Yep, Kike is having a really nice year as a utility bench player. He's only 23, he can play multiple positions, he already provides slightly better than replacement-level offense, and he's under team control for a while. The future is bright for him. It's amazing that the Marlins acquired him last year and then shipped him off to LA so quickly. Shrewd pickup by Friedman. Fortunately, the Astros have plenty of guys like Kike who are young, cheap, competent bench players with some upside. Short-term that's Marwin Gonzalez, and long-term it's Kemp. The rest of the Astros infield/utility prospects are mostly in the lower levels right now (we seem to have a bevy of international guys in A ball and shortseason ball).
Perhaps the Marlins will let him come back to Miami to throw a bullpen session for their pitching coach.
I guess Cosart continues to be a confusing player. Through 5 starts his ERA was 2.97 and it just slowly rose every game...3.68, 4.08, 4.12 and finally 5.36. He's been 2 totally different players. Looks to me like he had 5 good starts but 4 REALLY bad one's.
Is it too depressing to talk about JD Martinez in this thread? .291/.350/.572 with an OPS of .922. Ouch.
I think it was dumb they optioned him. He hasn't been that bad. He needs to improve his walks, but I wouldn't be surprised if he went 20-10 with a 3.00 era.
Keith Law had Martinez as being undeserving of an all-star spot, and was insinuating that last year was a fluke. It was like he didn't look at any of his numbers outside of a decrease in BA.
That's odd. JD has been on a tear the last 4 weeks. Among all MLB positional players, he's number 18 in WAR this year, nipping on the heels of Giancarlo Stanton. If he keeps up this type of production, he'll be due for a big payday.
Did any of us raise a stink when the Astros released him? Nope. And I don't think the Tigers expected anywhere near the production that they've gotten out of him.
Agreed, but it doesn't make me feel any better. Thankfully, this won't appear in a list of "worst trades," seeing we didn't get anything for him.
You also have to wonder if he would have evolved into the player that he is if he wouldn't have played with Miggy. A great influence on his swing.
And, because he went unclaimed off waivers, the JD Martinez explosion has really been an indictment on the whole league.
I concur, dude was given ample opportunity and he had some success, but overall he was a dime a dozen left fielder. I liked him, followed him from the low minors and was hopeful that he was going to be an everyday player for years to come, but he is not an Astro now and I could give a rats ass what he does now except to go down swinging every time he faces an Astros pitcher.
Oh, and he got a minor league contract with Detroit because everyone's favorite former Astros player/coach, Dave Clark, suggested it.
