Rbaser aka WAR for baserunning Astros 2024 - negative 5 DBacks 2024 - positive 8 ...can he fix Altuve baserunning?
I don't think either the Dodgers and Yankees meet this criteria in the regular season for their top 10 hitters in PAs in the championship series. Personally, I care more about team wRC+ than the distribution of that value throughout the lineup.
Dodgers= 5 A's, 2 B's, 2 C's, 1 F = 3.0 I don't know how the Yankees made it. 2 A's, 2 B's, 1 C, and 5 F's = 1.6 However they did replace an F with an A at the deadline bringing it up to 2.0 It's crazy that the Yankees won the AL East with 5 of their 10 most used hitters being 14% below average or worse. Jake Meyers had an 86 wRC+ which would have been tied for 6th best on the Yankees.
By your standards the Indians and Yankees this season, the 23 D-Backs and 22 phillies all had less than competitive offenses. I didn't even have to look hard to find teams that nearly won it all with multiple less than average hitters. Even our WS team was playing 3 bad hitters by their regular season numbers.
Thanks. I appreciate the interest, research, and response. I was just thinking about how shallow the 2024 lineup felt, thinking about hitting tiers and came up with a working hypothesis.
Steve Pearce. There are tons of them. Every single player who is good enough to be in MLB can have a huge moment or be great over a small sample size. That's why my point, throughout this, has been about getting to the postseason (something that appears to me more challenging every year despite additional spots being created) not what happens in the post season.
What happens in the playoffs is all that matters if your goal is to win rings. That's why I'm not totally against trading Tucker. But they've gotta get a haul for him. I think it would be easier to keep Tucker next year and add 3 bats to the lineup.
I care about the depth of the lineup. I care more about scoring more runs and winning more games. Improving the depth of the team is one way to do this, but one should not improve the depth if there are better options to help a team win more.
I just assumed the Dodgers didn't meet that criteria because of Kike having a bad year and it is a very tough criteria to meet. That said....I got saved because Taylor had 3 more PAs than Lux. I thought you had me there as I kept going down the list and guys barely making the bottom of a letter range. Top ten hitters in NLCS PAs, wRC+ regular season Edman 98 D Betts 141 A Kike 83 F Teoscar 134 A Ohtani Infinity A Smith 111 B Freeman 137 A Pages 100 C Muncy 135 A Taylor 74 F 5 As, 1 B, 1C, 1D, 2 Fs
I don't disagree with you but you gotta get there first. The current group of youngish fans may think the post season is pre-ordained, but I remember years upon years without an appearance. And this team is getting in by a smaller margin each year, recently.
I get what you're saying about scoring more runs because that's what the stats say works. However if you decide to not lengthen the lineup what happens is what happened this year in the playoffs when a guy like Tucker sucks. What do you have to fall back on? Meyers/Chas/Singleton? You're not winning a championship like that. Why would you not want to have as deep a lineup as possible. 2017/2019/2022 were the best chances for the Stros to win championships. The lineup had depth those years. I'm curious to know what better options do you think are out there to improve the team if lengthening the lineup isn't the best option.
I understand this and it's the reason I go back and forth on Tucker. I do know how valuable Tucker is, (Top 10 player in MLB IMHO in the regular season.) I also saw the team make the playoffs and overtake the Mariners who had a 10 game lead when Tucker was injured. I'm truly on the fence when it comes to Tucker. I guess it depends on the haul they got back in a trade for him.
We both are. To me what really complicates things is that I simply don't see any hitting stars in the high minors. Baez is probably the prospect most likely to end up with an impact bat, but he is at least 2 years away, does not have plus defense or speed to help his floor and K'd over 25% while walking under 6% in High A ball. And both those numbers have gotten worse with every promotion. A 2025 season with a 30% K rate and 5% BB rate shouldn't surprise anyone and would drastically hurt his prospects ( pun intended) Yes, he had a very good cup of coffee to end the season in AA, but it was only 61 PAs. I still have hope, but he needs to regain some of his plate discipline this year. Trading Tucker could add 2-3 guys with impact type ceilings. If they just let him walk after letting Alex walk this year, the 2026 offense may be worse than Seattle's. Then again, trading Tucker is no way to help an already shallow offense in 2025.
...and yet the Astros have won a championship when several guys failed and the Astros had to play Chas, Maldy, Diaz, and Mancini among their top 10 hitters in PAs in the postseason. Granted the Astros still scored a lot of runs because they had a higher team wRC+ than most teams and they held teams to fewer runs than themselves because they had a ton of pitching. I am for winning. I don't care if it happens because the roster is deep or thin (but with amazing guys). I prefer a deep roster (not just hitting), but would do whatever is in the team's best interest. The Astros just don't have that much depth to try to solve all the hitting holes and the pitching holes unless Crane just spends like he hasn't done before. Typically, who is batting 9th is not nearly as important as who is batting 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, playing SS, playing CF, catching, starting as a pitcher, or being used as a high leverage RP. Regarding injuries, your strategy of getting 9 average or better hitters and sacking nearly every other bit of MLB position talent leaves more holes when there is an injury. Instead of Chas or Meyers, you end up with Cooper Hummel or the skin and bones that used to be Aledmys Diaz batting 9th (i.e., bottom of the lineup hitting is even worse and you don't at least get the defensive value). I just can't see how the Astros address the pitching behind Framber and Brown if they spend everything on having 9 average or better hitters.
I am all for a super team where we have A level hitters at every position, but this isn't Playstation.
