The only thing that really matters in lineup construction is having your best hitters at the top and Pena isn't one of our best hitters. Pena had an .804 OPS before he ever hit second regularly, and he had a .708 OPS in the month where he did usually hit second. The fact that a 3 random outlier games in April and May inflated his OPS at the spot really doesn't mean anything to me. It should be Yordan,Bregman,Tucker and Altuve as the top 4, in whatever order you want them in. I would certainly prefer him to Yuli batting 2nd, but if you want him "protected" then hit him 9th in front of your best hitters. Don't give teams a reason to pitch around Altuve, and have a low OBP guy in front of your run producers.
Except that when batting second he’s hitting….. .299 8hr 16rbi .315obp .500slug .815ops in 154ab Other than that, no reason for it.
It’s 154 at bats. This is a garbage take. If he starts to struggle then fine, but you don’t make any sense right now.
I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing why I want the highest OBP hitting 1 and 2 UNLESS they are also top 2 in OPS and hitting 3 and 4. This is why I've suggested Altuve should hit 3 or 4 instead of leading off. But I think we are on the same page. I would like to see Tucker leading off with Henderson at 2 for just a series to see how it could work. Hensley has reached base 8 times in 19 PA. And now he's gone missing. I'm not promoting him for the playoff roster, but I'd like to see more. But I doubt he'll even see action with A Diaz expected back today. Over the last 30 days: Hensley 421 OBP Alvarez 400 OBP Bregman 1031 OPS Altuve 980 OPS Tucker 500 SLG McCormick 393 SLG
There are lots of opinions on the relationship between Luhnow and Crane and none seem to be based on knowledge as far as I can tell. I liked what they brought to the Astros as a team so I would like to think the last three years have been about placating MLB and we can move on. But who knows. Click has done well if not without spectacular trades, but we are a more mature team now and not even Luhnow may have been in a position to find gold now. I have strong mixed feelings about both, though I can't imaging getting a better GM at this time than one of those.
In general, yes. However, one can easily look at baseball data to show that in general batting 2nd does not improve a players ability to hit (e.g., a quick look at Astros hitters with a lot of ABs batting 2nd shows wRC+ and OPS are mostly random versus their other spots in the batting order), though it does help runs scored and RBIs. Assuming the 2nd spot is the reason Pena has batted better when he bats 2nd is likely erroneous, and it is more likely that Dusty has just batted Pena 2nd when Pena was hot and not once pitchers adjusted to him.
I think we do remember that you wanted Vazquez and his 0.290 OPS in the #2 slot because of a sample size of like 10 at bats.
The good thing about small sample sizes is that the line-up changes quickly if it doesn't hold up. No one should get 500 PA unless they belong.
If he's on base, others can replace his RBIs. His Runs scored increases. I'd love to have Tucker on base when Bregman and Alvarez are at the plate.
Tucker is not Springer. Springer is IDEAL to lead off. You are obsessed with analytical stats. Watch a game. Altuve is a much better option at lead off. Tucker is a CLASSIC 3,4, 5 hitter.
The facts are that Altuve, Pena, Alvarez, Bregman, Tucker have been great when in that batting order. Why change what is not broken. 150 ab in the two spot is not a small sample size. Maybe get some stats on Altuve when Pena bats second. Altuve doesn’t need protection, never has. Pena looks like he does at this stage of his career. Having a 300 hitter with more power than Brantley and way more speed makes great sense as a two hitter. By the way, before this year no one ever thought of Gurriel in the two spot. He has always been in the 5th hole or later and has done well there. It’s just Dusty being Dusty to put Yuli in that spot.
For next year? I doubt Crane re-signs Dusty if Astros don't win WS this year, but there might be a chance he will if Astros win.
Getting Aledmys ready of course. That's why the wasted opportunities the last few days is sad. But he's not really in the playoff picture so they should just send him back to AAA. I think they are still playing.
