But that's the thing, their peripherals aren't down in any significant way. The only thing that's different is that Pressly has a .472 BABIP and Hader has a .400 BABIP...that's just terrible luck from the worst possible spot on the roster to have terrible luck. Meanwhile our lower leverage pitchers have a BABIP down around .200.
Are they giving up tons of hard hit line drives and XBH's? If you're out there serving up meatballs than a >.400 BABIP is no fluke.
It's hilarious that there are fans calling for their heads given the injury situation and the fact that Ronel Blanco - the geriatric rookie that got eaten alive when exposed to major league hitting last season - has been the most productive Astros starter this season and probably one of the overall top 10 most productive starters in MLB. **** like that is not supposed to happen. These guys are doing everything they possibly can with what they have. If they were let go I assume they would be scooped up instantly. Imagine if they were with the Rangers last season and advised their GM to forego the Chapman deal based on what they saw in Ragans? We would be ****ed for that reason alone lol.
A BABIP over .400 is always a fluke. 372 pitchers threw 50 innings last season, 1 had a BABIP over .380 and only 4 had a BABIP over .364. edit I should add Hader has been worse than in the past....not 6.14 ERA bad, not even close.
It is really hard for me to judge him. He walked into a situation where he had zero power over the manager. Baker left and then he did lobby for Espada, but Crane wanted a big name but none ever really materialized so they went with Espada. So Brown gets some blame for Espada. Abreu and Montero were already decided when Click was GM. I guess we can judge him based on a lot of the POS arms he brought in to compete for the bottom of the pen. Scott has been good in that case, but others have not. The only big change he has made has been at the scouting level - and it is too early to judge him. His early returns are good but it is very early. I didn't have a problem with them calling Loperfido up. He has gotten 16 at bats so far and has looked okay, too early to draw a real definitive outcome. Also - they likely anticipated him playing some 1st base but Singleton was played well. Chas has been on the IL as well so that is also likely why Loperfido has been called up. As for Meyers - Brown said he was going to start this season, and while he remains r****ded as a base runner, he has hit well. I suspect that we will see Meyers get more time going forward. He didn't get any time in the Colorado trip but overall has been playing more. I highly suspect that Espada is the reason Meyers hasn't played more. Singleton has been raking - his OPS is 1.000 over the last two weeks so there really would be limited opportunity for Loperfido to play 1st. As for LF, they are without Chas and they can let Alvarez DH when Loperfido is in left. As for CF, they likely want to see how he looks out there. Hell - if Loperfido can handle CF and hits well, then they may have their long term centerfielder in Loperfido. If I have any immediate concerns with Brown it is that he wanted Espada, and I have some concerns over the scouting and player development changes he made. Who he brought in and promoted are considered excellent - but he will have to prove it with some good players emerging from the draft. Right now Alonzo Treadwell has overall looked good. He has had 4 dominant outings and two poor ones, but lots of strike outs and poor contact allowed. Jake Bloss has looked very good early as well..... Cam Fisher will likely be in AA shortly.... Jaworsky is young for his level and doing okay.... Ochoa has been solid in his first season, and very young for A ball.
Yes and no... inherently every relief pitcher is going to have smaller sample sizes... and every high leverage relief pitcher is going to have even less innings pitched... and then its still technically early (till Memorial Day happens). Hader and Pressly have given up HR's in the worst of spots also.... those aren't just typically fluke hits (albeit I didn't see if yesterdays was a Crawford box special or not). And in the end, it sucks that these guys get impacted more by fluke-ish hits than others... but that's the price of being the high leverage guy. Can't have bad luck, can't walk guys, can't give up hard contact (or ideally any contact). I think they'll both be fine... it just sucks.
This is just a fundamental poor baseball team. They have never been good at moving runners, running the bases, general baseball IQ. You can be a poor fundamental sound baseball team when you have as many star players as we did during the last 7 seasons, but now those stars are either gone or aging themselves into JAGS. Despite being #1 or #2 in average, on base, and slugging this team is 8th in runs scored in the AL. So, they are getting hits and guys on base, just failing to do anything with it. Some of that has to do with the horrible RISP results, but a lot more has to do with basic baseball. Take for instance the 8th inning yesterday. Alvarez leads off with a single, neither Bregman nor Pena can move him up 90'. Singleton then singles but Alvarez can only advance to 2nd. So, in that inning the Astros ended up 2-5, but 0 runs. This is where Espada ****ing sucks. Bregman is in a year long slump and Espada just lets him swing away. Your bullpen has just blown another save, and you need to get the momentum back. ****ing tell Bregman to ****ing bunt. Espada needs to take more control of this team in these late and close situations until these players start producing more consistently.
Singleton has had the highest OPS on the team over the last 7 days (1.098). https://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/_/name/hou/split/61/table/batting/sort/OPS/dir/desc
Loperfido was brought up to play. He plays all 3 of the positions that do not have an established everyday starter. And he hits lefty so has platoon advantage 70% of the time. He WILL play 2/3-3/4 of the time whether it's in Houston or Sugar Land.
There is a decent chance that Singleton can be what they expected Abreu to be and aside from the month of April, Abreu’s contract can be a wash for Houston when factoring in Singleton’s production for league minimum salary.
what is going on with yordan? is he injured? is he checked out? is he dealing with some personal shiz? what is the deal?!
I thought about picking Singleton up on my fantasy team today, then decided I didn't want to jinx him.
Yordan has had prolonged slumps every year he’s been in the big league… you just hope it doesn’t come during the stretch run (or playoffs).
Jim Bowden hypothetical trade: Blue Jays trade 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (free agent after the 2025 season) to Astros for 1B/OF Joey Loperfido and OF Kenedy Corona.
Terrible. I would be so missed. Give up 2 legitimate high floor mid ceiling prospects for ANOTHER "star" who isn't good enough to be a star Outside of 2021 his best OPS is .818 2019: .772 2020: .791 2022: .818 2023: .788 2024: .711 That's fine for a starting middle infielder or CF and even OK for a $5M per year 1B but not for a guy who making $19.9M in 2nd year of arb and going to want a raise next year and a $25M AAV extension. No thank you.
The Blue Jays would have to take back a large salary back to even out for purposes of the next tax threshold. Jim Crane would do that in a minute. Not sure what Brown would do. Corona is a GREAT glove but not a natural hitter. Comes down to how the Astros feel about Loperfido. If Loperfido becomes an 800 OPS guy with 25+ homers - he is incredibly valuable to a team like the Astros who have salary issues and need a CF-1B guy. I’ll admit though…. Seeing: Altuve Tucker Alvarez Guerrero Bregman Diaz Pena McCormick Meyers This would be nasty
Theoretically Vlad Jr is an all-star slugger but outside of 1 season he has been underwhelming. What makes you think he will suddenly return to an over 800 OPS guy in Houston? Under .800 he is negative value guy, though much better than Abreu.
