This is the way I see it. This current lineup is absolutely going to get destroyed against these good teams we are going to be facing. Is it not insane to continue trotting the same jokers out there, hoping to get 3 runs while hoping our pitching staff holds the opposing team to 2 runs or less? Kemp needs to be up...and Teoscar needs to be given a shot. A guy like Tucker shouldnt see the field anymore. There needs to be a shake up...there needs to be some urgency right now, before we fall further behind the guys we are trying to catch. Bregman and Reed can stay and keep trying to get their shots...but give a couple of the AAA guys an opportunity. Kemp was good for us, let him keep going. Rasmus needs to sit too. 1B Reed 2B Altuve SS Correa 3B Bregman/Marwin LF Kemp/Teoscar CF Marisnick RF Springer C Castro/Gattis DH Marwin/Teoscar/Bregman
Ultimately the GM needs to trust the scouts and coaches beneath him. If the scouts and coaches are telling him that players like Reed and Bregman and Musgrave and Martes are better than players like Lucroy and Beltran and Bruce; then you should stand pat. I don't think Luhnow is afraid to pull the trigger or empty his top level of prospects for the right players. Rick Hahn supposedly wanted an absolutely unreasonable bounty for Quintana or Sale. Hahn himself admitted he didn't receive an offer for either player that he felt was good enough to even discuss the offer with the owner.
speaking of which.. when so many were b****ing about Bregman staying down for an extra series--perhaps he was being offered for Sale. And perhaps Luhnow was trying to prevent precisely this type of devaluation of his value just ahead of the deadline if he had a chance for Sale.
Bregman could go 0-50 and he'd still be one of the top 5 prospects in baseball. GMs don't think like that. Fans do.
Rough couple of weeks since the Valbuena injury. Why do all our big prospects suck out of the gate when it comes to batting . ..
I went to the game tonight and it was absolutely pathetic. It's so frustrating to see your team (who was 2.5 games out of 1st place during the weekend of the trade deadline) do absolutely nothing to help the lineup during such a vital period. I know that Bregman and Reed will eventually hit but it's hard to rely on rookies to come and crush major league pitching during their first taste of the big leagues. I think Luhnow relied to much on that and it's going to bite us in the ass this year. It's just infuriating to watch our biggest rival and competitor make two moves by adding two .300 hitters to their lineup during a pennant chase and to watch us add two more prospects as opposed to big league hitters. But hey, Let's talk about windows of opportunity as an excuse for not making a move!! I'm just at a loss of words. Our team has so much potential. I feel bad for our pitching staff who(outside of the Detroit series) has been absolutely crushing it. Our 5-9 is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Colby Rasmus - 4 pitch AB's with a high pop up. Tyler White - 4 pitch AB with him striking out on a fastball down the middle while back away. Preston tucker - 5 pitch strike out with him swinging late. Evan Gattis, 5 pitch AB with a ground out the short stop. Jake Marisnick - 4 pitch ab normally ending with a strike out. Jason Castro 5 pitch AB with him striking out and not even swinging the bat once and arguing with the ump about a missed call on a fastball down the middle. -sorry end of rant. I love this team and I'm really passionate about them but I'm upset and really frustrated. The Astros batters should be so much better than the product which is being place on the field.
The FO probably just thinks it's not our time to win this year. The idea is to sustain winning over a long period of time like the Cardinals, so we didn't gut our farm system. Our 3 best players are going to get paid soon, so one way to maintain a developing expensive payroll is to have a plethora of upcoming prospects who are pre-arbitration. I'm guessing they rather make a big off-season signing. Some have mentioned Desmond as an option for CF, maybe even bring back Fowler. It's disappointing because we should and can be better, especially based off last year's success, but only because a lot of us think short term success and not long-term. Overpaying for certain players like a Beltran can help, but it's not going to put us over the top. IMO, contact hitting to set up small ball runs is the best type of offense in the playoffs and our team isn't currently built that way yet. And while I would love to have someone like Sale or Archer, it's hard to justify giving up a Bregman type player for them. Bregman will start to hit; his approaches at the plate and talent are too good. I really hope he doesn't get sent down so his confidence isn't shattered. I'm more concerned about Reed because he looks lost at the plate. Also, just adding on to what everyone else is saying...the bottom of our order is atrocious. Rasmus and Gomez are washed and Tucker and White need to be sent down. Here's to hoping Yuli can get some hits when he comes up in a couple of weeks so we can finally platoon Gattis/Castro. I hate seeing both of them in the lineup.
Sorry Altuve, but when your season average is .220 or so, it means your not hitting nearly all the time, not just sometimes.
I have to say this team looks screwed the rest of the way. All it seems to take to throw this team out of whack is one injury to a key player. This idea that we are going to bring up noob players and make a run is wishful thinking. If this is what we are doing in rolling out all the noob guys, then you might as well just call up all these recently signed Cuban players or whatever. They couldn't do any worse. So much for that miracle run we were on. Clearly when you start injecting fresh faces into the lineup who are going through the transition, you're basically dialing the team back into rebuilding mode.
Slump guys. Haven't lost any other ground on the Rangers and we STILL play them again. Anything is possible. Keep the faith. The Bats will wake up.
Still don't understand the decision to have Marwin bunt with a man on first and second with no outs. He is one of our most clutch hitters and we were down 3-1. He hit a double earlier in the game. Just don't understand that at all. Of course you are putting the games in the hands of Altuve and Correa which I am fine with but they could have easily walked Altuve or Correa which would have really blown up in our face. Unfortunately both got outs although Altuve almost got a sacrifice. If I'm Marwin I would be pretty bummed about that decision. It was a hell of a bunt and he was looking to get on base but he just barely got out. I was hoping for an error as it would have made up for the bad decision by Hinch to bunt. If I am Hinch I am putting full faith in Springer, Marwin, Altuve, Correa and Valbuena when he returns as well as Gurriel assuming he is as advertised. You can't let your best hitters waste opportunities especially down 2 runs in the 8th. And yes Marwin has proven he is one of our better hitters as of late. Obviously, you don't want him to hit into a double play but I would take my chances and let the clutch bat swing away.
they need to put Guriel in the lineup asap, he's 32 and getting paid big money at this rate, we will be out of playoff contention before he can be of any help
I think you may have accidentally stumbled upon an organizational approach here. At last year's deadline, they led the division by two games and were up on the second wildcard spot by four. This year, they trailed in the division by six and were 4.5 behind the second wildcard. Maintaining a lead has a higher degree of certainty because it's easier and you control a greater percentage of the outcome. Chasing a lead, meanwhile, requires outside help, can be physically and mentally exhausting, and, because of the two-team wild card format, has a much larger pool of teams and thus an even greater level of unpredictability. They may very well not view losing prospects as a smart decision in a chase scenario. I don't know what it would've taken to snag to Beltran - but who here is happy if, next April, they failed to make the postseason, Beltran has retired/left and they're down... Hoyt or Rogers or Musgrove - or whatever prospect? If that's the philosophy... I don't know... I think it's rather smart. Those prospects *do* have more value than a two-month, uphill climb, right?
In a context neutral environment, bunting in the that situation causes the win probability to drop from 35% to 33%. In relevance to most stupid decisions, that isn't bad. That said, Altuve and Correa were the next two batters which likely meant odds of winning prior to bunt was greater than 35%, but probably raised the 33% by more as Altuve hits for such a high BA.
This is a good point. Not to mention, its highly doubtful Beltran alone would have been enough. Still, even though they lost, Lecroy and Beltran were responsible for all of Texas's RBI's last night.
Agree that they were cautious due to being a couple of games back in the division and wildcard as opposed to last season. Not to mention that they had to have known that our luck of having no injuries the first half of the season would catch up with us. Sure as ****, it caught up with us in a big way and we don't have the luxury of having 2-4 of our better players going down even with solid pitching depth. It was definitely bound to happen and we will be lucky to tread water when it does. They are not throwing in the towel as we did have the best record in baseball for about a 2 month stretch so Luhnow knows we are capable although with certain guys under performing it is asking a lot for us to be a true contender even with some big name additions.
