Yulieski Gurriel agrees to 5/$47M deal with the Astros

He has what makes a good recruiter ! You can tell he learned Spanish at a young age because he has no accent he speaks it very well. Guess he has no choice growing up in Mexico City

 

My favorite part of the press conference was when Yuli said he saw this team last year in the playoffs and loved their spirit for the game !

 

great signing

 

...which is Spanish for "The Yuli"

 

"EL YULE"

 

What a ridiculous thought.

 

What are u talking about, he was scouted as Wade Boggs in a lengthy article, and he hit leadoff most of his career. It's a legitimate thought.

 

If he were Wade Boggs, you wouldn't care where he was hitting in the lineup.

 

A good hitter can hit in the 5 hole. Boggs could have done it effectively. Just because Boggs was often leadoff and they compared him to Boggs doesn't mean either one would only be helpful in a specific spot in the lineup. I think that's along the lines of why juicy said that..

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with protecting a cleanup hitter with anyone or anything resembling Wade Boggs.

I'd actually prefer to protect Correa with a plus contact tool, as opposed to your prototypical 5 hole (above average power/below average contact) hitter.

 

Right, doubles drive in runs just fine. We also have no idea what Reed/Bregman/Valbuena/whoever will do between now and whenever Yuli joins the big club.

Also, Boggs hit 2/3 more in his career than he did leadoff.

 

What your really saying is that Boggs hit 70% from the 1-2 spot, 22% at the 3rd spot, and 5% from the 5th spot.

 

Boggd was one of the greatest hitters ever. 2nd spot, 5th spot whatever, if Gurriel is 3/4 of the hitter Boggs was you can pencil him in any spot in the lineup. If Gurriel is hitting 5th and hits like Boggs did then he's a 100 RBI guy.

The Astros need more contact and OBP in their lineup, Gurriel seems to be an answer to that problem.

 

When you are one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, they generally try to get you more ABs, so you hit higher in the order. The idea that he couldn't hit 5th is ridiculous. He just didn't because he was too good to be 5th. Boggs was a better hitter than Jose Altuve is.

Is your complaint that Valbuena becomes our 5th best hitter?

 

I'm very excited about the signing and watching this guy play over the next few years

We might want to pump the brakes a bit on him being Wade Boggs until we see him play

 

I'm saying if he's Wade Boggs, then he ought to be hitting first or second in our lineup just as Boggs did. For the exact reasons you noted, he's going to get more at bats, score more runs than Gonzalez could, more good pitches to hit, and he's going to be on base for Altuve and Correa and Reed to drive in. I would hate to see him standing on first after a Correa home run because he hit that nice line drive single there, inning over. It seems very simple baseball strategy to me. He could protect Correa, but why not protect him with Altuve and Correa. Let him more at bats and in position to score.

As for Valbuena, He's almost expendable at this point. He's in a nice groove right now with the bat and the glove, but even hot he's more or less a below average third baseman with some pop.

 

Just think if we had a doubles hitter in the order last night in the ninth...

 

He has a .917 OPS since May 7th, so he is amazing when he is hot. It is his overall that has been fringe average during the last few years.

 

This is such a weird argument, one scout comped him to Boggs (unfairly, the scout added) style-wise not production-wise.

 

This is ridiculous.