You blame Espada for benching Tucker and Bregman? The biggest problem with the Astros rn is run production. The big bats in the lineup are not hitting. .565 - Paredes .631 - Yordan .418 - Walker .199 - Diaz .488 - Smith .558 - Pena OPS leaders: .717 Meyers .689 - Rodgers I guess you could fire the hitting coach. Most of the guys struggling are veterans though, who more is expected than what we are getting.
I blame Espada and Brown for the musical chairs to get guys at bats. Pick your RF and CF and quit forcing Dubon and/or McCormick into the lineups. Cam and Dicenzo will be fine they just need reps. One should get the starting Rf job and the other sent down. It’s not like Dubon is giving us a damn thing at the plate. The hitting and pitching will come around, but Dubon will never be a plus bat. He is a good defensive utility man for the late innings and that’s it.
The roster construction has made the offense less effective. Putting all 5 of Rodgers, Smith, DEZENZO, Meyers, and McCormick on the roster was too much for Espada to manage. I think Dana Brown half expected someone to get hurt in the early going to make it easy for Espada to decide who plays. But Smith (or DEZENZO) should have 50+ pa by now, giving the Astros enough data to decide if they will strike out too much to be viable.
I saw a comment yesterday complaining about having weak arms in the bullpen. Here’s the top fb velo for Houston’s bullpen when healthy: Whitley 99 Ort 98 Abreu 97 Dubin 97 Hader 96 Okert 94 Scott 94 King 93 If everybody is healthy, the only guys without elite fb velo are the 2 lefties and Scott. The others: VanWey 97 Gusto 95 Sousa 95 Robertson 95 Contreras 94 Hernandez 93
I defended Espada a ton last season but I've realized he's not the type of manager to push a team over the top. He lacks feel during games and their is zero fire in his belly. When that ump screwed over Abreu on that missed strike, the camera panned to Espada frozen with a blank look in his eyes. This team is never going to overachieve with him at the helm and that's the only way they're going to get far.
I would let Dezenzo be the utility guy. Otherwise I agree with this post. Put the best lineup possible on the field 4 days a week and use Dezenzo 2 days a week. Injuries will sort all of this out.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/mlb-reportedly-willing-to-license-mlb-tv.html Today I learned that the Astros are one of only 3 teams without a direct to consumer streaming offering.
I know it's early, but 2025 may be shaping up to be a transitional year. I think there is a very good chance, 2026 could be a start of a rebirth of the golden age. Framber, Caratini, and Rodgers are the only players on the 40 man who will be FA at seasons end. The 2026 team is shaping up to be even better than the 2025 team on paper.
