Don't worry. They can slide Abreu right into the cleanup spot when he gets brought up for the Seattle series.
He's so bad at simple things. Using Hader today was inexcusable, and fighting to get the extra inning out of Blanco was equally stupid. Hader has now pitched 2 out of 3 heading into a key 4 game set with Seattle. Blanco has never pitched a full season, and we're squeezing extra innings in. On top of that he doesn't seem to have the strength of personality to be able to deal with veteran players, which is why Bregman continues to bat cleanup. We'll see if Framber is teamed with Diaz next start, but I bet Espada caves on that too an lets him have Caratini after he went rogue for no good reason.
No offense to Espada, who seems like a good guy, but I think he may be over his head. His lineup decisions are real head scratchers. The team does not "seem" to have anyone really in charge. These are just impressions, only the team knows what Is going on.
At this point, Caratini probably hasn’t had enough AB’s given Diaz’ inconsistency and his ability to switch-hit. Also Altuve needs more days off or at least some DH starts with Dubon playing 2B.
I dont know and cant know whats really going on either. Lots of talk of incompetence and even stupidity. Although Clutchfans is known for its piling on, a lot of what I see posted feels right.
I doubt that he's stupid, although he might be. More likely he's just not a good manager. I haven't seen much of anything innovative from him, despite tons of bizarre managerial decisions, and I don't get the impression that he's much of a motivator either. So what else is there? He feels like the Astros version of Stephen Silas. Probably an adequate coach, but most likely not the guy you want for the big job. Maybe he will grow into it. There's still time for that I guess.
If he 1) was prepared in the bullpen when a pitcher is approaching the end of expected inning/pitch limit. 2) don't try to get too much from a pitcher and be willing to pull him even if he has something left, if it allows a confidence boost and could improve future outings. 3) use matchups and metrics to determine lineups and have best 9 in the game.
The only thing he's "innovated" so far is to buck the trend of taking pitchers out after only 5 or 6.... and buck the trend of throwing your closer for only one inning (especially if in extra innings). Of course the reason those trends exist is to limit pitcher injuries... so if Hader or Blanco or Spaghetti start having "discomfort", it won't be hard to figure out how that happened. He's also been managing the last 2 weeks like its the playoffs... partly because of the hole they were in ... but there's 4 months left in the season to navigate and they haven't even hit the "dog days" yet where all players will have something ailing them.
This mother ****er needs to learn how to handle extra innings. Advance the runner and use your bench better. Is he a ****ing idiot?