I think you're right. Correa's defense (2017: FG +3.0, BR +1.0 dWAR) has been improving each year and he has the strongest SS arm in the league. Altuve is basically league average (2017: FG -0.1, BR +0.7 dWAR).
Dw Yuli -1.2 McCann -0.6 Marwin -0.4 Springer -0.3 Reddick -0.2 Jake +0.4 Altuve +0.7 Correa +1 All others 0. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2017.shtml Bregman = 0 Really?
That is only regular season, though. Bregman has the tools of an elite defensive 3B, but did not consistently show them during the regular season. Playoffs on the other hand are a different story. I'm really interested to see if Bregman can keep up his playoff defense during the regular season.
The graph is saying we're below average by or within 1 Z-score. I don't find that unreasonable. We have a bunch of young, athletic players but no one is renown as a defensive wizard. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the next few years that ranking flipped and we found ourselves above the average but within one Z-score. I don't think the public defensive metrics fully account for the way the Astros play defense (i.e. lots of shifts) and I think that muddles their rankings in the big public rating/projection systems.
Disagree strongly. While the Astros may be better in the present, it's entirely arguable that the core players of the Yankees and Dodgers are similar if a little worse but that those two farm systems are far better. The Astros farm system has some top notch talent in Tucker/Whitley but doesn't have a ton of high end position player or RHP depth. They haven't had a legit LHP starting prospect in a while.
Dodgers and Yankees also can afford to sign anyone they want from their core, while the Astros are likely to start losing key players as soon as next year.
Under the current system the Yankee will always have more money than anyone else by miles, always. The Dodgers, Cubs and Red Soxs are way ahead of the pack, storied baseball teams that are just about guaranteed to be top 4 in revenue. The Astros need to find a way to maximize their playoff success and core talent to drive up their revenue to close the gap with the Giants, another successful team. The Giants 3 championships and great park have vaulted them to the number 5 spot. They need to hire the smartest marketing group they can find. Build the Astro brand name all over Houston- San Antonio- Austin triangle, they should own everything in south Texas and the gulf coast to Louisiana. They have to get more fans in order to get more corporate support and ultimate more TV money. The 4th largest market should have a goal to be top 6 in money. The Astros are currently ranked in revenue at 11th with 299M behind the likes of... Giants 428M Angels 350M Mets 332M Phillies 325M Cards 310M Nationals 304M The immediate goal should be to get to the level of Angels and build to compete with the Giants for 5th. If they build the brand and make great runs versus Red Sox and Yankees the next few seasons they can get to top 6. https://www.forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#header:revenue_sortreverse:true If they can get that kind of revenue then the Astros can start keeping anyone they want. It's going to be tough but there is a chance they could build a true dynasty for a decade.
The largest components of any team's revenue will always be TV/Radio deals and attendance. You can optimize the crap out of everything else... but without those two being upper echelon, its impossible for a team to be upper echelon in overall revenue.
So true. I believe baseball is on the up swing here and with all the football issues, (concussions, political, and lack of success on the field) the Astros stand to make some strong ground. This team is filled with lovable stars. Attendance is going to be above 3 million this year easy. I haven't seen kids and adults wearing Astro gear all winter since Roger and Andy were here, and it wasn't this prolific. Correct me if I understand it wrong but I thought the Astros and Rockets are part owners in the own TV deal with AT&T SportsNet. 1 Billion dollars over 10 years and the teams are 77% owners. So getting more viewership will help increase advertising sales on the channel.
The Dodgers signed that obscene TV deal a few years back, so for the foreseeable future, I believe their revenues dwarf even the Yankees. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/estimated-tv-revenues-for-all-30-mlb-teams/
Also, thanks to the CSN-H fiasco, you can't even get the Astros on TV in Austin on their major providers.
I've said a million times: defensive metrics cannot take into account the shifts, IF and OF. Watch the guys play. Gurriel and McCann/Gattis and Marwin in LF are subpar. Bregman was really inconsistent early in the year but he got better as he got used to the position. Any metric that says Correa or Altuve or Springer or Reddick are "below average" is not a metric I would trust.
Correa at best is an average SS. Same with Springer in CF. That's not to say they're bad defenders. But those positions are full of glove-only, light hitting defenders who's only value is the glove. Correa is no where near a guy like Adam Everett defensively. Similarly Springer isn't even as good as Jake from Rake Farm, much less Kevin Keirmeier. All four of those guys make highlight plays but they're very Jeter-like to me.
I disagree with your "average at best". Vehemently. Yes: Correa is not AE. Springer is not Handsome Jake (or even Maybin). Bregman is not Mike Schmidt. Altuve is not Roberto Alomar. Reddick is not Vlad. So? They're all better than good. Defense does not hurt this team (Fisher, Marwin, Yuli, catchers excluded). I'll give you Springer in CF, if we had Kenny Lofton or Mike Trout I'm sure he'd be in a corner. Oh well.
I agree that defense overall doesn't hurt this team. Those 4 guys play at least pretty close to average at their positions. But there's zero standout defenders on the starting roster. It obviously wasn't a big deal last year but that doesn't make them better than good.
