I don't think it will be that difficult for Chas. His role is to start once a week in center and come in as a defensive replacement in left. Dezenzo is the tough one. He should get 550 plate appearances this year in a perfect world.
Thinking about this more, I still can’t make sense of keeping Dezenzo on the roster to play less than half the time. Unless Walker is hurt, the only thing I can think is that Dubon’s playing time will be significantly reduced from my guess above, as doing that could get Dezenzo up near 70%. That would still leave McCormick, Dubon, and Caratini each set to play in less than 1/3 of the games. That sure seems like a waste, especially considering McCormick has options (and possibly some trade value). Trading (or optioning) McCormick and replacing him with someone like Short (or any other player who makes sense as a seldom used utility man) would get Dezenzo and Dubon both playing most days (~70%, especially considering pinch hitting, pinch running, and late game defensive substitutions), leaving Caratini as the only underused player.
Dezenzo playing half of the time in the majors is better than him playing full time in the minors. He has nothing to prove in the minors. His floor is a low level major league player. If his play warrants more playing time, then Brown and Joe will make the hard decisions.
Injuries and underperformance are very likely to sort it all out especially over the course of a couple months. But I disagree with the notion that it would be better for Dezenzo to ride pine in the majors than play everyday in the minors. First off, there are service time implications; if Dezenzo is a good player, it could cost potentially tens of millions in lost value not to utilize him properly. Secondly, Dezenzo doesn’t have some long established track record in the minors; 2 full seasons: one in the lower minors, and one marred by injury where he totaled ~200 pa. So there’s plenty of reason to believe he could benefit from additional time in the minors, especially as an alternative to mostly riding the bench in the majors. But like I said all of this is likely moot because it’s probable that injuries will sort it out by the end of May.
I think he proved to be a major league bat in his short time last season, especially with how he raked in ST. I don't consider playing 50 percent of the time riding the pine. Caratini plays less than 50 percent of the time.
I think they got the 13 best position players but I don't think they got the best roster. 3 players for 1 position is going to be tough to figure out, especially when they don't have splits within the group or with the other outfielders.
It is definitely an odd roster construction. I'd want Dezenzo & Smith playing every day. Hard to envision both of them staying on the roster all year unless there is an injury or disaster in somebody else's performance.
He had a decent spring. Hoping he finds his stroke and realizes his potential . Besides the rookies (and a rebounding Chas), he has the most upside to pleasantly surprise
I think there is a distinct possibility that Walker is either not 100%, or is treated w/ kid gloves for a couple of weeks. It is possible that he and Dezenzo split 1b, maybe as much as 50/50 for a couple of weeks and if Zach doesn't hit, he is sent to AAA when Christian is ready to play everyday. What this team needs more than anything is a CF who can hit RHP. I don't know if that is Melton in 3-4 months, or someone else. If Smith is as advertised (and/or Pena takes a step up) offense from CF won't be as important, but it is clearly the Achilles heal of the offense. I like that they chose young upside over middling veterans. Lets see how it plays out.
I’m wondering if Dezenzo gets more looks at 1B to start , assuming they want to ease Walker back from injury. But after that I think he is insurance in case one of Smith or Chas don’t produce.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...rodgers-makes-opening-day-roster-20241291.php Interesting article about how no one has ever helped understand why his balls were going into the ground. Crazy considering he was a decent hitter. The chose him because they think he has a lot of upside offensively.
The Astros were one of the 3-4 best teams in baseball going into 2023 and entered the playoffs as the favorite in the AL despite their regular season struggles - and they made game 7 of the ALCS. There was absolutely no reason to trade Tucker after that. They went into 2024 as one of the 3 top teams in terms of World Series odds. In terms of the trade this year, you severely overvalue what a 1-yr rental MVP caliber player can net. See Mookie Betts as probably the most recent comparison point.
The easy explanation is the Rockies are an incredibly poorly run team, both at the org level and at the coaching level. There's a reason they're perpetually mediocre. The more nuanced explanation, one that players rarely mention in interviews, is that he was given advice on how to fix his problems but he didn't "understand" or process it. Not saying this is the truth, I have no idea, but it's so much easier to throw someone else under the bus rather than own never being able to successfully make adjustments. The Whitley of it all.
Dezenzo doesn’t have the defensive value that Dubon or Marwin have/had. But he could be a much better hitter.
I agree. The Astros must have a plan. My best guess is ... The Astros may ease in Walker. They also may ease in Cam. If Cam gets in a bit of a slump, Dezenzo and him could split time in RF. As mentioned elsewhere, Chas might get traded, so Dezenzo could get that PT as well (outside of CF).
Astros guaranteed Rodgers $2M. I doubt they’d do that if they didn’t expect him to play 2B most days.
Everybody mentioning ZDZ in nearly every post. Starting to remind me of D-Mo days. I'm ambivalent... nobody knows if he's an everyday MLB player or a AAAA player at this point. He's not expected to be a future all-star. He has positional versatility, but he's not necessary way above average anywhere (or he'd have a set position). A good set of skills and ability to have on your everyday roster or bench, but unlikely to get much needed experience or opportunity to make hitting adjustments with sporadic time.
