What's crazy is if he truly was held back by playing at different elevations throughout his career, being in Colorado could have cost him a hundred million dollars in career earnings. Imagine being a free agent second baseman that had a gold glove and a career .820 OPS and 300 BA. He keeps this up, he is going to get PAID after this offseason.
Probably still too early to get super excited but certainly there’s new evidence to be optimistic about. .895 ops against RHP is very encouraging even if his .571 BABIP isn’t sustainable. His xwOBA of .321 probably makes him a 2+ fwar player over the course of the season when combined with his defense. He just needs to be a solid 7 hole hitter.
I don't think his OPS against right handers will hold. Career wise, his numbers against right handers is roughly .050 lower than his overall OPS. So if he ends up being around .800 OPS, then his OPS against right handers will be around .750 which is still above average.
If he’s an everyday player then 70% of his pa will be against RHP and in order to have an 800 ops overall he’d have to have a ~770 ops against RHP (if he posts 50 pts higher against LHP). But either way if he’s in the mid 700s against RHP it means he’s a pretty valuable player.
Does OPS reflect his ability to defend a position? There is no perfect measure of defense, but if you want to take defense into account - we have WAR? Altuve has averaged 4-5 WAR over the last 4 seasons. As far as Altuve's defense is concerned, he has lost mobility to his left and right over the last few years. At this point he is slightly below replacement level defensively at second base, but he isn't terrible at second. As for left field - he has been terrible so far in left field, the idea is that he will improve with experience -- but from a speed standpoint, he has looked good getting to balls in left field. I haven't seen any major regressions with the bat - he walks less than a few years ago, and he tends to wear down over the course of a season, but he is still a very productive hitter. We will see - I expect him to be a good hitter for the next 2-3 years, as he is 35 and has a history of exceeding expectations... if anything, right now I am concerned with him being over used, because the Astros need his bat in the line up every day.
His career OPS against left handers is .880 and that includes his terrible results away from Coors. I wish I could a way to combine splits like left handers at Coors.
Altuve may be a cluster F#$% in LF right now, but I don't think he's slightly below average at 2B. I think Altuve's been pretty terrible at 2B for a while. I'm surprised the stats aren't worst they they are for him at 2B, except for DRS.
Arrighetti probably out until July. I assume Gusto will step in, with the expectation that McCullers will be back in 3 weeks; otherwise Blubaugh will be called up.
Is it common to be on the field when the other team is hitting? Didn't anyone say watch out? Or did he react and then got hit which would be more unlucky
Thru 10 games, the Astros offense has been replacement level: Yordan, Yainer, and Walker have been bad and unlucky. Paredes and Pena have been very good but very unlucky. Altuve has been bad but very lucky. Meyers has been bad but lucky. Rodgers has been good and lucky. Smith has been terrible. Caratini, McCormick, Dubon, and Dezenzo haven’t played much. Here is the Houston Astros’ record through the first ten games of each season over the last ten years: 2024: 4-6 2023: 5-5 2022: 6-4 2021: 6-4 2020: 6-4 2019: 5-5 2018: 8-2 2017: 6-4 2016: 3-7 2015: 5-5 Last night was the first game I felt like the manager made a difference in the outcome. If Espada goes to King or Okert or Abreu (or lets Wesneski go another inning) instead of Scott, the Astros probably win that game. All the other losses were either due to a bad SP performance (not from being left in too long) or from the entire offense sucking (not from 1-2 guys who don’t play consistently coming up short).
Episode 98 of breathing orange fire is up. We talk beginning of the season and if we are concerned. At the end I talk worst “one shinning moment” in tournament history.
Our lineup last night left something to be desired especially leaving Rodgers out of the lineup. Yanier needed a rest day, not a day as our DH. I admit I don't know much about baseball as I do other sports, but I don't get leaving Yanier so high in the lineup when when he is obviously sucking. Same with Abreu when he was here. If someone is struggling, then at least move them down. I've been the biggest Yanier supporter here but he needs to learn some plate discipline. He obviously recognizes the pitches if he is able to put a bat on them. It's frustrating.
