I have to assume if Martinez could play the field passably, he would already have been doing that. To me Martinez makes absolutely no sense for the Astros. Doesn’t balance the lineup, can’t play the field, is an older player who is susceptible to injury/decline. If Houston truly believes in Brown and Blanco, they really just need a cheap rental innings eater to hold them over until Garcia comes back in 6 weeks. And even then they only need that if they’re worried about Arrighetti and don’t believe in Lauer.
The Martinez discussions tell me that either they don’t trust someone in the line up. I would assume Alvarez in the playoffs/big games would play the field with JD Martinez at DH? The other possibility is they are moving someone to open up at bats? It’s weird because I know they want a left handed bat and that isn’t Martinez.
They actually have a pretty good staff either having or coming back from TJ surgery. LMJ Garcia Javier Urquidy
Manea could be a solid SP3 and they've got Garcia coming back at the 1st of the month. If Brown and Arrighetti pitching well would let Espada have a 6 man staff. If Martinez can play a little 1B or LF at MMP and hit like he's hit the last 5 yrs, then that's a major upgrade. BTW, in no world should Meyers ever be hitting cleanup. I dont care what the numbers say.
Who do you like the most if Brown was to trade? Martinez or Pederson? I would probably go with Martinez, but it would be close.
Dana Brown has continually brought up all the extra games the Astros have played (by going deep into the playoffs) over the years as an explanation for why they’re experiencing so many injuries. I’m hoping that’s not being planned as an excuse for if/when they decide to tank the season next month.
Martinez hit very well last year. I don't know how he's hitting this year. Production should be all that matters.
The roster was flawed coming into the season and the expectations were way too high. I didn't expect them to be this bad but I picked the Mariners to win the division, and I said in the off-season thread if someone asked me if the Astros would more likely be sellers or World Series contenders at the deadline I leaned sellers. The entire off-season narrative was getting rid of Dusty would allow Yainer and Chas to play more and that would improve the team. The narrative was too simplistic. The roster coming into the season relied heavily on 4 older players (Altuve, Pressly, Verlander, and Abreu). Altuve is having a down year, Pressly has been bad and unlucky, Verlander is showing his age, and Abreu is toast. Add the pitching injuries on top of that with a weak farm system to go with it and you get this disaster we see now. All the bottom feeding moves Dana is having to do with the pitchers on the AAA roster tells a big part of the story.
The pitching has been bad, and they ****ed up the off-season by putting all their eggs in one basket in Hader rather than spreading things around so they could keep guys like Montero from having to pitch meaningful innings. However, if you look at overall how well the team is hitting the ball, how well the team is doing in limiting hitter performance (e.g., in terms of minimizing xwOBA), it's surprising how similar the team is between '23 and '24. Maybe this season is more of an indictment of last year's team than this years. Particularly, I think the pitching was pretty lousy last season but the team got lucky (look at France for instance) for the most part and coming from the highs of '22, I don't think we appreciated how quickly things had fallen off on that side of the ball. For instance, comparing team pitching xwOBA from '22 through '24 - .284, .321, .318. Team batting xwOBA: .324, .333, .324. Even if you add fielding by using wOBA instead of xwOBA it doesn't really change the picture. Honestly, I don't think the fielding has fallen off so much as it might just be the Astros got really good sequencing luck last season and are getting really bad sequencing luck this season and now we are getting a taste for what those two extremes look like.
Altuve is just streaky. The first month, we thought he was on pace of being unanimous MVP... and if a .780+ OPS is a down year...
The roster was stacked. The offense has performed on par with past teams in terms of underlying numbers. Pitching has been bad due to injuries and luck; no team can sustain significant injuries to 7 of their top 10 starting pitchers and expect to be above .500. Especially when you combine those injuries with bad luck on both sides of the ball. I think this team is probably 50/50 to make the playoffs and I’d put the current odds of them being deadline sellers at about 30%. (FWIW I think one tanked season could end up being a godsend if they use it to reset the farm and payroll.)
He's also a big student of the game and might be able to help some the young guys get right in the box. Keeping Diaz, Peña, and Meyers locked in would really stretch out the batting order.
OPS Splits March--- .980 April----1.015 May------.573 June-----.610 While .780+ sounds decent, he went from red hot to very chilly in a hurry. Pretty alarming drop off. https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/31662/jose-altuve
13 position players. Current and September 1st. C: Yainer Diaz --> Yainer Diaz C: Victor Caratini --> Victor Caratini 1b: Jose Abreu --> ? 2b: Jose Altuve --> Jose Altuve 3b: Alex Bregman --> Alex Bregman SS: Jeremy Pena --> Jeremy Pena LF: Chas McCormick --> ? CF: Jake Meyers --> ? RF: Kyle Tucker --> Kyle Tucker DH: Yordan Alvarez --> Yordan Alvarez util: Mauricio Dubon --> Mauricio Dubon bench: Jon Singleton --> ? bench: Trey Cabbage --> ? bench: ------------------------> ?
Mariners pledge summer spending spree. Will Astros match AL West rival? https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/astros-trade-deadline-mariners-19496607.php Going to take nap now. Dont wake me up if Seattle spends and gets better and we sit and do nothing. Call an ambulance if Jose Abreu is still playing for the Astros in July. And contact a mortuary if another starter needs Tommy John surgery.
All true, but I think our situation goes a little deeper than this Even if they think Blanco is simply a different pitcher and can keep doing this He is almost to his career high in innings pitched already, and it's early June. To think he can keep going as he is for the rest of the season isn't very realistic in my opinion
