Definitely deserves a little more opportunity to see.... but has 250 major league at bats that bring a .240 average and OPS under .670 250 is very small sample so he could certainly do better, but he is 27 and has had 3 good games, I wouldn't be quite ready to get rid of our very productive catching tandem quite yet
His bat needs to improve from those numbers, but his defense easily beats McCattis. Zero SBs today by the opponent probably breaks a 10-game streak.
What's more important is the magic number for home field advantage. Actually... looking at our Home/Away splits...
While Nationals and Cubs would both be terrific match-ups if we make the World Series - man, I can't lie: Dodgers/Astros, for a variety of reasons, would be a ton of fun.
Just rewatched the 9th inning from both Astros and Jays feed....that was fun. Hope that is the igniter to get us to turn things around.
I need to watch it. I was coming back from Austin and getting horrible reception from 1300. I turned it off after Fisher's K ending the 8th thinking it was the 9th.
Postseason lineup when everyone is healthy is going to be realllll interesting. One of Beltran or Fisher will be sitting most likely.
Really, when Gattis gets back from the DL, I won't be surprised if McCann gets placed on the 10-day. He hit for a .169 average in JUly and is only 1-for-10 in August. He's got to be ailing from something. By the end of the year, we might even see Max Stassi up the way things are going. But yeah, count me in for seeing more Centeno this season. He's been hitting well all year, at Fresno as well as MMP. He certainly looks legit.
Really looking forward to seeing Tyler White hit against the White Sox. Like Moran and Centeno, Tyler has exceeded expectations for offensive production after getting called up to the big club. Just a couple notes here on what he's done so far -- - Hitting HRs in three consecutive at-bats is pretty rare. According to ESPN, 36 players have hit HRs in four consecutive ABs. I couldn't find data on back-to-back-to-back HRs but I'm guessing there are probably a couple hundred players in that club. - There was some question early this season about whether Tyler can hit for power. His first two HRs were measured at 379 and 417 feet, as compared with the league average of about 400 feet. Oddly, ESPN's HR Tracker doesn't record a distance for the third HR. - Tyler looks like he may get 150 or so ML ABs this season. When he first got called up, I'd have guessed he would get about 6 HRs (just based on what he did in Fresno) but I'd probably have to bump that up to 10 now. He had 19 HRs at Fresno this year over about 400 PAs. - His K rate of 28% is four points higher than it was with the Stros last season and seven points higher than it was at Fresno this year. I expect that number to come down to around 22% and if it does, that will only translate into more hits and walks. Tyler's OBP over his first 31 ML PA's is .344 so if the K% comes down, his OBP may rise closer to his AAA OBP this year of .371. He seemed jittery and tentative in his first 25 PA's so that probably explains some of the high K% so far. - So far, Tyler has managed to hit few ground balls (29% this season vs 43% last season) and instead hit more fly balls (52% vs 39%). At AAA this year, 18.1% of Tyler's fly balls left the park, and we have to remember that ML balls travel about 11 feet further than Minor League balls (different manufacturers & specs). So, if he keeps on hitting fly balls, that bodes well for his slugging pct and also would mean he's less likely to GIDP. - So far, Tyler has been avoiding soft contact (5% this year vs 19% last year) and instead getting more medium contact (57% vs 50%) and hard contact (38% vs 31%). Of course his ML stats for this season reflect a very small sample size, so by the end of the month it will be possible to get a better handle on what Tyler brings to the table. While Tyler isn't known for stellar defense, if he can exceed expectations and maintain an OPS above .850, it will be hard to keep him off the playoff roster as a DH/PH and infield sub.
White's biggest disappointment (for me) has been his strikeouts. He was touted as somebody who had a discerning eye and a strong contact tool in the minors... and that has been far from the case in his brief MLB stint. On the one hand, it could just be both sides continuing to adjust to one another... on the other (more likely) hand, White is somewhere between a AAA and above-average MLB player.... and those increased K's are a reflection of facing better competition.
He certainly did seem to be taking a lot of pitches right over the heart of the plate in his first ML PAs this year. He'd get frustrated with himself for taking those pitches and proceed to strike out. In the Estrada game, Tyler HR'd in his first PA and then K'd in a failed hit and run play. I tend to think that if the coaching staff hadn't called for the hit and run, Tyler would have walked in that AB. It might have set a different tone for him the rest of the night; I'm not sure. Time will tell if he's a AAAA player or a ML player. I think we'll know by September. However, his AAA numbers suggest broad overall improvement over the past 16 months (AAA wRC+ of 109 in 2016 has risen to 127 in 2017, over a total of about 600 plate appearances) so I'll be very surprised if his K% this year is actually higher than last year's 24%. It's going to take some work for Tyler to get back into fans' good graces after his big disappointment last season. However, when I look at the overall trajectory of his career, I see a guy who was consistently regarded as a mere support player who'd hit for below league average.... and then far exceeded everyone's expectations. It's possible that the the big leagues will be the one nut he doesn't crack, but somehow I think he'll rise to this challenge too.
He'll probably be more Jason Lane than Morgan Ensberg.... neither ended up playing that long, or getting a huge deal, but both had their share of moments (Ensberg ending up making an all-star game and finishing a top 5 MVP I guess is more than just sharing a moment).
White is a mistake hitter. I have supported him for a long time and think he can contribute, but he is going to need to feast on mistakes.
If Tyler White catches the final out of an ALCS for the Astros and jumps in the air with joy, I'll be pretty happy with his contributions
Ain't going to happen. Going into next season though you have to consider moving McCann or Gattis. It just doesn't make a ton of sense to keep both in contract years when we don't have options on Centeno or Stassi who could be good long-term backups for us.
