No Dusty to keep him disciplined. But in all seriousness, his career arc seems to be like Tucker's... as in Preston Tucker.
He has had bad months like this before - it is just that this is the beginning of the year. Last year he was really bad in May and not much better in September. For his career he is a slow starter usually in March - May and then plays far better in the Summer. He isn't the most talented player, but he is a 3-5 WAR type player in an above average season - but he is likely to have a 2 WAR season as well.
Agreed on being more involved at 1st. Maybe I am just biased, but I FAR preferred playing centerfield and chasing down balls. First basemen were always EXPECTED to make every play. The only time anyone comments on their glove is if they screw up.
MLB is a marathon. Those teams that think they can sustain a sprint to the top are due a rude awakening. The Astros have some really good players, but unless guys like Bregman, Abreu, Hader, Presley, start earning their paychecks, the season is going to be long and sad; because there isn’t any help in the minors, that should sustain any level of elite talent. This Astros team has a run in them to get them back into the race, they have talent, they have pride, they have experience. But it’s a more veteran team and could be more prone to injuries, and they would be hard pressed to overcome injuries in a race to get back to respectability.
This guy has taken launch angle to a whole new level. Guy must have locked himself into a room with old tapes of Mel Ott and Hack Wilson swinging. If you watch his tape - he will actually lean down to a knee on pitches low in the zone to ensure he gets the ball in the air.
It seems like I've seen this call up before. I'm pretty sure I know how it's going to go for him, but I don't care because anything is better than what they are doing right now. At least it will generate some excitement if nothing else. Hoping for the best!
Not expecting much other than a ton of strike outs. It honestly feels like our system is bereft of legitimate MLB-caliber hutting talent and we're all just latching on to whomever shows even a modicum of potential, mostly bc the major league talent at 1B and quite frankly CF and LF have been so underwhelming. oh well.
What will his jersey number be? 36 has usually been worn by Astros pitchers, with the most famous being Joe Niekro. Most recent - Will Harris.
He may prefer playing CF, but I doubt the Astros are calling him up to play there given that they have 3 perfectly competent major league players for that position already and 0 at first base at this point.
He had a strong spring training and playing well in the minors so I'm excited but I won't have any expectations. Regular season in the MLB is completely different from spring/minors. Look at Jackson Holiday. A top prospect, got called up by Baltimore and he did nothing and got sent back down. It'll be hard to do any worse than Abreu. For a rookie, if he can hit .220 to .240 with the occasional homerun, I'll be thrilled. Kind of surprised they didn't give Cabbage a longer look before calling up Loperfido.
He is a legitimate top 100 prospect based on his performance last year and the beginning of this season where he is off to the best start in PCL since Yordan Alvarez. The difference is that he isn’t Correa or Bregman or Tucker. Those guys were top 5 in all of baseball prospects when called up. As a top 100 prospect, he is more likely to struggle early and be sent down - even Tucker didn’t get it right away. So I expectations should be tempered. Would I be shocked if he turned into a 30 homer guy with an 800 OPS at some point soon? No - but it isn’t a guarantee. As for the system - they just produced Diaz. There are more coming.
Similar in terms of prospect status. Biggest difference is Wallace plateaued and his value decreased as he moved up the minors…. Loperfido has done the opposite and is known for strong mindset. A possible but negative comp is Jason Lane… I don’t need any Lane or Mike Simms energy.
