I get what you are saying and you are right to a large extent. But people are not saying " I hate Dusty because I hate Dusty " The reasons are valid. Gurriel IS having a terrible year there is no debating that. But Dusty continues to give reasons ( many that got disproven immediately) to start him game after game. Dubon IS the worst player on this team and it's not even close. The eyes AND all the statistical evidence show he is a worse CF than Chas or Jake but Dusty keeps putting him in the lineup. This team is winning despite Dusty's 1B and CF choices However his pitching moves have been stellar. However the playoffs are a different animal. 1) Dusty desperately wants to win a World Series so won't make decisions based on favoritism. 2) Dusty will be pressured and outright ordered to make specific lineups and maybe even in game decisions. 3) He wants to coach next year so can not afford to be insubordinate. I'm not worried about the playoffs
Agreed completely and totally with the overall thrust of your point- just a couple nuts to pick…. Trey Mancini has not been a below average hitter this year. His ops plus is something like 109 for the season. Jeremy Peña is at something like 96 OPS+. He also grades out really well on the basepaths. I consider the basepaths to be a part of being an offensive player so I would put him at smack dab average as an offensive player. I suppose you could technically say that 96 OPS+ means he’s a below average player but I think that’s kind of limiting. I think of anyone +\- 5% or so from 100 as in a range I call average. So- I give him the benefit of the doubt and say average. I conceptualize it a little bit like this: Below 85- failing/awful/black hole. 85- 95- below average 95-105- average 105-120- really good 120-150- all star caliber with the bat 150 plus- let’s talk about how high he ought to finish in the mvp voting.
He's had roughly 2/3 of the available ABs for someone that bats that low in the batting order. How in the hell is Dusty going to go from that insane and unjustified usage to not having him on the playoff roster? He's going to take valuable ABs away from both Diaz and McCormick. He's going to start roughly half the playoff games. This is going to happen.
If that happens than that is 100% on Click. The GM is the boss and has final say on the roster. If Dubon makes the postseason roster and then gets starts then that means Click wanted that to happen.
Is it possible that they were better in previous years because they had better players, rather than because they started trying to launch-angle everything?
I can guarantee you that the Astros, unlike some fans apparently, knew about launch angles well before this season.
Very interesting, the White Sox have decided to only give Cease one more start. At the Padres, and that team won't have clinched a playoff spot before the game starts. Big news for Verlander's Cy Young chances.
If the Rangers were willing to trade Nathaniel Lowe what do you think it would cost us? Christian Javier and a prospect?
No, I think we've bought into the failed analytics that home runs are good, no matter what price you pay in every other conceivable offensive metric.
I would not say that Lowe fits the Astros preferred statistical criteria. He plays very poor defense and strikes out 3x more than he walks. Javier should fetch more than Lowe, imo.
Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to with having Pena instead of Correa, or Dubon instead of Springer, or old Yuli instead of good Yuli, or random player instead of Brantley. If only they just wanted to get on-base, this offense of sub-par players would be amazing!
One could mention that while the Astros are 13th in MLB in BA, they're 7th in OBP, 5th in SLG, 6th in OPS+, 8th in R/G, 4th in HR%, 4th in XBH%, 2nd lowest K%, 8th in BB%
Man looking at this, and looking back at the 2019 Astros...gawd we should've won that WS...ridiculous.
I am immediately drawn to 7th in OPS, 6th in OPS+ and 2nd lowest K rate as my favorite indicators. And that's with Dubon, Gurriel and Maldy getting more PA than they deserve.
Good start with my Suggested modifications Below 76- failing/awful/black hole. 76-85- very bad 86- 95- bad 96-105- average 106-115- good 116-125- very good 126-135- all star caliber with the bat 136-145- elite 146 plus- let’s talk about how high he ought to finish in the mvp voting. It would be intriguing to find out how current players fit on this scale.
