Lol, one day some rando baseball youtuber is going to make a video about how at one point The Astros had Diaz and refused to play him because our stupid dumbass manager wanted Maldonado instead.....
...but the Dusty apologists said it was irrational hatred to think Brantley being back would cause Dusty to play guys less that had been playing a lot. It is just weird that the irrational hatred underpredicted the good players that would play less. Here's to hoping Dubon stays hot at the plate as an OF, he doesn't have many difficult plays going back, and he has baserunners stupidly challendge him.
Chaz reduced back to being a part time player for no reason whatsoever. Dusty has been so embarrassingly transparent in his treatment of McCormick, it's a complete f**king joke that he isn't called out for it.
2B Jose Altuve SS Jeremy Pena DH Yordan Alvarez* 3B Alex Bregman RF Kyle Tucker* 1B Jose Abreu LF Michael Brantly* CF Mauricio Dubon C Martin Maldonado
Why? The only person that sees an issue with his defense is, unsurprisingly, Dusty. Is a gold glover with an awesome bat in front of him?
I'm not mad Brantley is back, I'm piss Dusty continues to play Dubon over McCormick. There was a reason why Click didn't allow Dubon on the playoff roster last year, or else Astros wouldn't have won the WS.
Who would want to play a 7 WAR catcher or a 6 WAR CF as often as you can? That's what both of those guys sitting out are projected for if they were to play their actual positions "full time".
HE was allowed on the playoff roster with instructions he was not to be played unless and until the world started to come apart.
Yeah that was so stupid. If you didn't know that Brantley and Abreu and Altuve and Alvarez coming back were going to make Diaz and Chas part time players then you don't understand how to process the world around you. I now hate JV day when I used to love it, because I know that it means 2 of our best 5 players are going to be stupidly sitting on the bench.
He hasn't only played 7 games at first. He's only played 7 games this season because Dusty won't f**king let him. He played there in the minors, but Dusty hasn't been a Diaz fan all season so he will take any chance he can to bench him, just like Chaz.
You know what makes me happy? Hunter Brown day. Because I know that on Hunter Brown day we are going to have Dias at catcher and likely Chas in the game. Hunter Brown at MMP, against a RHP means we will finally get to see our best lineup: Diaz/Abreu/Altuve/Pena/Bregman/Alvarez/Chas/Tucker- DH Brantley- going around the horn. Now- Dusty will make that as stupid as he can, probably batting Chas and Diaz 8th and 9th, but even that won't be able to put me in a bad mood. I wake up every morning in a bed that's too small, driving my daughter to a school that's too expensive and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little," "But on pretzel day, well, I like pretzel day.
You know what, forget it. I'll just watch the game as is and try not to get piss off if Dubon and/or Maldy strikes out at a critical point at bat. I knew Dusty would play Dubon today over McCormick anyways, and Diaz was expected.
Abreu is in the 8th percentile of 1B defensively per baseball savant. Odds are good that a catcher that only has 7 games at 1B in the majors is not that bad. Even if Diaz is worst defensively, it is really long odds that his hitting doesn't make up the difference.
