I know Raul had a cannon, but Leon has an 80 arm- how much better could Mondesi’s arm be? When I hear an 80 arm I just kind of assume that’s a comparable arm to Raul Mondesi.
I’ve watched on film probably 75% of his at bats and seen him in person a handful of times. He stands out when he in on the field. You wouldn’t have to know who he is and watch him play and see his physical skills are special. He has a very explosive bat for his size, a strong arm and can really run and jump. His pitch recognition is average for AAA, but I don’t think it will get any worse in the big leagues because of his bat speed. How successful he is as a big leaguer will depend on his dedication and willingness to study and learn. I lump him in the same type of athlete and talent as guys like Raul Mondesi, Willie Mo Pena, Jose Guillen and Jermaine Dye. All the physical tools and ability is there to be an all star or more, but it will take work and dedication as he is more of a physical talent than an aptitude hitter like Yordan Alvarez or Greg Jeffries.
That’s not a bad comp at all. Mondesi only k’ed in 17% of his mlb pa so that’d be the main difference but body type and power/speed/arm combo it makes a lot of sense.
Seems like a convenient excuse to me. Do you think Luhnow would have 2 catchers that haven't hit .200 COMBINED? Or do you think he would've gone out and trade for another McCann or in this case Barnhart?
I’ll take the Astros player development team over any in baseball and I’ll take the Astros overall minor league crew over anyone, especially when finances are considered. There are others in the discussion like the Dodgers and Rays, but I’ll give the nod to the Astros.
LoL go look at who the catchers were during most of the Luhnow era. For one ****ing thing, the starting catcher for the first 5 years of the Luhnow era was…JASON CASTRO. And the starting catcher the last 2 years of the Luhnow era was…Martin Maldo****ingnado.
Amuch younger Jason Castro who was perfect for a team that was intentionally trying to tank batting .211 in 2015 and .216 in 2016. Once talent had been gathered Luhnow let him walk.
Luhnow would either have been chill like Click or have traded away prospects like Garcia and Pena in previous years such that the Astros would be in worse case than they are with MM and Castro.
Really? If Luhnow had done that guys like Garcia/Pena wouldn't have been on the team. More likely he would've traded a 2nd tier prospect like Hensley or Solomon for Barnhart kind of like the Tigers did.
Conger while a great guy couldn't throw out my mother trying to steal 2nd and she passed away in 1980. Stassi couldn't get on the same page with the pitchers. I didn't like trading him at that time. He had some bad injury luck too in his career with the Stros. McCann - Won a WS and wanted to retire with the Braves. Gattis was more of a DH than a C during his time with the Stros.
Hank Conger providing alright offense for a catcher and doing the robot in the dugout while letting everyone steal on him... those were the days.
I dont know, you tell me. I do know that the only championship came when Luhnow acquired McCann, who while not great looks like Babe freaking Ruth compared to the current Stros catching corps. Barnhart is a GG winner who's a .250 hitter. If the pitchers cant pitch to a GG winner then there's a bigger problem.
The Astros weren't trading for Barnhart in the offseason after Castro put up a .799 OPS, had a huge hit in the ALCS, and was under contract for another year. Barnhart has never had an OPS above .750. Plus, Maldy had signed an extension. That's a crazy take. Barnhart is likely to be traded again at the deadline. How about we wait to complain on that if he gets traded to another team and not to Houston?
Of course they weren't after signing the dynamic duo to 2 year deals. Unnecessarily handcuffing the team. But you're right about waiting to see how this plays out. Is it wrong to hope they continue to suck so change will be forced on them? You really dont have to hope, you know it's going to happen.
All this catcher talk would be moot if the Astros had just listened to @what and traded Martes and Kyle Tucker for Austin Hedges.
You know that Maldonado is the starter unless he gets injured because of his work with the pitchers. So all this complaining to replace the backup catcher? By the way.... your boy Luhnow signed Dustin Garneau to be the backup catcher heading into 2020 before he got fired. Castro looked like Babe Ruth last year compared to Garneau.
