Wow. So unless there’s a shock, the roster is set: LF Altuve 3B Paredes DH Alvarez 1B Walker C Diaz RF Smith 2B Rodgers SS Pena CF Meyers Bench: Dezenzo, Dubon, Caratini, McCormick Rotation: Valdez, Brown, Arrighetti, Blanco, Wesneski Bullpen: Hader, Abreu, Scott, Okert, King, Montero, Contreras, Gusto 60-day IL: Javier, France 10/15-day IL: McCullers, Garcia, Whitley, Ort, Dubin, Leon, Trammell DFA: Hummel Optioned: Gordon, Hernandez, Sousa, Salazar, Whitcomb, Corona
If Cam and Dezenzo can produce, then this goes from a soft rebuild/borderline playoff season to a full on, immediate RELOAD. Let's go.
so Cam for sure starts at RF and Dezenzo starts on the bench ? Not McCormick , or Dezenzo who both I believe have more experience in RF than Smith? Just curious
Ok. So, In a vacuum, I am in favor of Altuve playing LF instead of 2b. But is this team better with him at 2b with Zach and Cam in the OF corners or Him in LF and Rodgers at 2b?
They weren’t going to promote Smith and not play him every day. RF is the only open position that Smith can play. Im very curious to see how much McCormick, Meyers, Dubon, and Dezenzo play over the first 6 weeks of the season if everybody stays healthy; there’s not nearly enough available ABs for more than one of those guys to get consistent run.
I love the forward thinking this front office has. Lefty for the bench? Why? Nice job keeping the best players regardless. Some 40 man moves are coming though.
id same the same about Dezenzo / he had an equally impressive spring and arguably less to prove in the minors. Wondering if they are worried about Walker and Dezenzo may get more reps at 1B. Also , if they are to get McCormick back on track he’ll need some ABs… it’s all a good problem to have assuming they all perform.
So happy for Cam Smith. He showed out in spring training and earned it. I just hope he's productive and productive early so he's always on the MLB roster and not sent up and down all year.
it’s just impossible for me to see how they’re going to keep everybody sharp. They don’t have any real platoon matchups that make sense. Dubon is established enough not to need to play everyday and can get enough time subbing in around 2B, SS, and 3B, and the same can probably be said for Caratini playing backup C. But there’s just not enough playing time backing up the OF/DH/1B to keep both McCormick and Dezenzo in any kind of rhythm.
Could Paredes play some second base to give Smith and Dezenzo the occasional start at third? Positional versatility with this group is a plus and could be the path to more playing time for everyone. Obviously you want guys to be comfortable and confident in whatever position they're playing. But if everyone starts 140+ games at every position, there's not a lot of playing time to go around between the vets and the young guns.
exactly. Something will have to give / either one of the rookies (Cam, Dezenzo) get sent to the minors due to struggles at the plate or they trade McCormick (but for what ?) … there is no pinch hitter specialist on the bench per se (ie the Singleton role ) - everyone on the bench needs/will expect regular ABs to be successful IMO. I guess good problem for the Astros to sort.
It sure seems like the obvious move was Paredes to 2B and Smith or Dezenzo to 3B. Secondary to that it seems to make sense to put Altuve back at 2B and stick Dezenzo in LF. But neither of those things is being mentioned at all. My guess is the front office assumes injuries will sort things out and there will be enough playing time to go around. Of course there’s still 2 days for Houston to make a trade of some kind. The messaging around McCormick the last couple weeks has been odd to the point that I half expected him to get traded, and that might be best for everybody if another team out there sees value in him. But yeah I assume some guys will be on pretty short leashes if injuries don’t happen. Both McCormick and Meyers have options (as well as Smith and Dezenzo of course) so if somebody needs to go down to get reps it’s always available.
I hope they play Dezenzo 1 day per week at each of 1b, 3b, LF, and RF when everyone else is healthy. Having him able to step in if there is an injury could be huge. Like Marwin moving to LF everyday when Marisnick got hurt in 2017.
So Cam Smith, Zack Dezenzo, and Chas have been informed they're making the team. Hummel was told he's not. So that leaves Brendan Rodgers or Zach Short for the last spot. My guess is it's Rodgers over Short.
