Our staff is not good, we have many number 4-5 starters in the rotation and inconsistent relievers. Right now K is looking like a number 4 starter and not a number 1. For this team to start winning series we need K to be an all star with McCullers responding. Fister is pitching good, and that surprises me as the fastball is only 86 McHugh is really pitching bad. The rotation is just bad
I agree . The bottom line is players need to play better . Both batting and pitching . At what point does players not playing well reflect on coaching ? The talent is there is it not ? If not then personell moves need to be made . The season is a marathon and this stretch at the beginning ( not really the beginning anymore tho ) amplifies the worrying . You can fall into a hole and not be able to climb out . If we don't make the playoffs this year then that's a bunch of trades made for the present that didn't work out . The farm is weaker than it was at this point last year and what new talent we did draft ... Most of it is 2+ years away . Pitchers have a short shelf life . If kuechel can't regain his ace form then there is a lot to worry about in the future . Likewise ... If we have 5 hitters in our lineup that can't break .220 then there is a lot to worry about and we have a lot more holes than we thought .
If anything, I'd actually say Fister has performed at least slightly better than expectations. He's been fairly solid and consistent. He's only had one bad start. The rest have kept the team in the game.
I don't like Hinch and feels he's a problem but the first thing this team needs to do is remove Gomez from the team. He's a cancer. Once he's gone watch the team start to go on a good streak. Yes the organization gave up prospects for him and the trade will probably go down as a damaging one but they need to just bite the bullet and concede that this trade is an overall failure and move on. Again Gomez is killing this team.
It has been a couple years, but I've seen a study that looked at midseason coaching changes and teams that similarly underperformed projections that didn't fire the coach. Both groups similarly performed better in the second half regardless of whether they fired coach or not. Sometimes players play poorly, but coaching is usually not the problem. In addition, it is usually too late to do drastic mid-season changes in personnel.
Gomez frustrates me greatly, but I think this is a bit over the top calling him a cancer. He appears to get on well with teammates and he is not the only player putting up shocking numbers. You can remove Gomez by all means, but this team is still going nowhere if Valbuena continues to hit .200, Marisnick .100 (who would presumably be a starter if Gomez is ditched) and if Rasmus and White don't return to early April form. Not to mention pitching improvement, Keuchel and Giles specifically producing to our initial expectations. Gomez isn't single handedly the problem, but you identify the reason why some make him so. He cost us the most in trade value and right now we look like we were losers in that trade. We are more forgiving of Marisnick because we think we are winners in that Marlins deal because Cosart fell off the earth after we dealt him and we still predict a bright future for Moran and Martes. Valbuena until yesterday's 5 RBI performance had similar numbers to Gomez and even now isn't exactly much better, but again we don't seem to hate on him as much because we didn't give up prospects, I can't remember the full deal, did we get him by dumping Fowler's salary on the Cubs?
He may be liked on the team but he's a horrible influence and is bringing down this team. Yes he's not the only player playing badly for the most part this year but he is an absolute head case right now that is not healthy for this younger team with no real leadership in the locker room. Right now he has the most negative affect on the team of all the everyday position players. There's no good reason to continue to have him on the team. Time to move on from him. If they don't get rid of him, bench him for a significant amount of time at least.
I don't think Gomez should be removed from the team, but you can't play him much right now. He's probably the worst outfielder in baseball at this point. Something is obviously wrong with him, but the odds are he won't stay like that forever. He should only see the field as a pinch runner or when giving someone time off at the end of a blowout. Maybe time off will clear his head. He'll be gone soon enough, but for now, they have to minimize the damage he is costing them every single game.
While I appreciate it is only 25 AB's, Gomez is hitting .280 against southpaws. Maybe a Kemp/Gomez platoon could work for now?
so when is moran coming up to replace valbuena? you cant possibly tell me that we have to wait all the way till sept or early next year to replace him with bregman. we need to replace him NOw! moran cant possibly do any worse than him.
I think this is what we will see....IF Gomez doesn't have another blunder in the field....just can't go on much longer
Are you in the locker room? Do you have access to some secret inside information the rest of us don't?
I get sick of remarks like this. No I'm obviously not in the freaking locker I'm just making an observation. He is a clown show and just doesn't appear to be the best type of veteran influence this young team could have imo. Feel free to disagree but I stand by my stance in this matter.
I agree. I'm willing to bet the team will start a good stretch once Gomez is benched, released or whatever.
Kemp is not only an attempt at shaking things up for a should-be contender, but it also may be a hedge against a lost season. Kemp may be a candidate for a CF platoon next season with Marisnick. In fact, the entire bottom of the order next season may be made up of platoons of young players: 2B Altuve RF Springer SS Correa 1B Reed LF Bregman (or Rasmus if they bring him back) C Gattis/Heineman DH White/Tucker 3B Marwin/Moran CF Marisnick/Kemp Granted, the middle of that lineup is unproven with Bregman and Reed, but that entire position player roster projects to cost ~$15M, so there should be plenty of flexibility to dip into what profiles to be a deep crop of OF free agents.
Neither Marisnick nor Kemp will be gifted a spot without some serious production at the plate... in fact, it may be more likely/probable/successful that they spend on a corner OF which allows Springer to move back to his natural position of CF. Your lineup has possibly the same 4-9 problem the current lineup has... with 3-4 rookies as well. No team gets all their successful production from homegrown players. The Astros are already pushing the odds by having 3 home-grown all-star caliber players, all under 25, and all going to have primes that coincide.
