He had a stellar defensive reputation prior to last season, but his defensive numbers fell off along with his hitting. That said, even with Colorado he had a 23% CS which is a great deal better than McCann’s 13% and Gattis’s 10%.
That we'll win another World Series? Hopefully we do so without taking 25 years off my life in the process.
Also, Molitor made a number of decisions that cost them home field in the wild card game. Francona made a number of decisions that cost them best record in all of baseball.
Nobody will. I'm just not sure baseball is as keen on the big deals as they were. Last offseason signings: Cespedes: 4/$110M Fowler: 5/$82.5M Desmond: 5/$70M Turner: 4/$64M Encarnacion: 3/$60 Reddick: 4/$52M Sure it wasn't a great FA class, but only the all-star closers really broke the bank. It only takes one team, but I think teams are getting smarter.
I recall Encarncion was asking for $200M last year as well, LOL. Didn't the Blue Jays offer him $120M extension during the season that he turned down? Sometimes these guys get a little too greedy.
Endless trade talks about it being impossible to win World Series with a certain player even though that player was on a World Series Championship team with a near identical roster within the last year?
That, and if/when the team falters in the slightest: Fire Hinch, Fire the hitting coach, Fire the physical trainer, Fire them all!
I'm going out on a limb here and say Marwin will not be the regular left fielder next season unless there are a plethora of injuries.
So you have a hard time imagining Astros clinching a playoff birth and Game 162 not mattering for playoff seeding? Moran and Yuli up the middle. Good times.
I'd be a fan of adding Lucroy. Early projections have him in the neighborhood of a .760 OPS next year, which seems reasonable given the abrupt nature of his off year. Not like it's been a steady decline for years or anything. And if you keep Lucroy fresher by not playing as much, that might help him even more. I doubt Lucroy is a long-term solution, in terms of your next starting catcher after McCann... but he can be a serviceable part-timer on a contender, IMO. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=7870&position=C I've come around on the idea of Gattis as 2018 DH. He's certainly not perfect, but they've worked on his approach to where he's much more patient than two years ago and doesn't have nearly as many empty ABs. He also doesn't have major splits -- i.e. similarly viable vs. LHP and RHP. He's nothing to write home about, but he feels like an almost certain upper .700s OPS guy — which combined with his reasonable salary is enough to where the Astros would probably get more bang for their buck by upgrading elsewhere.
Yuli would actually probably be fine at 2B and played primarily 2B for various stretches in Cuba. It’s at SS where his range would make him a bad defender. Not that it matters because of the versatility Marwin and Bregman add.
Marwin sported a 907 OPS last year in 134 games. He was the primary backup for all infield positions, so I suspect that he will start in LF when not subbing in the infield.
