Villar was given the keys to the SS several times, and was a knuckle head. He'd stretch singles into easy outs at second. His response was always, this is how I play. Good for him playing well in the majors. If we didn't have Correa and Bregman, we'd be very ticked he was let go for so little. But, it's about time Villar started playing well, even if it's for another team.
I knew he had serious talent, nice to see him putting it together. If we didn't have Marwin, Villar would still be on this team.
Villar's BABIP is .421, even with his awesome speed that's an unsustainably high number. He's also been thrown out on the basepaths 12 times, so he's still making some dumb decisions. Having said that, his walk rate has skyrocketed and his fld% is way up as well. With his physical gifts, if he can walk and be relatively sure handed he's gonna be a solid MLB starter. I highly doubt he can maintain an average close to what it is now though.
Robbie Grossman w/Twins .359/.457/.667 7 walks/7 k's in 39 AB's Brett Wallace w/Padres .217/.376/.377 Saw him hitting cleanup for the Pads. That's how bad they are, wow.
Wallace's BABIP is about where it should be so he's not getting lucky. His walk rate has taken a huge jump up; hard to say if that is sustainable, but if he can get on base 38% of the time, he will play in the majors for a long time. Grossman has been lucky with the Twins so far; he may end up being a decent 4th OF or even have a few years as a fringe regular, but I doubt he will be another JD Martinez.
Former stros in majors that have put up positive WAR: C Carlos Perez 0.1 WAR 1B Steve Pearce 1.5 WAR, Chris Carter 0.4 WAR, Chris Johnson 0.1 WAR 2B Jed Lowrie 0.4 WAR SS Jon Villar 1.4 WAR, Ronald Torreyes 0.1 WAR 3B Brett Wallace 0.3 WAR OF Hunter Pence 1.4 WAR, Carlos Beltran 0.4 WAR, Michael Bourn 0.4 WAR, Delino DeShields 0.3 WAr, Robbie Grossman 0.7, Kike Hernandez 0.5 SP Vincent Velasquez 1.2 WAR, JA Happ 0.9, Scott Kazmir 0.3, Mike Fomtynewicz 0.1, Jordan Lyles 0.1 RP Fernando Abad 0.4 WAR, Zach Duke 0.4 WAR, Xavier Cedeno 0.5, Fernando Rodriguez 0.4, Oliver Perez 0.4, Bud Norris 0.1 Interestingly JD Martinez has been replacement level (0.0 WaR) so far this season.
Where did you get your data? Lyles has a -0.8 WAR. 5 games pitched: 3.1 innings, 5 ER 4.2 innings, 5 ER 7.0 innings, 0 ER 2.2 innings, 5 ER 2.1 innings, 4 ER Overall 8.55 ERA, 2.05 WHIP Also, Deshields has been in the minors most of the past month and his WAR is -0.3. Norris is at -0.4.
Grossman is not hitting clean up and hasn't all year. Although, in his small sample size, there would be nothing statistically wrong with him hitting 4th.
Considering the overall stats of Lyles, Norris and Deshields, I'd tend to side with Baseball-Reference.
What was your overall point? You showed ex-Astros that had a positive WAR. Lyles, Deshields and Norris (and perhaps others) having a negative WAR certainly detracts from your point. And, if you want to argue one site's WAR vs. another's then Lyles' stats certainly come into play. He is clearly not a positive WAR player. Deshields being in the minors with a major league slash line of .217/.294/.302/.596 is clearly not a positive WAR player.
Really at this point the Astros haven't lost much. JD Martinez obviously has been a huge loss the last two seasons, but this season he has been above average but nothing great with an OPS of less than .800. Jacob Nottingham has an OPS of 650 in AA. Mark Appel has an era of 4.50 in AAA with a high WHIP. Vincent Velasquez has slowed down, his era is at 3.7 and he is averaging only 5.2 innings a start
