but we're not counting on the SS and C to drive runs in. they're batting in the 7th and 8th spot. the guy in the 4th spot isn't driving in runs. that's a big problem. you give up something at the plate for good defensive SS's and C's. you expect some pop from the corners, both infield and outfield.
because his bat has become a liability on a team that needs him to produce. this is more than a stretch - it's now six weeks and counting, and i mean six weeks of through-and-through futility. since june 1, he has as many RBIs (7) as willy taveras. let that settle... no, he's no longer on pace to hit 30 HRs; back in may, he was on pace to actually hit quite a few more than 30. but since june 1, he's hit 1. so at his current pace, he'll end up with 21. he currently has 18. and i still question the seemingly understood premise that he's a "good" hitter. he's 30 and has one truly great season, a solid season and an awful season to his credit. the track record suggests anything's possible at this point; it certainly doesn't by any stretch guarantee he'll be good. those were problems we've known about since, oh, 2000. we can win with ausmus and everett not contributing.
You can't drive in runs with a high OBP. You need a clean up guy to have a high SLG percentage. Who is he getting on base for? Ausmus? Everret? Lane? You need to respond to my last post and tell me why we should not move a guy back who in the last 30 days has a OPS of 606 and zero home runs
Because of the fact that the Astros have such a poor offense, far too much is expected of Ensberg and Berkman. But a lot of Astros fans, and I suspect management as well, aren't happy to let Ensberg be Ensberg. I know right now he sucks, but over the last 3 years, he's generally brought a good game to the park, and it would be nice for him to get a little credit for that.
this is what happens when stats are thrown into a vacuum; you can extrapolate bits and pieces and pretend that, with no context, they tell a different story. that logic falls apart when you start to assemble those bits and pieces to form a bigger picture. here's the sobbering reality - since june 1, ensberg and willy taveras have performed roughly the same in spite of taveras losing his everyday job. ensberg: .155/1/7 with 10 Rs; SLG%: .275; OBP%: .435 [71 ABs] taveras: .235/0/7 with 12 Rs; SLG%: .289; OBP%: .291 [68 ABs] again, the OBP% sure looks pretty by itself, but not when its thrown into the mix with his otherwise abysmal numbers. again, context. he was productive in april and may, so his numbers still project decently. but he hasn't actually been productive since may 22. i have no idea how to calculate rc/27, but my guess is that since that date, it's nowhere near the high 6s.
What he said...I know he sucks now, but everyone, and I mean everyone is in a slump...Should he be subbed a game now and then, absolutely, but to demote, c'mon, that's ludicrous...
i agree. let me be clear...despite what i've posted here, i'm not remotely interested in seeing them demote morgan ensberg to the minors.
he's getting credit in our inherent disappointment with his performance. notice, not a lot of us are b****ing about ausmus setting the art of hitting back about 175 years. that's because we know he sucks. but having said that, players can't rest on their laurels, primarily because it doesn't have any bearing on the present. we have a winnable division and a winnable league - it's right there for the taking. but to do so, someone's going to have to step up. wilson has done a nice job but i think he's pretty much performing at his ceiling. but ensberg or lane or someone we don't yet currently have on the roster is going to have to pick up the slack.
he needs to be removed from the everyday line-up, though. he's hurting the team. demoting him, assuming it's even viable, allows him to still play everyday and try and work thru whatever's wrong. bottom line; we need ensberg to figure it out if we're going to play in october. again, i think they should move him to the 2 hole, leave lamb 3rd, berkman 4th, wilson 5th, burke 6th. flip-flop lamb and burke with a lefty.
It's not a question of resting on his laurels. It's about considering that past performance as an indicator of future performance.
You're absurdly reactionary, and you change your argument from paragraph to paragraph. In one, you argue for a demotion, in the other, you want him moved up in the lineup to the 2 spot, a critical position to the lineup (look at how big a contribution Beltran made hitting 2nd). Lots of players have bad months, or a bad 2 months, and recover to post good seasons. Slumps DO extend that long at times. Ensberg had a terrible April last season, yet ended up with a career year. If he's healthy, there's no reason why he can't put up good numbers from here on out. He's the best 3B we have on the roster, by a good margin, and he needs to stay in the lineup for that reason alone. It's unfortunate that we depend so much on 1 or 2 players to carry our offense, but that doesn't stop one of those critical pieces from having a bad stretch. We'll survive it and be stronger when Ensberg returns to form. I notice you didn't call out Biggio, even though his June was also horrible and he also hits in a key spot in the lineup. I guess because he's had a good first week in July he's off the goat list.
i've never called for his demotion; i've asked how much longer we allow him to pollute our offense. i say, at this point, he needs to either be taken out of the line-up completely, or, if we simply have zero alternatives, moved to the 2 hole where at least his OBP% will have an impact on the game. i think people would be thrilled if he could perform up to his "terrible" april numbers of last year, compared to his june #'s: .246/.155 avg; .719/.587 OPS. no, lamb is the best 3B currently on the roster. if ensberg, though, is the only option, he needs to be replaced until he rediscovers it. this is my big problem - what about his career makes you so certain he'll return to form? no, he's not this bad, but it's not like he has an 8-year track record of great, or even good seasons. he's had one great year, another good year and an awful year. and the guy's 30, not 23. no, it's probably because biggio has a 40-year track record of being pretty darn good, and thus, it's likely he's gonna bounce back. again, he's done it every year since 12 BC.
Lamb is an awful defensive 3B. I mean, he's really bad. And moving him over to 3B would put Berkman back at 1B, meaning that Jason Lane or Willy Taveras (both also struggling) would be back in the everyday lineup. So you'd be replacing a struggling bat with another struggling bat, at the expense of defense at 3B. He was very good in 03, hurt in 04, healthy and once again excellent last year. He seems to be a solid contributor at this point (when healthy). Actually, Biggio has a drop off after the All Star break annually, so he's unlikely to improve in August or September.
You don't look at just the here and now. He is injured for God's sake. Give the man some freaking recovery time. Sure, it's been rough SINCE HE GOT OFF THE DL. Anyone who expects immediate perfection is out of there minds.
ok, if he's injured, then there's an easier solution to this....he should be resting and getting healthy.
