I don't know how you think they are planning a Singleton/Diaz platoon at first when Diaz has 1 start and 4 PAs in 2 weeks on the team. If you are thinking Yainer he hasn't played 1b at all this year. I agree they won't want to make Dezenzo the starting 1b in a playoff race in September after 100 AAA PAs. However, a World Series is a special thing and every run could be the last for any number of reasons. If they are getting no production at 1b for another month and none of the other options look to improve the situation, they will need to decide if it's a gamble worth taking. The only other options I see are 1) Start playing Whitcomb at 1b- at least he has lots of AAA experience, or 2) wait for a journeyman castoff to get waived or 3) Find a veteran AAAA guy in the minors who has not been on a 40 man roster this year - Mike Brosseau? A bunch of bad options because Dana didn't get a bat at the trade deadline. At least with LF there is a realistic chance it can get fixed
I had hopes he could rebound and be a big league contributor, but his ERA in Sugar Land was over 5 with a 1.6 WHIP.
Remember when Aaron Sanchez with his 6.0+ ERA had a no hitter in his first game as an Astro? Yeah, I want that.
At this point it would not be a bad idea. This team MUST find a run producer who can hit LHP from the 1b spot. I can't imagine Aledmys is the answer or else he would have more than 4 PAs in 11 days and 9 games on the active roster. Singleton isn't great, but better than most current options vs RHP but he simply MUST sit vs LHSP.
MLB xfip for bargain bin RP brown has brought in: Ort 1.75 Hernandez 3.08 Suero 3.16 Scott 3.73 King 3.87 Contreras 3.91 A lot of small samples but most of them have looked just as good in AAA. I really like the odds of finding 3-4 good medium term arms out of that group plus Dubin, Whitley, Murfee, Ortega, and Coleman. I don’t think Houston needed to add to their pen at the deadline, they just need to pick the right dudes at the right time.
A Cumulative Effect Instead, I want to concentrate on the Astros’ recent decision-making, or what I can tell from the outside looking in. For example, with the Kikuchi trade, it isn’t necessarily the fact that Brown traded Bloss, Joey Loperfido, and Will Wagner that has me concerned. But the true issue is how the Astros got to this point in time. The obvious elephant in the room is the wasted resources on José Abreu and Rafael Montero, who were both signed while Houston operated with Jim Crane as the de facto general manager with Jeff Bagwell closely involved. https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2024/8/1/24209661/astros-a-cumulative-effect
Honestly the spending on this team has been ridiculous over the last few years for marginal talent. The fact they literally are eating large contracts with Montero and Abreu is going to come back at bite this teams badly. Honestly, if this team fails to get into the playoffs this year, I expect a lot of bad domino effects to happen as a result of depleted farm talent and very poor financial decisions during these several years. Dana Brown has to be on some kinda hot seat. Luhnow was the best thing that happened to our organization and part of our reason for sustained success over these last 10 + years.
But none of the financial issues are Dana Brown's fault. I actually am encouraged for the future. Mathews and Dezenzo look like they could become Correa/Bregman 2.0 as building blocks for a new 2025-2031 window. There are more true prospects among the young international position players than I can ever remember. The 2022 and 2023 drafts both look to be very strong. All the money on the books will make 2025 tough, but All those dead contracts are over by 2026 and we should really see some talent emerge.
