoughts regarding the Miggy situation. Love the guy but not for more than a few mil next season, regardless of what position he plays. As far as Puma, even in a down year, he's leading the team in OPS, OBA and SLG... yes, he's even slugging the ball better than anybody on this team, including Lee. Last I checked, he led all of baseball in walks per plate appearance. Miggy is second to last. Check out the names near the top and bottom of that list. 16th best qualified OPS of all-time. Better than A-Roid, without the roid part. Among switch-hitters, only Mickey Mantle was better. Berkman is a phenomenal hitter, even in his down years.
Great post! I knew Berkman was up there, but not that high! That is what I like so much about him, his ability to draw walks which leads to his high OBP and his high OPS. If you asked me if I would rather have a player with a great OBP and a decent average, kind of like Berkman this year, than a player with a low OBP and a great average, like Miggy during the first half of the year. Even if you're in a hitting slump, you're still able to get on base and help your team. If Miggy isn't hitting, he's not helping us, and quite often hurting us by hitting into double plays. I'd love to see some type of increase in walks from Pence, Bourn and even Lee. I'm not banking on Miggy increasing his walk numbers, although it wouldn't be very difficult. I really think that a better eye and more patience will start a domino effect. If Bourn started walking more, that means more run opportunities, more AB's for Berkman/Lee/Pence, possibly better pitches for them to hit, forcing the opposing pitcher to throw more pitches, the list goes on and on. I know it's not that easy and it's rare someone like Bagwell or Berkman come along, but I don't think it would be that hard to be more patient, get better understanding of the strike zone, and ultimately show a small increase in walks. If Pence, Bourn and Lee could walk an additional 5 times per 100 plate appearances that would put each of them very close to or above .400 OBP. I'd love to have 4 players in my lineup doing that. I'm getting tired of all of these solo home runs, it would be nice to have someone on base every once in a while! /end dream Pugs
Bourn and Pence have improved their BB rate from last year. I doubt either makes a jump big enough to have a .400 OBP on a regular basis. If they could cut down on their strikeouts, that would be helpful as well.
Good starting pitching once more but that's the skill of a team playing meaningless baseball, they're quite adept at finding ways to throw the game.
I don't understand why Wilton Lopez is on this roster. He sucked at AA, and is 26. At least Paulino had an ok day, and has been good down the stretch. As long as he can continue to pitch at this level, he will likely be in the rotation next year.
So, I guess Cooper didn't get the memo. Manzella had a whopping 0 ab's vs. Milwaukee and hasn't made an appearance since 9/16. I think Cooper is actually trying to get fired at this point...
that was mind-numbingly frustrating to me. arguments that he was producing because he was walking but never driving in runs. watching him change batting stances 4-5 times per at bat. holy crap that drove me crazy.
