Both of these guys should get major burn behind the plate, Especially with a geriatric Madly who might catch 70 games tops. While we've heard from Nook that Astros brass weren't impressed with Lee's cup of coffee in the bigs, you have to wonder how much of that is inexperience versus incompetence. Even Tucker had a horrendous MLB debut back in 2018, and emerged from that as a clockwork .850 OPS guy with elite defense. Lee still needs a larger sample size, but for his hitting he desperately needs to cut down on the chases, he had a strong finish in AAA last year after getting sent back down, finishing with a .790 OPS on the year after a rough start in AAA. Still, a 28% K% in AAA isn't encouraging, barring GG defense or absurd power.
Probably a while, but that seems like you are moving the goal posts from fearing he would catch more than 80% or having a backup trusted that would 30-40% of the time he isn't catching (which would mean Maldy is catching between 60-70% of the time like a normal non-great starting catcher). Maldy isn't catching greater than 80% of the time, and even if not trusted, the backups are likely to get at least 30-40% of games.
John Buck at the time was considered good defensively and had a strong arm, just a slow release. Granted, as you know, there is still a disagreement on who is and isn't a good catcher defensively, but that was especially the case 15-20 years ago. He had some good years in the upper minors if I remember correctly and was a top 100 prospect. I would like Lee to be better than Buck (although I could live with it) but I also think Buck somewhat under achieved. Lee and Buck both had similar power and contact/walk issues.
Diaz is still a work in progress, they changed his launch angle some last year and his power went from BP to in game. He hit some absolute moon shots
This is a good point, and don't forget that some with the Astros were not terribly happy with Tuckers body language, etc, when he first came up.... it took him awhile, but Tucker figured it out. As for Lee, I think his key to long term success in the majors is strong defense, a solid arm and hitting enough homers to overcome a pedestrian walk and contact rate.
The more I look at it the harder it is for me to see Lee as an above average everyday catcher. He certainly has a good chance to be average. But unless there’s some major rarely seen improvement in his ability to avoid strikeouts I don’t see him ever posting a 3 win season. Diaz on the other hand does have a chance to be a star level catcher if he is able to be adequate defensively and meet the bar for pitcher/game management.
That sounds like a textbook Astros catcher to me. We've got a 60 year catching tradition to uphold, why rock the boat.
I remember reading after the WS, Maldonado had miscellaneous injuries, aches and pains. Is the dude fully healed and healthy now??
I think the Buck comp is a very good one. Buck was a late bloomer that was finally starting to reach his potential. As a 29 year old he made his first (only) all star team and had 25 doubles and 20 homeruns. Then he signed with the Marlins ( terrible career altering mistake) and that park killed his power and he was never the same
I'm not saying teams don't sometimes make decisions based on what they see in spring training, hopefully from a scouting perspective and not just from a small sample size of ABs. It just doesn't make sense make decisions based on 16 ABs, many of which were against minor leaguers, others against major league guys who are trying out different stuff and not at full intensity, since the AB doesn't matter to them the way it might to Lee. Like @IdStrosfan said, good is better than bad. A minor leaguer struggling might be a sign that they aren't ready.
Kory Lee is going to win the job. Has had a great spring. Also having a hard time removing Diaz's last years at bats in the regular season out of my head. Although they rank Diaz as the best hit tool in the system, I don't think he's ready just yet.
The Astros are less likely to rely on numbers in a small sample size in the Spring, they are VERY dependent on advances numbers and scouting. From what I have heard of Brown, he seems to be very big on scouting and advanced numbers. I think that Lee and/or Diaz will get every opportunity to get the job.
I think Korey Lee wins the job because: 1) Questions about Diaz defensively that I don't recall about Lee 2) They will be more concerned about Diaz getting regular ABs.
