Dubon is a streaky hitter. I think we all know where he will be by seasons end. I’m not sure that we have more wins if he’s here. that said, I like to see Doobie do well. He seems like a nice, humble guy. I’m glad he got a nice payday too. Not much $ by baseball standards, I know. Yet, he probably won’t have to work a real job in his life, if he doesn’t want to. Financial freedom. FY money. That’s what it’s really all about.
I've always said they'll miss Dubon because of the elite value he provided at so many different positions so they never have to play scrubs. But the offense - and in particular, the infield - wasn't and isn't their problem right now. They didn't trade Dubon to get Allen. They did it to get cash to spend in other more vital places. And Dubon is likely to end up back as a 0.700ish OPS hitter. A hot start doesn't likely change who he will be for the season.
I don’t think we should let the pitching coach off the hook either. We have walked 25 hitters in the last 3 games—8.33 per game. For the season, we have walked 96 in 16 games— 6 per game! That leads the majors by a substantial margin. I recognize that if we had not walked them, some may have reached on hits or errors. But, even if we assume that the Mariners would have hit .500 in those 25 at bats (!), that means we would have had 12 extra outs. And, if the Astros had held the Mariners to a .265 average (their current league average batting average allowed) that’s only 7 hits, and thus 18 additional outs. That would make huge difference to the pitching staff — less work, less runs. We are playing against the professional baseball players— we don’t need to help them!
This is the most bizarre part of it. How does every single pitcher on the Astros suddenly start walking the bases loaded on a routine basis. Some people mentioned the ABS, but you'd think that would screw with other pitchers too. And they weren't doing it in spring training. Pitching coaches adjust strategy and mix of pitches, but I doubt they are tinkering with mechanics to the point of screwing up every pitcher. These guys should still know how to throw strikes.
My answers are Sign Giolito and bring up Arrighetti Use Blubaugh/Teng/King in high leverage situations until Hader gets back, Trade for another high leverage reliever at the deadline.
I am on board with signing Giolito is the money makes sense but he won’t be ready to join a rotation for at least 2-3 weeks from when he signs. There is so much unknown right now with Brown and Imai; it’s probabiy safe to write Javier off for awhile. But my staff until more is known would be: SP: McCullers, Arrighetti, Imai, Burrows, Bolton, Weiss Multi-inning RP: Teng, Roa Leverage RP: King, Abreu, De Los Santos, Blubaugh, Okert Teng and Roa would be part of a rotating group of optionable arms (along with Gordon, Murray, Alexander, and France) to keep 2 fresh arms on hand at all times. When Sousa is ready, Blubaugh goes to AAA and joins the back and forth group. If Bolton goes on the IL, Lambert takes his place. If Imai goes on the IL, they add a 3rd optionable relief arm and go to a 5 man rotation. Part of what is complicating this mess is them having to be down a RP to accommodate a 6 man rotation for Imai.
Typically I am the last one to give up, but with Walker looking solid, should we look for a trade partner? This streak has me down in the dumps.
Wild but not debilitating with our awesome infield. Arrighetti, 3.75 ERA / 5.2 IP is solid trade off.
Burrows probably hits the IL soon (probably leaves todays game with tightness) and of course McCullers. Burrows has been terrible
