Javier has 15 games with Vasquez,Castro,Diaz and Salazar the last 2 seasons.....ERA under 1.50. ERA with Maldonado is 2 runs higher. Thank God for Maldys game calling when he's on the mound.
The issue is Maldy is lazy or just damn incapable of getting in front and blocking balls. He looks more apathetic than anything
I posted this in the general 2023 Astros thread last week. Playing time at catcher. March/April Maldy 21gs = 75% Diaz 6 gs = 21% (25% w/ 1B) May Maldy 19 gs = 70% Diaz 7 gs = 26% (32% total w/ 1B & DH) June - small sample 6 games Maldy 4 gs = 67% Diaz 2 gs = 33% (50% total w/ 1B) Catching innings March/April Maldy 185.3 (74%) Diaz 55 (22%) Salazar 11.3 (4%) May Maldy 165 (69%) Diaz 54 (23%) Salazar (8%) June Maldy 35 (66%) Diaz 18 (34%) It's happening very slowly but Maldy's starts and playing time IS being reduced along with Diaz's increasing. June 10 games Maldy 7 starts 74 innings Diaz 3 starts 26 innings. Diaz's innings at catcher have gone from 22% in March/April 23% in May 26% in June. The extra innings messed that up ( I forgot to account for Salazar's time) June - Maldy start 7 of 10 games, Diaz start 3 of 10 games. And he has a start at DH, and today is starting at 1B for the 2nd time in June. Starting 6 of 11 games in June so far.
Yup. Pitchers actually go to Baker and say they want Maldonado catching them. They will be diplomatic to the press - but behind closed doors it is a different deal.
I believe it, NBA players also want Russell Westbrook, no matter how much worse he makes a team by being on the court. The Astros players and Baker are gonna ride with Maldy regardless of where it takes them this season, they got their title.
Twins have grown to hate Christian Vazquez Spoiler Christian Vázquez was the consensus No. 2 free-agent catcher last offseason, and the Twins signed the longtime Red Sox starter to a three-year, $30 million contract for his durability, defense and average-ish hitting at a spot where the bar for offense is always extremely low. They out-bid a handful of interested teams by adding a third guaranteed year to the deal. Vázquez’s durability and defense have been as advertised. He’s yet to miss time with an injury, a rarity for the Twins the past two seasons. He’s thrown out 25 percent of steal attempts compared to the 21 percent league average and ranks in the 63rd percentile for pitch framing while guiding the pitching staff to the second-best ERA in MLB. However, his offense has been an unexpectedly large weakness. Vázquez, who batted .271 with a .734 OPS the previous four seasons, has hit just .224 with a .561 OPS for the Twins, failing to homer in 42 games. After a strong first two weeks, he’s hit .181 with a putrid .450 OPS in his past 33 games. Vázquez has the team’s lowest Win Probability Added, hitting .091 in high-leverage spots. Not surprisingly, the Twins have begun to increase Jeffers’ share of the playing time in search of more offensive production. Vázquez started 68 percent of the Twins’ games through May 10, but just 55 percent since. Jeffers has essentially added one extra start per week, and of late they’ve often alternated starts. Jeffers has hit .237/.372/.409 in 38 games, topping Vázquez by 219 points of OPS, and the time-share behind the plate figures to be close to even as long as that sort of gap in production exists. Vázquez is owed $10 million in 2024 and 2025, so the Twins are heavily invested in the 32-year-old getting back on track offensively, but it hasn’t kept them from leaning more and more on Jeffers. In general, evaluating catchers by the team’s ERA with them behind the plate isn’t reliable because the quality of pitchers isn’t evenly distributed. For instance, Sonny Gray has been paired with Vázquez in 10 of his 13 starts. With that said, the Twins have a 3.11 ERA and 15-10 record with Jeffers catching, compared to a 3.79 ERA and 18-23 record with Vázquez catching. Above-average defense and below-average offense is a combination most teams would accept at catcher, and Vázquez and Jeffers have earned praise for helping to turn around a pitching staff that ranks No. 2 in ERA after stumbling to No. 18 last year. But it’s tougher to live with a weak-hitting catcher at the bottom of a lineup when runs are scarce and several other regulars also aren’t producing. Vázquez has met two-thirds of the Twins’ expectations by staying healthy and fielding his position well, but for $30 million they were also expecting to get a decent contact hitter with gap power. Instead, he’s slugging just .261 with zero homers and five doubles in 134 at-bats, and his career-high strikeout rate is up 32 percent compared to the previous four seasons. Catchers tend to age poorly due to the physical demands of the position and Vázquez has logged a lot of mileage behind the plate, so it’s possible he’s simply entered the decline phase of his career sooner than the Twins were banking on. With about $25 million left on his deal, the Twins will stick with him and hope for a turnaround, but they also need more offense wherever they can find it.
I don't Maldy replaced. I just want Diaz to get more burn. Give Maldy some rest and get Diaz more looks at the plate.
Turns out this was edited to make Maldonaldo look better. Pressly actually answered "no it doesn't make a difference, they're both hard workers" but it was edited out. They also asked him what he likes about Maldonaldo but edited out answering him the question to make it seem like one long answer. They didn't ask him about Yainer.
The Astros have taken (and to some degree rightfully so) a lot of criticism for the contracts of Montero and Abreu. However the Astros also have dodged some bullets so far with not signing Vazquez and Verlander and Gurriel thus far. Maybe Verlander turns it around IDK - Abreu has looked better recently, but he realistically needs an OPS of around 800 to be worth his contract.
It was pretty clear that Pressly was excited about the impact that Maldonado has behind the plate - reading the hitters swing and movements from behind the plate. I don't know if Pressly pushes for Maldy to catch him (he is in the pen so I doubt it), but I know the starters do, including some of the younger ones.
What was wrong with signing Yuli on a minor league contract that would be elevated to $1.3 mil if he made the big league club?
I believe that. I also believe there is absolutely nothing in the numbers that say he brings any value back there in a game calling sense, and he’s a train wreck offensively and shitty (now) defensively.
It’s a company line because they (the Astros) believe it. We are just getting to the point now where there is a large enough sample size over the previous 4 years that says there is no value add on the thing. And it’s not all the front office, it’s the field staff and pitchers.
