Baseball America: Astros Top 10 Spoiler 1. Hunter Brown 2. Yainer Diaz 3. Drew Gilbert 4. Jacob Melton 5. David Hensley 6. Pedro Leon 7. Korey Lee 8. Spencer Arrighetti 9. Justin Dirden 10. Miguel Ullola
Those last 3 of that top 10 sure are interesting. No Colin Barber, Jacob Melton, Joe Perez, or Alex Santos.
LOL when Yainer turns into an .800+ OPS hitter and teams figure out that we have committed highway robbery once again on the trade market.
.800+ OPS was my comment. And given how poorly Myles Straw hit last year… and that we also got Maton in the trade… and we all hope Yainer chins up to becoming a catcher… total highway robbery on the deal. Try your best to contribute more than snark. We need more quality and perhaps less quantity from you.
So far, Myles Straw (5.2 WAR) >>> Phil Maton (-0.6), but that trade may change as you said, with the hopeful chin ups by Diaz giving him the ability to hit MLB pitching and actually play catcher a bit, or even 1B as the fallback.
Yep. Light hitting, good defensive CF can be valuable. Diaz is most likely going to have to hit a lot to get the deal to break even. ...unless he learns to play catcher.
Baseball America chat - Pedro Leon: not an infielder. Toolset fits an ideal bench player, but considering the fanfare that's surrounded him since before he entered the org, that seems rather whelming. Could make his debut early on in the season. - Buy now on Jose Fleury. Four-pitch mix, "legit plus" changeup - Joe Perez can hit his way back to Houston, but aside from his arm, people aren't really sure if he can really handle 3B. - Will Wagner can hit, but needs to translate his power in the AFL to the real season. Still has questions about his defense so he'll have to keep hitting.
A major component of the deal was opening playing time for Meyers. I suspect the Astros at the time could have predicted they would likely end up on the losing end of the total production equation, but Maton was a bigger upgrade over the last man in the pen than Straw was over the prospect stuck in AAA. Diaz is still a decently valuable player if he develops into an above average hitting player who can catch occasionally. He might be more valuable to other teams than the Astros if he can't meet their standard of defensive play. Right now, he seems like decent enough insurance if Brantley or Alvarez get hurt, with an opportunity to play his way into catcher reps. I do think it's interesting that the Astros haven't shown much urgency in bringing in a backup catcher.
Which was the point I made. Straw hit .221 last year and had an OPS of .564. In no way is that acceptable for a 27-year old MLB starter. Buck, who knows next to nothing about baseball, tried to salvage a weird argument by looking at WAR (and going back beyond 1 year), but WAR typically overstates the value of centerfielders and I don't like it in that context. Diaz has tremendous value if he can hit and play multiple positions. He has extreme value if he can provide average defense at catcher. His swing and power are tremendous -- at the risk of exaggeration, I see similarities with (younger) Miguel Cabrera. Very exciting prospect.
I can't see the WAR breakdown by position since the trade, but I would imagine Straw's replacements (sans Dusty's adopted son Dubon) have basically been in the same ballpark on a per game basis since we traded him, maybe higher. Meyers and Siri alone have been worth 2.5 WAR. Player's can't accumulate WAR from AAA or the bench.
As of right now Lee, Brown and Hensley would all be projected to be on the roster. I suspect the Astros are still looking for a proven backup catcher to move Lee to 3rd on the depth chart, but Hunter Brown and David Hensley should be on the opening day roster, and hopefully be full season contributors.
