Short of maybe Castro, I don't think anybody has high expectations out of anybody in our farm system.
I've seen some pretty crazy posts that would beg to differ but I agree that the vast majority of people around here are very reasonable.
How bad do you have to be for the team to release you with no good player replace you? God he's terrible... On a side note, with all this AJ hoopla going on, should the Astros ask Matsui to restructure the deal so that he only gets paid the minimum this year? I mean, if a player should get paid more because he's performed better than his contract, shouldn't the opposite occurs too? Matsui's not worth $5 mil or whatever he's paid for. Maybe he should restructure his salary on par with his play, which is a minor league contract.
Here's an article from ESPN back in the day when they thought that Kaz was going to be a combination of Ichiro and Hideki. :grin: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3635525 Check out that uni. Look familiar?
He's around a .252 hitter against RHP for his career. Not that bad. He is well above .300 vs. LHP. He crushed everyone in the minors, though, and really never hit less than .300 for a complete season. Kind of platooned his first few years in the majors. Maybe this is his shot to see if he can put it all together finally. Seems like an old school guy who knows how to play the game and plays hard. No @ss fissures here.
So long and good riddance. Step in the right direction. Now if we can just unload our 3 big names and get some prospects!
Kepp has a dramatic drop-off against RHP and if he's an everyday player, most of his PA will be against RHP. You need to look at more than AVG. For his career... vs RHP: .645 OPS over about 1000 PA vs LHP: .885 OPS over about 450 PA http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=keppije01&year=Career&t=b#plato Now, if those numbers were reversed, it would be one thing but if he's facing RHP regularly, he will ultimately struggle and represent well below average offense for his position, esp. when you factor in his lack of power. If he is being used as a situational hitter against LHP, he's awesome. If he's facing RHP regularly, he's a liability. It's not his fault but it's a fact. He's had 1000 PA against RHP so there is an enormous sample size. Despite getting his due props early in the season, he was already down to an overall OPS of .676 coming into tonight's game. That is well below league average for his position, or really any position. This is once again entirely due to his struggles against RHP combined with his lack of pop: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=keppije01&year=2010&t=b#plato His 2010 stats are almost a mirror image of his career stats. He simply doesn't hit RHP well and that makes it nearly impossible to be a legit starting infielder... unless you play for the Stros. :grin: Kepp's 30-years-old and is what he is: an outstanding situational hitter vs LHP who can play mediocre-at-best defense at a couple of positions.
I agree with all of that about Kep. He's kind of like Adam Everett when facing RHP and like Craig Biggio when facing LHP. I tried to overlook some numbers and focus on some success he had in the minors hitting all pitching, but in the 1000 AB sample size in mlb, Keppinger hasn't gotten it done against righties. I'd rather have him in their than Matsui or Oswaldo Navarro, though. Really not many options for this team at second base. Matt Kata? He's hitting as well as Navarro at RR.
thank god...he's been atrocious for too long and never liked the signing...too bad carlos lee's contract is too big to do something like that...
I also had a dream last night we traded Lee for prospects, but my vision was unclear as to what team and what prospects. Oh well, the point is I had a vision
I was watching the highlights of last nights game on MLBtv this morning, and the best part came at the end when she said, "Immediately following the game, the Astros requested waivers for IF Kaz Matsui." :grin:
