If he isn't deemed someone who could help us, I could We are going to have to pay the salary one way or the other. So if he isn't deemed as a guy who can help us win, but by paying the salary we could net a lower level prospect, I could certainly see Luhnow using him to acquire someone who could be deemed as an asset If we were not bound to the salary it would be different, but i'd rather pay him to use for an asset as opposed to paying him to go back to AAA and do nothing for us. Best case, obviously, is he has a good spring, makes the club and ends up providing value to us as a major league player. While he has been really bad, he is just 24 and only has 357 major league at bats. We live in such a "right now" world that it's easy to forget that a majority of players fail when they first come to the big leagues, even many of the great ones have a hard time at first.
Rangers have nice odds for a championship. You don't think them, plus us, at least makes our division "not weak"? Hate to say it, but might be underestimating the Rangers.
The Astros carried 13 pitchers for most of last season. If they do so in 2016, the Astros will likely not carry a backup corner IFer, letting Marwin backup all of the IF positions. Thus, White Duffy Singleton et al will be competing for a single roster at first. Carrying only 12 position players will put the squeeze on Preston Tucker as well. It would not surprise me if Tucker see time at first in ST. The Astros like his bat, so first would give him a 25 man spot (albeit a long shot). I also would not be surprised if Gattis sees some time first as well (extreme long shot at best). I suspect that Luhnow really wants his DH to play field on occasion. Gattis at first might be a better fit than in LF.
I've always hated the idea of platooning 2 DH's. Even in the AL carrying 2 guys that are major liabilities in the field concerns me. When you throw in the backup catcher it really limits the manager to only 2 true bench options in the field.
25 men roster Starters: 1. K 2. McCullers 3. McHugh 4. Fiers 5. Feldman Relievers 6. Giles 7. Gregerson 8. Sipp 9. Harris 10. Neshek 11. Fields 12. Open (Feldman if we re sign Kazmir) or another lefty C- 13 Castro 14 Stassi 1b 15 Singleton 16 2b Altuve 3b 17 Valbuena ss 18 Correa lf 19 Rasmus cf 20 Gomez rf 21 Springer 22 OF Marisnick 23 utility Marwin Gonzalez DH 24 Gattis There is only 1 spot open Duffy, White, Tucker If we go 13 pitchers, Kamir in rotation, Feldman long man and another lefty, then we only have 2 bench players, Marisnick and Marwin. I think we go 12 pitchers, and White as the 25th men.
If Singleton's contract looks like a negative asset after sucking this year, adding him to a deal causes the other team to remove prospects...not add them. This is based on the assumption that Singleton sucks this year and burns up another option. I think Singleton will play well enough to stay with team. Roster constraints may cause him to be traded if a rookie plays better.
Boy do I hate having Gattis. If he was the backup catcher, I could deal with it, but right now he has no flexibility. I don't see White making the roster in large part because he has no position like Gattis.
Singleton gets the Villar treatment this year. Will get a chance early, but will be replaced without hesitation if he doesn't go off.
Gattis still has a high enough floor (with comparable ceilings to the prospects) to warrant a spot. I expect him to hit lefties better this season, which should improve overall numbers. Needs to avoid historic slumps to start the season.
We only went a few weeks without 13 pitchers last year, and we got burned. Basically the 13th pitcher is the long man. Fiers had to make his first appearance as a reliever. I think it was a game that McCullers got knocked around pretty good in the first two innings. Anyway, thinking that Luhnow/Hinch prefer to have 13 pitchers on the roster. I think you're right that Feldman is either the 5th starter or the long man. If he's the 5th starter, long man will probably be Straily or Wojo.
Yep. I think the fact that we've had Carter on this team for 3 years has tainted our view on a kinda similar player. But Gattis has only been here for 1. If he does the 2 things you suggested (I also expect both of them), he will be more than fine. Let's not assume he's another Carter just yet
Gattis did not catch last year. Gattis might have been their emergency catcher, faik. I suspect that Luhnow does not want Gattis to catch with any regularity.
Unless he improves, his bat works as a catcher but not as a DH. I think next year is going to be his last with us if there is no improvement.
Don't have the numbers in front of me... but I saw a different approach at the plate as the season went on. Less "all-or-nothing" swings, which cut down on his HR's but also cut down on his strikeouts. Was he more effective with that approach? I don't know. Again, I expect him to get back to his career avg.'s against lefties... that will make him a better hitter and more valuable than he was.
Agree with these statements. But I think he will improve, and it's definitely worth giving him another year given what he's shown in the past.
He was more patient at end of the year and was definitely more effective last two months. In short term, it didn't affect HRs too much, but K rate went down and BB% went up. He didn't become superman, but he was almost a normal DH.
