Damn near 1/3 thru the season and Astros have 5 starting position players posting a wRC+ <90. Not good.
Feels like some of this has been bad luck though. Through May 16th the Astros had five regular players with an xwOBA>.330. Paredes has really been a godsend so far and I hope he can hold up. He reminds me a little of Altuve in that it seems he can consistently maintain a wOBA greater than his xwOBA. Dezenzo looks like he's figured things out to an extent as his swing decisions have gotten a lot better over his past 20 games or so. And of course, probably the biggest positive storyline so far among the position players, Pena has made big gains with his BB/K this season which indicates he may have leveled up as an offensive player. Things would look so much different, imo, if Altuve and especially Yordan had been producing. Yordan has been a critical cog for this offense since '22 and him being a total non-factor this season has been crushing.
Alvarez: injured and bad luck Walker: bad luck, bad swing decisions, and age related decline Diaz: bad luck and bad swing decisions Altuve: Age related decline and bad swing decisions Rodgers: bad swing decisions and poor contact ability I expect Alvarez and Diaz to get back to what they’ve been before. I expect Walker to get better but he probably won’t be as good as he was in Arizona. I expect Altuve to be a shadow of himself (but still an average to above average big league hitter). Rodgers is the wild card. He could break out or he could keep striking out a bunch and sucking.
Feel like Donovan from the Cardinals or a reasonably solid lefty 2nd baseman would really help this lineup out. Yordan on the IL is just killing any possibility of lineup construction. That's not the only problem but having another left handed bat would carry a bunch of water.
Because we can get something for him. He doesn’t have much value with us as a pinch runner. and he isn’t really injury insurance either, he’s too far down the bench.
Agreed. The 2022 season was special. The fact you could expand to a 6-man rotation for long stretches of the season and never lose a step was incredible. It really showed in ALDS Game 3. I forgot which broadcaster said it, but the quote was along the lines of "this team is built to go 18 innings every night!" As for your list, 22 Garcia was a nice stabilizing force so for now I agree, but 25 Blanco is starting to look like he is hitting his stride. Time will tell but I think he has a chance to flip that for you if he can resemble even 80% of what he showed us last year.
I personally think McCullers is washed, but looking at his early numbers I do think there’s a path for him to be moderately effective for the rest of his contract. First, everyone needs to abandon the ideas that he will return to his previous effectiveness or even be an effective traditional SP; he doesn’t have the stuff anymore, he never had the stamina/efficiency, and he is too injury prone and scared to throw hard. He and the Astros need to get used to the idea that he is a very limited pitcher. Given his stubbornness about relieving, I think making him a 2-3 inning “opener” can work, if Houston is able to pretty much dedicate another stretched out pitcher to back him up. This would be feasible when Houston goes back to a 5 man rotation. The only smart thing he’s done in his first 2 starts is throw his change up more. That is the only pitch that he can approximate from his former arsenal. Going forward he should only throw 3 pitches: his changeup, which he should throw ~45% of the time, his sinker, which he should also throw ~45% of the time and should focus on throwing up in the zone, and his curve, which he should only throw when he has 2 strikes or 2 outs and should not be scared to really throw with full effort. He will never be the oft-injured-near-ace he was before. But if he does all those things and is used for just 2-3 innings a start then he can probably be an effective pitcher who isn’t actively hurting the team. Right now he looks diminished, rusty, and scared.
If that’s the best upside you see in him then they should cut him tomorrow. It’s not worth all that for a 2/3 inning opener. we dont need or want him having anything to do in the bullpen bc we already have more good arms down there than we can credibly use, and Espada has such bad feel for the game that he would probably **** that up. i think LMJ needs to be good enough to be a credible starter or be gone. I say this as an LMJ fan hoping he’s got more in the tank than what you think. Glass half full- 3 starts- no earned runs in 2 of them!
