Of course it was also rocketfat's opinion that Rodriguez was not going to be a reliable number 4 guy in the rotation. Aside from 2 bad games, he has been rock solid.
Wow... the complaints never die even when the team wins. At least we've moved from the Everett/Bruntlett debate. Ausmus is invaluable to the team. Like shorstop, I'd say that's a position that great defense can compensate for a lack of offense. Ausmus can call a game like none other and I for one feel confident every time he's back there, especially when Lidge is throwing sliders in the dirt. I don't see how this is even debatable when some of the best players in the game value his services. If that's not an endorsement I don't know what is.
well, i'm done playing poker for the night, so am gonna have to stop the arguing for now, but man...you are arguing in favor of a player being a good hitter while admitting that at his best he is hitting .280! sorry i cant give too much props to a player who in a fluke bats .280, but i cant. good night.
i guess you've just spent the past few hours sifting through my posts to try and find a comment to throw in my face, and it sounds like you came up with a really weak one, but show me anyway. i doubt i was that adamantly against it if i said that, but whatever. and i still think at this stage of his career that i'd rather have him at #5 than 4. this has nothing to do with anything.
I have a friend who insists Wandy isn't a big league pitcher, but Nieve and Buchholz are. Now don't get me wrong, I like Nieve and Buchholz. Nieve, in particular, has been playing really well as of late. But neither of those two are as far along as Wandy. He's been a real surprise so far this season.
i think that Ausmus's BA is prolly not gonna move much away from 280... Ausmus is one of the better clutch hiters on this team and lets not forget he drove in tha winning run today, and we are WINNING so lets not argue about the astros any more.!.!.!.! argue about the US world cup team or tigers round today! just dont argue about something that is going good
Wandy has his moments... the only problem is that he's been really good at times this year, and really horrible. And in the games he's average, he'll have moments where you go "WTF!"... like his last start, where he walks the pitcher on 5 pitches after his team spots him a 4-1 lead. If Wandy wasn't a lefty, he'd likely not be starting in the majors... that being said, he has improved somewhat in fastball control this year, and it has resulted in him being able to get more strikeouts via his curveball (which is a decent strikeout pitch... he just needs to get ahead in the count more). If he can continue to improve to spot his fastball... Wandy will be fine. If he doesn't, he'll have more starts like he did against San Fran and Cincy, and will be out of the rotation. Funny enough, the best thing Wandy has going for him is the one thing he cannot control... run support. If Nieve had this run support, he'd have won his last 4-6 starts.
When did I say .280 was his best? I just said it wasn't terrible as you make it out to be. Don't put words in my mouth. So far this season, the .280 is the fluke. Other than the first couple of weeks of the season, his average had been above .300 until a week ago - in more than 50 at bats.
Roger Clemens, among others, has repeatedly said that Ausmus is one of the best catchers he's ever thrown to. I think I'll take that testimonial over your fuzzy math, Rocketfat.
ummm....no, so far this season, .280 is his average . look up the word average in the dictionary. you dont seem to understand what an average of numbers is.
i can't believe someone is questioning ausmus' value to this team. do you even watch/understand baseball? he's not the best hitter in the world, though he's no longer bad, and he's not really throwing guys out, but i worry more about the catcher position in the future then any other spot. yes roy, clemens, pettite, etc. are all phenomenal talents and will adjust to any cather but make no mistake that brad makes their job easier.
I think I can solve this Ausmus debate. He's hitting .286 for the season. On another note, Ausmus' knowledge of the way a player should be pitched is why we're a winning ball club. The pitcher doesn't have to overthink the game, just make the pitch that Ausmus calls. That makes pitchers better. Before we traded him to the Tigers we won. He left, we lost. He came back and we won. Coincidence? Maybe. We could get a better catcher for sure, but if Brad is gone and we start declining I'm going to give Ausmus credit. When he retires I hope he stays with the Astros as a coach. Maybe we won't see a decline if that's the case. Next time Nieve or Pettite gives up a home run, watch where Ausmus' glove is. I would be willing to bet that it's not where the ball is. Andy and Fernando's seasons would improve if they would just trust their catcher.
Actually I was saying the .281 his average was at yesterday indicated that Ausmus had been in a minislump for the last week due to the fact that before this last week his average had been above .300 all season. As Don pointed out, his 2 hits yesterday raised his season average up to .286. A .280 batting average from Ausmus would make me more than happy considering everything else he does for the team. However, since plotting his batting average over the season and capitalization are apparently difficult concepts, I will leave you with the following. lay off ausmus, he might as well run our team.
Again, you have failed to address my point that Ausmus has been hitting over .290 for almost a full season's worth of games (since last July). You claim he is currently an AWFUL hitter, not a weak hitter, not a poor hitter, not a mediocre hitter, but an AWFUL hitter. You claim it is a "fluke" he is currently hitting .280+. Of the 123 players with 150+ at bats this year, Ausmus is currently 41st in average and 37th in OBP, pretty AWFUL numbers. Also, do you think your opinion should carry more weight than the Astros' management and players?
Ausmus is great at calling games. He's still the 91st in OPS in the NL. I see no better option at the catcher spot for the Astros and I have been glad to see him doing well at the plate this year. I would like it if the Astros got a good second option at catcher so they could pinch hit for him close and late. Despite his memorable moments, he's still battling mendoza close and late.
