Conforto has a career wRC+ of 124. Michael Brantley’s career wRC+ is 118. If Conforto is healthy then he is a legit middle of the order bat and borderline star player.
Point is Tucker can play CF and Conforto, Mancini, and Alvarez can fill in the rest of the OF and DH. The Astros have elite pitching. I’m not worried about preventing runs I’m worried about LOBstros and getting hits with RISP at critical moments.
They've made it very clear Tucker will not play CF outside an absolute emergency situation. If they were okay with him in CF I guarantee we'd be seeing him play there.
He's a LH Brantley replacement. DH only. I'm all for it. If he's actually healthy, why not? If it's not done by tonight, it don't matter. There's plenty of innings for GB pitchers, FB pitchers, and the IF/OF and 1B/DH/LF accordingly.
With this pitching staff in the regular season they can withstand the offensive black hole of Meyers and Dubon. In the playoffs we need the strongest lineup possible. Hopefully we see it.
I don’t know if he is a long term solution but if Baker puts him in CF and leaves him there, then I don’t think you will see as much criticism. He isn’t a world beater like Springer was, but that’s not his fault. Chas will also look a lot better when he is batting at the bottom of the line up and the Astros have a real hitter at 1st. Both McCormick and Pena are being asked to do things that they are not equipped to do. They are not Correa and Springer. They cost the Astros little, they field well and are above average bats for their positions and allow the team to spend money at other spots.
Who is? He and Pena and several arms are performing way above what anyone could have expected 4 months ago.
.940 .800 .860 .930 that is his season by season OPS before he played injured last year. That is roughly an .880 OPS between 23 and 27 years old… that is higher than Altuve, Tucker or anyone on the Astros that isn’t a 6’5” monster from Cuba. He is very similar to Bregman with the bat, a little more pop and a little less walks.
McCormick should be your center fielder. Conforto can play DH or a corner outfield spot. More importantly he extends the quality of the line up.