OPS Temperature chart last 7 days Mauricio Dubon CF Yordan Alvarez LF Jose Altuve 2B Jake Meyers CF Alex Bregman 3B Jon Singleton 1B Victor Caratini C Kyle Tucker RF Jose Abreu 1B Jeremy Pena SS Yainer Diaz C Chas McCormick LF https://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/_/name/hou/split/61/table/batting/sort/OPS/dir/desc
This team should be miles back and in deep crap right now. The reality is that were no worse off in the division than last season.
Positive news (theoretically at least): Postgame said the Astros SOS the remainder of the season is 28th. Games aren't won on paper though. Get the wins.
Get Caratini and Diaz Splitting time at 1B if you want the best lineup and refuse to bring Loperfido back.
If Diaz and Caratini are both playing - then Victor needs to catch. I don’t trust Diaz behind the plate like I do Victor - and Diaz wears down catching.
Nice reaction play, nice toss. I'd like to see him on more regular stuff, footwork and such. There's no reason he can't play 1B.
I never wanted Diaz to catch 75% of the games. Between the physical toll and time game prepping I always though that level of workload would have too much of a negative effect on his hitting. Now maybe it's completely unrelated, but I really wish they would stagger catching duties more and let Diaz play some 1B (which he did plenty of in the minors). They treat 1B like it's advanced quantum mechanics for others but have no problem putting defensive scrubs like Abreu and Singleton over there. Dump Abreu and split the LF/1B duties between Loperfido/Singleton/Dubon/Chaz (maybe Diaz) and see who rises. I would bet a lot that we would get solid production from that group in some form if we platooned correctly. Do I wish we had a guy we could just plug in everyday and hit well, sure, but right now we don't. Even with our recent struggles we are far more likely to need pitching help than offensive help if we hit the trade market. If Meyers can't maintain his good start CF can drop into the platoon also. I get that Crane doesn't want to eat all that dead money, but we're hoping that Abreu can recover to be passable. Singleton/Loperfido platooned with Dubon is already likely better than passable and provides flexibility.
Sorry just seeing this. I don't like looking at one year of data. I think Chas's career averages are about right, a slightly above average hitter (115 wRC+) that can play above average defense in CF or when he has a lot of room in LF or RF. Though, I'd say last year's stats are only about 15 points of wRC+ over his average. Acting like 15 points of wRC+ is some outlier year is just weird. Every Astro bobs up and down by about as much as Chas or more than Chas, except Chas is the one that seems to be getting called out for not being consistent. Mostly, I think it is because Chas's 1st two years of 108 and 115 wRC+ were treated as abnormal because he lacked propsect pedigree. Except for this year, Chas's rate stats at the end of each year have been very consistent. I'm not sure what is wrong with Chas right now, but I fully expect he'll hit somewhere between 100wRC+ and 130 wRC+ after the all star break once he figures it out.
Generally agree, but I do not like Singleton's defense. I'd prefer if he plays for it to be at DH when Alvarez is in LF. Dubon looking like he's never played 1B in his life looks worse, but I'd expect he would be better in a week or 2. I've never seen Loperfido at 1B, but odds are good that he's a better defensive 1B.
Whether he stays or is cut, were paying him. But allowing him to cost us wins in addition to paying him is unacceptable.
Lost in the overall mediocrity of the team, Hunter Brown seemingly has figured it out, at least for now. Spoiler
Both Brown and Arighetti have shown extremely encouraging signs. They both look like long term MOR guys.
