I get that and I'm one who agrees that the Astros value Maldy for intangibles that can't he measured. I'm just saying that it is incorrect saying he has been the primary catcher and including 2019. He has been the primary catcher the past 3 seasons, not 4. Even after they brought him back in 2019 he did not displace Chirinos. But you can say he was the primary catcher for the playoffs and playoff run in 2018. So 4 if past 5 seasons?
I'm sure the Astros have measurements on it, they aren't just published stats. I'm actually okay with Maldy. I just want Diaz to get some burn so we know where we can use him in the playoffs. My issue is more with Dusty with playing favorites.
This is where I am too Julks is a AAAA journeyman type of player who has had a few good games but overall has been very bad. But Dusty keeps putting him in the lineup. I would love to see those starts split between Diaz and Chas/Jake. ( Diaz DH, Chas/Jake in LF) I also want them to sit Maldy even 1 less game per week and start Diaz.
Knowing that Diaz is not getting played at catcher is not the whole story. We have a useless player getting all the play at 1st base. No Diaz. We have an open spot at DH. No Diaz. It may be that Crusty is just a stubborn old man but there is another possibility. Perhaps Diaz is just a little ass hole. I have never had the opportunity to interact with him personally and I doubt anyone here has. I have no love for either and I can not give all the credit for this to one or the other. Meanwhile the Astros are slowly rolling down the slope like an oversized turd in a sewer pipe. That pisses me off but I am not prepared to lay it at any ones feet just yet.
Diaz could certainly be getting a lot of Julks' time at DH, though I think that's only been a handful of games. Yordan was DH today and takes a lot of the DH bats in general since they don't want him in LF that much. It would be interesting to learn why, though, Diaz doesn't get more DH opportunities over the random players like Julks that play there. On 1B, there's no scenario where Abreu is getting benched, and rightfully so. No team does that with their star acquisitions. Philly isn't benching Trea Turner; Minnesota isn't benching Correa; Angels didn't bench Pujols back in the day. All these guys are staying in their traditional spots in their lineups too. You are committed to them for the foreseeable future and they have a track record, so you rely on them working it out eventually. Maybe they do, maybe they don't - but teams don't give up on their players, especially not 2 months into a season. It's not a Dusty thing or an Astros thing - it's just how MLB works.
There are a lot of options short of outright benching an unproductive player. There is no excuse for playing him at a critical place in the line up. There is no excuse for not pinch hitting for him when the situation calls for it and there is no excuse for not sitting him a couple of times a week till he puts it together. There is no scenario where any or all of these are ignored, especially on a win now team.
The Astros have played 49 games and Abreu has played in 47. There is a Grand Canyon's worth of difference between him playing every ****ing day while he single handedly drives the struggle bus off the edge of the cliff and "getting benched". What if he would have played- say 42 games instead of 47. You'd have 18 more AB's for Diaz. You could also play our 36 year old catcher- the game calling God, less than 80% of the time- say 2/3 would not be unreasonable. 108 games started for a catcher is a shitload. There is another 20 AB's you could have gotten for Diaz. Finally, Julks has been awful in the month of May and nobody believed he was ever any good. He's stolen at least 20 AB's from Diaz at DH the last 3 weeks. In short- Diaz should have something like 120 PA and literally NOBODY (other than Julks) would have been hurt by it and some old dudes might have gotten some rest and benefited in what will likely be a long season. He hasn't. It's absurd and stupid. Dana Brown knows its absurd and stupid. Everyone other than Dusty and you knows it's absurd and stupid. Maybe Diaz sucks and will **** the bed. Every indication is that will not happen, but why don't we put him out there more than 1 time a week and find the **** out?
Corey Julks is running a 80 wRC+ which puts him at 20% worse than a league average hitter. The sad part is he has been extremely lucky. His wOBA is .286 whille his expected wOBA is only .247 (Baseball Savant) which is 1st percentile in all of baseball. With average luck he would be at roughly 52 wRC+. Dana Brown should swap Julks for Bligh Madris on the roster. While Madris is playing considerably better this season than Julks did last year in AAA, it wouldn't be about moving Madris up but stopping Baker from incessantly using Julks who is inferior to Meyers and McCormick in every facet of the game. Madris also has the benefit of being a LHH which complements Meyers and McCormick instead of hitting from the same side of the plate while doing everything worse than them.
Maybe the Astros know some things you don't. I know you can't fathom the concept, but it doesn't make it not true.
Do we already hate the new GM? I'm just asking, because it didn't take long for yall to hate the last one. For better or worse, **** it, yall can figure out which.
No. I think the new GM was probably a great hire and I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles lots of different things. He’s barely been on the job. Nobody does much of anything before July 4th.
Brown is on record as saying (long time ago now) that Diaz was going to play more and get more AB’s and he’s actually playing less. maybe, just maybe Dusty is screwing this up (and other stuff!) and it’s a concept you can’t fathom. Julks is a non entity. He’s got no pedigree, and he’s pretty terrible. Dusty has 130 AB’s for him. He’s playing him many times over Chas and Meyers who are clearly better than him. Dusty screws all sorts of **** up but you want to stand at attention and clap like a barking seal and ascribe genius to really dumb stuff. i Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone online more interested in acting as a fluffer for an authority figure ever. It’s wild. Click got fired because he couldn’t handle Dusty’s ear with math. Luhnow would have never even considered giving him an interview. This stuff you are defending to the death isn’t “the Astros” it’s Dusty. The people who turned the Astros into “The Astros” all pretty much think he’s a joke strategically.
Brown said Korey Lee is a prospect that needs regular playing time, so they chose to keep Salazar over him and sent him down. Brown said Diaz "Is looking like he's going to be the future for us behind the plate " and that he will play more and end ip with 300 PA. So far he has actually played LESS since. In April he started 8 games and got 33 PA, in May its 7 and 28. He's on pace for about 200PA. But he is also not getting the playing time to develop like they specifically wanted for Lee. 1) Everyone involved needs to get on the same page and act accordingly. 2) They need to play Diaz. If they feel something is preventing him from playing in Houston, send him to Sugar Land but PLAY HIM. Give him the chance to develop and fix whatever they see. He deserves that, we deserve that, and the Astros NEED that. 3) The Astros fired their last GM for opening his mouth. Brown needs to either be more careful about what he says or have the stones to make his employees do what he tells us they are going to do.
It is weird how teams can change. A lot of fans thought Dubon shouldn't be in CF, Maldy at C,and Yuli shouldn't be at first last season. The Astros acquired a C and a 1B at the deadline, and did what the fans wanted in CF shortly afterwards. The C and 1B acquired sucked in a small sample, and Dusty played them sparingly. The 1B was replaced this past season even though he could have been kept for a much cheaper price. I expect Maldy will not be back next season. It takes time for changes to happen, but I expect the authority figures are going to side 100% with fans that thought Yuli, Maldy, and Dubon were the weak links at 1b, C, and CF in 2022. The replacements like Abreu may end up being bad choices in hindsight. When the Astros replace Maldy at C next season, I expect the pro-Everything like it is today is the will of the team will spin the change just like they did Dubon losing his CF spot and Yuli being replaced.
All's well that ends well. There was a reason the Astros got Mancini and Vasquez at the deadline last year - because the players they replaced (Korey Lee and J.J. Matijevic) were not helping the team and not likely to help the team in its playoff push. They were not MLB ready or quality. Also the team had a black hole at DH when Yordan was playing LF. They didn't play well (Mancini) or much (Vasquez) but at the time they were great moves and choices. And the Astros won. Any team can make the right move and it still not work out or keep the fans from b****ing. As for Dubon in CF, it's still a terrible idea unless you are simply talking about as 3rd option behind Meyers and McCormick who plays a few innings per month. I am really learning to like Dubon but he is an average MLB hitter at best. His value is in his defense which is great in the infield and passable in CF. Everything that makes him better than average is lost in the outfield. FTR that was another Click move that fell under the radar buy is looking to be great now. Abreu, Altuve, Bregman, Tucker, and Brantley have all contributed much less than expected and each and every one of them should be better the rest of the season than so far. The Astros are on a pace for 93 wins. If they can sweep the A's this weekend they will be on pace for 97. Despite the severe offensive outage there is no need to panick or make massive changes.
In 35 games so far this season for Drew Gilbert, he's only failed to reach base twice. He's had just as many games where he's reached 4 or more times.
