Brett "Maverick" Phillips Fun Fact: he's with the O's now, and took #66, so his jersey says "Phillips 66"
He's possibly the worst "Brett" in MLB history. @MadMax George Brett ... ... ... Brett Butler .... .... Brett Gardner Brett Tomko .... etc ... Brett Phillips
James Mouton name check! I was more of a Brian L. Hunter fan. But as a bat-first guy with flaws who got a bunch of hype… Mitch Meluskey? (On a side note… you have to be some kind of special personality to post nearly a .900 OPS as a rookie catcher and then basically be done in the majors.)
Justin Dirden goes deep for the first time in AAA. Opposite field, as a lefty. Really wish he was called up a few weeks earlier (he was definitely ready, sucks it took a Pedro Leon injury for him to be promoted) so we could have a better sample size. Any chance we see him sometime next month like we saw Siri last year?
All he's done is hit everywhere he goes. I am not asking for him to be an everyday starter in the playoffs but I would like to see him get a chance to get some MLB at bats. Can he really be that much worse than Jake Meyers (who I am convinced is nursing some injury).
He strikes out some and isn’t that great of a defensive outfielder. Most of his value comes from making hard contact or walking. Zero pedigree guys who don’t offer baserunning or defensive value aren’t typical late season callups for contenders. If he comes back next season and puts up >150 wRC+ over his first 150 AAA pa then we can start talking about him as a possible long term piece and worth a good long look in the majors.
um... and tell me how you would describe Chas McCormick? Drafted in the 21st round, negative defensive WAR, limited baserunning value... Give Dirden a shot. Forget about his "pedigree". That's old news and no longer relevant. He is MASHING and we need hitting from the outfield with Brantley out and Tucker's batting average down.
McCormick has more defensive value than Dirden. He also strikes out less. Dirden is closer to Tyler White than Chas McCormick. You don’t call up a guy based on 400 pa of mashing in AA as a 24 year old. That’s not to say Dirden won’t be a good big leaguer. There’s certainly a chance he pans out into a solid everyday corner OF. But there’s no good reason to be clamoring for them to call him up over Meyers or McCormick.
Comparing Dirden to Tyler White is just shameful. You must not have seen either play very much. Oh, and Dirden has mashed at A, A+, AA and now AAA. Evaluating people based on "pedigree" is really old, flawed thinking. It's biased thinking that holds back progress. Advanced stats have largely corrected this, but I guess it's a thing for some of the old guard...
Dirden has hit his way to prospect status, but promoting him clearly isn't a priority for the front office, especially as the Astros seem to be perfectly content with trotting out infielders to play the outfield. He's probably guaranteed himself an invite to Spring Training next year (deserved) and he'll likely get some consideration for the LF job. Being a pop-up guy also seems to increase the probability of them getting sold high in trades, too (see: Enmanuel Valdez).
