Agreed. It's baseball. It's all about which team is hot by October. The Nationals team came out of nowhere when they won it.
Move Yuli to LF, Brantley to RF, & Tucker to CF... Of course trading for a mediocre CF would give you the same offensive upgrade, with the added benefit of better defense.
What makes you think Yuli can play left field? In over 1500 professional games, he has played a total of 16 innings in LF. Interestingly, he had 0 opportunities to create an out in those 16 innings.
That would be by far the worst defensive outfield in baseball. Astros need to trade for a CF. Ketel Marte, Starling Marte, or Joey Gallo would be my short list of likely available players.
Would be better off moving Bregman to LF and Yuli to 3B... but they're not going after Pujols so this is largely irrelevant.
Problem with this is there really is a divergent community among CFs. Those that hit really well, and then there is a hodgepodge of guys that don't hit (except in spurts here and there). It will be hard to get a CF that can hit. On the hodgepodge, there are better players than Straw, but these guys can be as valuable as Straw over long stretches as well. I'm expecting Astros trade for a CF at the deadline, but then that guy either gets hated about a month after the trade or is glorified beyond belief for being hot for 2-4 weeks after the trade (Click won't get credit for this trade unless it goes south).
I think you extrapolating way to much on a season thats not even a 3rd of the way through and a player that's in his 2nd year of extended playing time. How the hell are you saying Altuve and Tucker could be bottom of the order hitters this early in the season. I know you are knowledgeable about baseball and I can't believe this "possible" doom and gloom coming from a guy like you. It's like some people just have to predict the next guy that's losing it, I remember when Gurriel was on his last legs.
I can totally see why you would take my comment as doom and gloom, but I didn’t really predict Tucker and Altuve would suck long term, just noted that Tucker being benched for a platoon advantage was a bad sign and that Altuve was also showing some yellow flags, and noting how important those players are to Houstons long term outlook. I still expect Tucker to rebound and have a good season, as all his underlying stats indicate he’s just been having bad luck. I am a little more worried about Altuve because his underlying stats aren’t as good, but for now I think his problems are more likely mental rather than physical decline, and I think there’s a chance that HR in NY cleared his head a bit, as it seems there has been a noticeable change in him since that happened. I do think Altuve’s days of MvP type numbers are behind him but for now still expect him to be an above average player through his remaining contract.
Because technically anybody could. Just doesn't mean he'd do it well. That is why I said it would be better to just trade for a CF. Pujols has a .622 OPS. He can't hit either, which is the point of if we were to get him and shuffle things around, it would mostly be pointless because we can get a CF that hits equally as well and plays a decent CF.
Pujols? I missed that part of the conversation. [insert Grandpa Simpson GIF walking in and out of a burlesque house]
We absolutely need an experienced ace in the rotation. we need 2-3 bullpen arms. we need a real CF. But who doesn’t right?
What has happened to Yordan's ability to draw walks? His rookie year he had 52 BBs to 94Ks while this year only 4 BB to 28Ks.
Have you watched the games? Umpires have rung him up on pitches that were clearly balls a bunch of times, and he hasn't been getting the borderline calls either.
