The Astros don't have the money to spend or the prospect capital to trade, to meaningfully address the issues you raise. This roster minus Springer got us to one game of the WS. Thus, there can not be huge holes in the roster. We did lose Springer but we do get Yordan back, a bit of a wash. The other core position players had down years and will likely bounce back as the pandemic subsides and they get a full 162 game season to sort things out. The three "rookie" starters, Urquidy, Valdez and Javier, performed well and will likely get better as they head toward their peak years. I take you were happy when we traded the farm for Verlander, Grienke and Osuna. We are paying the price for being competitive in prior year's playoffs, as we should. Of course, we could just blame the owner as being cheap ... or Bill O'Brien for being Bill O'Brien.
Yordan Alvarez has the kind of power you dream about as a kid, but that isn’t what sets him apart. He has game power — the ability to sift through pitchers’ offerings and focus on the ones he can do the most with. It’s driven by his batting eye, and it makes the rest of his already-prodigious skills play up. It’s no accident that he projects to be one of the best hitters in baseball, even if he hasn’t had much chance to show us what he can do at the major league level yet. Full Article Here: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-yorda...f4R3NoTE8RIxil0Z935UFcrPIW6JlwV5JA1rxZjTa3oZQ
He is supposedly working on cutting down his strike outs and increasing his exit velocity. As a rookie his exit velocity was 92-93 mph. Last year, in a small sample size his velocity was up to 99 mph. I expect his exit velocity to be in the 94-95 mph range. If you look at his actual results, the EV, LD, HH and other dynamics are VERY similar to David Ortiz.... especially if he cuts down on his strike outs like he is attempting to do. I get that he really wants to play the field, I would too...... but someone needs to sit him down and remind him that guys like David Ortiz and Edgar Martinez are in (or will be) the Hall of Fame as DH's and that David Ortiz didn't get consistent at bats until 27 years old and still hit 483 homers with a nearly .950 OPS...... and Ortiz could have kept playing had he wanted to...... and you can get paid as a DH, Ortiz made nearly $200 million in his career. The universal DH is coming, and there will be other guys doing the same thing......... just mash big fella (it's weird calling someone smaller than me big fella but whatever).
Pretty crazy. Here I am impressed with Alvarez crushing at 92..... and then 99 in a very brief season last year.......... and thinking that is Hall of Fame EV.... and the whole time, the social anxiety suffering brilliant pitcher from Orlando Florida is apparently achieving 100 mph exit velocity in his couple of at bats last year..... Although it is better for Zach to be hitting rockets rather than giving them up.
Grienke had one of the best exit velocities in baseball in 2020. “Based on his performance in 2020, Greinke has plenty left in the tank. Although he posted a 4.03 ERA – one of the highest figures of his potential Hall of Fame career – Greinke registered a better 3.72 SIERA with a 24.5 percent strikeout rate and an elite 3.3 percent walk rate. Greinke also induced a fair amount of weak contact, evidenced in part by the 86.8 mph exit velocity hitters mustered against him.”
Maybe his one batted ball in 2019 is too small of a sample... I think he is more proud of this EV... https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=b2246ad5-00f1-4eca-b28e-449de22f4eb7
So do we get those starters and a closer from Amazon? Do we gut the farm system for these guys and say damn the budget?
I'm definitely intrigued on what Yordan can do with a full season under his belt. From what I saw, very nice. I'd like to see what he does with a full season though. And definitely agree he could make a very good living and have a good career as a DH. He'd need to play the field in away games vs NL teams, so I hope we can get him somewhere in the field.
