Don't care about the numbers. Badrum was a bad signing. Click corrected this mistake by trading for Dubin. Hopefully Click got this one right.
Astros are 30.7 million under the tax but probably can't spend more than 25 million because of Odorizzi's incentives. Luxury tax is not an issue at all this year. You could add Mike Trout at the deadline and still have 13-14 million left to spend and stay under the tax.
Wrong. Castro put up $10M worth of value last year so he was worth both years of his contract just in what he’s already done. He’s had 39 inconsistent pa this year which is nowhere near enough to draw any kind of conclusions. And, like Maldonado, he provides extensive value outside of his bat which probably isn’t even captured by any publicly available metrics.
You've just made a great argument for what he should have only been signed to a one year deal. Because this year he's done nothing, which should be expected as a 39 year old catcher.
And if he played like crap last year, wouldn't you be saying that's what should be expected as a 38 year old catcher? You can't just point out all the little things not going perfectly on a first place team and say all those little things are proof of incompetence.
I said from the beginning that signing him to a 2 year deal was a mistake. In fact I wouldn't have signed him at all. The only thing that surprised me was that he didn't perform last year like he's performed this year.
Dubon looks like he’s 13 years old. One AB in and I already like him more than Robles or Goodrum. Anyone acting like the Goodrum deal is in any way a problem is being disingenuous. The thing that sucked about Goodrum wasn’t the money it was absolutely torching a roster spot with someone who clearly didn’t deserve one. I think, with Baez and Goodrum gone we no longer have anyone on the roster who doesn’t deserve a roster spot/is a sub replacement player and/or has no upside. I suppose you could say Castro is completely washed and is sub replacement, but as a catcher that’s not a mess defensively how can you really tell in this day and age? The argument against Click isn’t that he made deals that are overpays or don’t work, it’s that he doesn’t have the inclination to make mid size to aggressive deals and has played so much small ball that the overall talent has been drained. If Meyers and Peña hit, and most importantly can hit good pitchers in the playoffs, then you can argue that he made the ballsiest bet of all I guess.
Last year Castro had one of the best back up catcher seasons we've seen in Houston. He was one of the teams best hitters in close and late situations. The Astros might not have won the AL without his incredible 9th inning at bat in game 4 vs. Boston. If they had signed him to a one year deal then they would have likely overpaid to resign him this year. Give the man a break on a slow 1/6 of the season.
We will see how the rest of the season turns out. I'm hoping the catchers can improve to batting over.200 combined.
Just a ? out of nowhere: Who were the catchers who changed teams over the offseason who you like better than Castro or Maldy?
Yeah- it’s just a position without hardly any offense nowadays. It’s become immaterial to most teams seemingly. The Astros are testing the outer bounds of what might be acceptable as far as offensive performance from a catcher is regarded, but I think there’s a good argument- if you are a team that knows you will be in the playoffs, to completely disregard offense at the catcher position (which is really expensive) and find two guys beyond your starter that are fine defensively. Then, you can use pinch hitters in the 5th inning or later (playoff games) for any catcher that is catching during a game you are losing, the same as was formerly done for any pitcher behind after the half was point of the game. Let’s say Meyers comes back and becomes the regular CF. In the playoffs you can PH Chaz or Diaz for Maldonado in the 5th or 6th and then PH the other guy in the 7th or 8th for Castro and put in your 3rd catcher. With 12 pitchers and 14 position players that could still allow a spot for Siri to PR/play defense late: Starting 9 2 backup catchers PH #1, PH #2 PR. We aren’t ever going to PH for anyone 1-8 under any circumstances. The only guy you would take out for defense or base running close and late is Brantley- after his last AB, and you might as well PH for catcher twice in the back half of the game if you are trailing. Bam- you can now carry an all glove/no bat catcher who doesn’t break the bank and completely minimize that negative, outside of 2 AB’s, in the playoffs. This makes sense to me as a way to spread out finite resources.
Again, just for fun: top 5 in R/G allowed, rank in OPS+ from the C position: Yankees 28 Dodgers 2 Astros 29 Mets 22 Angels 19
Things are going good when 1 to 2 pages the season general discussion thread is spent arguing over the production of the backup catcher and the secondary backup utility man. Goodrum was signed for depth only after Taylor Jones got injured in Spring Training, and he has options. It was a very low risk signing. He was backup utility man after Diaz. Remember Robel? Nori Aoki? The 13th guy on the bench is a warm body most of the time.
