(Thats why I asked the question to get his splits for today). Some of his advanced metrics that we know matter a lot were already pretty good before the trade. He has an elite fastball that he’s able to generate swings/misses with. His walk rate was also a career low. Didn’t make much sense as to why his ERA was as high as it was… thus why pitch types and sequencing could be a fix.
Yordan needs to play more in LF if the team wants to make the playoffs. There are 49 games left in the regular season and Yordan should be playing 40-45 of those in LF, so that the best team they've got offensively can be put on the field. If Dana had picked up a bat at the deadline maybe it wouldn't need to be this way. The season is really riding on Tucker making it back, Diaz staying hot, Caratini and Dezenzo coming through with the bat.
Absolutely. Dubon is the 10th or 11th most important position player on this roster, and insurance/backup for Altuve, Pena, and Bregman. Getting him going is important. But unless the team sees him as one of the 9 starters, him beingbin the lineup is keeping one of them from doing exactly what you are stating. He had a good day today, but has been miserable recently so isn't even helping the team win.
Ok. So Espada is distributing the playing time amongst all the fringe players as much as he can. Dubon gets a tad more run because he can also spell guys in the infield (and has more of a track record against pitchers he’s faced before). I don’t see the problem unless there are vastly superior options out there. No matter what, everybody will argue over the 9th hitter on this team.. whether it’s Maldy, Dubon, Cabbage, Leon, Chas. It’s become as common as rooting for the backup QB (till he sucks). And as soon as somebody has a good game (like Dubon did today, or Caratini did today), and he’s not in the lineup the next game… people will have issues then too.
Agreed, Espada needs to play his best hitters the rest of the season. Yordan may not be able to cover as much ground as Chas, but makes up for it with a really good arm vs Chas pea shooter. At least when you have Yordan and either Dubon or Leon in the OF you've got 2 above avg arms in the OF. I know it's a small sample size, but Caratini is one of the top 4-5 hitters on the team. He's gotta get consistent playing time. (Should've already gotten it) They were saying this on the postgame show. I've been saying this for the last 3-4 weeks. Go Dezenzo
Thank goodness we got the series win. That was huge and very necessary at this point. We need to keep moving the right way.
Winning the boot could possibly be the difference between making and missing the playoffs. They also need to win the series against the Mariners for the same reason if possible. What's their head to head record?
No kidding. This season has had so many ups and downs. There have been huge frustrations and pleasant surprises. Every game and every series is white-knuckle time for me. But that's baseball as an Astros fan.
Lol was just thinking the same thing watching his AB. It’s crazy how hard he fell off after that deal with the Tigers. On the positive side…the Tigers CF Meadows just made an absolutely ridiculous catch to rob a 2 run HR from Raleigh
