Maldy's purpose is to be a genius behind the plate, almost regardless of batting stats. I love the guy, but he's honestly just not that so much anymore, he's old now.
Luis Garcia has scrapped his fastball the last two starts (~20% usage only). He's ramped up his cutter usage. His whiff % on the cutter has gone down some (Rays looked like they had it timed up well, but it is just a hard pitch to tee up on), but overall his whiff% is about the same. Batters are getting a lot less quality contact as they have fewer fastballs to tee up on.
I don't know why they've waited this long to make the cutter his main pitch. Its consistently over the last 2 years been a significantly better option than the 4 seamer. His fastball has always been hit pretty hard. Far smarter people than I have analyzed this stuff, but it always seemed like he should work backwards off the cutter and not be 4 seamer primary.
Huh? You quoted me saying Abreu gets 600 AB’s this year and they won’t cut bait with him and there is no internal improvement for him in the organization. To be clear- Abreu is the starting 1B, there is no plan B, they will roll with him all year long and they should.
Maldy’s framing numbers are Ass and always have been. I said Abreu is getting 600 AB’s and should/ there is absolutely no internal replacement for him and he makes a lot of money he should get all of that. 600 AB’s is literally a full season. son of a b**** man- you are literally going 180 degrees away from what I said. Bregman has been better than Abreu. Peña has been better than Abreu. Bregman has been a sober average offensive player. Peña has been close to average. Abreu has been well below average. However I’m NoT saying to cut bait with Abreu. I’m saying even as bad as he is still wildly outperforming Maldy. there’s bad, there’s Horrible then there’s 20 feet of **** and then there’s Maldy level offensively. Abreu is somewhere hovering around bad. I fully expect him to end the year at “Good”. When we signed him I was hoping for “excellent” maldonado has 3 post season HR’s, all solo shots, a 520 ops and 58 K’s against 8 BB’s and a 520 OPS. He’s played enough games for those stats to be somewhat representative. He’s been one of the worst post season hitters with that many AB’s of all time. As far as handling the staff they were great last year with him. They were even better with Vasquez catching. astros pitching is great in the post season because Astros pitchers are great.
YA’s whiff percentage and k percentage are way high (for him) and he’s said he’s uncomfortable at the plate. I believe him. What he has been is so ****ing clutch it’s as clutch as I’ve ever remembered a dude being for an entire month of the season. That’s carried us in a lot of ways. He can (and has) been a better AB to AB guy in his career and if he’s got a stiff neck or carry over from the short spring and the hand that completely makes sense. I think Yordan is the best hitter in the world. So far, for a month, Tucker has been better. I think Tucker will be a top 5 MVP guy and is about to enter the absolute prime of his career. I’m super excited for it. Like I said, it’s a real pleasure and joy to have them both. It’s be cool to win another couple rings while Tucker is here.
You asked me what makes me think they wont roll with Abreu after they rolled with Yuli all last year. I said they are going to roll with Abreu. They should roll with Abreu.
Can we petition the league to have us play on the road against winning teams for the rest of the season?
Abreu and Maldonado are 2 completely different situations. Abreu was brought in because Yuli had shown his age and been very bad last year. Abreu brings all the off field benefits that Yuli had but is younger and the team expected him to provide above average ( and significantly above Yuli) production at 1B. At the time I thought it was a smart move and it still may be, though I am worried. Abreu needs to hit to keep his job long term, but with all the eggs in his basket they won't make a change for quite a while. Maybe the entire season or even next. To be clear, Abreu is not far enough behind that it's a lost season. He us on pace for 75 RBI and the season is only 15% done so a small uptick gets him 90+. If all other stats are awful, at least that would contribute and I could look forward to next year thinking this was just a one off adjustment season to a new team. Maldonado has been awful on the field but only slightly worse than last year or the year before. This is who Maldy is. The Astros know it AND CHOOSE IT. For some reason the things they value do not show up to us fans and all the negatives we see are not bad enough to overtake those positives. So be it. Maldy is older and this will be his last season. He will play less as the season goes on as the Astros try to keep him healthy and fresh for the playoffs. If Diaz or Lee make enough impression then they will start more the second half. If not they will trade for a journeyman again and start from ground zero in the off season. This team is deep enough to win with zero offense and mediocre defense from Maldy. Let's just do that, have another parade, and wait to see who is catching next year.
I'm trying to decide which former Astro is the best comp for Dubon. Casey Candaele? Jose Vizcaino? Help me out guys.
Here are his top 10 similarity scores. I’ve never heard of any of these guys: Josh Rojas (978.0) Oscar Grimes (972.4) Don Hoak (971.3) Nick Solak (968.6) Bob Smith (967.6) Andy Fox (964.5) Ron Pruitt (963.9) Rich McKinney (963.1) Adam Rosales (958.3) Greg Litton (958.3)
Rojas was an Astros prospect who was in the Greinke trade; he is a good player. Dubon is a much better defensive player but Rojas has more power. Rosales was a long time utility guy but Dubon is a better player than him. Solak seems like an awful comp. I don’t know any of the other guys.
That’s where I remember Rojas from. Ok. Thanks. thats just his baseball reference page. I have no idea how the cpu spots out the comps.
If we are looking for comps for who Dubon might be like if he continues to be an everyday player, Miguel Rojas (formerly Marlins now Dodgers) is a decent comp. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, Adam Frazier, Nico Hoerner, and Tony Kemp are others. If he somehow managed to further increase his power numbers, Whit Merrifield or Jeff McNeil might be comps.
****Small Sample Warning**** Not sure if this is randomness, but Tucker has lowered his launch angles a lot as if he's no longer trying to hit over the shift. Tucker is hitting 0.321 on grounders with an xBA of 0.281. 2021-2022 these numbers were about 0.205 BA and 0.263 xBA. Without the 2B playing shallow RF, Tucker's BA on grounders were expected to go up. Tucker is looking like an old school prototypical No. 2 hitter except he might hit 40 homers this year. Get someone on first in front of him, and the 2B is out there on an island.
