Your comment doesn’t make any sense. But regardless, over the course of ~60 games in LF in Minute Maid, and only during the close games as that’s the only time it would make a difference, how many non-routine, playable balls would be hit to Duda (who would only play the first 7-8 innings before being replaced by Marisnick)? Back of the envelope my math says about 5. All this fuss over ~5 more hits allowed during the course of a 162 game season.
Oh brother. I’ll disengage after this comment. I never said they only signed him for his bat. I said they signed him mainly for his bat, I acknowledged that his off the field contributions were a (distant) secondary factor. Literally the first sentence of your quote shows the primary reason he was brought it was for his expected offensive production. There is an awful lot of reading comprehension failure and missing the point in this thread.
You also said that as the season went on and his performance was poor that his signing was embarrassing to the front office. That is a ridiculous take. His signing was never an embarasssment. Here’s a reminder: Once he starting sucking, they had to fall back to that line to avoid embarrassment. Once the season got far enough along that it was obvious Beltran wasn’t going to be a productive player, the coaches, front office, and ownership had to fall back to his off the field contributions to avoid embarrassing him and themselves…
This is certainly true. I've completely missed the point about how signing Beltran last year for difference reasons to fit in a different lineup would be some kind of weird rationale of why they might be interested in a guy like Duda this year.
This is a great era for our dynasty to take place in given that the Yankees, Dodgers, RedSox, and Cubs are not only relevant, but extremely young & talented. If we build a dynasty over the next 10 years, we will have not only earned it, but the baseball world will be watching with the high profile teams all in it. The majority of these teams project to have bright futures over the next 5-10 years based on predicted futures of all past world series teams and who maintained relevance and why. ...............................................AVERAGE AGE........... ....................WAR TEAM .......ELO RATING...... BATTERS PITCHERS..................... BATTERS PITCHERS PREDICTED WINS/SEASON 1 Dodgers..1581.6.... ...............27.7.......... 29.7................................29.9........... 21.3........... 90.0 2 Indians... 1596.7................. 28.1.......... 29.1............................... 27.6........... 32.5........... 89.2 3 Astros.... 1575.0................ 28.8.......... 28.5................................ 36.5...........17.0........... 88.6 4 Cubs....... 1546.0................ 26.6.......... 30.8................................ 26.9...........15.5........... 87.5 5 Yankees. 1570.7................. 28.7..........27.6................................ 28.8.......... .24.0........... 85.8 6 Nationals 1550.7................. 29.0......... 29.9................................ 23.2........... 23.4........... 85.4 7 Red Sox. 1549.9................. 27.3......... 28.4............................... .19.2........... 22.8........... 84.8 8 Diamond 1534.4.................. 28.3..........28.3............................... 19.4.............25.8........... 84.1
I think the Astros should sign Ichiro to a one year deal. He can platoon at LF and DH like Beltran did last year. Imagine the hitting knowledge he could bestow upon Altuve, Correa, Bregman, and Springer...plus he could retire as a champion
Ichiro earned $2 million last year. If he wanted to accept $2 million as a roving batting instructor in the Astros system, I'd be all for that. But I don't want to have to watch him put up a ~.650 OPS next year when we have White, Fisher, Gattis, and maybe Reed or Kemmer take ABs at DH and LF.
New poster here. I like that! I think it would be great for our team, plus it gives him a legitimate shot at a ring.
I’d be ok with this. I trust Houston’s front office to judge what he has left in the tank but I agree if he still has one last gasp he’d be a great 9 hole hitter in LF.
Marwin Gonzalez was just ranked the #9 LF in baseball on the MLB network. I’d rather gamble on him or Marisnick who hit 16 he’s in under 300 AB’s or Fisher
Adding a LF doesn’t mean Marisnick and Marwin are off the team. Adding a position player from outside will come at the expense of Fisher or Stassi. Like I said, I trust Luhnow and whichever route they go I will be fine with.
Interesting ballpark graphic of the Astros 2018 ZiPS projected WAR by position. It rounds off the projected WAR to the closest whole number. Puts the Astros right at 52 projected WAR. Next closest AL team is the Indians at 48. Then the Yankees at 46 projected WAR. Their pitching staff's projected WAR is at 24 while ours is at 21. However, we have a huge advantage in projected position players WAR... 31 to 22. For comparisons sake, we were projected at 49 total WAR by ZiPS prior to last season. The Cubs were projected at 51 WAR heading into last season. After the Astros projected 52 WAR the next closest team in the entire MLB is the Dodgers at 49 WAR. Interested to read the entire Astros ZiPS post when it comes out today to see what kind of seasons they project our guys to have.
I've kind of held back on saying this because it sounds like shortsighted hyperbole, but could this be the greatest infield of all time? I know Gurriel gives a ton of ground to many historic 1B, but 2 middle infielders that can produce 900 OPS, and a 3B that can be in the mid 800's, without any significant defensive liabilities has to be pretty damn rare. We managed 21 bWAR and 18 fWAR(not including Marwin or the catchers) with Correa missing 1/3 of the season, and Bregman starting slowly. It's a bold statement, but I don't think it a ridiculous one. And again, this is without even accounting for our amazing 5th infielder.
There's likely room for *any* player to improve, of course - but I'm not sure these guys are worth a $2MM investment - they're pretty good. As for Ichiro, while he speaks English well, apparently (I don't believe I've ever heard him speak), he still uses a translator for interviews. Communication is essentially the foundation of coaching; not sure how he'd... hum, well - translate as a coach.
Here's Fangraphs ZiPS profile for this year's Astros. It was released just this morning. Important disclaimer to read given the fact that you'll see projected stats for all sorts of minor leaguers... "ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of performance. Performances have not been allocated to predicted playing time in the majors — many of the players listed above are unlikely to play in the majors at all in 2017. ZiPS is projecting equivalent production — a .240 ZiPS projection may end up being .280 in AAA or .300 in AA, for example. Whether or not a player will play is one of many non-statistical factors one has to take into account when predicting the future." So, if I understand correctly, for the minor leaguers listed in the statistical predictions, those are ZiPS predictions on how each given player would perform if they were on the major league club (regardless of whether or not that player is actually likely to play in the majors at any point this season). https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-zips-projections-houston-astros/
Evan Gattis (448, 1.8 zWAR) has the trademark power of a designated hitter but not the trademark other attributes. His projected 108 wRC+ isn’t ideal at DH. But that forecast is also based on his offensive output from years in which he’s made a number of defensive appearances behind the plate. His production figures to improve if he’s not exposed to the slings and arrows of catching. Someone hasn't been paying attention.
Noticed that as well. I'm sure that was an attempted justification for the number the computer spit out (which likely wouldn't take into effect something along the lines of a players splits while DH'ing compared to while catching).
Off the top of my head, mid-70s Reds with Perez, Morgan, Concepcion and Rose was pretty good, especially if you consider Bench as catcher as part of the infield. Concepcion was clearly the weak link offensively.
