CONGRATS YULI! And thanks to a family member of Brantley who paid Connor Greene to plunk Guerrero in his last AB to secure Brantley with the 2nd best batting average in the AL.
Yuli would have won a number of batting titles had he come over as a teenager. I am happy for him. 319 would have been 340 a decade ago .
No sir.. Many posters have negative feelings about Luhnow, so anything positive about him will be disregarded.
Yep, I forgot to thank Luhnow. Crane for actually spending the money, Hinch and Dusty for managing him. Alex Cintron for coaching him. Kyle Tucker for providing consistent protection. Mama and papa Gurriel for berthing him, Clayton Kershaw for hanging curve balls. Man, so many others. Roy Hofheinz, Ken Lay, Drayton, I could really go on for ages.
Even though Yuli has only played a part of his career in MLB, he has established himself as an elite Astros baseball player, even in His golden years as a pro ball player. Yuli has been in the playoffs with the Astros since 2017; being integral in winning a title. The amazing part is that Yuli was touted as an above average 3rd base defender, but with Bregman there he took his elite defense to 1st base. And even though he’s never won a gold glove, he’s playing just about as good at 1st base defense as could be expected, even from a genus gold glover. And at the age of 38, he won the batting title. Sure it was the lowest batting champion since 1972 when .318 was good enough to win it. But a title is a title, he earned it by playing exceptionally well, and donning a very productive OPS, notable with only 15 HR’s (means he was all around productive). Congratulations to Yuli, a well deserved batting title.
Interesting to me how much heat was given to Altuve sitting out the final game to secure a battle title (which he ended up actually playing and going 2-4), but none for Gurriel?
I think a lot has to do with the fact that if Altuve went 0 for 4 he could allow the next guy a chance to overtake him by going 4 for 4, but by not playing, it eliminated the drama theoretically. But like you said, Altuve went all out warrior and played regardless because it was his call to over ride management. That warrior mentality has suited Altuve and he has been very clutch in the playoffs. He has earned a lot of what he has gotten because doesn’t rest on his laurels. I don’t think Yuli’s batting title was in any jeopardy from Vlad or Brantley.
Boston did the year Joe Kelly was on their team and they were cheating on their way to winning the World Series. Mookie and JD.
I really, really want him to win the Gold Glove, mostly because you can tell how much work he put into it to get to this point after changing positions at an older age. Hitting was never a question.
