The baseball world's strongest spear backed by the world's weakest shield. Our pitchers would have to avoid pitching for contact, that's for sure.
Wouldn’t it be a fascinating experience for a month though? Here’s the other question- if one Yordan got hurt or needed rest would all Yordans be hurt and need rest, or are these 8 Yordans acting independently of themselves? Also- I strongly suspect the goal would be to jump ahead by a lot early and then use your bench to make defensive replacements.
Biggest concern for me is the Yordan behind the plate, I'd imagine if a runner gets on he's all but garunteed to end up at 3rd.
Wow, Yuli is hitting .268 since July 1st. Of course, that’s pretty sh*tty hitting in front of Alvarez. When Pena is hitting in front of Alvarez he is hitting like 340 and his ops is 860. Let’s just flip them in the lineup and see which one hits better. Putting Diaz at short and benching Pena is absurd. Mancini plays first and is a better batter than Yuli and he doesn’t need Alvarez hitting behind him to be effective.
At this point I expect a playoff lineup of: Altuve 2b Yuli 1b Yordan dh Bregman 3b Tucker rf Diaz lf Pena ss Meyers cf Maldy c the only hope I have is: 1) the pitching staying fresh and Uber effective. 2) pinch hit Mancini in the 8th or 9th everytime the Astros are behind and it's Yuli, Meyers, or Maldy up. 3) then use Dubon or Vazquez for defense if needed. I would love to see a rotation based on match ups if: Yuli/Mancini 1b Diaz/Yordan lf Yordan/Mancini dh Chas cf everyday. But it does not look to be in the cards
Click has a lot more say with the lineup in the playoffs. Mancini will be in the lineup. A lot of the issues with Baker are centered around defense. The Astros ideally would have gotten another 800 OPS bat at the deadline but there wasn’t a big market. FWIW they did try for JD Martinez but the Sox wanted to keep him. A lot of very good teams are having issues with injuries or poor performance so it isn’t the Astros only.
You know I love you Shark but I thing you are reading too much into this. The Astros knew it was a POSSIBILITY that Brantley wouldn’t return or be effective this season. That wasn’t a surprise. Even Brantley didn’t know he would end up having surgery until after the deadline. So I wouldn’t beat up Click for the wording or how he answered the question. I think it is fair to ask if they did enough knowing it was a risk. We’re they too confident they would get Bell? Obviously. Should they have targeted Benentendi earlier? That’s fair to ask. The Astros were very happy with their day 1 moves and expected to make another big addition the day of the deadline but a lot of weird things happened (Cubs). I think their approach was okay, they had bad luck. However I suspect next time this happens Click will be a little more concerned about closing the deal.
I appreciate what you're saying Nook. I really do. I just have a hard time that a team that relies so much on analytics (which at the end of the day is information) would drop the ball on Brantley and where he was health wise and if he was done and going to need surgery. He was unable to swing a bat the entire time he was out. Then he doesn't even know Brantley had surgery?? Jury is still out on Click from my perspective. I guess only time will tell. Go Astros.
I am so sad about this. I love all the Astro players, but Brantley was my favorite since he came. He is so classy in every way. I loved his demeanor, his manner, his consistency, and above all his "professional" hitting. Given his age, this is probably the end of his playing career. I hope he stays with the organization is some capacity.
Bringing back JV and Brantley and signing Josh Bell and Omar Narvaez would be a solid offseason imho.
I think they have room for JV and 1 impact FA. Other than that maybe bring in a veteran AAAA type to compete with the young guys but otherwise give the young guys a chance and save the money for arbitration raises Since this is a thread about Brantley if he wants to come back on a $10M or less deal, the team is better in 2023 with him. It would be nice if he could play some first base.
Uncle Mike deserves another go if they can make the numbers work. But JV is a must to me. I know he'll cost but ELITE pitching is the only thing worth going over 35 mil plus IMO. Plus the Yankees will sign JV if he is willing to go there. It's time to go over the cap if that's what it takes to get JV here for 2-3 more years.
