This seems to be one point that has been ignored.. Perhaps Maldy's performance would improve with less playing time and selectively schedule playing time. Good job, raining threes.
I completely agree with this and I think Diaz has earned the starting spot. How a manager can lose his star hitter and combat that by starting Maldy MORE is beyond me. Sometimes a player or person needs defending. Maldy is a player beyond his prime. He no longer has the ability to be a passable starting catcher, if he ever did. But he can still throw. To complicate it, Diaz has performed and earned the starting spot. I want Diaz to start but have no hatred for Maldy. He is honestly trying hard every game, every pitch. It's not his fault father time is undefeated. He also does not make out the lineup card.
So how would you feel if he did make out the lineup card? It occurs to me that he might not make a terrible replacement for Dusty. Just wondering if anybody else might think so.
I think Maldy would be a great coach and has potential to be a manager but he can't make the lineup as a player lol. We learned over the off season via Twitter that he would start himself everyday and probably hit himself leadoff.
The fact both of them are so bad at “catcher framing” tells me it’s more of a “umpire bias rate” stat that’s usually not in our favor. This meets the eye test from what I’ve seen this season.
I don't like him on the field this much at all, but your Dennis "white hot fury of a thousand suns" level hate is a bit much. He'd make an excellent backup and personal catcher for (pick 1 starter). Didn't see this posted anywhere, it's a good read: https://theathletic.com/4708201/2023/07/21/yainer-diaz-pain-astros-catcher-heir/
That's what it boils down to. And I'm sorry, but Framber has earned the right to have a personal catcher; Javier has not, and whatever he's been doing hasn't been working so it might be time to change that.
If what was killing us was 1 guy we would be winning eight out of every nine games. Maldy is not killing us. I wish it was that simple.
that would certainly be the thing that costs the absolute least damage to the organization for the rest of the year. If that's what he played then fine, I wouldn't say a peep. he can catch Framber once ever 5 days and then be lifted for a PH if/when Framber comes out if we are tied or trailing. he's seriously epically bad and the difference between him playing 80% of the time and Diaz catching 80% of the time is somewhere between 5 & 7 wins, which should make the difference between winning and losing the division a very real thing. That should be rage inducing to all Astros fans.
When Maldy starts filling out the lineup card I'll get furious with him. Until then me getting angry about it is only infinitesimally more useful than me getting angry at the weather every day.
You underestimate how detrimental a bat that bad in the lineup can be. Not only is he 3 easy outs, but when you have someone that bad in the lineup, whoever bats ahead of him is unlikely to ever see any worthwhile pitches dragging them down too. Now sure, if you had a competent manager, that would be a problem but one maybe you could work around.....but we don't have a competent manager, we have Dusty Baker. If you are going to keep guys like Hensley, Madris, and Maldonado as options, Dusty is going to destroy games with them. He simply can't help himself.
Well sure. But that same theory relates to everything we do and say and write and listen to or read on the internet.
