While acknowledging that both Astros catchers have been woefully inadequate offensively, how has Lee fared against major league pitching? I assume the Astros management wants Lee to get as many reps as possible. Backing up Maldonado won't give him near the experience as playing every day in the minors.
There is no doubt the Astros know what they are doing better than me, but I would rather see Lee struggle and gain valuable ML experience than watch Castro struggle. As far as playing time, maybe a 40/60 split with Maldy would give him enough reps. As to his faring vs ML pitching, I will bet you a case of Doritos that he can do better than a .268 OPS.
You really are special. How do you capitalize on his greatest attribute working with pitchers, a defense on the bench? Don't you want your backup catcher able to be a better hitter for pinch hitting? And then you just had to throw in a Click bash because you are so special.
Nope, I want him catching a couple of games a week, kinda like Luhnow did when he added Conger. I'm not special, we just have different opinions on Click and how he's added to the team in relation to the things Luhnow did.
I'm not looking for a .300 hitting catcher. (Although it would be nice) But last I checked Maldy was hitting .078 and Castro was hitting ,083. that's if my math is correct .161 COMBINED. LMAO
I'm okay with a 6 man rotation for the time being during this condensed stretch, but a 7 man bullpen having to get through 3-4 innings every night on average...that math doesn't work long term. Once we get through this 30 game stretch, we're gonna have to try dedicated tandem or something else, because outright 6 man rotations can't work with modern pitchers usually only going 5-6 innings. The bullpen is gonna be on fumes before long.
Has there been somebody in the bullpen who would be considered over used? I actually think he’s done a fairly good job of mixing it up and letting guys pitch in different roles (especially without Pressly), while minimizing back to back usage and still keeping pitch counts within reason. and that’s with having all the close games with Toronto recently. More games like today do go a long ways towards bullpen resets.
We had 2 extra pitchers, a lot of days off and Javier in the pen for the first 3 weeks. So at this moment nobody has been really overused. A few months of what we've been doing the last 2 weeks, yes a 7 man bullpen is gonna get overused. Fortunately the starters have been amazing so we haven't had to cover any short outings.
Hank Conger was an Astro in 2015 and caught fewer than half the games. And he hit pretty well as a part-time guy, and then he was out of MLB a year later at the age of 28. That's it for him. Why do you think that was?
An eight man rotation of Starters/Tandems and a five man pen would be about right for managing the normal schedule. 1 Starter & Tandem 2 Starter & Pen 3 Starter & Tandem 4 Starter & Pen 5 Starter & Tandem Starters & Tandems include 1 JV 2 Valdez 3 Garcia 4 Odo, 5 Javier 6 Urq 7 Brown 8 Solomon With McCullers, Whitley and others rotating in as they become available.
He hit pretty well in '15 (good bit above league avg) for the Stros and couldn't do shitall else. (except for the Robot in the dugout...always respect the Congerbot) Again, what does that tell you?
It would be fairly easy to decide which of Javier or Odorizzi deserves to stay in the rotation, and make one of them a long reliever (again). There will also likely be injuries along the way that forces a starter to the DL... and the hope that some guys make it off the DL. I do think the pen is as strong as ever, with interchangeable high leverage guys that do allow for some variability in who he uses in either close games or trying to protect a lead. Some order of Maton, Abreu, Taylor for innings 5-7.... and some order of Nerris, Montero, Stanek, Pressly for 7-9 possibilities.
If they decided to stick with a 6 man rotation long term then they’d probably have to go to a 14 pitcher staff and send down a position player (Goodrum). Alternatively they could stay with a 7 man bullpen and make the 7th guy a constantly rotating low leverage multi-inning arm from AAA (Abreu, Mushinski, Solomon, Bielak, Martinez, Blanco); that would ensure the SP plus multi inning guy got thru 6 innings, and the other 6 arms (Pressly, Neris, Montero, Stanek, Maton, Taylor) could pitch 1 inning every other night. But extra inning games and/or a starting pitcher getting knocked out before the 4th inning would wreck that pretty quickly.
I'm guessing the Astros toggle between a 5-man and a 6-man rotation depending on off days, who's healthy, and how big a lead the Astros get over the rest of the AL West.
I think even with Pressly being out there is a broader array of pitchers Dusty feels comfortable using in situations he considers as mattering. Neris, Montero, and Abreu have all performed well and weren't really around last year. Even a guy like Mushinski who hardly any fans even know about has performed well and could be a difference maker already as a reliever. This success has stopped Dusty from forming his security blanket of 2-3 relievers.
