Tyler White just hits. I expected him to win this job all along, and have obviously seen nothing to think otherwise. I think him, Duffy and Tucker should all make the team. When Gattis is ready, then they will have to make a choice.
Good for him. He's incredibly sharp when it comes to baseball, if anyone ever runs into him in Austin/Houston or wherever, I highly recommend buying a few beers and chatting him up. Fascinating stories and insight from a truly down-to-earth "good guy". He has a future in either broadcasting or coaching, whichever he wants.
I expect Tucker or Duffy will have played themselves out of the lineup. It will also be hard to work Reed in if others are playing well. He needs to prove he is legit (Singleton was the #1 1B prospect in baseball as well) before we can afford to move somebody to make a spot for him.
I'm not sure I would feel comfortable jettisoning Gattis just yet. Maybe after this season (assuming he is still under contract) it would make sense.
A few years back, the Houston Astros had the #1 first baseman prospect in all of baseball. He was supposed to be a fledgling supertstar, but Jon Singleton has failed to make the jump between being a AAA allstar to being a MLB everyday starter. There is a fairly significant failure rate for prospects jumping between AAA and the MLB. Who knows if either Reed or White can make the jump? Looking at the deep numbers, Singleton does not have good contact rates. The scouting reports for both Reed and White say that they have above average contact rates, against minor league pitching. Their projected contact rates indicate that they will potentially be more successfully than Singleton. We will see.
I think a platoon of Duffy/Tucker at DH would be more productive than Gattis. They could produce more like .280/.330 with similar power especially vs matchups. Tyler white should get 500+ AB's and start at 1B. I do believe Gattis would have good value as a Catcher, possibly even starting next year if Castro is gone. This is why I think Lucroy is still a possibility at some point. We are just too stacked this year but next year could open up some spots in the outfield. They may QO Rasmus again depending... I also like Eury Perez. He would be a Jake Marisnick on a lot of teams. I also like the way Wandy is pitching and his desire to come back here for incentives and a shot on this WS contending team with his fellow Puerto Rican phenom. A major question is who to bat cleanup?
Agree with this. I'm not expecting Gattis to be great, but he should bounce back to having some value. If both Reed and White hit in majors, it creates a good problem to have.
I know the front office like him, but Tucker really feels like the odd man out to me. He provides no defensive value, and (admittedly small sample) struggles to hit lefties. He really has to hit righties a ton to offset his lack of versatility. Evan Gattis is a year removed from an .810 OPS, and has shown no platoon deficiencies. I would like him a lot more if he could function as a backup catcher to go along with DH duties. If he could play catcher 20-30% of the time, you could platoon him Reed, and White when Reed is ready so that they all get regular AB's while we try to get a gauge on Reed and White to see what we have moving forward. Trading Gattis would be a sell low right now. I'm not sure how much more his value can go down, but it certainly could go up. So many moving parts
Pretty sure they'll treat it like the playoffs... Rasmus if a right-hander is on the mound, Gomez when a left-hander is on the mound.
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/houston-astros-team-stats No one can claim the Astros brass isn't giving Singleton a chance. I just realized he has more AB's than any other player this spring. And arguably, he has been our worst hitter of all position players this spring. Not to mention ZERO walks. Not one!
Gattis is still a relative bargain... moreso if he can play some catcher this year. They're not going to sell low on him just yet. Lets see these guys play some actual real games before anointing (or chastising) them. The only possible correlations you could extrapolate from ST thus far is that its still unlikely that Singleton has it all figured out (and he has played some actual games).
These are all quantitatively bad things, but even qualitatively, he's been a disaster. He's constantly on his front foot, shoulder flying open, swinging through pitch after pitch. He's shown zero willingness to work on his swing and, worst of all, he appears to have come into camp out of shape. I'm ready to declare Singleton a bust and cut bait. He's still young, so he may yet find success somewhere, but I'm ready to move on.
Well, he's making the decision easier if it continues. I think White gets the OD start if they chose today.
What is White's defense like? I thought AJ Reed was the better defender at 1B? Also, agree with those who think we need to chill out on the talking down Gattis. The guy still has upside not to mention he was our RBI and HR leader on the 2nd most prolific HR hitting team in MLB. He also had that horrid 0-24 start or whatever and really came in the clutch at some points. Until the prospects demonstrate they can do it in the majors, we aren't cutting Gattis loose and even if we were planning too, then start him at DH and give him some back-up catching opportunities t increase his value so he could be potential trade bait at the deadline or whenever... Having said that, I could certainly see a lineup as soon as next year that has Duffy at 3B, White at DH, and Reed at 1B--and all being major contributors.
