This is a massive understatement. If pitchers know that they can get these deep strikes, they will target these deep, non traditional strikes. Hitters won’t have a chance.
0% chance. He is like 4 for 30 since coming back. Those 2 HR don’t mean jack. Houston would have to pay at least $20M to trade him.
I think that’s what he’s saying (sorry, didn’t read “for this year”). Astros would probably have to eat all of the deal. And throw in more for whatever value they’d want in return.
Meanwhile in Chicago: https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/white-sox-fans-trolling-team-all-star-write-in/634158 White Sox fans savagely trolling own team with All-Star Game write-in votes With the 2024 MLB All-Star ballot officially opening on Wednesday, the White Sox shared a post on social media encouraging fans to cast votes for each of their nine starters. So what did White Sox fans do? They began rallying one another to submit write-in votes for catcher Martin Maldonado.
Considering that Ronel has a lower WHIP and ERA with Caratini, maybe the no hitter would have happened with Diaz on the bench. </s>
Could be that 2023 was the career year for both Yanier and Chas. Just makes Dusty look worse for not milking their career years.
Everybody should probably hold off on declarations till we see if Diaz really has a future as a catcher. Apparently he never really wanted to do it. He was handed the job to start the year and it didn't take long for those duties to be taken away (or decreased, in order to try and get him out of his mental funk for the bat). Obviously he has more athleticism and raw talent than a guy like Evan Gattis (who also was a catcher at one point), but this year is pretty important for his future development and being able to truly stick at that position. Will be interesting to see if he gets more opportunities at 1B at some point again... then again with Caratini likely out for a little bit, he'll be required to catch more than he has been over the last few months (unless Espada/front office gives all of Caratini's starts to Salazar). And this is not to trigger those who have PTSD with every Maldy/Baker discussion. This is strictly looking at Diaz and his ability to prepare and master the position without it taking away from his ability to do damage at the plate.
If healthy and he missed a few games because of injury, Diaz should catch around 100 games this year.
Perhaps... but if he has a sub .700 OPS when he catches a ton vs the above .800 OPS when he doesnt... which one has more of an impact on wins?
Isn’t this just a reverse of last year for Diaz? I would say those splits are overrated. Diaz is the catcher of this team. Stop fighting it.