Chas McCormick for him MLB career has an OPS against lefties comparable to Jeff Bagwell's career OPS - it was like .940 OPS the last time I checked.
What frustrates so many of us is that Dusty plays Julks over Chas vs LHP, even though Chas is basically a super star vs LHP and Julks is awful against them. Neither are very good vs RHP so if he wants to play Julks over Chas vs RHP cool, there really is no justification for playing Julks over Chas vs a lefty though, except that he makes out the lineup and can do what he wants
So I guess Julks is officially our Dubon of last year in the "why does this guy keep getting starts?" category.
Julks was added to the 40 man as the season started. He hasn't officially been optioned at all. The Astros weren't afraid of losing him to the rule 5 draft, which they left him unprotected for. I like it when local products get a chance to compete for their hometown team, but the Julks experiment has been odd.
No, Julks was free for the whole league to take in the Rule 5 draft and everybody passed on him, there just isn't much upside there. Now he is on our 40 man roster and we are free to demote him. The problem is that Dusty likes him, and as Click learned you have to play ball with Dusty because he will be petulant about things. If they demoted Julks 90% of his PA would go to Dubon and nothing else would change, it would just be a lateral move. Brown is gonna do the smart thing and just let Dusty have his guy until a clear upgrade comes along in the form or a trade or Brantley. If it were strictly up to Brown most of Julks AB's would be going to Diaz, who actually has significant upside. Despite what a lot of people around here think, Dusty is a really good manager. He does a lot of things extremely well running a clubhouse, and has actually become very adept utilizing modern starters and bullpens, which was the thing that terrified me about him when he was hired. He will also do the right thing in October. You just have to tolerate some regular season player usage that will make you want to pull your hair out. There's no reason Julks should play this much, but like Dubon last season, he's Dusty's guy. There's also no reason Chaz should ever sit against a LHP. FWIW Julks and Chaz both suck against RHP, so I don't really care which guy plays.
This is only true if you believe the Astros' sole goal is to win the game in front of them. But it's not and it hasn't been since mid-2017.
So what exactly is the long term goal of not letting Chaz face lefties who he dominates? Regular season games do matter, they aren't everything, but they aren't inconsequential.
To clarify, I'm talking about all the fans complaining and insisting the Astros are stupid for doing the things they do but they, the fan, disagrees with. Those are the same people that spent all of last year demanding Yuli be benched, or Dubon be released, or play Mancini and Vazquez every day, or that losing Cole/Corree/Springer/etc would be the end of the run, etc. I've been on the non-Astros' side of many of those arguments. Ultimately, the fans have been wrong plenty of times, but each new issue, it's always "Dusty/Astros/etc are idiots and I'm right". At some point, there needs to be some self-reflection that if you've been wrong 10 out 20 times, maybe your cursing out the Astros' stupidity for not doing what you want is a little ridiculous. (I'm not speaking about you, but just this place in general)
Dusty has said explicitly that he sets his lineups with the intention of giving the team the best chance to win the given game.
I don't particularly know. It could be that they think its helpful to keep the 3 OFs on a consistent rotation so they stay rested and/or ready in case one gets injured. Or so they always know when they will play and maybe the Astros feel there's a benefit there. Or so they get experience being in less-than-ideal situations. I'm not saying I know the reason - never have. The point is that when you say there couldn't possibly be ANY reason for it, you're simply making things up. But you simply insist you're right. No different than how there couldn't possibly be ANY reason they aren't playing Diaz as much as you'd like. There's a huge difference between you not knowing reasons and there not being any.
Julks was never in the Bigs before this year. He can be sent down this year and then 2 additional years until he has 5 years if service time. Believe it or not, even Kyle Tucker has an option left.
Yeah... who's going to say otherwise? You think he's going to say they aren't trying to always win? NBA/NFL coaches and GMs say they never tank either. If that were true, they'd pitch Maton/Abreu/Pressly/etc every game. Altuve and Alvarez would never get a day off. The pitchers would pitch every 5 days instead of using 6 man rotations. But they don't do these things, which tells you that Dusty and the Astros value something other than winning the game in front of them.
He said the lineup, not who he uses in the pen. Obviously giving guys days off would be an exception, but that has nothing to do with his love affair with Julks.
Dusty has also explicitly said that he sets his lineups based on player preferences. Glad to have that lineup question put to rest.
Maybe he feels the players are the best judge of where they should hit, and thus the manager should allow the players to set their own lineup in order to maximize the odds of winning the given game.
I would be fine with that. My problem is with the two mutually exclusive methodologies he is claiming. Either would be fine but to claim both is a lie.
Sucks that Whitley is out for pretty much the remainder of the season. I wanted to package him and Meyers and maybe another minor leaguer to the Brewers for Burnes.
