Yep. I expect Luhnow is trying to get something for whoever is getting dropped from 40-man or is close to doing a minor trade that would free up a spot. Guys at bottom of 40-man don't seem worth it in my opinion.
We should make Correa a starting pitcher so we can get his bat in the line up on the road against NL teams. He can start 40-50 games for the Astros and we can release Fiers and McHugh. Correa can play catcher the other 110-120 games and can come out of the bullpen some too.
All kinds of "genius" Joe Maddon/LaRussa stuff. Reed pitches to a LH batter, goes to 1B, Neshek comes in, Reed comes back to face the next LH batter. It's a foolproof plan, Walter, it's a Swiss ****ing watch.
I get that he's struggling in his first stint in the bigs (and using the word "struggling" is an understatement), but to call him useless or a bust is just flat-out wrong.
Reed is making the case for himself to be sent back to AAA more additional seasoning. Reed should be called back in September and should be the favorite for to break next spring training as the starting first baseman. The Astros and Reed now know what Reed needs to work on, before taking the big step back into the MLB.
Reed will never be that GG 1st baseman so if he's gonna make any impact it will be with the bat as a DH.
I don't think anything can prepare you for big league pitching, except big league pitching. I'm of the mindset that sending him down is pointless at the moment. Through his first 74 PA, Springer had a .477 OPS and was striking out 1/3 of the time, he looked terrible at the plate. Then he "figured it out" or got hot, whatever you wanna call it and was a monster for the next month. Now people will say we were bad then, so we could tolerate it. But when you're a contending team, there is no good time for a rookie to struggle, those games next April are gonna be important as well. I think the possible back end reward is too great to send him down now, he may cost us a few right now, but Reed has the talent to be a guy that can not only help us in the future, he can help us in this pennant chase. Then again he may not, like I said when your good it's always a gamble to use valuable PA on an unproven rookie, I just think it's worth the risk.
I'd like him and Carlos Gomez to get together and compare notes... GoGo swings way to hard (as does Springer on occasion) and Reed seems to have the most lackadaisical swing I have seen. Somewhere between there is a very happy medium...
Eh, rookies on good teams get sent down all the time... and it usually does some good. The main issue is that they can't afford to let him play out of his "slump", or whatever this is (unlike the Springer situation)... so he's not getting regular playing time... and there's a strong possibility (given the impending callups) that the playing time may go down even further. Its not pointless to send somebody down. There are things to work on. Just like White had things to work on. I bet both will be better in their next stint. Some guys take awhile... nobody should be giving up on him.
Although I would not give up on Reed, it would make some sense to bring up Tyler White if they wanted Reed to work out his kinks in AAA. He really wasn't excelling in AAA all that much. White is absolutely on fire with 10 HR's in his last 30 days. Could ride out his hot streak or see if he can stick with the big club this time. I assume White knows what it will take to succeed at this level since he got a good taste earlier this year. Granted he got 166 AB's with some success so maybe we can give Reed a couple of more games but it is really inexcusable for our DH to be one of the weakest links in the lineup but it seems that has been the case all season including last season as well. This really shouldn't happen going forward as you have White, Bregman, Gurriel and even Preston Tucker that can probably contribute at least an OPS of .750 the rest of the season.
The fact that Bregman and Gurriel are both likely to enter the fold, does make sending Reed down an easier choice. Right now against righties I would rather see Reed in the lineup than Gattis or Marwin. Against lefties, I think Reed should play ahead of Rasmus and Castro. When they do decide to bring Bregman up PA will get a little tighter, but I don't think Reed should be sent down until Bregman and Gurriel are both on the roster. If Reed still hasn't started to show something when Gurriel's ST is over, then we can send him down and try again next year. As is, I don't think the alternatives to Reed are any good.
Sending him down, while there's still a good amount of minor league season left, may be the best chance for him to get back up here while there's still enough time for him to make a difference. Its obvious he's got things to work on. He's just not going to get enough AB's right now... and even less once guys are called up. He's not going to play in front of Marwin regularly against righties. He's not going to sniff the lineup against left-handed pitching as Hinch has taken a liking to giving one of the big 3 a DH role in those spots (and I presume Bregman gets here well before Gurriel, and he should be a fixture against lefties).
