No kidding. I can see what they like in him. Lefties with a live arm like he has don't come along every day, but geez, enough is enough. They've tried everything to find him a niche. He's been a lefty specialist, long reliever and starter. They also messed around with him throwing sidearm some before scrapping that as well.
"We are your Astros. Root! Root! Root!" Oh wait, nevermind. Those are just the slogans from this year and last.
Wesley Wright was very good last year. I just got done watching the game on DVR and Wright was the most impressive player in the game to me. He pounded the the bottom of the strike zone and his slider was nasty against lefties. All that tinkering was unfair to Wright. It may have slowed his development. Maxwell is freaking huge. Dude just looks like an amazing talent. At 28, it would be stunning for him to finally tap that potential, but he just reached out and hit that HR out, and it wasn't a Crawford box cheap shot.
He also walked a ton in spring training. People knocked him for not walking, but he did walk in the minors. People underrate his walk rate because he was racking up so many hits in 2011, so he had no reason to show patience. Altuve is the youngest player in the majors. How many people realize that?
As a lefty specialist, he was outstanding last year. Left handers were 1-26 against him - small sample size overall (12 innings) but he performed his job well.
