Chas being awful has been by far the biggest disappointment. If we were even getting a .750ish OPS out of him, we could live with the situation at 1B.
Once Abreu and McCormick didn’t perform, it put immense pressure on Diaz, Meyers, and Pena to be middle of the order bats instead of bottom of the order bats. It didn’t help that Singleton and Loperfido/Cabbage didn’t have major breakouts as replacements. And of course it was always too much to ask of Dubon (or Caratini) to be a good hitter in an everyday role. In hindsight, it is actually a big bummer that Zach Dezenzo was hurt in the spring. As good as he’s looked this year, if he’d been fully healthy in April he could have claimed the 1B job by now and might’ve been a savior. This season has been a lot of bad luck for the Astros between their pitching injuries and hitter underperformances combined with the timing of their farm development not lining up to cover it.
There are some positions where offense is much less important than other metrics. Catcher is one but our catcher has a pretty good bat. Short Stop is the other and you have to take a short stops value away from the plate into account when calculating his value. Our is a much better than average short stop with a bat that fits into our lineup best at fifth or at ninth. He has shown the ability to hit for power but not consistently enough to count on him for power. He runs well enough to put ahead of our best hitters when he does get on base. If our line up is six or more deep I like him hitting 5th. If not I like him hitting 9th.
This is a great point and why Yainer Diaz deserves his flowers for stepping up since Tucker went down. He’s hitting .335 in 170 PA in the cleanup spot. If he had continued the slump he was in prior to Tucker getting hurt, I’m not sure where this team would be right now.
Agreed, I'm still hopeful that Dezenzo will be able to takeover the 1B spot before the playoff rosters have to be set. I know it's a longshot but he can hit his way onto the team. The fact that they're in 1st place with pitching injuries/underperformance is amazing.
I honestly wouldn't mind Tucker batting 2nd when Yordan is in the lineup to bat 3rd. Then Diaz 4th followed by Bregs. If Altuve gets on then Tucker will see a ton of pitches in the zone to hit ahead of Yordan. If Tucker gets on then Yordan will be pitched to and most likely not walked, unless 1B is open. Bregs will supply some protection against Diaz being a free swinger as well. Altuve Tucker Yordan Diaz Bregs Singleton/Caratini Pena Heyward Meyers/Dubon
Isn't that essentially what they were doing when the turnaround started to happen and before Tucker went down? Except it was Bregman 4th.
Perhaps, but Espada has fallen in love with Yordan in the 2 hole and kept him there when Tucker came back. I think it should be reversed in the playoffs.
The only issue I have with this is that Heyward is brutal vs LHP. If Yordan is at DH, then 2 if these players must cover LF and CF: Vs RHP (wRC+) Meyers 72 Chas 69 Heyward 143 Dubon 85 Vs LHP Meyers 123 Chas 60 Heyward -100 Dubon 81 Heyward has a career wRC+ of 77 vs LHP. Chas and Dubon both have good career numbers vs LH they are a better dice roll. No way Heyward should be starting.
True, we could interchange Meyers, Dubon and Heyward in the OF as needed dependent on the opposing pitcher. Also, when Chas is healthy again he and Heyward could rotate.
I think: Meyers starts every game vs LHP Heyward starts every game vs RHP If Yordan CAN play LF then he plays there when Framber and Brown start and Meyers or Heyward is in CF. The ground ball heavy ability helps both Yordan and Heyward If Yordan can't play LF, or Kikuchi, Blanco, Verlander, or Arrighetti are starting then Heyward is in LF vs RHP and Meyers is in CF vs LHP. Choose Chas or Dubon to fill LF vs LHP and CF vs RHP.
