You clearly don’t know what the word “regression” means. You obviously think it just means “to get worse” and that’s not what it means. It means to RETURN to a previous or less advanced state. Altuve has never been as bad as he’s been this season. He’s a big negative defensively and has been since 2024 and that’s getting worse; even before his offensive breakout in 2014 when he was a mediocre offensive player, he was a pretty good defensive 2B and stolle 30 bases a year. Now he has lost his speed and quickness and he strikes out a lot. Luckily he still shows occasional pop so he’s still on track to hit 15-20 HR, but he’s not returning to anything he was previously, he’s simply declining, and worse than he’s ever been..
I am back on the FIRE ESPADA AND BROWN train after witnessing that pissing the bed in person last night.
I get that blame goes to the top and there's no defending Espada's continual robotic reliever rotation usage, but last night's loss is on Walker, Altuve, and Cam going a combined 0-12.
Using WAR, OPS, OPS+, and Rbat+ (all very broad stats), Altuve has 100%, by definition, reverted back to his production first 3 seasons. He accumulates those totals differently, but again, by definition, he has absolutely reverted to his *previous* production and it began last season. I can agree "decline" is a better description, but Webster can claim "regression" too. Technically speaking __ Shoutout to Breg. Somebody's alternate is flowing smooth.
Well, we had it for a minute. Up on the O’s, at the same moment the Rangers were down 15-1 to the Braves. Then we turded the covers. I’m here for the party but we need the drinks to start rolling. I’ve got too many negative thoughts in my head.
Paredes's AB in the 7th was a killer also. eta: I just watched it again and it's hard to put into words how bad it was
Altuve cleans it up. Walker on punishment. Would be really nice if Cam starts his surge. This team needs something. A good surprise. Same surprise they needed entering the season from 1 or 2 bats.
Probably, and maybe I’m just being delusional or hopelessly optimistic, but I still think he could turn back the clock and have at least one more solid season in him. We’ve seen it from players before late in their career. Yuli won a batting title after a bad season at age 36. Albert Pujols spent 10 years sucking with the angels and then had a great offensive season when he was 42 years old with the Cardinals (and he was actually probably like 47 in reality). I know these aren’t perfect comparisons I’m just saying it wouldn’t shock me and I’m holding out a sliver a hope.
There’s a band of possible outcomes and of course Altuve has proven doubters wrong many many times in his career. He still hits the ball hard; his avg and max exit velos are in line with his career norms. His footspeed is only about 1 ft/sec slower than his prime and is in line with how fast he’s been since 2023. It looks like he’s seeing more breaking balls. And when he swings at close pitches not in the heart of the zone he’s not converting nearly as many of those to hits. He’s still doing well on pitches over the heart of the plate and when he swings way out of the zone. Thats what the stats say. My eyes tell me he’s slower and not as quick. So that means less late reaction hits and less infield hits and less damage on the basepaths. Those were the things that always kept his floor high. One he becomes more reliant on barreling balls he’s going to get less pitches in the heart of the zone. That makes his profile very risky and is compounded by the fact that he’s a big negative defensively, A significant bounce back is possible but really unlikely in my opinion. That said, I could see him getting back to being a well above-average hitter. I think getting more rest and playing him in more ideal matchups would help. Having a really good lefthanded infielder on the bench would be good insurance. I think a good outcome for him would be a wRC+ around 120 over 2027-2028 where he plays ~110 games (~40 at DH), hitting around 20 HR with a healthy walk rate and below average k rate (although nowhere near his prime), then tailing off with lesser production and playing time thru the end of his contract. If I was going to predict, I’d say he ends up being a roughly league average hitter with bad 2B defense over the next 2-3 seasons then being mostly unplayable but hanging on as a bench DH/2B/LF in the last year of his contract.
Well... when you have people saying and cosigning, "he thinks 9th Jake guarantees Alvarez production" ......
If the Astros are 12 games under .500. Trade Pena, Brown, Hader trade them and get multiple high talented prospects. Walker, Myers, try to find trade partners for them.
The negative body language with Christian Walker is a problem. Posing after a swing and a miss. What is up with you.
So the board is mostly in agreement.... 8th inning King.... exit Abreu.... enter Chances are better today Abreu plays over King just based on Abreu not playing yesterday. If he does well, he will likely remain 8th indefinitely, like first planned.
