Montero has pitched into some of the worst luck in mlb this year, long term I think he will be fine There is zero reason to use him in the 8th inning of a 1-1 game right now though
The last game Montero lost, Dusty trotted him out there for the 8th inning to face a leadoff batter (Rendon) who has a career .455 OBP and 1.555 OPS against him. Then tonight he trots him out there to face a leadoff batter (Moncado) who, by my count, has 11 hits in 29 ABs. When a guy is clearly struggling, putting him out there in tie games to face batters leading off the inning who have owned him is awful decision making. It sets your player up for failure. I try not to be too reactionary against Dusty, but his use of Montero has been as bad as his lineups. Edit: I was definitely wrong about Montero vs Moncada. He's 3 for 6 now with 4 rbi. I think my argument still holds, though.
I still believe in his stuff and hold out hope that he'll come back around to be a positive in the bullpen later in the season when it matters most. And I put as much of this on Dusty as anyone for using him in this scenario when he's clearly struggling this badly. But when you're paying a reliever this much money for such an important, specific role, it's just frustrating to watch him fail so spectacularly.
Montero has pitched into some of the worst luck in mlb this year, long term I think he will be fine There is zero reason to use him in the 8th inning of a 1-1 game right now though Bregman is getting on base at a higher clip than anyone in the lineup tonight not named Alvarez or Tucker His batting average is terrible and we need him to get better, but other than the fact that Peña has always been great batting second, there are no better options right now for that spot
That's sort of fair, but the bigger issue is that you've only got 3 guys healthy right now with above .700 OPS....and one of them you have penciled in as a 6th hitter so that you can lead off with a .685 OPS guy, have a .650 OPS guy in the 2 spot....3 and 4 are your best hitters, then you're back to a .521 OPS guy in the 5 hole. That's impressively bad.
I think I was wrong with Moncada’s stats against Montero. Now it says he’s 3 for 6 against him. My MLB app didn’t sort properly for some reason. Don’t quote me on it!
Can someone gif Abreu's terrible swing and then him refusing to run to first base and smiling while walking to the dugout
No Altuve, no Brantley, and Abreu’s implosion have really hurt. Roster mismanagement has also not helped, which is beginning to concern me re Brown. Surely he says how ridiculous the current roster is and has been?
Except he sometimes does those random things and we win (wouldn't have to look back to far to find it), right? Not saying I like them, not saying I agree with them, not saying I'm a fan at all, but it's ****ing May, so....everyone needs to get the **** over it for a bit.
Bregman and Abreu have been in massive season-long slumps. Altuve hasn't played yet. That's it, that's 1/3 of you lineup, it's not that complicated.
And it’s half of the expected high producing lineup (CF and C were always going to be mediocre… and DH was only expected to be good if Brantley was back). Bregman’s history says he will improve. Altuve is coming back. As for Abreu - based on all Nook is saying, he isn’t toast, but he is royally out of sync. We saw this with Altuve the season after the scandal - sometimes it does last all season. Either McCormick or Brantley will take DH back to average or slightly above. I’m not optimistic there, but I do think the offense returns to top 10 in the second half.
If Altuve, Bregman and Abreu (and Tucker!) don't hit like they should, this team will not score enough runs. The other guys are going to do usual other guy things: Chas and Dubon and etc...but we need big boy bats. That's about it, I'm not worried about the pitching yet, until we can do something about it in a month or so.
