I’m fine with the days off, but these lineup constructions kill me. We see some of the sorriest players batting in the most important spots. Chas McCormick batting lead off yesterday?? And Diaz batting cleanup? The next day it’ll be Dubon or AAAA Siri. Also, too much stock in the L-R-L-R thing. Alvarez can hit anyone. Tucker should be protecting Alvarez, period. Lastly, Korey Lee ain’t ready behind the plate. Cant wait for this trade deadline to come and go so we can know what we got. But yes…Dusty is holding this team back. Not an overreaction.
I mean it's frustrating AF getting swept by the A's of all teams but they have owned us this season. That said, how we perform against the likes of the Yanks and M's says a whole helluvalot more than this series. The positive thing we can hopefully take away from this series is that there's almost no way Click is going to be content not making at least one if not two significant moves. This team needs lineup protection like woah and this performance painfully pointed that out.
If he's going to use him irrationally, then more good bullpen guys won't help. But these are largely meaningless regular season games - this is where you want the Astros playing lesser players and keeping their key guys healthy. The Astros' goal - and this has been true since the middle of 2017 - has never been to go all out to win every game. People like Odorizzi and Maton should be getting as many innings as possible so everyone else is fresh for the playoffs.
Latest reports are from Baker that Brantley isn't close to being back, hasn't swung a bat in a month. Not very likely he is back at this point. The Astros are willing to deal one of their young pitchers (Urquidy/Garcia) for players that fill their needs.... the same goes for McCormick/Meyers The Astros are working with Jake Meyers on his swing, trying to get it straightened out.
Huh.. Knew Tucker was slumping but thats certainly eye opening. I still feel like your best hitters should get the most opportunities and thats still Tucker by a mile.
Having to play this long without Brantley the professional hitter, having to play a guy who's not ready for the majors in Lee, the CF position, etc is what I mean by not being very deep. It's been tough at those positions and it doesn't help the Gurriel and Bregs are having down years but yes the pitching has been the main constant and deepest part of the team that has made the difference.
The way I look at it, he is going to likely over use Maton..... and to a degree that is fine if it saves the other arms. I am sure Maton feels differently but that is how it is.
I agree on the bats. We will not be in the World Series with our current lineup even if Brantley comes back. I’m not to worried about relief pitching talent just Dusty’s handling of them. Abreu should be getting a lot more exposure to make sure he is ready for a more prominent post season role. Brown should be brought up right after we get rid of Urquidy, Garcia or Odorizzi and should be starting. Go back to a five man rotation of Verlander, Framber, Javier, Urquidy, Brown for the rest of the season. Decide on which goes to the bullpen starting in September so that they can adjust their routine. Of course, if we get Castillo all this changes. The batting line-up has to be improved or we won’t make it to the WS. Guarantee the Yankees are going to add at least 2 very significant players.
He already is being very active and getting creative in an effort to fix holes. They don't want to unnecessarily limit their competitive window in the future. They are willing to listen on controllable arms like Urquidy and Garcia and even guys like Whitley and McCormick and Meyers if it fills holes now and some in 2023 as well.
The Astros are very clearly not trying too hard to win games. They had Bregman and Pena on the bench, and instead ran out McCormick and Dubon in the 9th. I don't think the front office is going to take anything away from this except that it was the Astros' 8th games in 7 days and they weren't going to push too hard to win it, especially given that they are in the middle of a stretch of 19 games in 18 days with no off day.
