Hard to sympathize too much with Chas after he was so bad last season. He’s lucky he wasn’t non-tendered. That said, I do think it’d be better to option him than have him play so little.
Yes he was really bad. But he wasn't much worse than Dubon. He was injured most of last season where as Dubon is never going to be even an average hitter. Other than last season, Chas has shown that he is an above average outfielder with an above average bat. I'm pretty sure the real issue is Chas's personality. I take it that people just don't love him.
Brown has a real shot at top 3 Cy Young. I don't think Cam is going to win ROTY unless he goes on a tear. We will see. I think things have gone better than we could have expected with our young guys. Our issue is what should have been our first, third, and fourth best bat haven't even been replacement level. I know Alvarez will get it together, but I'm not so sure with Walker and Diaz. They have been pretty horrible at swinging at bad pitches.
Dubon has had 2 seasons where he was nearly exactly league average with the bat, posting a wRC+ of 98 (2020) and 99 (2023). Based on last season, Dubon was a better hitter than McCormick. But just because Dubon is playing more than he deserves doesn’t mean Chas is being mistreated. I certainly don’t think McCormick should be playing over any of the current everyday OF (Smith, Meyers, and Altuve); if anything, those 3 guys should play more, leaving even less time for McCormick, Dubon, and Dezenzo. The bottom line for me is that the roster currently has one too many position players. The 13th man shouldn’t be someone who plays very much. That role needs to be filled by a clubhouse presence, a niche speed or power guy used for pinch running or pinch hitting, or a 3rd catcher who helps with gameplanning but doesn’t play much. I still think management expected an injury or trade to open up playing time, and for whatever reason it hasn’t gone as planned.
The 13th guy should be Dubon. I think Chas should be the 4th outfielder until he proves he can not. If he sucks, then we should trade him or option him. I think Dezenzo should be the primary backup infielder for everyone not named Pena until we choose to option him. We don't owe Dubon playing time.
Your primary backup middle infielder is not going to be the 13th guy. But at this point it seems like it would be disruptive to have Dubon sit the bench so much. Honestly I wish they’d kept Singleton and sent down either Dezenzo or McCormick. Singleton was a good 13th man; somebody who wasn’t going to cause trouble but could come in every so often as a lefty power bat and take a walk or hit a HR at a crucial spot. As it stands, I think Guillorme or Salazar would make the best 13th man.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on Dubon's role. I also rather have the 13th player have some upside instead of just being a warm body.
So, if Hunter Brown finishes top 3 of Cy Young, and Cam Smith wins ROY they both qualify, but my understanding is that the team can get only 1 pick in any given year. ( please correct me if I'm wrong) My question is, if that happens are both players done? If Cam Smith then finishes top 3 in MVP in 2027, will the Astros get another pick, or does he no longer qualify since he won ROY ?
Are you wanting Chas to play 2nd base? Dubon hasn't started in the OF for weeks and has 9 ABs total out there, with some of those coming in late inning switches. You'd need to bench Altuve, Smith, or Meyers if you want Chas to play more.
I listened, commented, and gave a 5 star rating. The good: I was enjoying it and couldn't believe an hour went by so quick when you started talking about family. The bad: It really sounded like you crammed about 30 minutes of content into an hour. Lol. Seriously, though, I like the banter and giving 10 minutes of context to a 2 minute point is right up my alley - love it. Let me know when you want to start having guests. I don't have any friends to follow the Astros. Out here in the great Northwest, my friends are all Mariners or Didgers fans, believe it or not.
I want Chas to play LF or RF the 9th inning of every game the Astros have a 3+ run kead, and 8th and 9th inning if the Astros have a 4+ run lead. but I want Altuve moved to 2b and Rodgers/Dubon taken out to be the default and done 60+% of the time. The leverage bullpen guys are much less likely to get ground balls than Framber/Brown/McCullers.
I actually think he is perfect ( except for not able to hit RHP) for the 4th OF spot and no longer has the upside to worry about him needing ABs. Send Dezenzo to AAA if anyone goes. That could actually benefit him and the team in the long run.
This is where fantasy baseball and real baseball diverge. They aren't going to keep flipping Altuve in and out of 2B this season. They want him to focus on and get comfortable in the OF, and he's not some utility player that gets shuffled around all the time. They might start him at 2B occasionally since all their other options are mediocre, and they might switch him there late in specific circumstances, but it's not going to be a regular thing. He's already bad at both positions, and moving back and forth is just going to make that worse. Pretty sure the Astros aren't going to be concerned about blowing 3+ run 9th inning leads to the point that they are going to make substitutions to get Chas more at-bats at the expense of annoying the face of their franchise.
Altuve has started 3 if the past 12 games at 2b. That's 25%. And he's only started 5 in LF. It looks to me like they already are keeping Jim a LF AND a 2b. It doesn't look like they are too worried about him going back and forth. And playing Chas has nothing to do with getting him ABs. In fact, I would argue the best scenario is putting him in after that spot in the order was cleared the previous inning. Playing Chas for defense without him ever getting to the plate is the ideal situation for the team winning.
Chas has had a total of 22 plate appearances so 9 abs would almost increase his plate appearances by 50 percent.
Sure - and all were in the first week of the season when everyone was rotating and everyone was sucking. One of those games, Chas actually started as well. There's exactly two games where Dubon started somewhere that Chas could have and, in one of those, Chas still got in the game at another OF spot. In total, we're talking 6 plate appearances that one mediocre hitter took from another mediocre hitter. You're pissed off today about something that happened twice in the first week and hasn't happened since. And you wish Chas was the 4th outfielder, which he actually is.
Right - as I said, because the alternatives suck at this point. But they aren't moving him around in middle of games like you would with a utility player. I would look at Mookie Betts as your comparison here and how the Dodgers have moved him around and used him over the last few years. If you were bringing in Chas for defense, you'd bring him in in 1 or 2 run games where one play or one error really matters. Not 3+ or 4+ run games - those games you bring in people simply to get playing time, like Chas came in yesterday.
I would say that the lesser the lead, the less likely you are to pull an all-star level impact hitter out of the game. Like the last game in Seattle, you can't pull out your star bats and then lose the lead. But that's also why I would pull Rodgers/Dubon and move Altuve, keeping him in the game.
