I honestly think we have weathered the storm from a pitching standpoint going from the worst in baseball to above average. Unfortunately, the outfield is historically bad at hitting even with Yordan playing left once in a while.
Walker has crashed hard, right back to what he was last season after the hot start. Bad hitters across the outfield and catcher, mediocre hitters on the right side. 24th in OPS, 27th in OBP, 25th in BB/K in baseball since April 7th...and that's with Yordan being the best hitter in the game. When you do the OPS by position over that span it puts into context how many offensive craters we have C 27th 1B 20th (and dropping rapidly) 2B 29th SS 8th 3B 8th LF 28th (with Yordan, probably 30th without) CF 28th RF 28th DH 1st If Altuve stays healthy we probably won't stay that bad at 2B. But other than that, I don't have much confidence in the other 5 holes getting better. I know fans are excited by Matthews the road warrior, but that's just a meaningless stroke of variance.
Walker, Diaz, Smith, and Altuve are all dragging down the offense relative to expectation. Walker’s xWOBA is the exact same as last season at a paltry .314. I am fairly optimistic about Altuve and Smith, and I think LF will improve when Wade comes back. But there’s not much in Walker’s underlying numbers that paints him in a very good light and Diaz looks cooked without some kind of overhaul. Houston desperately needs an elite hitting CF if they want to field a contending lineup.
Walker has always been streaky so this is to be expected. Diaz is a lost cause. Terrible offense and defense. Complete knucklehead. Cam needs a complete swing overhaul in the off-season.
"Rings Culture" is pervasive now, and Daryl Morey's (paraphrasing) "if you have a 5% chance of winning it all, you have to go all in" mentality has spread throughout all sports and sports' fandoms. But I think it's wrong. A thought experiment: Go back in time to 2019. Would you rather be a fan of the Astros or the Nationals? In Rings Culture, the answer is obviously the Nationals. But we all know their WS win was a fluke. We all know that one of the most dominant teams ever constructed in the history of baseball was the 2019 Astros. Personally, I'll take being a fan of the 2019 Astros, even knowing they lose in a heartbreaking, flukey way. I feel joy whenever I see screenshots of lineup cards that have Kyle Tucker batting 8th. I remain endlessly amused that Gerrit Cole, with THAT season, did not win the Cy Young, and the only reason was that our other ace, the hall of famer, was THAT dominant. How does that all relate to today? Well, let me say this: I'd rather not be the fluke this season. I don't want to trade all the rest of our prospects for the chance to pull off a 2019 Nationals. I'd rather trade Pena, Brown and all the rentals for a complete haul, and re-build our version of the 2019 Astros. The "we have to go for it if we have a chance" is what causes Carlos Lee to happen. Count me out. Let's have a fire sale.
Once again, you have a SP rotation that is full of prayers and question marks after Hunter Brown. Whether you choose to accept that reality or not is up to you.
Does Luhnow come with four top of Round 1 draft picks? Those four years imply being the worst MLB team for four straight years. Asking for a friend.
I don't see it this way. Imai is going to become more consistent and I like Lambert a lot. If you compare any rotation to the NYY rotation then nobody is going to compare well, even if you traded for Skenes.
Does he find a 5 man rotation in the Caribbean for 100,000 dollars total in signing bonuses? Does he trade for Yordan, Brantley, JV, Greinke. Does he sign the next Yuli from Cuba? CFM? Etc....
