Oh my favorite conceit of the Maldy ball washers- if you don’t understand what he brings to the team that’s on you and you aren’t smart enough to get it. we won the last 2 years in spite of Maldy not because of him. If we turned him loose nobody would give him a job. That was proven 4 years ago conclusively when he was a better player than then now. You aren’t being profound when you defend him, you are confusing correlation with causation. Also- this is a bash Maldonado thread, so…. uh, yeah- it’s gonna happen.
You are assuming that Dusty and Dana are on the same page... when Dusty had misalignment with the previous front office on the need for a lefty, lineup construction of R-L-R, roster makeup, and the Straw/Siri trades.
Wouldn't you be happy if the Astros are streamrolling everyone? We ain't the Mariners who celebrate a .500 record.
Lol okay. People just want to dump on Dusty and Maldy. Fine. Dusty's current Astros tenure is one of the most successful current managerial stints in baseball.... but if y'all wanna be malcontents, whatever.
So are you saying having SIX players getting MVP votes last year was enough to win the World Series despite of Dusty?
Would I be happier if the team were top of the standings? Sure. I'd be happier if we didn't have a crap ton of injuries and under performance from the big bats too. I'd be happier if Bregman reverted to 2019 Bregman, Jose Abreu 2020 MVP Abreu... etc... I'd be happier if the team had a healthy justin verlander at the top of the rotation throwing 200ip and winning the CY Young again. So on and so forth. Was shocked and super pleased that the Astros went into consecutive series with three WS contenders and basically dick-kicked all of them (blue jays, Braves, Rays). Has the team played down to their competition a lot this year? yes. is it super frustrating? yes. Do I have the confidence that the Astros still have that special "it factor" and that Dusty can lead them to another WS title? yes.
I am excited for Diaz and hope the things Brown has said come to fruition. Regardless, this is Maldy's final year and he is not going to be sitting the bench. Nothing I say is going to change that so I choose to be happy and enjoy the Astros who have a better chance of winning the World Series with Maldy catching than 85% of the seasons I have rooted for them the past 43 years. What I see from Maldy on TV is everything I love about baseball. He plays 100% for the team's benefit, hustles, makes uncommon smart plays, and always has a smile on his face. And next year I will enjoy Diaz start his run as the best and most complete catcher in team history. It's very similar to how I felt about Reddick and Tucker, but Yordan got hurt so they both played everyday anyway I'm 100% for Maldy in 2023 and 100% for Diaz 2024 and after.
Considering Yuli went through the exact same thing last year, dusty did the exact same thing, and yuli's kicked ass in the playoffs I don't understand how Dusty doesn't get the benefit of the doubt here. Re: Diaz. A few things. One, I wouldn't mind if Diaz played more. Wouldn't bother me at all. I'm not a Maldy nut hugger. I honestly don't know what Dusty's strategy is long term here. Something I do think needs to be considered is that Diaz has never been a full-time catcher. I.e. he's never played more than 60 games at C in the minors. The ML season is a 6mo grind. Add a month for the playoffs and you could easily over extend him if you played him too much too early in the season. Now who knows what that looks like? 40% catching time? 60% catching time? How do you manage a catching prospect who's never been full-time..... while managing a WS contender and planning for a 7mo season? (I.e. you could sit Diaz every day til September 1, play him only in Sept and Oct and that would still be the most games he's ever caught). I don't think the answer is nearly as simple as people make it out to be. One way to look at it is Dusty is using up Maldy now and saving Diaz bullets for the playoffs.
Yuli is toast. It was nice he had a dead cat bounce in the post-season but I'm not going to give someone credit for "predicting" dead cat bounces.
Maldy never had a monster season at the plate regardless of his silver slugger finalist status last year.
So I am not getting credit? His doubles numbers (12th in all of MLB) still showed he had pop and agility. His K/BB numbers were consistent with the rest of his career. Exit velo slipped, but only his hard hit % went down 5%, possibly due to trying to slim down during the offseason. Only his BABIP went way down.
So wanting what you think makes the team better now and in the future makes you less of a fan? You are only a good fan if you agree with the team 100% of the time and never question their choices. I was here watching this team lose 100 games because I like the direction, but I'm not fanning correctly because I think Martin Maldonado and his limp bat shouldn't start 80% of the time.
I never said you were less of a fan. We're all pretty devoted fans of the Astros. I think fixating on a particular issue in a way that's unquestionably harming your enjoyment of the team is the fandom done wrong. Especially when you railing about it changes nothing. This current Astros era is probably the most successful fandom era I'll ever experience. IDStrosFan said the same thing. Just seems silly to fixate on all the ways it isn't perfect.
Should I go back to my passed ball magnet argument then? Or how the pitchers have higher ERAs with him as catcher? Or his pitch framing is not superior to Diaz?
Not at all and I acknowledge that Maldy has been bad at everything this year. But that doesn't change the fact that almost everyone ONLY talks about hitting when they have an opinion good or bad. Other things usually only get brought up to debate or defend the initial thought.
