This post needs to hit Mr. Crane's & Mr. Brown's desks, hot off the press, by the end of the working day. Not enough "Likes" to give to this... post. of. the. year. Well done, yet rare... love it. I cannot wait until this sh!zt boils over like the McNair-Smith-O'Brien fiasco (just w the GM actually getting the final say)... Just curious... as far as production goes (just relatively speaking here... 2023 reg season) who, up until this point has been, and has better upside/future as, THE C1...? At least we have hard data on C (because there as been a what- 80/20, 85/15% split). Maldy- train, mentor, develop & support next man up... move, get out the way.
Maldanado sounds more like a great pitching coach, game prep coach, than a great catcher. I can see Framber and Javier wanting him as their catcher, and if there is a level of comfort there then without a doubt leave that alone Brown has been better with Diaz as his catcher overall, and I would doubt as a rookie he isn’t being extremely vocal about who he does and doesn’t want to throw to The rest of the rotation has probably thrown more innings to Diaz in their career than Martin The argument that the pitchers want Martin to be the catcher made a lot more sense before Garcia and Urquidy went down Seems more like Dusty doesn’t like the work Diaz puts in on that side and he is trying to teach him a lesson, do it Martins way or sit. That would be fine right now if we had the 4 game lead in the division Without a doubt Diaz is starting to play a lot more though And as for those saying Diaz shouldn’t catch 75% of games cause we don’t want him to wear down….serious question, why would we worry about a low 20s guy wearing down but not a mid 30s in Maldanado? If Martin really means that much to Javier and Framber and we feel we need him in October for those guys, don’t work him into the dirt during the summer
On your second paragraph I worked for many coaches in my career, and the one thing almost all of the great ones had in common is that they wanted us as assistants to challenge their decisions (in the right way and at the right time) because they knew it would make them better, and as a by product make the team better I know the Brown-Dusty relationship is not Head Coach to Assistant, but while Dusty knows he still has final say on lineups, he shouldn’t be offended if Brown challenges him on it And this also isn’t the first time, Brown made a comment about a month ago that Disty makes him shake his head with some lineup and in game decisions, but the players love him
The team is paying almost 100 million dollars to the quintet of Abreu,Altuve,Montero,McCullers and Brantley. They've collectively produced a negative WAR to this point, and I only expect one of them to make a meaningful impact the rest of the way. You could reasonably add Bregman to that group. Almost all of our position player and starter production has come from Yordan and team controlled players.
TheRealist137 said: ↑ Remember 2 weeks in the season certain posters were swearing to themselves that "this team doesn't have it" and that this season was over? Remember when TheRealist137 thought the Stros were good to go after a run of barely wins against the A's and Cubs?
The way Dusty has managed this team has been baffling and at this point is probably costing us games. He was excused to start the season - defending champs, solid pitching across the board, new signings, etc. - but to be more than 2 months in, now fully aware you no longer have JV’s production, no LMJ, now no Urquidy or Garcia, staring up at a team he’s fully acknowledged is a problem and is already 5 games up - and continuing to play non competitive players, absolutely nonsensical lineups, shoe-horning players and pitchers into clearly disadvantaged roles - is bordering on mismanagement. The fact that Dana, a mere two months into the season and his tenure as GM, already feels it necessary to publicly (although carefully) question the handling of the catcher position, shows that even the FO isn’t thrilled w Dusty’s approach. If Rome’s tweet is accurate, we trail the division by 5 games for the first time in our historic run. While I have full faith we can take the division, doing things like leading off Pena when Altuve is back is borderline egregious. As is continuing to trot out Abreu in the 4, 5 or even 6 holes. As is not getting Diaz AB’s damn near every game. As is sitting Pena and Bregman when our #8 starter takes the mound against the other teams ace. It’s becoming increasingly clear the Rangers are going to be a problem. We don’t have the luxury of assuming we’ll end up running away w it. Dusty needs to start managing games like he intends on winning them. And it isn’t that hard - play your best players in their best roles most of the time. The math isn’t that complicated.
The Julks situation has gotten absurd. I've been somewhat patient in regards to him vs. Chaz/Meyers when we face a RHP, but he doesn't even have that going for him anymore. Meyers and Chaz both have an OPS north of .700 against RHP right now. The only players that have a lower OPS vs. RHP are Abreu and Maldonado (Yainer Diaz is currently sitting at .870 vs RHP). Now there's not a huge difference between him Chaz and Meyers vs. RHP, but given that's literally the only argument in his favor yet he's playing everyday, give me a f**king break. The expected numbers make him look even worse. At some point something has got to give in this regard. Chaz and Diaz have the 3rd and 4th best OPS on the team, and Diaz in particular has an expected OPS over .900 now. Yet we frequently have lineups without either guy, and virtually everyday are missing one of them.
Another way to put this is that Chas and Meyers are the 5th and 6th best hitters against RHPs for the Astros this season, and Yainer Diaz looks like he might be the 2nd best hitter on this team in an incredibly small sample.
Freakin A...I mean c'mon, it was pretty damn clear Lance needed some form of surgery (whether flexor tendon or another TJ) after the 2021 ALDS. By not handling it right then and there, what would have maybe just been a burned 2022 season will likely turn into: an 80% burn of the 2022 season, 100% burn of the 2023 season, and now that we are mid season, likely a 100% burn of the 2024 season too. What should have been a one season burn could now become a THREE season burn. I don't know if blame falls on the organization or on Lance himself, but as an org, with the contract and years Lance has, they should have been adamant that he get surgery in the winter of 2021. I love and trust this organization, but the way they handle disclosure, treatment, and rehab of injuries bothers me.
Let’s assume for a moment that Maldonado truly is the pitcher difference maker they make him out to be (the numbers certainly don’t show it) Even if he is, he is hitting .194, ONE 94 I fully understand that batting average isn’t all telling for offensive numbers, but, you can’t continually roll out a guy hitting .194 Those are pitchers hitting numbers when pitchers hit. It’s like we are playing before the DH was allowed and everyone else is using a DH ONE 94
Chaz, Jake, and Julks are in a 3-man rotation. They literally rotate every day (Chaz/Jake, Chaz/Julks, Julks/Jake, repeat). You can't say Julks plays every day while they frequently have Chaz out of the lineup. They all play exactly the same amount. Maybe they shouldn't in a 3-man rotation, and that's a reasonable discussion to have, but at least it would be based on reality. That said, everything is going to change anyway with Yordan out - the 3-man rotation gets blown up so Chaz/Meyers are likely playing every day with Julks/Diaz/Dubon covering DH.
