He’s the 25th guy on the roster… with Salazar being 26th. He’s filler, his replacement would be filler. They intended Brantley to be back by now. If Brantley won’t make it back, they’ll try and get somebody better than any of these guys to fill that role.
But he's not and that is exactly the problem. He started and played the entire game 17 of 27 games last month. He played the 9th most games and had the 9th most plate appearances. That makes him a starter. If he was the 25th man then it wouldn't be this enfuriating. BTW he had a .597 OPS.
By the end of the year, he will be. Its not his fault that Chas got hurt last month and missed time. Dubon was also a starter... till he wasn't. This isn't that hard.
Since May 14th AFTER Chas returned from his back issues (not his activation from IL). Chas 12 games started (13 played) 45PA Jake 11 games started 44PA Julks 10 games started (11 played) 40PA That's a pace for 105g and 380PA of OPS under .600 without plus defense to offset it. That's Astrodome 1970s stuff. Dubon, Diaz, and Salazar are the position players who played less. Seth Martinez, Parker Mushinski, and Ryne Stanek all pitched 7 innings or less and all in low leverage situations so I would put them behind him as well. That makes him, at worst, the 20th player, not 25th on this roster.
Its a rotation for the outfielders, yes... this was already posted a ways back. Wouldn't be as regular if Chas hadn't gotten hurt and needed more off days. Stanek will be here the entire year. Couldn't care less about the last of the bullpen guys as it pertains to this discussion. If it makes it easier for you, Julks is the 2nd least important position player. That doesn't mean he won't get starts, but he's going to be replaced... whether it be Brantley or some other OF acquisition. Dubon/Diaz have fixed roles and will be on the roster regardless. I'll let you get back to all the numbers analysis you're exhausting yourself with over this...
They are in a straight rotation. But that said, Julks has been better than Chas over that stretch overall and he's better against righties, which are the majority of our opponents. Defense is certainly worse, but in LF isn't as important. It's not hard to justify playing Julks over Chas. In an ideal world, Meyers is the one playing every day - and I have no doubt he would if the playoffs started tomorrow - but I think their primary goal is to keep them all fresh and give them all playing time / experience. In the last 15 days (more-or-less the time frame you're referring to), Julks has a 0.760 OPS; Chas is at 0.592 with an impressive 0.115 BA and 0.207 OBP. They basically hit in the same place in the order, and Julks has more RBIs and runs.
Julks’ expected wOBA over the past month is like sub-.200. He’s been terrible but has been bailed out by some good luck. Even then his topline numbers still suck.
Nothing needs to be "easier for me" A team with a goal of winning the World Series should not be playing a guy who can only play LF, is 16% below league average offensively, and (at best) league average defensively 2/3 of the time. Especially when that is his projected ceiling and playing him always puts a better player on the bench. He should be in AAA, but I understand they still need to fill a roster with 13 position players. But at the very least he should be limited to a couple of starts per week when Chas, Jake, and/or Dubon need a day off. He has shown he is not good enough to be in the rotation. As much as I defend Dusty playing Maldy 75% of the time and how he has earned the benefit of the doubt, this one I don't understand nor agree with.
Ok. Is the thesis now over? The Astros have had guys getting these sorts of AB's/extended looks on every WS team they've had... some were because of price tag (Beltran), some were because of no other options (Gattis), some were because of injuries (Goodrum/Matijevic/Siri, etc.)
And how much b****ing was done on this board about all those guys? I don't see much in common with any of the guys you mentioned. But we can agree to disagree and end this. Have an awesome day and Go Astros !!
FYI I hope Julks hits a HR in his next at bat. In fact, I hope he hits 30 HR with an .800 OPS and everyone here rags on me for weeks about how wrong I was.
Im definitely not questioning the Astros track record or success, but even outstanding companies, teams, corporations, and individuals have plenty of things to revise and improve.
Yes I understand how they operate. See my post above. I firmly believe Chas should play every single game against lefty starters.
The fact that an argument is being made for someone like Madris to be on the Astros' 26 man roster just tells you what an overall lack of talent we have in AAA right now. We need guys like Gilbert, Loperfido, Dezeno, Gordon, Arrighetti, and Kouba to continue to play well in AA so they can be moved up ASAP.
Absolutely. But the people advising them on things that just absolutely must be improved were the same ones saying Dusty could never win a WS because he hadn't; or that Meyers and Dubon should have been released long ago; or that the Astros absolutely were idiots for not signing Contreras; or that they needed to bench Yuli last year; or that Tucker would never amount to anything based on his rookie year; and on and on.
Im not talking about all that. I’m not discussing talking heads or advisors or anything like that. And I’m certainly not suggesting they won’t win a WS if they don’t do XYZ. It’s a long season and there are plenty of things to nitpick. Just bc you win a WS doesn’t mean you do everything perfect, but in the end a WS justifies everything bc that’s the whole reason they play.
I am excited to see what this team looks like in the future and if they continue to win 2024- Maton, Maldy, Brantley, Stanek likely gone. 2025- Altuve, Bregman, Neris all FA 2026- Tucker, Framber, J.Abreu, Pressly, Montero, Urquidy all FA. That's 13 of the current 18/19 most important players on this team free agents within 2 1/2 years from now.
