Maldy is Maldy. Tucker led the league in RBIs. He had ONE oin the playoffs. In the playoffs. If he would have had 2 or 3 in the ALCS, the Astros win.
I think Jerry Jones era Crane and Bagwell is the biggest concern now with Dusty out. This franchise is moving backwards as they veer further away from analytics. I would be very concerned now...
Our 1-5 hitters go 5/36 with 3 RBIs* in games 1 & 2 - but we lost those games "because bottom of lineup production." * And if you take out Alvarez's 2/3 & 2RBIs in game 2, they were 3/33 with 1 RBI.
Tucker was a colossal fail, and so was Maldonado. The difference is only one had a better replacement -- that option rotted on the bench. Perhaps if Tucker had more protection, he would have performed better. He walked 5x.
I'm not terribly interested in whatever gotcha game you think you're playing here. If you think the Astros gained better players than Gerrit Cole, George Springer, Carlos Correa and the significant missed-time from Justin Verlander, cool. Enjoy standing in a very small circle with exactly no one else who would agree with you.
Smh... so one-sided.... You do realize Correa was here half of Dusty's 4 years, right? Springer for one. Tucker didn't get regular playing time until 2020. Framber didn't become Framber until 2020. Oh and that guy Alvarez -- the same guy you mentioned six minutes after posting your biased, one-sided list of "added players" that excluded him -- only played half a season during Hinch's tenure. He played 3 seasons with Baker. Astros also added the best hitting-catcher in franchise history. I can see how someone would forget him since he barely played when he was available. My hill is reality. Yours is a biased, one-sided hill that's foolish enough to "forget" Yordan exists for the sole purpose of kissing Dusty's arse.
You're still new here, so you're oblivious to what you're talking about. I've always cheered for Dusty since his Giants days and was happy when he signed with the Astros. I didn't start posting in this thread -- it's 4 seasons old -- until this season. He's was an absolute fool for playing Maldonado over Diaz.
Hahahaha 542 batters had at least 50 plate appearances this year and Chas was 36th best according to wRC+ 468 batters had at least 25 plate appearances vs LHP this year and Chas was 10th. You are flat out wrong. Top 6% of all hitters and top 2% vs LHP. But Dusty sat him on the bench over and over again because " he's not a big boy"
Those first two games of the season when Chas was benched, I didn't want to believe he was a spiteful person. But as the season went on after Diaz's emergence...........
Yes. I'm well aware the players listed did not all collectively leave at the same time following the 2019 season. But they all left prior to the end of Baker's tenure. And that tenure included a truncated 2020. Baker managed Springer for all of 51 games + a single postseason. Right. Framber became Framber under Dusty Baker. Cool. But he made his debut in 2018, same year as Kyle Tucker. In fact, all the players you mentioned - minus Diaz - were on the roster by 2019. During Baker's tenure, they did not trade for a Justin Verlander, or a Gerrit Cole, or a Zack Grienke... They back-filled elite players leaving with uncertain rookies and - other than the Abreu deal - mostly improved the team in the margins. That Alvarez guy, Mr. Reality, had 369 PAs in '19 + another 65 that postseason in which he *literally* played in every single game. Here's a quick test: take the 2019 team - are you trading it for the 2020 or 2021 or 2022 or 2023 teams? Since I already know the answer, my point stands: the Astros got progressively worse over the course of Dusty Baker's tenure, in large part because they let a slew of really good players leave and weren't aggressively proactive in replacing them.
I cannot believe the legendary Dusty Baker is so, so Charmin Bear soft that he let some rando cheesedick beat reporter run him off lmao
