He needs throw harder. He’s marginal on velocity and right at the tipping point to fading below. Some guys have 2 or 3 mph they can lose and still be effective and some don’t. I’m afraid he’s a don’t. mom not giving up on him but I was hoping for a Cy Young.
Nice to see Pressly have an uneventful ninth (based on box score, didn’t get to watch), despite 3rd game in 4 days. or are we still in need of a new closer “no matter what” at the deadline? Honestly, each game reinforces how much they’re still going to need more viable starting pitching. Crane will need to possibly absorb a bigger contract that a disappointing team is looking to off load… candidates?
https://theathletic.com/4630281/2023/06/21/astros-lack-depth-first-base/ …Yainer Diaz started three games at first base earlier this season and 34 more in the minor leagues last year. He is by no means a Gold Glover, but at least has more familiarity with the nuances of the position. Baker said he considered starting Diaz at first base, but five left-handed hitters in New York’s lineup left him worried about Diaz’s “inexperience” at first base, a somewhat baffling explanation considering the player he did start. Javier then secured just seven outs during the Astros’ 10-8 win, negating the one primary reason Dubón made sense starting at first base while exposing the team defensively for seven innings. Playing Dubón at first base underscores the team’s total lack of organizational depth at the position. Baker’s apparent lack of faith in Diaz to play first only exacerbates the problem. Couple that with Abreu’s continued decline and it should create more urgency for general manager Dana Brown to find some insurance as the Aug. 1 trade deadline nears. On multiple occasions, Brown has indicated offense is the team’s biggest need at the deadline. A starting rotation ravaged by injuries could use another established arm, too, but Brown’s been so publicly adamant about adding offense that it’s difficult to not term it his top priority. Presuming Yordan Alvarez returns as the team’s primary left fielder, then first base and catcher are the only obvious spots for substantial offensive upgrades. The Astros and their pitchers place such a high value on Martín Maldonado’s game-calling, preparation and presence that it’s difficult to envision a significant change made. Still, the team is extracting just negative-0.3 wins above replacement from its catchers, according to FanGraphs. The Astros entered Wednesday’s game extracting negative-1.1 fWAR from first base. No American League team is getting worse value from the position. Abreu is the worst everyday hitter in baseball — no qualified player entered Wednesday with a lower OPS than his .587 clip — and he trails only Jurickson Profar for the lowest fWAR in the sport. Abreu appeared to author a resurgence earlier this month. The last six games made it seem like a mirage. Abreu is 3 for his past 24 with 10 strikeouts, including three against Justin Verlander on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Baker acknowledged he “saw signs” of Abreu “slowing down” and preferred to give him two straight days off before the team’s upcoming road trip. Enter Dubón, the team’s most valuable backup middle infielder, playing so far out of position. “You don’t see a lot of first basemen weighing 190 pounds,” Dubón quipped. “I’m pretty confident. I’m a good athlete. I handle the glove. It’s a matter of catching the ball and stepping on the bag. Try to keep it simple.” … June has not been kind to Chas McCormick. He slashed .156/.290/.250 in 38 June plate appearances last season. The team briefly demoted him to Triple-A Sugar Land during the downturn, but he came back to the big leagues almost immediately after Michael Brantley injured his shoulder. “I just remembered some of those things last year and just thought ‘Bring my A-game this month,’” McCormick said on Wednesday. McCormick is a man of his word. He struck a two-run, opposite-field home run against Mets reliever Dominic Leone in the third inning to give Houston a lead it didn’t relinquish and raise his June slash line to .319/.396/.553. McCormick has started just 12 of the team’s 21 games this month while splitting time with Corey Julks and Jake Meyers. Meyers is mired in a career-worst 0-for-23 funk while Julks sports a .697 OPS. McCormick’s is .795. Among the Astros’ healthy players, only Yainer Diaz and Kyle Tucker have higher ones. It’s no secret inside Houston’s clubhouse that Baker is not a fan of McCormick’s and hasn’t been since early last season, which has somewhat impacted his playing time. Trading Jose Siri last July, and the mismanagement of Meyers’ recovery from shoulder surgery, all but forced Baker to use McCormick in center field toward the end of last season. Even then, Dubón still got occasional starts there. Baker views Meyers as the better defensive center fielder — and all publicly available metrics agree with him. Meyers is worth seven outs above average and four defensive runs saved. Only two qualified center fielders are worth more in both categories. McCormick, for reference, is worth two defensive runs saved and two outs above average, albeit in a smaller sample. For a team in desperate need of offense while Alvarez is out, it makes sense for McCormick to have an increased role — or at least to ride this hot streak until it ends. McCormick’s career-long woes against right-handed pitching are a problem — he had a .645 OPS in 292 plate appearances against them last year — but he’s made some adjustments that have translated well. McCormick is standing taller in his batting stance and starting his swing earlier to get better timing. Most of his pregame work involves hitting off slider-only pitching machines. McCormick batted .119 with a 46.6 percent whiff rate against sliders last season. He entered Wednesday’s game with a .227 average, 32.1 percent whiff rate and just five strikeouts when facing sliders. “I’ve just wanted to hit better off righties,” McCormick said. “I’ve wanted to prove some things wrong. I definitely feel better, but I got a long season left and I want to keep contributing to the team.”
… Rafael Montero’s miserable season continued on Wednesday, during the type of game that makes his presence on the roster a problem. Javier survived just 2 ⅓ innings, stretching Houston’s bullpen to its limit. The team can hide Montero in most circumstances. When relievers are needed to cover nearly seven innings, it’s almost impossible. Still, in the sixth inning, Baker bypassed Ryne Stanek and asked Montero to face Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Tommy Pham with a 9-6 lead. Afterward, Baker said the team saved Stanek in case the game went to extra innings. Montero nearly made it possible. Lindor laced a 424-foot double, Alonso annihilated a 432-foot home run to score him and Pham produced a single. Montero stranded Pham as the tying run, but needed a remarkable catch from Julks in left field to do so. Montero received boos from a normally docile Minute Maid Park crowd. “You got to pitch him some time,” Baker said. “He’s been struggling. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. You have to take your shot in the sixth when you got four innings to do whatever mishaps that happen versus the seventh or the eighth. You take your shot at some point in time.” Montero is one of four major-league relievers with an ERA higher than seven. His 1.79 WHIP is the third-highest in the sport. Pitching him at any point with the game in the balance seems borderline negligent. On most other teams, Montero’s roster spot would be in serious jeopardy, if not already eliminated. On this one, it is more complicated. Owner Jim Crane, acting as the team’s de facto general manager, gave Montero a three-year, $34.5 million contract this offseason. He is making more money than all but four active relievers, each of whom are closers. Montero is out of minor league options, too, but it’s not as if there’s any high-performing reliever in Triple A that Montero is blocking. It may behoove the team to find a reason to place Montero on the injured list, if only to allow him time to work through whatever is ailing him, but it’s clear he shouldn’t be put in any leverage situations.
***I know these aren't your words & taken from an article False statement... you absolutely do NOT have to take your shot to play out a science experiment in the 6th or later inning... and when you know this dude has been pitching like aSsss, how or why do you think that's the time to allow this guy to go and blow up the game/lead...? tick tick tick... Not really... no, it's really not... its quite simple. Great... solution! Take Abreu and Maldonado with you to the injured reassignment so you all can figure out how your money/paycheck is making you that much better of a player...
Montero’s suckage has been bad luck and reduced command. He’s not hurt and he’s not declining stuff-wise. This is on the pitching coaches to fix and Baker to manage around him until he’s fixed.
If I was a manager I would (first get fired) put dubon at 1st. Diaz at catcher. Mccormick is on the field at all times either as a lf when Jake plays or cf when julks plays (after alvarez returns) . I would also cut montero and Seth. Line up would be Altuve, Pena, Alvarez, bregman, Tucker, Diaz, Mccormick, dubon, jake/julks That would go a long way in solving the offensive inconsistencies. And we would give up less runs without Seth and montero
Career era approaching 5 before last year Last year was a fluke. He's never going to be any good again. Maybe mediocre (high 3s low 4s era), but that's his ceiling. Y'all need to come to grips with that.
