Agreed… but over 162, and given that a few of these guys are going to be sent down when the injured came back, you do have the opportunity to see what you have. As far as Diaz goes, it seems that he’s truly trying to ease him into the role and it’s also because of where he can play the field. Him not playing is magnified when Abreu has been bad and Maldy is never going to hit… and they need offense. At the same time, he’s not going to permanently bench either of those vets less than one month into the season. The clamoring is expected… much like we saw with Hensley last post season or whenever a football team has a backup QB with some talent. I do expect Diaz to get in there more and more as the season goes on, especially if Abreu continues to lack power (or is hiding an injury). And bringing up last year merely serves as a further example of how he may have some methods to the madness. That team was never in danger of losing the division or missing the playoffs. Dubon gets extended playing time during the season but he was not going to sniff anything in the playoffs…. On the flip side, has there been an injury, he would have possibly been more prepared. Secondly it may have led to some of the off season preparation that he did to try and make improvements. He’s going to be a career backup/utility IF… which is better than being a AAAA player.
That's baseball. It had an xBA of .290 so its not like it was 0. I can think of at least twice he would have had HR in a different park. I'm sure he has hit other 50/50 balls that were outs. Just evening out.
You aren't wrong there, catching 5 times in 30 days and not catching a single game all week is definitely getting eased into the role. The most backup of backup catchers get more work than he does. Having him catch 33-40% of the games would be considered "permanently benching" Maldonado. Its funny people credit Dusty for having guys prepared. He let Maldy catch Brown to "get familiar", when the reporter followed up asking if that same prep applied to Diaz getting a chance to catch guys in case Maldonado went down, Dusty basically blew her off and said he's not worried about that.
Going tonight with my Cub fan wife and her Cub fan father. We're taking a relative who is in the US from Czech Republic for the first time and knows nothing about baseball. Should be an interesting experience.
It seems you have just set him up for failure. If he manages people the way you want (ie the bullpen), "anyone could do it". If he does anything you don't like, he's an idiot for doing it. You say he's excellent at managing personalities and a clubhouse, but then say he must hate certain players and plays favorites. I would venture to guess if a manager does that his whole career, players are going to get pissed off and he's not going to be well-received in the clubhouse, so there's a disconnect there. As to Diaz, you seem to think that him not playing must mean Dusty doesn't like him. Yet you make that conclusion without any info on what's going on with him. Does he want to catch? Does he work on his studying as expected? Are they seeing problems in his swing that they feel are better corrected in the cages? Does keeping him on the bench motivate him to work harder? Again, the goal of a manager is to not to maximize a player's output in April or May. It's to make him the best player in the long-haul. You accept Dusty's good at managing players ... except when he doesn't manage them the way you would.
Stros face an absolute stud tonight with Steele (6-0, 1.82 ERA) Javier needs to be sharp and invisible. ERA lowered
You know the numbers are off when they have the 2nd highest WAR at 3B. I know Bregman provides value when he's not hitting but not that much value.
This is all fine and well, but does NOTHING to explain why Diaz hasn't got DH duty over guys like Julks and especially Hensley. As clubber said, we have a 3rd catcher still on the roster for no other reason than to allow him to use Diaz in other roles
People realize Diaz has a 58 wRC+ line right? Julks' 75 wRC+ isn't much better but it is better. Hensley is hitting for a putrid 23 wRC+ this year but hit for a 194 wRC+ in his limited regular season stint last season and had some clutch playoff hits. I'm not surprised Dusty is giving Hensley rope. I honestly don't care if Diaz plays more or less, but people have gotten behind him in such a weird way. I hope the dude heats up and can justify all the hype he's getting/has gotten but right now he's pretty mediocre at the plate.
I just want him to get the same looks the other unproven guys have gotten. Julks got regular starts even before he had a hot spell, something Diaz has yet to get. He's been pretty awful for a while and he still gets regular starts. He's a top 100 hitting prospect who raked at every level and has the tools to play catcher, and you think it's weird that we want to see him get a good look and not 1 or 2 starts a week? His quality of contact numbers and expected results are better than everybody expect Yordan and Tucker.
He's got the second highest expected numbers for the month of May and that's with a paltry 18 PA- getting very little time to establish a rythmn or stay consistent. I think we are at the point in time where I said I'd be well and truly surprised if he played 75% of the time and wasn't at worst a league average bat. His minor league pedigree, what I've seen of him with my eyes in watching at the MLB level, and what his quality of contact and xwboa and the like show me this to be pretty comfortable saying its the truth.
We are still -161 on the money line, which is a bit shocking. Guess they think it will be close and up the the bullpens, then that line makes sense...if Montero was suddenly placed on the IL the line would prob jump to -200.
I dunno if this is victim blaming or not, but I have the sneaking suspicion that there's something that he's doing/not-doing that's not endearing himself to Dusty. People are framing it like Dusty and the FO are morons for not playing Diaz and I just don't think the fanbase is knowledgeable enough to make that call. Cuz you know Dusty is a reigning WS champion manager and all.
52 50 92 98 85 75 81 114 162 Those are the OPS+ numbers for the Astros top 9 hitters when plate appearances are figured in. Only 3 OPS's over .700 That is really bad. Catcher and 1st baseball have a COMBINED OPS+ of 100. You hope that Altuve comes back and gives you an OPS+ of 130-150 like he has the last few years.... You hope that Abreu and Bregman get close to their OPS+ career average of 135. Jake Meyers has an OPS+ of below 100 and it is very possibly he will be a plus player with an OPS+ hovering around 100........ McCormick has been an OPS+ of 100ish type player.......... Maldonado is below that. The Astros just need another bat.
