Even if Brantley comes back he's not a full time starter anymore. I would be shocked if he starts more than 75% if he's healthy at all.
Not every team produces as many productive players as the Astros. Especially players that were not as highly thought of entering the Astros system. Do the Astros have players like Tucker, Bregman and Correa in the minors? No, but they haven’t had high draft picks either. FWIW I am not so sure Murphy would be an Astro with a deeper farm system. The Astros are very conservative with their better prospects. The Astros pipeline could end at anytime and the lack of s GM and loss of the player development head is concerning - but right now their is talent down there. Yes, the Astros will have the assets to make moves to improve the team at the deadline. Will they be able to fend off the Indians and Braves and Dodgers and others? No, but they never have operated that way.
I hope I am wrong on Brown. To be clear, I expect a McCullers type career from him. As for Pena, I don’t want to jinx it but I DO expect him to improve. He is an incredibly hard and smart worker and has a high aptitude. He has improved at every level and the hard work on his body has paid off.
This. Not sure he CAN play more than 75% of the games and we don’t WANT him to because he wears down. If he is healthy I trust his bat to give us an OPS+ of 120-130. However I also expect him to DH half the time and to miss a lot of time…: having him and Alvarez both needing DH is concerning.
My guess is that Stearns would likely take a few people with him from Milwaukee and keep most the people already with the Astros… he would also probably promote Sarah Goodrum to be in charge of player development and very possibly promote Sarah Gelles as well… the Astros would have women in charge of two of the most most important parts of the organization…. Player development and research and development.
Diaz is the most talented hitter the Astros have had in their system since Yordan Alvarez. Diaz hits for average, doesn’t strike out a lot and has a lot of extra base pop.
That’s why I would tell Diaz that this is his offseason to cement himself as our catcher of the future. Drill drill drill and study like crazy. Literally set up shop at Maldonado’s and don’t leave until spring training.
Now this, this is accurate and a guy that Maldy could actually mentor and help as opposed to the staggering horseshit that he would need to hold Vasquez hand or something.
His problem, to my way of thinking, is he doesn’t pull the ball as much as I’d like to see to optimize his power. Can he hit a bunch of HR at sea level against MLB quality pitching to the big part of the park up the middle and to the opposite field gap? That seems like a hard way to make a living and it’s also where he seems to live on his spray charts if I’m not mistaken (and I might be but that’s my recollection of seeing his numbers somewhere or other).
Ideally I think Dusty would like about a 75/75 tie between Yordan and Brantley in left and then McCormick/Others for the remaining dozen games.
Outs above average sounds fairly important, don't you think? And where is everyone's eyesight for God's sake? I mean you people can think for yourselves without needing some nerdy metrics I hope.
Nerdy metrics are needed because we have selective memory, recalling only the good or bad depending on our biases.
Well given Yordan will DH atleast 100 games (that increases if the Astros add a stud defender like Benintendi or Varsho) I like those odds. I think I’d split LF and DH like this (assuming Brantley is the most likely signing) DH Yordan 100 Brantley 40 Abreu 20 LF Yordan 50 Brantley 90 McCormick 20
If we are trading away Garcia we might as well play Biggio and see what he has, won’t likely be winning the division at that point anyway You didn’t like how we won it all last year huh?
I'd still like to sign Brantley to a split contract before it is known whether he can still swing a bat. Minor League portion for $1M and MLB portion for $8M plus incentives. I don't know if he would take that, but it's worth a shot. He is worth less as a primary DH and LF backup. If he can't make it back, it's a parting gift.
One advantage of the time lost with Meyers is he still has 5 controllable years left and is not FA eligible until 2028 now. All he needs to do is show the promise he had before his injury and problematic return.
