White is earning a spot here. As much as we all love Gattis's homers (and love the hugs even more), I'm not comfortable with him as an everyday DH. We've clearly seen that there's two different Gattises, the "Hit everything out of the park Gattis" we saw tonight and late May/early June, and the "I can't hit Gattis" we've seen in between. To repeat what someone else said, if he's back next year I will be disappointed. Too inconsistent, and absolutely zero defensive value (defensive value from a DH increases roster flexibility and makes a 3-man bench easier to sustain). White provides a ton of pop and looks comfortable at 1B and can probably improve with practice. One thing is I just wish we had more left handed power in the lineup. Hoping Tucker can develop into that. Ryan Pressly was great tonight. Aside from two batters he's faced (Odor and Cruz) he's been great. I hope his ERA drops below 2.5 (or at least below 3) by the end of the season. Love how he just pitches and then the hitters swing and miss, he makes it look so easy. Hopefully he keeps this up.
Would have been nice to spread some of this offense around. Over the losing streak we were outscored by 11 runs total, and we just won by 11. At least Tyler White looks like a player now, gotta find a way to keep that stick in the lineup.
There's no personal agenda to seem like a smarter fan. I honestly couldn't care less. I have my opinions and I use the very recent past to form them. As I already said, you're more than welcome to yours and however you want to form them. Getting that ring, TO ME, lessens my anxiety over them not playing well for a stretch.
Tyler White becoming a worthwhile hitter certainly is a good thing, and the talk of fixing him at 1B, but are we going to address the elephant in the room? That being, what to do with Yuli? Once healthy, there is no where on this team in the infield to put him. Super utility guy? Not enough AB's for two, Marwin being the other. Maybe put Marwin in LF semi-permanently come playoff time? Maybe. Then what about Tucker? DH? Lets also realize that TW only has 77 AB's as a 2018 Astro. Big enough sample? Looking at our outfield, we have Reddick and Jake who are great defensively, but meh on offense. And while Springer's offense is good overall, he is streaky and can go cold for weeks at a time himself. My point being here is that our offense from the outfield overall is weak and while TW's offensive emergence maybe real, its not at a position of need. If we are to fix our holes on offense, we really need one of Tucker, Jake, Reddick or Marwin to be consistently good at the plate. At one point, we had Kemp, Fisher and Tucker in the OF last night
It's looking more and more like White should get a legitimate shot to be the starting 1b/DH next year. Yuli can move to the utility role Marwin has filled.
Yuli is locked in at 1B. Come playoff time he will be the only guy at 1B unless he gets a DH game, but he will be in the line up no matter what. The dude is a professional hitter and he is his best when the lights are bright. Marwin was the primary LF all of last years playoffs but Kemp might be giving him a run for his money this year. Other than that jake, fisher , tucker or white are all guys who can fill the bench who won't get much playing time.
Tucker's hype is going downhill quick too. He's been just like AJ Reed, who kills it in the minors but cant hit a thing in the big leagues. He needs a couple of big hits to get his confidence up before it gets shattered and gets sent back to AAA again.
Next year? He's still got a month and a half of this year. I doubt he hits well enough remainder of the year to unseat Gurriel or Gattis, but he will likely get enough at bats to have a shot.
He has had 51 at bats dude, step back off the ledge. He also hasn't had consistent playing time, pretty hard to get into a groove when your'e getting sporadic starts. At least Bregman played EVERY DAY when he was dealing with his rookie struggles.
The advanced statistics is general show that White's production has been legitimate. I will be very interested in seeing what he does over the next 100 at bats. If he is still hitting, I will feel fairly confident.
DH and some at 1st base. He can also come in on double switches as well. Frankly at this point he is a better option than most of the other hitters on the team.
I agree he needs to get playing time, I just don't see a spot for him to get regular playing time unless you bench Gattis or Yuli. Double switches isn't an option, we are done playing in NL parks.
Sorry, I am tired. I don't mean double switches but to pinch hit for lesser hitters and stay in the game at a different position. For example hitting for Stassi or Maldonado. There should be enough bats to go around if the Astros decide to go this route.
More than likely you can stick a fork in Tucker this year. So far all he has done is beat his head against the wall and leave the bat on his shoulder much more than he should. If he is as good as every one of our scouts thinks he is then wait until next year, give him Reddick's job as he is worthless anyway IMO, and give him the same shot as Bregman had. Up until this point anyway it is obvious that Tucker is not ready for the big stage yet.
