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.
Yeah it's still early but so far he's not having the MVP type season we all expected. Just maybe he will be cheaper now? Doubtful but I can hope.
Corey Julks can eat a dick. He has a .280 OP% to go with the 269 and 272% that Maldonado and Abreu have.... then their is Pena at 301. 4 out of 9 hitters in the line up have an OB% of 301 or lower.
Julks is a AAAA player He's the kind of guy that all teams need but should be in AAA if the team has 4 healthy OF And on the bench if the team has 3. With the current roster - Meyers and McCormick deserve to start every day. They are 3rd and 7th in OPS They are 4th and 5th in bWAR No reason they should not both be in the lineup, especially if Yordan is DH.
Tucker has been the unluckiest hitter in baseball as measured by difference between his expected stats and actual stats. You saw it last night- he had 5 bases at least taken away from him by Bellinger. It’s all the time with him.
I posted this already but I heard a pre game interview last week ( I can't be the only one) where Dusty said "Diaz is doing all the right things" "working hard with Madly and the catching team" and ended it by saying "he'll be a major contributor by the end of the season" and I think that's the sticking point, bringing him along slowly is by design but yet running Julks out there like no big deal "go get em' kid." yea make it make sense.....
It makes no sense to treat your top prospect the way Diaz is treated. All the other previous big rookies consistent playing time early even when struggling (bregman, Tucker). Then again those teams weren’t managed by Dusty so we get constant servings of Julks and Hensley
I agree with this. In addition, I'd point out that Meyers is like a mini-Chas against LHPs. While seeing Dubon bat leadoff against RHPs drives me nuts, Dubon is an above average hitter against LHPs. I'd still go with others first, but would not mention it except for me being vocally against Dubon leading off. I should caveat that my dislike for Dubon's bat only applies to when he's batting against RHPs or an even better hitter against LHPs sits to play him.
Chas has been starting basically every day he's been healthy. Before today, Meyers' only 2 days off in May have been when Yordan was in LF and Chas was in CF.
The league made adjustments to Julks pretty quickly. Now he has to counter or its off to Space Cowboy to work it out. Right now nobody is on pace to be a leader in hitting at anything other than Alvarez however... (Checks calender) yep it's the middle of May. Very many hitters have smashed starting June or July and pushed their team into the playoffs. Baseball is not won in May.
Dusty said he had Maldy catch Hunter Brown even though Diaz caught him in the minors and all of his big league starts so far because he wanted them to build familarity in case Diaz goes down. When he asked if Diaz will catch Framber or Javier in case Maldy goes down , he said he hasn't really think about that situation but no because....Diaz is still learning. That makes no sense. I guess he knows if Maldy gets hurt like he did last year, he'll try to hide it again so his starting spot isn't threatened.
When Yordan is DH then yes should be Meyers and McCormick When Yordan is in LF should be Diaz We are wasting at bats on Julks and Hensley in addition to Maldanado
When Yordan is in LF should be Diaz We are wasting at bats on Julks and Hensley in addition to Maldanado[/QUOTE] I agree with 99% of this..But Hensley has value. They need to fix him, not that he deserves starts NOW. At some point they will need him and I hope he figures out when and how to swing the bat by then.
I agree with 99% of this..But Hensley has value. They need to fix him, not that he deserves starts NOW. At some point they will need him and I hope he figures out when and how to swing the bat by then.[/QUOTE] Fully agree, but that is much more likely to happen if he goes to AAA and plays regularly. That really can't happen until Altuve is back, hopefully this weekend
