My guess is right now there’s a schedule… which allows all players to know when they’re going to play in a given week and when they’re not. Obviously they need to all be ready for all games with unpredictable injuries or PH situations, but just like we all know bullpen guys crave having a “set” role, non-everyday players (the 7-9 guys) probably also like to know when they’re going to be in the lineup in a given week… and they can prep accordingly. We also know Chas is going to be in there against LHP when it matters most. Maybe they are trying to evening out his splits some to avoid the obvious pitching change that will come in late game/critical game situations if they have a lefty on the mound against him. They’re not inconsequential… but this conversation has now gone on longer than some game threads, so who bats 7-9 on a random regular season game matters slightly more than the actual game itself?
No manager uses this decree at all times. Star players rest a lot more than even 10-15 years ago…. When Dusty was penciling in the same lineup night after night in SF and Chicago. He’s adapted.
General manager Dana Brown said the team “definitely envisions” Whitley pitching again this season and said an August return is “definitely a possibility.” “I don’t project it’s going to be beyond that,” Brown said before Friday’s 6-2 win over the Angels. “I think, personally, it has something to do with his delivery and I think he may have to clean that up when he comes back,” Brown said. “I’ve talked about it before in the past and I think that we may have to put that in motion.” Whitley is way too familiar with tinkering. Much of his career in the upper minor leagues has been filled with changes. At every spring training since at least 2020, Whitley mentioned something different about himself or his style, be it his delivery, mechanics, pitch repertoire or offseason training regimen. Nothing Whitley altered ever yielded success. He has allowed 101 earned runs across 129 2/3 innings of affiliated baseball since 2019, authoring a steep and slow decline from his position as baseball’s top pitching prospect prior to the 2018 season. His career since is a case study in setbacks. Whitley served a 50-game suspension at the beginning of the 2018 season after testing positive for a drug of abuse. In 2019, he produced a 7.99 ERA across four levels of affiliated ball. Former pitching coach Brent Strom said Whitley reported to major-league spring training “not physically ready” to compete for a job in 2020, a damning condemnation Whitley acknowledged was true. The Astros still added him to their 40-man roster that winter to protect him from Rule 5 selection. It’s worth wondering how much longer Whitley can stay there. That this is his last year with minor-league options only intensifies the question. Whitley is still just 25 years old. At points this season, he showed the type of stuff that can get outs at the major-league level. Extracting some value out of him feels mandatory, especially given the amount of time and money Houston has invested in him since 2016. Before Whitley strained his lat, the team strongly considered calling him up as its sixth starter during this stretch of 17 games in a row. If Whitley does return to pitch in August as Brown predicted, it is possible the club experiments with him in a bullpen role at the major-league level, people familiar with the team’s thinking said. The Astros believe Whitley could be eligible to receive a fourth option year this winter, too. According to major-league rules, fourth options can be awarded to players with fewer than five full seasons of service time in either the major or minor leagues. Whitley’s lengthy list of injuries and large amount of time on the injured list make it difficult to ascertain whether he’s accrued five seasons of time or not. Whitley started his professional career in 2016. “It might be close,” Brown said. “If we can get an option, we’ll take an option. But it might be close.”
I didnt realize you could redshirt an option year, that would be huge. He was almost assuredly gone without options. Gives another year to huff on hopium that he may matter for us.
True, but there is a lot of rest management/development/confidence. I'm not as down on Julks as most as it is a small sample. I think Chas and Meyers are better defenders and should be playing more than Julks because of it instead of a 3-way split of playing time (i.e., Dusty is likely playing Julks because he thinks Julks gives him just as good a chance to win). Conversely, Dusty isn't playing Diaz because Dusty doesn't think Diaz gives him as good a chance to win. Diaz still has a bad plate discipline, but he's looking like he's primed for a huge breakout at the plate (he's hitting a lot of balls at CFs that 20 feet more to right or left would be doubles and 30-40 feet right or left would be homers). If he does, I'm guessing this board is going to become a lot more negative on Dusty if Dusty doesn't even give him more DH PAs.
I expect he’s going to get more and more featured in the lineup as the season goes on, and be one of the guys on the “best possible lineup” that usually gets trotted out in playoff games. Dusty did have Vasquez serve as DH during the playoffs so we know he can fundamentally pencil in his backup C in that spot…. But during the season, he’s going to give playing time to everybody, and he may want Diaz focusing solely on his catching assignments moreso than hitting. Yes, it may not be the absolute best lineup out there… but they’re going to continue to spread it around as long as they’re having winning months.
I'm not down on Julks because he was left unprotected and could have been taken by anyone. Anything you get from him is a bonus at this point. He's just like a Mike Simms or Ray Montgomery or LJ Hoes or Matt Mieske type. Serviceable enough on a bad team, but a good team needs to be trying to figure out how to get him out of the lineup.
He hits the ball hard, and anytime you hit the ball hard there is a chance something good happens. But that's really his only plus skill. He doesn't work counts or walk. He's not good enough with the bat to hit directionally when needed to move runners. He plays average defense at best and is limited to LF. Julks is a starting LF or DH for many teams in this league but he isn't good or well rounded enough to be starting this much for a contending team. I'm going to keep talking smack as long as he keeps hitting. I can't stop now.
He actually doesn't, if he did I wouldn't be so frustrated by his playing time. People don't have built in hatred like Maldy, or expectations like Abreu, so when he's bad nobody seems to notice, but when he does do something good it sticks out because you don't expect anything. All of the expected stats say he's overachieved to this point. With enough playing time, his plate discipline may improve enough to where he is a tolerable starter on a bad team, but that feels like his best case scenario.
You are right. I incorrectly assumed because I see the gaudy exit velocities when he gets a hit. But looking into the numbers, when he doesn't pull the ball he is an automatic out and he pops up too often. A big part of this is poor contact quality. His solid contact rate is 3.8% (MLB avg 5.8%), barrel rate is 3.8% ( MLB avg 6.8%), and his "under" rate ( hitting bottom of ball and popping up or weak fly) is 33.3% (MLB avg 24 6%). He is even more of a 1 trick pony than I thought.
There is a select group that is lying in wait for this very thing to happen. They are the hindsighters of clutchfans and they are relentless.
more contempt for the fans from you. Half your posts are just angry tongue lashings. Here’s a tip….Don’t worry about other people’s posts. You down with OPP? (Yeah, No not me)
Remaining schedule: Mariners 10. 9 Angels 8. 10 A's 7. 6 Rays 3. 6 Orioles 6 Yankees 7. 3 Blue Jays 4. 7 Red Sox 7. 6 Twins 0. 7 Tigers 3. 4 White Sox 0. 6 Royals 6 Brewers 0. 3 Reds 3 D'Backs 3. 2 Giants 0. 3 Rockies 4 Exact same schedule (other than H/A) vs: Each other, Guardians, Mets, Marlins, Nationals, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Padres. Don't play: Braves, Phillies, Pirates, or Cubs. Mariners = Astros +1 Angels= Rangers +2 A's= Astros +1 Rays= Rangers +3 Orioles= Astros +6 Yankees= Astros +4 Blue Jays= Rangers +3 Red Sox= Astros +1 Twins= Rangers +7 Tigers= Rangers +1 White Sox= Rangers+6 Royals=Astros+6 Brewers= Rangers+3 Reds= Astros+3 D'Backs= Astros+1 Giants= Rangers+3 Rockies= Astros+4 Rangers have 5 more games than Astros vs teams above .500 Astros have 4 more games than Astros vs teams below .500
Except they get in the way of reading the good stuff on here. You don't have to read or respond to my my posts either - I can't imagine me mocking you all should be any more annoying than you all cursing out players who you supposedly root for and bring you entertainment.
first of all go find a post where I “curse out a player” Second- are these players your buddies? Im sure they do not care or even know about what is said on here. Lighten up Francis.
Not if he keeps performing as a 12% below league average bat with very below average batting metrics.
