I wonder if that “swing path score” is from his entire AAA season or just since he has been in Sugar Land. If it’s from the entire season I’d be interested in seeing what it has been just since he signed with Houston and just over the last month.
Whatever- the Astros are basically trying to get lightening in a bottle with Singleton because Abreu has regressed and Julks had been exposed. The Astros line up underachieves and having Baker fill out the line up card is the difference between a pretty good offense and an average one. Right now - for the season, as a hitter, Bregman has been pretty close to mediocre. Meyers (who shouldn’t be starting on a good team) is a poor hitter, Jeremy Pena is a poor hitter as well….. Jose Abreu, who was supposed to be a good hitter - has been a bad hitter is the third bad hitter in the line up and Baker INSISTS on Maldonado behind the plate, he isn’t poor - he is horrendous. That means the Astros have 4 really good hitters - one okay hitter and 4 bad hitters….. you aren’t going to consistently score a lot of runs running that garbage out there. Since Dana Brown is apparently scared to piss off Dusty - he doesn’t tell Dusty who to play, so he just took Julks away and gave him a position-less pinch hitter in Singleton. Whatever - all I know is that Meyers and Maldonado shouldn’t be starting anywhere near the amount they are. Diaz needs to play every single game , preferably behind the plate. Meyers needs to be a late inning substitute.
Really surprised to see you bashing Meyers like that. He has been a totally average hitter this season and that’s with a BABIP 30 points below his career mark. Combined with his defense he has been a well above average player and is a totally viable bottom of the order CF on a championship team. He is nowhere near as bad as Abreu, Julks, Dubon, and Pena, who all have been really bad hitters, and Meyers is obviously light years above Maldonado. Abreu and Maldonado are the Achilles heels of this offense.
He is batting 230 with an OBP of 310 this season, that’s not good, especially when you have an option in CF like McCormick. He isn’t a good hitter. Jeremy Pena is batting 239 with an OBP of 300. That’s not good either. Jose Abreu is batting 237 with an OBP of 300. Martin Maldonado is batting .175 with an OBP of 245. When they all play, that is 4 out of 9 line up spots that have an OBP of 310 or less. That is too many holes in the line up.
Abreu's offensive production diving headfirst into the Grand Canyon definitely surpassed the worst of the worst-case scenarios. To be fair, no one expected it to be this bad, but not having a plan in place to mitigate the harm he was causing by being in the lineup has beaten this offense to a pulp. Happy for Jon Singleton even though I know he's probably not going to be a factor, but the "try anybody else at 1B" strategy probably should've kicked in after July 4.
I agree- this is the problem- plus Bregman. I don't see any rational way forward for this year other than to catch lightning in a bottle-especially with our stubborn ass manager who seems to think we have a large lead in the division. If nothing changes, we might be out of the playoffs entirely.
Pretty much every good team has a Jake Meyers level of starter or more. Problem is as you said, we play arguably the worst hitter in baseball almost every day, Pena is pretty meh, and Abreu stunk for the first couple months (This past week has been awful too). Plus there is the whole Michael Brantley not playing all year, which nobody could see coming (and by nobody, I mean the Astros FO at the time, as I don't think it surprises anybody else).
OBP is not the whole story. A guy with premium up the middle defense who posts a .405 SLG is totally viable even with a .312 OBP. Drop that SLG to .368 (like Pena) and it gets way less viable. Drop the SLG AND put that hitter at 1B and it’s unplayable. Like I said, if Abreu was hitting as he was expected to and Diaz was the everyday catcher, nobody would be whining about Meyers in the 8 or 9 hole. People would probably be whining about Pena and his total lack of power.
Other players sucking is not a reason to say Meyers shouldn't be starting on this team. That's a reason he should play more and the guys that are sucking should play less. He's been the 7th best position player (7th in wRC+) despite 5 guys with more PAs that have played significantly worse. You don't improve your offense by sitting one of the 9 best bats so you can play a poorer bat from a poorer defender down the defensive spectrum. Meyers shouldn't play when Alvarez is in the OF, or Alvarez is hurt and Meyers needs a rest day. Maybe Meyers is playing above his head and will suck going forward. He earned a starter spot early in the season, IMO, and even during his worst slump, he was a better overall player than the other non-Alvarez players to be the 3rd OF.
That is still 7th on the team in OBP a few percentage points less than Grae's for 6th. Also, league average is 0.320. League average bottom of the order is probably about 0.300. In other words, he's well above hitter for the bottom of the order. The Astros have an OBP of 0.301 at DH and 0.288 at 1B. Going after a CF playing great defense and hitting better than 5 guys getting PT over him while the wRC+ (or OBP if you only want to care about that) is worse at DH and 1B seems misplaced. DH is easily fixable, but it means Meyers plays more while Yordan plays DH more. Considering Dubon is going to be the one taking time from him, Meyers is closer to Bregman in OBP than Dubon is to Meyers.
Agree with this. Meyers, ALONE, isn't the problem. If this team had a better option in LF, then playing Chas in CF would be a huge benefit but when that gold glove calibur CF is also one of the 9 (7th) best performing hitters on the team you put him in the lineup and move on to a real problem. FWIW that problem is that 5 of the 8 players with the most PA this year have an OPS+ of under 85. Jake's is 97. You say Jake is not a good hitter, and maybe he's not but he isn't bad either. He is smack dab in the mediocre range. But with gold glove defense, that's a very valuable player especially in the 8th or 9th spot in a lineup.
Trade deadline is gone. You’ve now called up your one guy that’s decent hitter to see if you can catch lightning in a bottle. Cool. mend of the day Jake Meyers is one of our best 9 and needs to be playing more or less every day. Unless singleton can actually an answer. I’m skeptical, but we shall see.
I don't think anybody would argue that he shouldn't. It is pretty universal that our best lineup is with Meyers right now. That only changes if Singleton, Brantley, or a prospect show they belong. But we almost never play our best 9 guys. Hell, we rarely play 8 of our best guys.
Meyers should be playing everyday?? If Yordan isn't @ DH then he's in LF. That means the outfield is: Yordan LF Chas CF Tuck RF And if Yordan is playing LF that's the outfield you go with EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. You still want to get Meyers some playing time, ok I get it. Put him at DH from time to time but even at DH he isn't the only option there as you have Diaz. If Yordan is at DH then Chas is playing LF and that's when Meyers can play CF. To sit here and say that Meyers should be playing everyday is Ludacris.
Maybe Singleton finally gets it similar to Eric Thames did for a season or two. Really only need him to catch fire for 3 months. Honestly he’s probably only up for about a week or so to give abreu a few games off like they did in June. Or to DH when Diaz catches and Yordan is in LF.
Meyers in center is playable for a great team. He would likely win the gold glove this year if he played there more. He's no different than kiermaier all thise years in Tampa. An elite glove with an average bat. I think Pena is just fine too. I liken him to Andrelton Simmons. Elite glove, slightly below average bat. Can easily play him on a great team. Abreu and Maldonado are the problems. Abreu is the worst full time 1st baseman in the league and Maldonado is one of the 5 worst hitters at any position in the league that is getting playing time.
Our best lineup is of Abreu, Altuve, Pena, Bregman, Diaz, McCormick, Meyers, Tucker, Alvarez. That should be your main 9 guys.
