Singleton to be optioned to Fresno (to make room for Gomez)

Yep, I agree

 

Let us all not forget the Bagwell is only a inch taller than Lowrie.

 

But if the goal is to play Lowrie and Valbuena together on offense, then you also have to look at if Lowrie can play 1B. I don't think he has done that in his MLB career. So maybe the improvement from Lowrie to Val at 3B is less than the downgrade from Val to Lowrie at 1B.

 

If Lowrie is the player they intend to have starting at third come playoff time, then you get him the reps now at third. There are many unknown variables others have pointed out. For all you know defensively: Valbuena at third and Jed at first < Jed at third and Valbuena at first.

 

He has... but maybe he doesn't want to now.

Like I said earlier, if he's not appreciably worse at 3B (which he isn't), he's probably earned the right as a higher paid veteran to tell the manager where he'd feel more comfortable playing.

Its then the managers job to determine if its best for the team... and despite everybody on this section of the board being expert MLB scouts, I just doubt theres a significant defensive drop-off from Valbuena to Lowrie at 3B.

 

While I would agree that Lowrie should be able to man 3rd, as others have said he seemed very timid out there yesterday and I swear I thought I was watching Roger Dorn out there. His effort to field a hard hit grounder was pretty weak early in the game. Then he did not get low at all when Andrus of all players hit one hard right at him. Let it go through his legs it looked like.

I was at the game last night. Did not see any replays clearly but me and my friend were really disappointed at his defense on those 2 plays. Seems like he wanted no part of them. Getting those 2 outs could have kept us in the game if I am not mistaken. I don't take Jed for Roger Dorn 2.0 but he has got to be willing to put his body on the line or else Valbuena will have to man 3rd. Knowing Lowrie though, he would probably break a rib if he got down low and let that ball hit him in the chest.

 

Would someone please just tweet the twits at the Chron and ask them to ask someone about this? Tell them if they play nice we have other ideas for future blog posts that would be better than whatever the hell it is they're doing now.

 

Also, I had to check earlier and don't know if it's been mentioned: Lowrie hasn't played 3B in the bigs since 2011. He did play 5 games there in his rehab assignment this year. So saying "he's done it before" may not mean as much as some people think.

 

Which positions are more similar though... 3B/SS... or 3B/1B?

I presume if you can play adequate SS, you can play adequate 3B... doesn't necessarily work the other way around (unless you're a twilight-career Geoff Blum!). Certainly doesn't automatically presume one can move from 3B to 1B, although I would be surprised if somebody had a huge problem making that transition.

Also, with the shifts the Astros employ, Lowrie often finds himself in the SS hole anyways.

 

Why do you state it as fact that Valbuena is better defensively at 3rd?

Valbuena has a UZR per 150 games of 6.3 at 3rd (.967% Fld). Lowrie has a 6.8. (.963% Fld). Valbuena has been statistically below average the last 2 seasons.

Now Lowrie's sample is much smaller, but there is no actual evidence that Valbuena is better. Maybe Lowrie's superior range makes him a defensive upgrade.

 

There is the eye ball test. I haven't seen as many games lately, but Lowrie looked very fluid at 3B relative to Valbuena and did a great job of turning pursuing foul balls over his right shoulder. Granted, he needs to work on his communication with the left fielder.

 

Valbuena is not significantly better at 3B.... he's also still going to sit against lefties, whereas Lowrie is going to be a full time player, so it does minimize Lowrie's movement from position to position (as I do feel he's definitely a better 3B than Marwin).

Again, this doesn't seem like all that big a deal... Lowrie is not a "bad" 3B by any means (and as I said earlier, with the shifts, he's playing SS against virtually every Left handed batter).

 

And he looked great at 3B against the Angels and Arizona... I also re-watched those plays on Monday (hard liners with Lowrie playing on the grass), and I wouldn't say its "for sure" that Valbuena makes those plays (and if he does, there's no way you can assume any 3B makes those plays "routinely").

Cue the mountain/mole-hill picture.

 

Those are their career UZR's at 3rd base. There is no hard evidence Valbuena is better.

Lowrie is basically the everyday 3rd baseman. I assume the Astros would rather have Lowrie concentrate on handling this one position, instead of having him play 3rd one night, and 1st the next. Lowrie also has superior range to Valbuena. Maybe the Astros flat out think he is better defensively.

 

Yea there is never any guarantee

My issue, more than whether he made the play or not and guessing whether Buena would have or not, is just that to me, he didn't look comfortable trying to make those plays.

Make no doubt about the fact that playing 3B and playing SS are two different animals, that ball can get on you a lot quicker at 3B obviously

For all of this good discussion over the subject though, as we have mentioned several times there are issues none of us will ever see at play in this decision

 

People make too much of errors. Josh Donaldson consistently is among the leaders in errors by a 3rd baseman. Yet he is consistently among the best by the metrics because he gets to so many more than the average 3B does.

For every hotshot that Lowrie may misplay, maybe his SS caliber range allows him to get to 2 extra balls to make up for it.