what good is a great defensive shortstop when the opponents are hitting the ball over the left field wall?
It would help if one of the HRs came after we should've been out of the inning if not for a bad play by the SS.
there is no point right now in the astros trying to be a good defensive team when they are routinely giving up at least 5 runs at night. until their pitching is situated, they need to get offense from where they can.
exactly. and bruntlett's offensive prowess has dropped off in this starting role. he has about 2 hits and 1 RBI in 13 AB's. his average has dropped about 40 points since then. i realize the whole team is struggling. but the notion that this guy is somehow the "answer" is beyond me. i'd STILL rather have everett's glove out there.
again..bad defense is leading to more guys on base which is leading to more runs driven in when they do get to our pitching.
Once again, had Bruntlett made the play that Everett would've made, it would have only been a one-run inning instead of a four-run inning. That shows how important defense is to this team.
this is silly, they were shut out. it makes no difference. it wasn't an error, there's no given that adam makes the play. he probably does, but it makes no difference. until their starting pitching comes around its a moot point. arguing if one play would have been made in an 8 run loss in which no errors were made is kind of silly.
i'm not jumping on the astros, I'm just saying they are in one of the worst stretches I've ever seen them in, there starting pitching is shaky as its been since 2000 and you guys are debating wheter adam everett should start.
I agree, it all starts with pitching and right now, there is only one reliable pitcher on the team and his back hurts. UGH !! DD
If you want to help the starting pitching, you put good defense behind it. Notice what an effect it had on our team the last few years getting Biggio out of left field, Berkman out of center field, Willy/Beltran into centerfield, etc. Pitching looks much better in the longrun when backed by good defense.
Just because the official scoring was an error doesn't mean that it wasn't the SS's fault that the play wasn't made. And true, there's no guarantee that Everett would've made the play. Of course, having watched Everett the past couple of seasons, I'd bet any amount of money that he would have. And no, it may not have made a difference last night, but that doesn't change the point. What if we did score runs last night? What if we lost 4-3? Would you not then argue that one defense mistake (even if it wasn't called an error) was huge? Plus, Zambrano pitching with a one-run lead is a lot different than pitching with a four-run lead. Not to mention the psyche of a rookie pitcher who is having a very tough go of it lately.
notice what effect you have when roger and andy are having their best years and roy oswalt is having a good year for himself. your defense wasn't that spectacular last year with biggio, berkman and willy t. you had no above average defensive player but adam last year.
Those guys are strikeout pitchers - they don't rely as much on defense as the guys we have going right now. Up-the-middle defense is the key, for whatever reason (that's why CF, 2B, SS, and C are the weakest hitting positions). Willy has superb range in CF. He did make some dumb errors, but its a vast upgrade from previous years' garbage. Biggio is better than he was a few years ago at 2nd for whatever reason. Everett is ridiculously good, and Ausmus is well above average.
I don't think anyone's excusing the shobby pitching by our starters and our bullpens. The debate about Everett starting is from a past debate regarding offense (Bruntlett) v. defense (Everett) at the SS position.
but it matters as how the position relates to the team. its like the mike james/rafer alston debate that went on all last season in the GARM. and I admit I'm guilty of that, but people are arguing which guy is better for team this past season when it doesn't matter in the big picture if yao and tracy are gonna be hurt most of the season. defensive or offensive shortstop is neither here nor there in big picture of the astros. its a luxury when the astros are playing well to carry an adam everett when the astros are playing well but right now its just an debate to be debating. more important issues outside of pitching is lead off hitting and endsburg's consisentcy, and making a decision on jason lane and getting burke some playing time. shortstop as it applies to the astros is just way down the list imo.
I agree with this whole heartedly. I thought out of all the things we should be debating about the current Astros, the 8th guy in the lineup would probably be one of the last worries.
I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about Bruntlett, not a slump, not a collective grip, but we're talking about Bruntlett. Not the below .500 record in games started by the 2 top starters, not the pathetic situational hitting, but we're talking about Bruntlett man. How silly is that? Now I know that he's supposed to get hits by the truckload and all that but I'm not shoving that aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I honestly do but we're talking about Bruntlett. We're talking about Bruntlett man. We're talking about Bruntlett. We're talking about Bruntlett. We're not talking about the worst collective OF in baseball. We're not talking about the crappy pitching. We're not talking about the middle of the order not creating runs. We're talking about Bruntlett. When you come to Minute Maid Park, and you see the Astros play, you've seen the Astros play right? You've seen all the Astros play like crap but we're talking about Bruntlett right now.
