The only way he could be right is if in three years Janek is tearing up the minors and is promoted to the majors.
Janek's going to take at least 3 years to develop. Diaz value is in his bat. He's worked hard on his pitch calling and defense. Diaz isn't a 1st baseman. He could play some LF though.
If they keep Janek at catcher. Lots of variables over the next few years. Janek has to prove he can hit minor league pitching first they could also trade Janek
I don't see Janek making it any position besides catcher. It feels like catcher defense is his calling card. As for him taking over 3 years to develop? He better not. He's already 22. An organization never wants a first rd pick to stay in the minors until he's 25. Especially one that was drafted as a more polished player.
They could trade Janek. Nobody has any idea what’s gonna happen. I do know that moving Diaz out of the catcher spot right now is silly. Only Dusty lovers would suggest it at this point.
How many homers did he hit in ‘23? In how many at bats? I’m not worried about his home run stroke. He was absolutely locked in with runners in scoring position and kept hitting line drives up the middle and some to right field to score the runner. He was awesome at it.
If Yainer takes a big step offensively, then you can consider moving him off catcher to protect him. As of right now, Yainer's bat is nothing special at 1B/DH, his bat is only truly star level impactful as a catcher. And given how well we were pitching the last 4 months, it's hard to make a valid argument he's actually hurting the team back there. So far in his career, he's shown a fairly significant DH penalty offensively (and we have Yordan).
Yeah I'm happy with Diaz only catching. I'll take a catcher with the 11th most hits in the league and 8th in the league in batting average. Catcher is a position you don't often see numbers like that.
I agree that Diaz needs to remain primarily a catcher "for now" And if the Astros have no plans to try and extend him, then keep him there. In 5 years he will no longer he able to run and will lose 20% of his hitting value by September every year. And he will be out of the league in 7-8. Catchers that are bat first have much shorter careers than those who are glove first. Unless they move off of the position. At least he won't be contributing to beating the Astros once his controllable years are over.
You’ve obviously never heard of Rick Dempsey Baseball history is rich with catchers who hit big in the postseason. You have no idea what his timetable of success is. 20% of his hitting value by September? We are men of action, lies and embellishments do not become us. You wouldn’t by chance have 6 fingers on your right hand?
Rick Dempsey? Thank you for making my point for me. Career wRC+ of 90 and remained a catcher for 24 years but had only 5400 PA (only 225 per year) Since 1970 there are 9 catchers w/ at least 2500 PAs and wRC+ of 120 or higher (plus 2 current players that haven't had a chance to age out yet) Gene Tenace- only had 2 seasons w/ 100+ games played at catcher and played only 57% of his career games at catcher. Mike Piazza- September/October was the lowest OPS month(s) of his career. Buster Posey- August was lowest OPS of his career and September/October 2nd lowest. Johnny Bench- September/October is his 2nd lowest OPS, just a single pt better than March/April. Brian Downing- played until he was 41 but stopped catching at age 30. Jorge Posada- Sept/Oct is lowest OPS of his career. Joe Mauer- Due to injury he stopped catching at age 30. Chris Hoiles- Sept/Oct is actually his 2nd best month. Mickey Tettleton- Only caught 3 games after his age 32 season and was a DH/PH in 85% of his games after his age 33 season. Catchers wearing down late in the season and having short careers unless they are middling hitters is real. Anything else is INCONCEIVABLE. I love the reference.
Was your point that Dempsey was money in the post season? I hope not because it was 73 PAs across 6 different series. He was great in 3 of them, hood in 2, and terrible in 1. Too small of a sample size to be meaningful. During the postseason, with frequent off days and a maximum of 22 games, it's very possible anyone player can be Babe Ruth. And it's been proven dozens of times. And Sept/Oct was Dempsey's 2nd worse OPS month of his career. I have shown that as a rule, most bat first catchers are worse in Sept/Oct and/or can't catch very far into their 30s.
Rick Dempsey was amazing in the 1983 WS. He won the MVP. Legendary status in baltimore because of it.
