2023? Joe Espada Mgr, Mickey Storey bench coach. Korey Lee, Taylor Jones, or J.J Matijevic, Benslwy or Valdez, and Pedro Leon Replace Castro, Gurriel, Diaz, Brantley Hunter Brown and Shawn Dubin Replace Odorizzi and Montero.
Interesting. I thought the Atlantic League? players/coaches didn’t like it when it was implemented there but maybe they have improved it.
Great pitching has been bailing out a mediocre offense all year. The great pitching hasn't been there lately and the losses are beginning to pile up. Wake up offense! Everyone not named Yordan, Brantley, Altuve, Tucker or Pena needs to step it up! Or if you prefer the anti-jinx version Everyone not named Yordan, Brantley, Altuve, Tucker or Pena cant hit for **** and deserves demotion.
I think Are biggest hole is 1B at the moment and if we can find a supplement behind Maldy that would be awesome I do think we might need another BP arm that can handle the Save situation
Per Steamer projections, Houston could replace Gurriel, Castro, and Diaz with Matijevic, Lee, and Valdez, and they’d come out ahead in terms of wRC+.
If Taylor Jones gets healthy and going him and Matijevic are interesting in guys that could possibly man 1B and LF
• It’s the time of year when everyone plays general manager, but some potential trades are not as logical as they might appear. Consider the Astros, whose OPS at catcher is the second-lowest in the majors, and the Cubs’ Willson Contreras, whose OPS at the position is tied for the highest. An obvious fit, right? Not so fast. And probably not at all. Astros players and coaches revere the defensive work of Martín Maldonado, who was the alternate catcher to Robinson Chirinos on their 2019 World Series club and the regular during their 2021 Series run. The front office is aware of the sentiment in the clubhouse and in agreement with it, making it unlikely the team would displace Maldonado, according to sources familiar with the team’s thinking. Maldonado, 35, is hitting .153 with a .503 OPS. He has thrown out five of 18 potential base stealers, one of the league’s best rates, but his framing ranks only 49th out of 60 catchers, according to Statcast, and only the White Sox’s Yasmani Grandal has allowed more passed balls. How is it, then, that Maldonado is so popular among the Astros? It’s because of his other attributes. His leadership. His game-planning. His game-calling. Go back to last year’s American League Championship Series, which the Astros won in six games. When asked how the Red Sox were outscored, 22-1, in the final 26 innings, Sox manager Alex Cora told Fox Sports’ Tom Verducci, “Brent Strom and Martín Maldonado. Two of the smartest people in baseball. They completely changed their strategy against us midway through Game 4.” The issue with the Astros is their offense, which led the majors in runs last season and ranked third in the sport’s previous full season, 2019. The current group ranks 22nd in runs per game, and is batting .228 with runners on base, 27th in the majors. The Nationals, the team with the game’s fourth-worst record, are scoring at a higher rate. Maldonado, though, is hardly the only under-performing hitter. While the offensive dropoff from Carlos Correa to Jeremy Peña at shortstop has not been as great as initially feared, first baseman Yuli Gurriel and third baseman Alex Bregman are not producing to their usual levels. Center field, shared by Chas McCormick and Jose Siri, is a particular problem area. The beauty of Contreras is that he also could help a team as a designated hitter, a role in which he’s batting .333 with a 1.080 OPS in 60 plate appearances this season. But the Astros already have the game’s top DH, Yordan Álvarez, and use the spot to rest other players on days Álvarez is in left field. The Astros obviously would prefer Maldonado to raise his OPS to his career mark of .632, but like most teams, they consider the entirety of the player, not just one aspect of his game. For catchers, blocking, throwing and framing can be quantified. But other things — the execution of a game plan, the trust of a pitching staff — cannot. The Astros are not brazen enough to overlook Maldonado’s greatest strengths, even if they are impossible to measure. They know what he means to their team. • How much did Yordan Álvarez’s play in left field factor into the Astros’ decision to award him a six-year, $115 million extension? Not nearly as much as his offensive prowess, obviously, but Álvarez’s ability to play the field on occasion did figure into the overall calculus of the deal. Álvarez, 24, made 39 starts in left last season, and has made 23 this season. His sprint speed is in the 26th percentile, meaning he is faster than more than one-fourth of the players in the majors. He certainly has proven capable of covering the smaller left field at Minute Maid Park —Ken Rosenthal
If Maldy is good at "handling" the pitching staff, then why does he have a negative cERA since Castro arrived in Houston? Also, I agree with Rosenthal that Contreras to the Astros is unlikely, although not necessarily for the reasons he listed.
So let me get this straight The Angels say they hate the Astros, and we are nothing but trashy cheaters But their superstar invites Bregman to play in his fantasy football league
You have to separate the fans and the media from the players and their organizations. They are not the same.
Framing will be devalued, but overall defense will not. The intangible pitcher's confidence will still be important, even without a good stat measure for it.
I understand what you are saying, but you are not going to find the answer you want in statistics. Maldonado has a massive impact when it comes to game planning and working with the pitchers. He works on an equal footing with the pitching coaches when it comes to planning ahead and deciding pitcher routines, etc. Now, having said that, there is the possibility that the Astros get someone like Contreras is things really break well for the Astros (Yankees stay out etc.) and Maldonado can still do the game planning and Contreras can sit in and and do the actual catching to get his bat in the game. My "eyes" tell me that Maldonado is slowing down behind the plate as well. Kevin told me that Maldy has lead the league in "pop rate" like 5 straight years, but I don't know if that includes this year as well.
