I think this is very much the case. They are much more likely to trust/believe/have bias on the guys they scouted/acquired/developed.
You do realize that you have to make the playoffs first before you can worry about how well your players perform in the postseason. This isn't the NBA where everybody makes it, being a great regular season player means something in baseball. And that's if I bought your argument in the first place, which I don't. Nice little fangraphs article http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/on-the-surging-chris-carter/
I would love to see the Astros in the playoffs, but going into a 7 game series where you're likely facing very good pitching every night I don't think his type of game will be successful. He's great at making bad pitchers pay though.
Does make sense I suppose. And the Cosart trade also has representation issues possibly. Cosart is represented by same agency that includes Casey Close Just sayin
Another national writer jumping on the Chris Carter article-writing bandwagon: http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014...rter-the-hot-streak-and-the-insane-prediction
Another 2-4 night, HR and 2 RBI. His BA up to .236. Over this stretch he is striking out at a 26% clip. That's still a big numbers, but it is a significant decrease from the 35% clip he was striking out at for his first 850 PA as an Astro. There's a chance he finishes the season with 35 HR and 90 RBI, those are some pretty big numbers.
I feel like we've found our DH. There's a ton of teams out there batting lesser hitters at the DH than Carter.
Next year will be his first arbitration season, so his salary will go up to a couple million, but he is under team control through the 2018 season.
Cutting down the strikeouts is a big thing. Now...if only Springer and Singleton could strike out as much as Carter! DID ANYONE EVER EXPECT ANYONE TO SAY THAT?? Seriously though, 33% krate would be very welcome by all 3.
Chris Carter compared to other DHs. This list is pretty incredible, considering we are paying the guy the league minimum. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.as...4&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0
I'm sure he'll go in the toilet after this comment but.... could Chris Carter catch Cruz, Abreu and Stanton to lead MLB in HRs by year's end?
Those exercises the Astros do where the hitters try to recognize the pitch right out of the pitcher's hand seem to be working.
Perhaps I'm pessimistic, but I'm thinking this is more an aberration than "figuring it out." I'm of the opinion that we should ship him, not so much because I want the team to keep getting assets, but rather I'm fearing a regression.
Chris Carter was at one point a highly regarded prospect. Baseball America had him as high as 28, and baseball prospectus had him all the way up to 11 at one point. It isn't as if him being a productive hitter was unexpected. Coming into this season he had less than 1000 PA, and his OPS over the last 2 years was .799, which is far from a terrible number. His strikeouts have always been very frustrating, and I think that causes people to think he has been a worse hitter than he actually has. I still don't love the idea of him as a lineup anchor because he is far too slump prone, but if Carter is your 5 or 6 hitter I think you are in spectacular shape. Hopefully Springer can develop into that 3 or 4 hitter and that would leave us one big bat away from having a really good middle of the order.
Some Massachusetts site: http://blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2014/08/major_league_baseball_2014_chr.html By Ben Shapiro
3 more HR and 6 more RBI this week. Carter keeps rolling along. Just 1 HR behind Nelson Cruz for the major league HR title, so there is at least a decent chance we have the 2014 HR champion playing for our own Astros. He is also up to 19th in all of baseball in RBI. That's pretty significant in a league with 30 teams.
