Oh, and the receiving: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/catcher_framing?year=2023&team=&min=q&type=catcher&sort=4,1 He's better, statwise, than I thought, but man has he had some blatant ****ups with having his glove turned the wrong way, not dropping his knee and getting his chest over the ball, etc https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/catcher-blocking?players=592663-2023-143&selected_idx=0
It really blows Braves beat us out for Sean Murphy. He's been nails for them all season. Him and Yainer would've locked the catcher position down for the next 5 years and probably would be the best catcher duo in the league.
Yeah that would be assuming we kicked Maldy to the curb or made him a coach or something but I know that's not realistic. Maldy whined when the rumors came out that they were chasing Murphy. That might've given the front office pause and made them back-off from chasing him which is a very depressing thought. They knew Maldy would never be his back up and Dusty would never play him like his back up so they let the Braves get the best young catcher and extend him on a long, cheap contract. Travis D'Arnaud (better than Maldy and is WS champ himself).. the Braves starting catcher at the time took it in stride and is now their backup catcher and occasional DH. He's a true team player. Contrast that with Maldy...he just cares about his starting role to the detriment of the team.
This seems like its almost a personal affront to people that Maldy didn't step back. I don't get it. The Stros resigned Maldy. I can't say who's decision it was: Crane/ Dusty/ Click / Bagwell. I'm sure they told him they weren't just resigning him to be a backup. This is a guy who played through the end of last season and playoffs injured. That doesn't sound like a me-first player. He rehabbed his injuries and got back to starting shape. Yea, he's def lost some productivity. Yes, he should play/be played less. But all this crap about him being a selfish jerk for not voluntarily stepping back is some combo of projection/wish fulfillment/naivety. He's still giving his personal effort and pitchers still want to pitch to him. If Dusty doesn't bench him that's a Dusty problem. Maldy is not some Astros little-finger.
He played through multiple injuries and hid them all so he wouldn't lose his starting job to Vasquez.
Our offense clearly isn’t what it once was. We can no longer hide maldy in the lineup and win ballgames the way we used to. We need more production in the lineup no matter where it comes from. same with Abreu. We can’t hide him and Maldy in this lineup.
He didn't hide them. We know exactly when he broke his hand (HBP on Aug 28) and he missed a few games as a result. You don't think the Astros did x-rays? And the result of him playing through his injuries was winning a World Series in near-record fashion going 11-2. Pretty horrible, I know. If only we had Vazquez starting everyday, maybe they could have done better. Or maybe since Vazquez actually sucked as an Astro, they could have lost so Dusty would have been fired and everyone would be much happier today.
If you recall before @machete1224 deleted his Twitter account, he posted how he felt betrayed the Astros would look for an upgrade to his position as he felt he is a key part of the team. In all fairness, he did fire his agent and force a trade back here and has a gold glove plus a silver slugger top 3 finalist on his resume. Plus, he did hide an injury to block Christian Vasquez from taking his job. There is also Houston Chronicle reports that Dusty blocked any consideration of a Contreras trade because Maldy would still be the starter.
The postseason division of playing time was rational, but didn't Vasquez close out an 18 inning game and catch a World Series no hitter?
Be careful now... criticizing St. Dusty will get you excommunicated. And before we had only 2 catchers on the roster... much more flexibility to start Diaz at first at least.
Stop the "woah is me", smarter than everyone bullshit, lots of people criticize Maldy and Dusty and the Astros in general.
They might've know about that one but he definitely hid and played through a few other major injuries. It was widely reported after the WS win.
Yeah.... Last year, when it came up, Maldonado talked to the front office and coaches about his future and said that he did not know if he would return in 2023. He was playing with several really bad injuries, and his body was breaking down. The coaching staff and most of the front office made it clear to him that they wanted him back - so did his teammates. So he gets healthy and comes back and now people are saying he needs to step aside when his production is similar. The only way that Maldonado isn't the Astros starting catcher the rest of this season is if Maldonado gets so banged up that he cannot suit up - and good luck with that, he played through a hernia and a broken hand and a fractured leg.
