Chas led off the inning his 1st 2 times at the plate, then bunted for a single his 3rd (also moved runner to 2B), then got PH for in his 4th
For the first time all year, I kind of feel like it’s over Why have Grae on the roster and not put him in to run for Abreu in the 7th? I know the response will be no one was gonna score on that hit, and that may be true. But the decision was made before the hit, and it doesn’t make sense Why keep Pres in the 8th? A lot of his issues have been bad luck, and all that. But he hasn’t been good and to keep running him out there as the set up man is crazy. The pen as a whole has the best ERA in the AL since mid April. That’s just a fact. No reason not to remove him from leverage right now Just like no reason not to bat Alex 4th and no reason not to play Abreu and… Espada obviously knows a lot of baseball, but I think his friendship with the players affects his ability to make decisions Whether im right or wrong, this year to me, a big optimist, feels done
We also thought Jose Abreu would be a guaranteed upgrade over Gurriel... yet... now he is blocking players with much higher upside from even being on the roster.
"Why have Grae on the roster and not put him in to run for Abreu in the 7th? I know the response will be no one was gonna score on that hit, and that may be true. But the decision was made before the hit, and it doesn’t make sense." He is proving to be a below average game manager again and again.
As did I... thought it was unnecessary especially at that cost. I would rather have kept a 40 year old starting pitcher instead.
LMAO, Who is blocking them then? They certainly aren't in the minors because they aren't as good as Abreu/Chas.
Astros had a decent May going only to force Abreu back in the lineup and lose 7 of their last 10. Clearly Crane and Espada care more about trying to salvage a bad FA decision by compounding the mistake than trying to win games. Most sickening is that Altuve is only a postseason away from likely breaking Manny Rameriez' record for postseason home runs. These bums are wasting what years he has left.
Stros are 2-3 in games he's played since May 27 when he came back. Also, lol, March-June by month 0-4 10-15 15-14 1-1
Sure, relegating Pressly seems like it has to be done at some point. I honestly thought Abreu had surpassed him a couple of weeks ago and they were going to possibly have Hader and Pressly trade off closer duties to try and limit overuse, especially when the starting pitching started becoming more consistent…. However close/tie games or having to use other bridge guys just to get to the 7th somewhat squashed that. He was also giving Abreu some preferential treatment if they were facing the top of the order and trying to give Pressly easier assignments vs the bottom of the order(even if it was still the 8th inning), and it just hasn’t been working. So, you basically promote/elevate one of Montero (who was the whipping boy of last season) or Scott to the 7th. In the end, you’ll have Pressly making $15 million a year as the 6th inning guy and maybe Montero at $13 million a year as the possible 7th inning guy… quite the very expensive middle relief. But Ryan’s regression is a huge part of why this team is where they are right now and he was highly counted on to be as consistent as he has been for the last 7+ years, minus a little extra pressure of closing regularly. Espada can get all the blame if some decree it so… but Ryan deserves criticism (and possibly moreso if @Nook reporting that he complained to Crane about his usage last year and this year).
Went to the game today and sat first row behind first base. What a heart breaker. Ran into JV and Kate last night though while dining out and that was super cool. I never get star struck but JV is a saint!
I see a lot of the same criticisms for Espada not making moves… but honestly, he’s reacting a ton, possibly too much. Whether its lineup changes from cleanup to #2 to the shuffling of the 1B disasters… or having (forcing) Diaz catch JV and Framber, then have Caratini catch both, etc… letting Meyers have the CF job and run away with it… batting Pena cleanup… having Hader go multiple innings… having Abreu pitch some 8ths (Seattle homestand game)… now having to shuffle in/out Chas/Dubon… and now he’ll eventually have to demote Pressly further. The amount of reaction moves needing to be made both out of necessity and somewhat out of how the season started is like a 720 degree change compared to how Baker did things and even Hinch had basically the same lineups, same bullpen roles, and same catcher-pitcher assignments for whole season. The case can be made that those managers had more “obvious” choices (i.e. - better talent) so they didn’t have to make so many reaction moves. They also had stars playing like stars… or when one star slumped they didn’t all slump. Yordan/Bregman getting back to consistency and hopefully Altuve benefitting from some rest will give this lineup a tone of respite (and allow for more Singleton here/there, Diaz to figure his stuff out, etc.). But right now, there’s not a single component of the team that has been stable and performing as it should for an extended enough stretch (the starting pitching finally coming around in May was the first of the three phases to finally stabalize).
Loperfido? Leon? No, it's pretty much on them at this point. Neither have made a case yet that they're better than the vets (that are currently on the roster) They're doing fine in AAA, but let's not act like they blowing up the PCL and are chomping at MLB playing time or anything
I thought Loperfido was hitting just over .300 and Abreu was hitting just over .100. Tell me again why Loperfido got sent down? What's Chas currently hitting. Shockingly after these moves were made the Stros started having issues scoring runs again. You dont have to be a great prospect to be better than what Espada is currently putting out there. What I wonder is Crane and Brown making Espada play Abreu? Obviously not admitting the Abreu signing was a mistake is more important than putting the best team possible on the field to some in the org.
