It's odd that Bielak and France have started 5 games, Tucker has played 43, and Tucker is only 1/2 of a win better than those 2 combined (per fangraphs WAR with only 1 decimal place involved, we'll call it "within the margin of error"). I know that Tucker has been a bit slow on the uptake, slow off the break in the field this year, some quality lazy halfassery is involved, but his defensive dropoff per the metrics is weird and makes me not believe the numbers. I could also be reading things wrong.
.5 vs 0 (-0.1 if you count Bielak's 1 emergency relief appearance in the 1st inning, which is a weird thing to knock him on if you actually watched the game yourself and didn't let the algorithms do it for you) The metrics I've looked at all hate Tucker's D in RF...he hasn't been great but is he *that* bad?
Yeah, these new advanced defensive metrics now factor in aesthetics in their calculations. Clumsy ass baby giraffe tucker no bueno on D.
If I'm reading this right, Kyle Tucker is the worst defensive player on the Astros in 2023 https://www.fangraphs.com/teams/astros/stats#leaders-fielding
You will occasionally see random variance with defensive metrics. They need massive sample sizes to be worth anything. Carlos Lee was outstanding defensively for us one year. I really don't like to make accusations like this, but between his sprint speed and the suddenly awful defensive metrics I don't think it would be absurd for one to think Tucker may not be putting in top effort thus far outside of the batters box.
It's not an accusation, he's lollygagged his ass around on several occasions this year...as I said a bit ago: I know that Tucker has been a bit slow on the uptake, slow off the break in the field this year, some quality lazy halfassery is involved, but his defensive dropoff per the metrics is weird and makes me not believe the numbers. Let me look up his speeds in the OF (because his top sprint speed on the bases this year is basically exactly the same as Bregman's, and both are a bit below average for MLB as a whole) this year vs last...I'll be back BTW, weren't you supposed to start an "Astros Stats" thread? eta: according to this (Chas doesn't qualify yet, apparently): Jake is very good, Tucker is very bad: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outfield_jump?year=2023&min=q&sort=9&sortDir=desc also, 2022 jump: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outfield_jump?year=2022&min=q and 2022 sprint speed: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/lead...022&position=&team=&min=10&sort=1&sortDir=asc eta2: and here's a new one that's interesting and fun: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outfield_directional_outs_above_average
My eyes tell me the same thing, but I've learned to be careful with Tucker. From the day he was called up he has always looked like a player that didn't care and wasn't trying hard, even when he was beasting. He has terrible optics in that regard. But the stats have always been good, this is the first time the numbers would agree with the eyes that his effort isn't there.
Oh, and arm strength? https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/lead...layer&year=2023&minThrows=50&pos=arm_of&team= If you look at the '22 stats, Yordan tops Tucker by ~1 mph
Just a note - Garcia is still listed on the 15 day IR, so if we need an additional 40 man spot, changing his status to 60 day IR will be available so no one on the 40 will have to be exposed to the waiver wire to take them off the 40 man. Trade or call-up of a player not currently on the 40 man is in the pocket.
Matt GAGE is our most rested reliever at this moment, so don't be surprised to see him pitch today. Martinez and Neris are next in line. After Thursday, we play 17 days in a row, so I expect rest to be a high priority in this series and the next.
This seems like the perfect time to talk about the extension again if his agent is taking calls. He's just seen Altuve, Brantley, McCullers, Urquidy and Garcia highlight the injury risk of holding out for a max value contract in addition to performance risks he's seen from Bregman, Abreu and to his dWAR.
A lot of it's been on the hitting side. Most of the hitters they acquired in the off-season haven't worked out and JRod has regressed hard in his sophomore season. He's gone from a 146 wRC+ to 88. Basically an all-star to glove first CF.
He's been as bad as Chas and Meyers have been good. Almost like his agent told him to not get injured before they get their next contract.
Being in a corner means you gotta make some plays not to have your defensive metrics hurt. Here's some plays that are considered 50-50 balls. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=6d0e6c33-f36e-4b4d-9c66-2ed05241d7b1 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=117c404c-6314-4e23-bbda-88bd9ca19284 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=ffa9326d-d34b-4092-a265-eb7d5d749604 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=b4021711-ddeb-4b99-8608-fb91bbfd70b2 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=58039fe7-51c2-4543-af3e-d1f79cf9ec60 Of the above type of plays (i.e., similar time/distance required to make the play), he generally misses about 5 in a season. He's not getting good jumps this year based on statcast. He would be about 2 feet closer to the ball after 3 seconds last season than he's doing this year, and nearly 3 feet from 2021. Here are his 2 best plays of the year regarding running down balls (i.e., not throwing) that I can find. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=99937a0c-7de8-4feb-ae13-5a77a14fb7bd https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=d8ad52d5-b24f-4461-bd36-b7450d29c4e7
So situational awareness to hold a close play to a single rather than chance extra bases (or scoring by runners on base) hurts the fielding metric. Or am I misinterpreting this?
