The consecutive HR games were nice... but he's walking more, striking out less, and his batting average/OBP is the highest its been.
Fun game, all of a sudden we are an instant 1st inning offense? More so than the late heroics lately...
I remember when LaTroy Hawkins rejuvenated his career in Houston. So many people wondered "why"? Why did they sign this scrub, he's done. He was crazy good the rest of that year...6 years later, he's 42 and still going. And he's not a loogy like Jesse Orosco or whomever.
He must have really had a great work ethic to still be pitching and throwing that hard. He was up to 93 on the gun. Impressive.
That would be an especially challenging role for him... Since he is (and has always been) right handed.
Really impressed with the adjustments Springer has made at the plate. Seems like he's shortened his swing a bit and is really hitting the ball on the screws right now. The HR to right-center was sick. Reminds me of when Bagwell was really on...he'd kill the ball to right-center.
George Springer is a star. I had my doubts as to what his true ability was after last season, but he has made every improvement one could have hoped for. His K rate is well down, is walk rate is up. He still strikes out a lot, but he usually swings through strikes. He only swings at 20% of balls outside the zone, that's 5th in all of baseball. That means he is forcing pitchers into in the strike zone, which means good pitches to hit, even if he misses a lot of them. Because he is getting all these good pitches his LD% is way up. The tandem of him and Correa is looking like a beastly foundation.
And even with those improvements... his RF defense may be the most impressive thing about him thus far. Definitely possible that he gets a gold glove this year.
Rasmus, Marisnick, and Springer all have negative defensive value this year. I'm really having trouble buying into that. Defensive metrics are an inexact science.
Yeah... it really is. A lot of those metrics are cumulatively based... influenced more positively if your pitching is allowing a lot of traffic on the base paths or several balls hit to the OF. I think it definitely has better applications to infield defense, as if a pitcher is doing his job well he's giving his infielders far more opportunities than his outfielders.
Not directed at you seal but a lot of negativity on jose lately. Are people so down on Altuve? His hitting and the pitching carried us through april and half of may. he hasn't had a good 31 days but it's such a loooong season. =/ still tops in singles in the Al, steals and plays a great infield contrary what some say. Top 3 in all 2b rankings, the important ones. oh and he was still 24 when the season began. .290, one hot month and he is back at .330
