It's amzing how when you have one competent OF, 1B, C and DH that 6 runs happen. Yordan has to play mostly in LF and Caratini C/DH to get this offense going. I think Dezenzo is going to be fine at 1B.
And give this kid a chance, let the kid cook awhile, you can't yank these kids out of the line up every other day and expect them to be consistent. Big Jon can take a seat for a few weeks and use him as a PH
Singleton had almost 300 pa, more than half of that in consistent everyday-level play. His k rate got up to 28% and he’s not hitting for nearly enough power to justify the k rate especially considering his defensive value/position. He is a lefthanded bench bat on a non-contender; for a contender, he is a AAAA bat to stash in case of emergency. I was his biggest fan because his minor league numbers and early bench play made me think he was a launch angle adjustment away from being an elite run producer. But it’s over. He should be on the bench for the rest of this season, and DFA this offseason. Dezenzo has posted elite exit velos and shown enough plate discipline to expect that he will be at least as good of a hitter as singleton unless big league pitching exposes an unknown, which is totally possible. But his upside is high enough to warrant playing him everyday over Singleton, for sure.
I'm on board with this. It's like in Remember the Titans when towards the end the coaches just had their best guys playing two-way. Yordan being in the outfield more often makes me nervous, I still worry about his bionic knees and weird hand aches, but really no alternative at this point.
This sounds more like you’re just tired of Singleton. We have absolutely no idea what Dezenzo will do. All we know right now is that he will strike out a lot.
We know that abut Singleton, we have no reason to know or believe Dezenzo is gonna strike out in over 30% of his PA like Singleton has the last 3 months. He may suck, we know Singleton does.
Yordan just is not a good fielder. He has a solid arm, but he is slow to get to the ball, which means he gets to show off the arm more. I suspect that we will see Yordan in LF, maybe 2 out of 5 games, as the Astros rotate everyday players through the DH to give them easy days. The Astros certainly want to rest Yainer Diaz at least once per 5 day rotations but still have his bat in the lineup.
We definitely have reason to believe that Dezenzo will have at least a 30% k rate, because he did in the minors. He may have an initial burst like a lot of youngsters do, but then the book will be out on him and the k’s will start to pile up. This is the most likely scenario. Of course, there is the small possibility that he is different.
I don't think you can hope for Dezenzo to not strike out at least as much as Singleton. He's been a strikeout guy in college and in the minors. The hope is that he's a 20/20 guy like he was last year. Bring some speed and power to the lineup. Big Jon's power in the minors never translated, but maybe this kid's power will. Have to give him time and opportunity to find out.
It is not unheard of for players to strike out a lot in college and lower minors then refine their approach and not strike out much in the majors. George Springer is a big example of that but there are others; of course that is the exception not the rule, but Dezenzo’s low k rate in AAA is very encouraging.
Took George 3 years in the majors to get his k rate down a little. I was only speaking to this year, while we are in a playoff race.
Well, I didn’t say I wasn’t. I’m just skeptical of Dezenzo being any more effective than Loperfido was. I agree. I wish singleton had at least 4 or 5 more homers at this point in the season, with the amount of at bats he’s had.
I'm rooting for the kid, so not trying to trash him at all. But it's really cherry picking to cite his 11 games in AAA as reason to think he's made a major improvement in a short time. The reason he improved from hitting .200 in AA to .400 in AAA is not that he became a better hitter overnight. It's just tiny sample sizes.
His K rate has come down every season as a pro. 32% his first year 26% second year 21% this season across all levels. I think the Astros viewed a lot of his time in AA as glorified Spring Training, and still his K rate was down from last season (albeit slightly). FWIW I do expect his K rate this season to be closer to 30%, but he's already shown clear improvement in that regard since he's started out as a professional, it isn't out of nowhere. There's no reason to think he's gonna be some strikeout monster IMO.
Anyone who isn’t skeptical of Dezenzo is extremely optimistic. Even Jackson Holliday struggled in his first stint with the Os. I would be happy if what you said happens and he initially performs well for a couple weeks before tailing off…at this point we need whatever we can get even if it’s just a two week burst
