Would love to see this guy try and start a few games. Just buckles everyone. Him and Javier have some of the best stuff I have ever seen in the MLB.
Just a note that Johnny Mize lost 3 years of his prime serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII. I believe he is still the only player to ever hit 50 HR in a season while striking out less than 50 times.
Other than Pujols having higher numbers in every category, not much difference. Pujols gave me PTSD, so I'm being very selfish in wanting Alvarez to equal those numbers.
Seattle fans…. And players for that matter. Have to wear diapers around him they are so shell shocked.
In their age 25 seasons Pujols had nearly 160 more plate appearances. It's just s different game today. Yordan had an OPS+ of 187 at age 25 and Pujols had a 168 at the same age. Pujols only ever had over 187 twice in his career at 189 and 192 at 29 and 28 years old. Any difference in their offensive game right now is just due to different eras. Relative to the rest of the league, Yordan is striking as much or more fear at the plate than Pujols in all but two of Albert's seasons.
https://theathletic.com/4167028/2023/02/11/astros-top-20-prospect-farm-system-ranked/ This system is badly depleted from years of trades and lost draft picks — they didn’t have a first-round pick in 2020 or 2021, or a second-round pick in the latter year. They also may end up whiffing on their first-rounders from 2016 (Forrest Whitley, see below), 2017 (J.B. Bukauskas, just DFA’d by Seattle), 2018 (Seth Beer), and 2019 (Korey Lee, still here with a chance to be something). It’s been later picks like Jeremy Peña and Hunter Brown, plus some real player development successes, that have bailed out the major-league team as the well runs dry. It’s quite possible that there are only two players in the whole system right now above the DSL who’ll end up as above-average major leaguers. A little something by our good friend Kieth Law
163 to 167 OPS+ really isn't much of a difference. Yordan had a relatively poor 2021 compared to Pujols consistency, but last season and in 2019 he was every bit as good as peak Pujols. The main difference is that Pujols was able to consistently stay on the field and get 650 PA every season. As a Cardinal Pujols averaged 676 PA (40 HR 121 RBI 117 Runs) 170 OPS+ Yordan per 676 PA (43 HR 125 RBI 109 Runs) 163 OPS+
Loved watching him just make hitters look foolish in the playoffs. I think he looked the most dominant out of the bullpen.
I'm surprised we weren't in it considering we feel a need for a real left hander. Seems pretty reasonable for a 1 year deal for a guy that had less than a 3 ERA over the last few seasons.
You just have to try it man. The difference between 160 innings and 70 innings is just so great that there is very very very little justification for not starting a guy if he can be a quality starter. Give it 3 or 4 months. If it doesn’t work it’s not hard to end the year and go into the playoffs with him in the bullpen. I like Urquidy and Garcia as much as the next guy but it’s and experiment worth trying. If he’s Javier type breakout then that gives you Javier, Framber, and 2 of the 3 out of Brown, Abreu and LMJ who all have nasty stuff and probably need to watch innings. That’s a really really really quality piggyback game in game 4.
He's such a turd. Somehow we keep winng and getting rookie of the year candidates. I wonder how that happens. Maybe it has to do with people who evaluate farm talent not knowing **** which is why they get paid to write and not make decisions.
You intellect never ceases to amaze me. Or...lean away from coherent thought, given that your invented verbiage means very little to me.
I don't have a problem with the idea of Abreu starting but I doubt it happens this year. He is playing on the Dominican team for the WBC. They have Alcantara, Javier, Cueto, etc that will need the innings to get stretched out. The WBC is March 7th through the 21st. Not very likely Abreu will be built up enough coming out of camp, and I don't see the Astros burning his last option to put him in AAA to get stretched out.
