Sure Texas is #1 now and The Astros have been in the bottom 1/3 all season. That doesn't mean that will continue. There is reason to doubt many of the Rangers players continuing this pace the entire year. There is reason to think the Astros could be much better the rest of the year. To put it simply there is a reasonable path to the Astros being better than the Rangers over the last 2/3 of the season regardless of it being unlikely.
Yordan isn't and MMP doesn't exactly have wide open spaces. He wouldn't have to be out there all that often if he's as bad as you think
There are 19 pitchers with an ERA less than 3 right now with names like Valdez, Strider, Gray, Cole, Gray, Ohtani, and Gray. When the Astros have Salazar or Diaz catch, the Astros pitchers have gotten a sub 3 ERA (2.97). Assuming that the Astros know more about Diaz than fans and that he truly sucks at catcher defensively and age has gotten to Maldy such that he now is living off his reputation, how great would the Astros pitching staff be with a catcher in his prime that didn't suck at the intangibles and could actually win the framing battle?
Brown would be brought in for his bat and specifically vs RH pitching. Chas would still play LF vs LHP and Yordan can play LF 75% of the time vs RHP. The Astros could also limit Brown to games that ground ball pitchers like Framber, Brown, or McCullers (hahaha) start. His exposure in LF would be very small with minimal risk Vs RHP 1B: Abreu 90%, Brown 10% LF: Yordan 75%, Brown 15%, McCormick 10% DH: Brown 75%, Yordan 25% Vs LHP 1B: Abreu 90%, Diaz 10% LF: McCormick 100% DH: Yordan 90%, Abreu 5%, Diaz 5%
Astros vs RHP: 23.8% K rate .698 OPS 1 RUN every 8.6 PA 1 HR every 33.2 AB Astros vs LHP: 18.9% K rate .729 OPS 1 RUN every 7.8 PA 1 HR every 28.0 AB Part of the problem is that when Yordan DH's the Astros rotate 3 players between LF and CF. All 3 of them are much stronger vs LHP than RHP. Meyers: .988 vs .706 McCormick 1.014 vs .619 Julks .740 vs .656 And other option Dubon .858 vs .668 This team drastically needs a DH/LF bat vs RHP.
I agree. It’s only June 1. There are 4 months left. I am trying to remind myself that we haven’t even hit the dog days yet. Still, that loss after the heroic Altuve grand slam was hard to take. We are all ready for the magic to take over and that was another frustrating setback. I really believe the Astros will dominate in the 2nd half. Texas is for real, that’s gonna be a season long battle. Some other teams don’t have pitching that can hold up all season.
OK, yall are slowly kind of selling me on Brown as a platoon-type guy (I think they should aim higher, though). He's basically your Brantley replacement, so I'd imagine acquiring him would hinge on what they think Brantley's prognosis is, because there's no way you can carry both of them. Kind of a sh!tty situation. He won't help you with K% vs RHP though, he strikes out vs everybody.
Brown has a career 27.2% K rate vs RHP ( not enough sample size this year) Chas is currently 29.3% Jake is 28.3% Julks is 28.0%
This While we still have a lot of high level talent, we can’t take for granted we will magically be in the playoffs anymore, we have to play and manage every game right now in a way in which we know the fight for playoffs is a real one
If his bat works, you could play Yordan in LF when Brown is in the lineup and obviously play Chas there when he is in the lineup
I'm not saying I "want" Brown But this team needs SOMEONE that hits RHP Brown does and he plays the positions that match up with the Astros needs, and he is available. There are lots of fits there. FWIW: Diaz is .776 OPS vs RHP while Maldy is at .571. Maldy is at .733 vs LHP and Diaz (only 16 PA) is .129. Making sure Maldy's starts are all against LHP and Diaz gets some VS RHP will help also.
Brown would only provide a boost to our offense if him and McCormick were in a pretty strict platoon, and we all know that isn't something that Dusty is going to be interested in And even then, he would only improve our offense because of how terrible our current options are against RHP. Brown has an OPS vs RHP in the .790's pretty consistently year to year. Solid and much better than what we run out there now (low 600's), but honestly we should have our sights set higher I agree with those that say we be looking for a platoon guy who hits RHP well as opposed to spending more prospect value on a higher level player...but ONLY if Dusty agrees ahead of time that he will use the guy in a platoon. It's not worth whatever prospect capital we spend on anyone if he won't be used properly. Going after a higher level guy may be the only way to get an addition into the lineup regularly
Maldanado has pretty consistently hit LHP during his career. He was even better last year and three years ago was in the 800's (small sample) That's simply not how Dusty is going to use his catchers though, so pretty much a waste of time discussing
Then Dusty needs to tell those other managers "I need to start my rookie at catcher today, so don't start a lefty."
I think Bregman and Tucker should hit the ball a bit better. Yall talk to the multiverse and get those versions of them.
There's a decent chance the team ends the year at 95 wins and just bearly sneaks into the third wild card.
Somewhat this - The Astros may not have an offense as good at the Rangers the rest of the season, but the Astros are going to be in a position to fix some of their offensive issues. The Astros are not going to have Julks and Abreu taking up 2/9ths of their line up if they continue to be terrible. Getting a first baseman and corner outfield bat upgrade is easy. Hell, if Abreu doesn't have a month with his OPS in the 750ish range before the deadline, they can just sign Aguilar to play first and have an upgrade, but they won't do that - it will be Abreu or someone that can play first and hit at the deadline. Same with Julks - it is cute to Dusty to run out Mr. sub .300 OBP now, but come the deadline, someone with a track records of an OPS+ of 115 or more will be getting those at bats.
