2023 Season Astros General Discussion Thread

France has a very real opportunity to be the next Rollie Fingers

 

At this point, JP has to be a starting playoff pitcher. The only question is if he pitches 3 or 4.

 

This is Altuve 's best season by OPS. The guy ages like fine wine.

 

Looks to me like they plan on rotating Uruqidy, France and Brown out of the rotation here and there for rest instead of going to a full 6 man rotation.

 

At this point the best playoff option, depending on how Javier looks the the rest of the season, is likely a tandem of France and Brown. Hunter Brown has been dominant the first 2 times through the order, he has tended to start getting in trouble the 3rd time.

If Javier doesn't start getting some good results, then Brown and France should both start.

 

If JP pitches enough innings to qualify, he would be second in the AL in ERA and is 2nd on the team in quality starts at 11. If anything, JP starts and Hunter Brown comes in as relief. JP pretty much guarantees you 6 innings with 2 or less runs.

 

Bye Bye Diaz PAs....

 

So we're b!tching about good news now?

 

Well, you were b****ing when people were being happy that the Astros scored a lot when the Astros played a good lineup....so yes?

 

I was?

 

Define "rehab"

 

If Diaz really loses all of his PA's to Brantley then Brantley coming back isn't good news. Diaz is, in all likelihood, a much better hitter than whatever version of Brantley we get back. Certainly much more dangerous. So, yeah, not good news IF he's right that it goes down like that.
Great news if Brantley is a left handed pinch hitter to be used in leverage situations where contact matters. That would be a great bullet to have in the chamber.
Or, a platoon partner with Jake against RHP.
V RHP
Altuve/Bregman/Yordan/Tucker/Chas/Diaz/Brantley/Singleton/Pena- that looks pretty sexy
V LHP
Altuve/Bregman/Yordan/Tucker/Chas/Diaz/Abreu/Pena/Meyers- that looks pretty sexy too. We won't see that- but we should. IT would be awesome if we did. But we can't.

what we will get:
Altuve/Brantley/Yordan/Bregman/Tucker/Abreu/Chas/Pena/Maldonado. And that will be basically against LHP or RHP. And that will suck way worse than the other two lineups.

 

RIP Chas Playing Time is more likely... Brantley started off at LF in his first rehab start back in April, and it seems that the team doesn't think his current issues are related to fielding.

 

If Brantley was used as a PH in situations in which he was the best PH option, sure it would be fine. My view of Dusty is that he sees Yordan, Tucker, Bregman, Altuve, Pena, Abreu, and Maldonado as starters, and their time would be unchanged. Dubon's time is also unchanged.

My view is that Brantley will likely get playing time if he makes it back over Diaz, Chas, and Meyers. My comment was in jest as I don't want Diaz playing DH much in the first place at this point. With a RHP starting, Diaz at C and Brantley at DH makes sense to me. I don't expect that to happen. I expect to be very conflicted if Brantley comes back. I will be very happy Brantley is back. I will also expect that I will likely be incredibly frustrated going forward that either he or Diaz will be on the bench, while Dusty simultaneously weakens the OF defense.

 

The only thing bad about Brantley coming back is Dusty.

If Dusty will start Diaz at C 2-3 games per week and allows him to play 1B then it's fine. He can start 50% at C and once per week at 1B and once at DH. He starts 4-5 games per week.

Chas starts everyday in LF or CF.

Yordan and Brantley alternate LF/DH vs RHSP

Yordan DH vs LHSP w/ Meyers in CF.

Brantley replaces Hensley on roster.
Abreu replaces Singleton if/when he comes back.

 

This would work. Enter if it was just Diaz everyday at catcher but this would be almost acceptable.