I forgot about Kessenger. Maybe give him an extended look at 1B. Maldonado starting almost every day is still our major problem. Without that we have a pretty good lineup. Altuve 1b Bregman 3b Alvarez DH Tucker RF McCormick LF Diaz C Myers CF Kessenger/Dubon 1b Pena/Dubon SS Abreu back to 1b platoon at least when healthy. If Kessenger proves he can hit then Pena can also be platooned, although I have seen some signs of his bat coming around a bit. Speaking of Pena, it’s hard to believe the pitching coaches haven’t been able to correct that obvious hitch in his swing where he is loading up way to late.
There might be certain things he’s good at which could be leveraged in a coaching capacity, but a good catcher and a good teammate he is not.
They would be insane to offer this dude another contract. BTW thanks for all the info you bring. Much appreciated.
I can't wait until Alvarez gets back to hitting like he did before his injury. We need our slugger back. Tucker isn't enough. Hopefully our team is on fire come playoffs, and Brantley comes back in full hitter mode.
Again. Meyers vs Singleton vs Maldy vs Dubon. 3 of those guys had to play last night regardless. I don’t expect any one of them to have made a difference on their own. I think the original point was that it sucks that these are the guys that have to play in the Dr situations.
Stros have scored 7 runs in the last 6 games against the mariners (Miller 2x, Gilbert, Woo, Castillo, Kirby) 1-5 in those games Need to string together some hits, put up a crooked inning to break the funk tonite
Yordan will get hot again. Maybe rest is what Abreu needed to get right. Time off helped Yuli last year before playoffs. Singleton doesn't look like the answer.
Dusty didn't believe resting his two oldest players -- who were also sucking -- on the team was a good idea . BAD IDEA Abreu deteriorated down the stretch last season. Maldonado is a walking deterioration.
Baseball is played 162 games because small differences don't always make an impact in 1 game, but sometimes they do. Sure, you can say you don't expect bottom of the order to make a difference most of the time because they don't. You are correct. I'm saying that if you play a season playing worse players at the bottom of the lineup a lot more than they should, a team will lose more games over the long haul even if it is hard to say which games they would have made a difference. If you are going to complain about the Astros losing a lot when the meat of the order doesn't produce, I am going to point out that the bottom of the order would likely win more games if the Astros played better players there. Also, Meyers is a lot better of an on the field player than Maldy, and decent margin over Singleton and Dubon (as an OF).
Great. I was basically saying there weren’t a lot of other options yesterday and they were pretty much dependent on the top of the lineup doing something if they were going to win. I fully understand what a bottom of the order can be capable of when optimized. Basically it ended up being a choice between Meyers and Dubon, when Tucker went out. I’m not sure there’s a permutation that gives them a winning combination yesterday given the top of the lineup’s ineffectiveness against Miller. Out of the below, seems like the first and or third options would have been better than the 2nd. Game-winning better? Who knows. If they have sub-par players on the active roster (not really all Baker’s doing), like Singleton, they’re going to get playing time… especially when there’s an unexpected injury. Meyers - CF Dubon - 1B Maldy - C Diaz - DH Dubon - CF Diaz - 1B Maldy - C Singleton - DH (what he went with) Meyers - CF Singleton - 1B Diaz - C Dubon - LF
Imagine this lineup rolled out in the majority of games moving forward: Altuve/Tucker/Yordan/McCormick/Diaz/Bregman/Singleton/Meyers/Peña. That team would win a few games.
Maldonado playing games is a losing formula. The beauty of Diaz catching is not only his All-Star skillset, but it also removes a stench.
There is an article on the front page of Microsoft Edge entitled, "Line up falls flat; Astros lose 2-0 to Mariners." The author really questions line up decisions, and gives reasons. Interesting.
