Tucker is quietly having a stellar season. And as he continues to get more comfortable, he is trending up. I won’t be surprised he has an OPS of .900+ by the end of the season.
Springer plays ONE way, and that is at 100% EFFORT He’s very fun to watch on offense and defense. Only time I’m not pulling for him is when he’s hitting against the Astros or trying to run down a fly ball in the outfield against the Astros. Beyond playing against the Astros, he’s just a likable type a dude who is always so positive and easy to root for; Springer is as low sodium as you can get in baseball (He’s not your typical salty baseball type player)!!!
Dunno how many people are baseball podcast people but the Fangraphs Effectively Wild podcast had a nice blurb on the Astros the other day. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/effectively-wild-episode-1744-the-pretty-good-players-draft/ The topic for the segment was players having good seasons that have gone under-recognized this year and surprisingly they led off with the Astros' platoon CF situation. Surprised to find out the Stros' CF position has collectively been worth 3.9 WAR (4th in the majors this year). For whatever nightmare situation we envisioned in replacing Georgie, it turned out better than anyone could have imagined. Big ups to the front office. From those interested, the blurb on the astros is from ~28:15 to 31:30
Surprisingly a huge huge win for the latter. By Fangraphs WAR this morning, the Astros CF's were worth 4.1 fWAR and Kyle Tucker worth 3.9 fWAR. Basically borderline All-star production from both positions. Pretty incredible.
Jake Meyers getting some rest is going to be important. Jose Siri needs playing Time in Centerfield, Chas needs to come off the bench. Same with Correa, Altuve, Brantley. Get them rested.
...5 days later, he's up over .900. Tucker had a ~.600 OPS for the first month of the season. 1.039 OPS since the all star break -- pretty impressive stuff. He's 3rd in OPS since the all-star breaks (100+ ABs).
Springer career dWAR to date in 8 seasons: 1.2 Love his heart and playoff heroics, but he was nothing like the 40-40 5tool stud I was expecting back in 2014 when he won MiLB player of the year It's not his fault ... he plays exactly like a kid that was really athletic, but picked up the game very late ... which he is He is very fast and a good athlete, but his lack of baseball instincts completely mitigate the positive impact of these physical gifts on the field Even as a young player on a team desperate for any 'juice', he arrived and has remained a terrible base-stealer Caught more than safe his whole Astro life, and with very low attempts, despite hitting mostly leadoff Altuve was running wild as a young leadoff man Springer just cannot read pitchers and has no feel for count/situation, so he plays it safe and stands on 1st George is basically a 1.5 tool player He essentially contributes nothing to winning without a bat, and even then, it's only the elite raw power that stands out He is not even a good contact/situational batter, strikes out a lot with average OBP His eye has never even approached the selectivity of Bradley, Bergman, Yuli, Yordan I do not even think he should play CF ... RF hides his poor instincts/reads/jumps/routes much better He makes catches look more spectacular with dives and slides that a more graceful, natural fielder would make on his feet (like Jake Marisnick) I've never seen CF played better by an Astro than those magical few weeks when Carlos Beltran was the best player in baseball and tried to carry us to a pennant He was a true 5tool superstar whose gifts and skills impacted every aspect of the game, and in dramatic fashion That's what I expected when Springer (finally) arrived He will forever remain beloved for 2017, but his career, for me, was always a bit bittersweet
@Milos , Dammmmn lol I think you are underselling him a bit . Just like all players springer ran hot and cold. When he was seeing the ball well he was able to work counts or crush mistakes . His arm was a fantastic defensive plus . High intimidation factor , and this attribute served us well in the playoffs when it counted most . Just sayin . You gotta count the 3rd outcome in 3 outcome guys .. that’s a tool . And I think you also left off his arm . more of a 3.5 to 4 tool outcome than 1.5 IMO He’s a career .270 guy , not great but his hit tool isn’t completely bunk .
Yeah ... a bit heavy on what he wasn't without emphasizing all the greatness he was Still maintain he was mainly an elite power hitter The arm was good, but without the mental awareness to pay it off more often ( positioning behind the ball, playing bounces off the wall, etc ) ... How often did it really make a difference? 1.2 career dWAR over 8 seasons kinda makes my case For reference, Kiermaier has accumulated 17+ dWAR over 9 seasons Andruw added 24+ over 17 years THAT's what elite OF defense looks like statistically Correa has evolved into an elite defender now ... George is just really fast with a good arm I think AJ may agree with me ... Springer has played nearly twice as many games in RF vs CF Nobody ever put prime Griffey Jr in right
Who's the closest we have to 5 tool now? Bregman? Correa? Tucker? Bregman doesn't have the power of the other two but could be the best defensive guy of the three.
Correa is at least 4 tools, 5 would depend on how you judge speed. Correa has an elite glove and arm with elite power and plus on-bas skills.
statistically i agree . however there are a few mitigating factors that you have to consider i think. 1) springer played many games in RF ; the position itself has a lower baseline value , no ? 2) springer missed a good amount of time overall those factors limit his ability to accumulate this type of stat. However, his profile for RF was fantastic. His arm influenced the decision whether or not to even attempt running, and then got guys out when they tried. He could work in tandem with a CF to cover a huge potion of the OF . With him and Jake our OF defense was so good we could play Marwin at LF . I can see your side of the story , even when not considering statistics, you could say that Springer HAD to split RF and CF often to try to save his legs. Furthermore , he didn't always make the smartest play. If he was engaged and feeling good physically he had a good reaction off the bat and strong giddyup - however, those are conditions that weren't always there.
Very fair points I know I'm making myself out to be a Springer Hater but I really enjoyed watching him as an Astro and appreciate all he did to bring us our first championship I'll say this ... Tucker should NEVER play CF and I'd much rather have George in RF Kyle looks just as clueless sometimes except without the full max hustle that was Springer's trademark
