How much more rope is he going to get? He's batting .150 and hasn't gotten a hit since June 9th. What is with Luhnow's infatuation with this guy? Isn't it time to give L.J. Hoes another chance? Maybe see what they have in Austin Wates? Why does a grown man still go by the name "Robbie"??
I always like guys that work the count and draw walks, Grossman has that makeup. But just drawing the occasional walk is completely meaningless when you strike out constantly, don't hit for power, run poorly and field poorly. He is gonna have to get by entirely on OBP, but in his effort to work the count he always watches first pitch strikes. Then he's fighting a losing battle, if nobody fears your ability to hit then they are just gonna pound the strike zone. Once they get to 2 strikes you are at the pitchers mercy, so you end up swinging at bad pitches or striking out, which is why he can't get a hit. He needs to change his approach right now if he wants to stand any chance of sticking, he needs to go up there hacking to make the pitchers respect him a little. That may not work either, but his current approach is guaranteed to fail. Right now he is completely useless, he literally does nothing well, and the leash has to be insanely short by now.
Why do you care? None of our AAAA players will be part of the core going forward. These are things you worry about when the team actually can sniff a wild card berth instead of competing for the worst record in AL. FWIW, Hoes and Grossman have similar OPS in OKC. And the guy who mashed AAA, Singleton, is batting .188 right now. So it's not like just promoting Santana would work. This is what happens when your team sucks and you don't have a full complement of major leaguers on the roster.
Agreed. It is one thing to go up there like a Choo/Fowler type that knows they will get their knocks as well, but you can't go up with a "walk first" mentality every time. He is finding himself in terrible counts after taking pitches. If he gets a first pitch ball, he has only drawn a walk 12 out of 62 PAs while sporting a .643 OPS. If he gets a first pitch strike, he has 23 strike outs in 61 PAs for a .448 OPS. That being said, the first pitch makes a world of difference for most batters, but the splits that Robbie has make him a marginal player after a first pitch ball and an atrocious after a first pitch strike.
There may not be a MLB ready replacement yet in AAA. Domingo Santana will get called up; it is only a question of when. Santana (who has a cannon for an arm and may be better suited for RF versus LF) may be better served working on his game in AAA. LJ Hoes is ... well ... LJ Hoes. He is a AAAA player. He lacks the power bat one usually sees in the corner outfield. Unless that changes, he will be stuck as the fourth outfielder. Austin Wates I supposed deserves his shot. He lacks power as well.
Hoes last season had a .708 OPS as an every day player... Given that he has only 67 PAs this year, I would think that he hasn't had a large enough sample size or consistent enough starting time. We have seen enough of Grossman. Also, I didn't realize that the faults of current players (once again, small sample sizes) determine whether we call up others. Santana's call up has nothing to do with Singleton and nor should it. Getting him major league experience would be more valuable than just trotting out a place filler. Now, with contracts and money taken into account, I see why they keep him down, but I highly doubt that the lack of immediate success and slight slump from Singleton is keeping him down. In fact, I would wager that it is weighing into their decision in no way whatsoever.
Really confused at your logic... on the one hand, you already write off Grossman as a AAAA player (a distinct possibility), but on the other hand you say we shouldn't promote the higher touted players in AAA because they will struggle initially??? How about the fact that Grossman is struggling NOW... and has been given more than enough PA and AB's to potentially turn it around. He still has options... send him down and let him work things out (or never make it as an everyday guy in the big leagues). I also really don't understand the last statement... "this is what happens when your team sucks"... so you just advocate that they have to play sub-par players when other deserving players haven't had the same opportunities?
I would like to see Wates. If he can stay healthy I could see his ceiling as maybe a Martin Prado type hitter.
Well, if you still believe Grossman still has potential to be MLB starter, then wouldn't his lack of success mean the Astros promoted him too quickly? If they didn't promote him too quickly, and this is his actual ability, then that would mean he's a AAAA player. He has over 300 at bats in the majors. Demoting him is going to be a pretty much a confidence killer, especially him knowing that he's running out of chances given the Astros bats coming up. I don't want Santana to possibly have to go through the same experience. Again, you are just giving more ammunition to the idea that teams err on the side of caution when promoting players. That is, if you believe he's more than a AAAA player. If the Astros didn't suck, their LF this year would be a free agent signing who's clearly capable of hitting on a major league level. You don't have choices when your spending budget on FAs is Scott Feldman.
It is time to send Robbie Grossman to Triple-A http://climbingtalshill.com/2014/06/25/robbie-grossman-okc-astros/
Doesn't matter what I "believe"... his results are saying otherwise. Are you really worried about his "confidence" when he's now failed at the highest level in 3 out of his 4 stints in the majors? He's already been demoted before... not sure why doing it now would be any different. Still not sure what Santana has to do with any of this... he's another option, perhaps a better option, than Grossman at this point. Same goes for Hoes and Wates. I'm not really talking about any of that... I just think Grossman has not gotten it done in his multiple extended stints here, and it may be time to move on (and send him down again while he still has options) Why would they need a free agent when they have other options at AAA now? Just because they suck now isn't an excuse enough to continue to play struggling players.
Hah about damn time <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Astros recalled OF LJ Hoes from OKC after sending OF Robbie Grossman back to OKC.</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/statuses/481881846179823616">June 25, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Good... I hope he gets a little more regular playing time as he seemed to respond pretty well to it in AAA. He shouldn't be seeing the bench behind Pressley again.
Hard to argue with this, i would have like to seen Wates get his shot, but I guess 40 man considerations were too much to ignore. Wates needs to play everyday, regardless of pitcher. there is absolutely no reason Presley should be starting.
I agree... I just have a fear that Bo relies on those lefty-righty matchups way too much to make his lineup decisions for him. Since Grossman was a switch-hitter, it certainly helped his chances to play everyday.
