Perhaps he's intentionally hurting the team... or perhaps it was just a scheduled off day for Chas who may not be fully 100% coming off a back injury, and they scheduled it well before the pitching matchups were released. Is it worth discussing for 10 pages in 3 separate threads? I guess so because there has to be something to complain about (as was the case last year, where it was just about the lineup... and mainly the 7-9 guys... right up till the clinching game of the WS). It should also be noted that this sort of lineup management was not Dusty's MO prior to coming here. He's been even more apt to give all these guys looks in a variety of situations to either help them figure it out, or help him figure out who can be counted on if/when things get even more critical.
This is moronic. It wouldn’t be very hard to change that. If Chaz plays tonight against Ohtani then what is the excuse going to be now?
There's no "excuse". They've always had scheduled off days that I'm pretty sure they've communicated to players in advance (especially those who spent time on the IL recently). Based on their success the last 3+ years using this model (worrying more about the season as a whole and how fresh guys are when the season really starts dragging... vs. just individual matchups on a daily basis), there's not going to be much evidence to change. As I said before, I would've expected Yordan/Bregman to have gotten more spells due to their injury risks in recent years... and I would be more worried about either of those guys getting an overuse/random injury soon vs. any of the 7-9 candidates.
If Chas needs to play occassionally vs RHP to help him get better and prevent him becoming a platoon LHP only player, isn't it reasonable that others need to play vs LHP for the same reason? I look at the lineups and get disappointed when certain players aren't there but I don't think Dusty is choosing badly. Dusty has additional duties besides winning today's game. He must balance that with getting the best out of every player and having him ready for the playoffs I just want to see certain players in certain lineup spots in certain games. Sometimes you need to lose a battle to win the war. A 162 game season allows for experimentation and development. It's June 1st and the team is 10 games over .500 without several players and prolonged slumps of others. Dusty stuck with Abreu which made all of us nuts but that looks like it is starting to pay off also. I don't care if Abreu ever hits a homerun again if he keeps getting run scoring doubles and sacrifice flies.
Haven't done the analysis, but is it possible that Chas hits this well against certain lefthanders and not all lefties? Might be that Dusty and the staff have done some higher level analysis and done an excellent job managing his at-bats to put him in the best position to succeed.
Since getting shut out back to back games in Milwaukee a week ago, the Astros have scored 38 runs in 7 games, scoring 5+ in all but 1. Hopefully that was a wakeup call
Everyone should remember. This is similar to the Pena in the #2 spot. Dusty's job is not to get the best production out of Chas McCormick. If that was the case maybe he should hit him in the #2 spot every game. His job is to get every player in the best possible position and playing his best baseball come October and November. ( and getting there of course) Chas may need to hit vs a teams RH closer in a big spot. Sometimes it's not possible to pinch hit in every situation. maybe Chas gets hurt and Julks needs to start in the playoffs vs a LHP. How would that go if he was sat vs LHP in favor of Chas all year? Sometimes what's best for a player is not what's best for the team, in the big picture.
FWIW I think Julks has no business on this team. There is nothing he can do that Chas can not do better. Like Meyers, they are too similar except Corey doesn't walk or play plus defense. There is an OF/1B in Sugar Land who is killing righthanders and this team needs that production. Madris fits this team's needs and would help this team much more than Julks.
I don’t expect them to call him up unless there’s another injury to somebody on the current roster. The next step will be to figure out what Brantley can do… if he comes back, Julks will be sent down. Then they’re also figuring out LMJ…. If he can’t make it back, both he and Garcia will be put on the extended IL and they’ll consider what pitching to add (internally or externally). They’re going to keep their options open as long as they can/need to. They’re in a great position as far as how this season has transpired given their injuries/sub-par performances.
LOL. So a thrice DFA'd in the past 12 months (Pirates, Rays, Tigers) roster filling castoff is who you would replace Julks with?
Chaz/Julks/Meyers are in a 3 man rotation - they aren't worrying about who they are playing or ideal matchups. They just rotate every day: Chaz/Meyers Meyers/Julks Chaz/Julks Wednesday was C/M. Yesteday was M/J. Today will be C/J. Tomorow will be C/M. Etc. In the playoffs, they'll play them in the ideal formations. But in the regular season, as has been the case for 6 years, the Astros don't focus on winning every game. They have a bigger picture in mind.
It's common knowledge that the team is looking for more run production, especially vs RHP. Julks being in the lineup more than half the time, or even being on this roster, is just such a head scratcher. He is a guy who K's 28% of the time while walking less than 3%, gives no defensive value and hits 16% below league average. Clearly this team has no quality depth. The fact that Salazar is on pace for 9 games started and 44 plate appearances despite being on the team all season attests to that. Maybe they simply have no better options than Julks, but if they feel that way then why did they purchase Madris from the Tigers?
Julks is TERRIBLE. I have a hard time seeing Madris being any worse. At least his strengths line up with the needs of the team. And the aforementioned Jose Siri was waived 3 times in 2020 before the Astros signed him.
Rylan Bannon OPS: .806 Blight Madris OPS: .814 Niko Goodrum OPS: .784 Oh, and re: Siri, if Madris played GG CF we could talk
