Genuine answer - yes and yes. Also the Astros offense does not need to be historic for this team to have success, but there’s a lot of evening out that will likely happen as the season goes on and pitching staffs become thinner and thinner. Again, the Yankees were doing historic stuff last year and it all evened out. The Rangers have been hot… but I’d bet they don’t fire on all cylinders for the remainder of the season with their collective pitching. Then injuries are always the universal neutralizer.
Despite playing once a week and not getting a single PA against the worst pitching staff in baseball Diaz still has the same OPS that Julks does this month.
This is like saying the team has been winning a lot more with Abreu in May…because you know, Abreu starts every ****ing game
We do not need Abreu to get into the playoffs. We need him to be good to win a world series title. He just needs to get going by the end of the season like Gurriel did.
The poster I was responding to wasn't comparing Julks vs Diaz in the lineup. I'd have no issues with Diaz getting more time at DH. But given they've not lost any games this month when Diaz could have replaced Julks as DH, it wouldn't have improved the team's record any. Except it's not. Each of the Astros' 4 worst pitching performances this month were all Diaz starts at catcher (4 out of his 5). Astros in May when Diaz is catching: 1-4. Astros in May when Diaz is not catching: 13-4. I think these correlations have limited value. But if the concern is that Dusty's decisions aren't good for winning now, the evidence suggests the Astros have been doing just fine with Dusty's preferred players, and not so well when Dusty uses the guy fans prefer.
It was going the other way on the season until May. 6-0 with Diaz catching and like 6-13 with Maldy catching if I recall correctly. Their was also a drastic difference in ERA. Maldy was just straight awful until his hot stretch this month.
It’s still abundantly clear that these pitchers really love working with him, and the Astros value that. Brown has now looked dominant (albeit, it is Oakland) with increased utilization of his curve ball. I don’t see him going to back to getting caught by Diaz at the moment.
I'd do that in a heartbeat if Oakland accepts. He's not going to get a Murphy or Olson-level return, but those players line up with what the Athletics usually look for. I think Leon has certainly lost some value, and he's being leapfrogged by many in our farm because our minors are so deep with outfielders. Shawn Dubin and Joe Perez are two upsiders that have both been streaky and with a bad injury history. With their AAA experience, all three could play right away if Oakland wants to.
Seth Brown isn’t the biggest or sexiest name but he does have around an .800 OPS against right handed pitching and would likely get a little 10-30 point bump playing elsewhere. The Astros would likely only want him for this season anyway. His average isn’t great but he also brings some pop.
why is a LH bat a necessity? just to make it easier for them to justify platooning Abreu? I agree completely about there being no way they will completely bench Abreu this season, as I mentioned. That's why a super cheap option is the only move they'd realistically make. Yuli is the perfect solution.
This evening would be a good time to hear statistical arguments against batting Pena 2nd in the order. Anyone?
Was hoping Baltimore would do us a favor this weekend. Rangers schedule eases up, for a week while ours gets a little more tricky with Min, Toronto, and the angels.
i understand. though i'd say if they are merely hovering around WC spot they may be willing to deal him anyway. free asset for a player gone at end of season that they paid nothing for
No doubt, if you can dominate the A’s like that you just don’t take a chance messing around with those results
And if we really want to play this game Brown dominated the Rangers (7 shutout) on 4-15 with Diaz Brown dominated the Rays (7 shutout) on 4-26 The top two offenses in baseball Also threw 7 with no earned with Diaz against Minnesota on 4-9 But yes, holding Oakland to 2 runs in each of his last two starts certainly shows how much Maldanado can’t be replaced at catcher
Relax. No need to be triggered. It was just an observation that he’s trusting his curveball more and more, and it’s becoming a swing/miss pitch we didn’t see as much of last year. I do feel that young/talented pitchers do benefit from having veteran catchers to foster their development. It’s not my fault that all the young Astros pitchers seem to share this sentiment.
We know the A's will be. 1) Nearly every hitter on the current roster hits well vs left handed pitchers. 2) The team itself is weak outside of a few hitters vs right handed pitchers. 3) The position players having the weakest seasons are the weakest vs right handed pitchers. 4) Generally speaking lefthanded hitters hit better vs righthanded pitchers. Therefore, a lefthanded hitter is most likely to be valuable and useful.
