I don't get a chance to say it often enough but even a Blind Hog finds an acorn once in a while. I think Brown made a great trade but that luck played as much a part as ability. A GM that gets lucky once in a while is a damn valuable thing.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-reddit-ama-with-reporter-brian-mctaggart Bottom line is that Diaz has not hit and this is his 2nd consecutive season of declining offensive production. 81 wRC+ is not playable anywhere unless you are an elite defensive C or SS, and that would only be on a team with a stacked rest of the lineup. Certainly Diaz has potential so it wouldn’t shock me to see him turn it around and go back to being a 2.5-3.5 fwar really good everyday C. I definitely think it’s too early to anoint Walker Janek as the everyday C starting in 2026. He’s not even really hitting well enough in High A to justify moving up to AA, much less the majors.
Who else remembers when another Houston franchise thought its star player was playing up injuries but then won a championship less than 3 years later?
He's one of the 15 unluckiest hitters in all of baseball right now. Quality of contact would have his OPS something like 780 or 800. unless you think there is something about him where his expected numbers will always be higher than his actual numbers, but that hasn't been a thing (in a major way) throughout his career. Anecdotally he's hit a bunch of hard line drives right at the CF.
Could it be possible that Alvarez did pop his ligament (and that is the source of his inflammation)??? Let's see if he starts hitting again in 2 weeks......after the all star break that will be the tell. DD
He's started hitting 3 different times, maybe more. I don't know how that would be the tell as he keeps starting and then stopping once he progresses beyond hitting off a tee or soft toss or the like.
