Singleton to be optioned to Fresno (to make room for Gomez)

The only reason why Carter is safe is because he is a right handed hitter.

It means shlt if you are not hitting but this is still a factor for many managers.

Singleton played some very solid D as he can scope many bad throws more than often while Carter not only failed to do that, but also made some of the worse throws in run downs.

Its kind of sad to see Singleton having good numbers in AAA but failed so bad at this level.

 

It was the "safe" decision.

One that most good to great players will decide against. Doesn't make them wrong for doing that either.

 

Just saying that no Astro right now warrants 10 straight games unless your name is Altuve or Correa.

Singleton still looks like has no clue what he's doing at the plate as of two games ago. It's a lot what he looked like last year where he did play several games in a row.

Not sure how to "fix" that, but there's too much on the line right now to just set it and forget it. Also, I expect it to be more of a Marwin/valbuena platoon. Carter is going to get DH opportunities. I don't want him playing 1b unless Marwin has to fill in elsewhere.

 

The lack of confidence that Hinch has in Carter was magnified last night when he pinch hit Gonzales with no one on base in the 7th inning of a tie game and one out. Regardless of how bad Carter has been, he does have the ability to turn around a tie game with one swing.

I could understand it more if he was leading off the inning or if a runner or two were on, but it was an odd switch given the timing and circumstance.

And, as was the case in 2004 and 2005, the odd maneuver eventually worked when Marwin singled in the 9th.

 

Richard Justice was quoting a baseball scout but that person said you really can't judge a hitter until they've had 1500-2500ABs at the major league level so I wouldn't say he has failed yet. If he starts for 2-3 years straight and produces nothing, then he's more of a 4A player.

This is where the Springer injury hurts the most. Having a bat like Springer in the lineup lets you experiment with another position but when you are short handed, you lean on the veterans who have showed you something at the major league level.

 

Unfortunately, this is the right move! It's time for Singleton to go back to AAA and reflect on the opportunity he was given, and he better come back next spring training with everything clicking. Because Reed is breathing down the back of Luhnow's neck for his turn at 1st base!

Lowrie is going to take the brunt of the opportunities at 3rd base. And Marwin will likely be taking quite a few starts at 1st (he's having himself a break through year), while the Astros remain patient that either, Valbuena or Carter starts to hit their groove, both are in horrific slumps; but both have established track records.

C: Conger / Castro
1st: Gonzales (also SS & 3rd) / Carter (also DH)
2nd: Altuve
SS: Correa
3rd: Lowrie / Valbuena (also 1st)

DH: Gattis (also LF)

RF: Rasmus
CF: Gomez / Marisnick (all 3 OF)
LF: Tucker

When Springer gets back, it does not look good for Valbuna or Carter!!!!

 

I don't see how or why people on this board love Singleton but at least you're consistent with it. As bad as Carter has been, Singleton has been worse. At least Carter always gives you that PH/DH option when playing at MMP.

 

Minor change.

 

Singleton has had a .940 OPS over his last 7 games. Starting to figure it out.

 

I noted last night, he has taken a much better approach at the plate lately.

Jon needs to lighten the swing just a bit.

Plenty of power in that body to bust balls 400+ with a less than 100% swing.

 

Carter can't make plays at first. When you have a kid like Correa who literally makes a play on everything you need someone competent at first base. Carter is worthless

 

You always want someone competent at 1B. If you had a lesser SS, you'd want someone even better at 1B to make up for any SS mistakes

 

Small sample size. I need more than that to cover up how badly he had been stinking it up previously.

 

Of course but I'm dealing with what we have to work with currently.

 

There is one thing about Carter to make fans dislike him.

He does not have any emotion on his swing and walk like a robot.

Its really hard to root for a guy like him when he sucks.

Jason Castro could be a worse hitter this season and especially of late, but at least his swing or other actions will show emotion and get you excited for a second or two, like last night the walk off homer he hit, the one pitch previous was RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE and he had a big swing and miss.

I am sure many fans were yelling WTF JASON! at that time and extremely disappointed, but then the next pitch he made it happen and everyone will go crazy.

If same thing happened for Carter, the excitement will be a lot different.

Its just personality thing, hard to root for him.

 

Carter sucks. Period. End of story. Let's move on!

 

Yep, Carter has had 1900 plate appearances, I think we all have a good idea of the player he is. Singleton has only had 400 plate appearances in the majors. Maybe the light will never go on for him, but I think he deserves more time to figure it out, so I agree that I'd rather see Singleton sink/swim than Carter sink at this point.

 

The same would apply to guys like VV vs Feldman. But the team is in win-now mode, so they are no longer in experiment mode - they aren't going to be letting people sink or swim the rest of this system, unless maybe they have a huge lead in September for some reason.