At this point Maldonado is the baseball equivalent of Dumbos feather. If taken away they will be fine. Framber can have him, Verlander too if he insists. The rest of the guys need to be throwing to Diaz. Javier has substantially better results the last 2 seasons throwing everybody else.
I don't buy it anymore. Evidence suggests the opposite. At least one PRO maldy article came out was pure propaganda, they put words in Pressly's mouth when what he actually said was BOTH catchers worked hard and were equally as good. It's easy to say MaLdY InTaNgiBLes it's repeated ad nauseum by the Baker camp. Maldy wouldn't start for any other team in the majors.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=p&team=HOU&year=2023 Go to by catcher at the bottom. Diaz is about 0.7 better in the ERA for pitchers.
Without catching a single game of our best pitcher, and only one game of our 2nd best. It honestly doesn't seem possible.
This is just ERA. Runs score on errors, too. The difference is over a run a game for all runs. Granted, I think a lot of that is luck, but hard to believe it is enough luck to override the hitting, blocking, and throwing advantage.
For a guy who apparently doesn’t love catching, he sure looks damn good back there. Has good body language with his pitchers, hasn’t allowed a past ball, throws runners out at a good rate, seems to call a damn good game. Hoping that as he matures, all the reps and time spent with the staff will level him up enough to be the everyday guy. There might be 2 catchers as good as him offensively any given season.
And that's fine. You are a person who is entitled to your opinions. The Astros, or at least Dusty and some of the pitchers don't agree with you. It's a shame they have more decision making ability than you do. FWIW: I agree with you that all these wonderful abilities Maldy has are equally valuable from the bench. But I am not a decision maker either.
My hope is that whatever reticence Diaz had to catching full time will be alleviated (or has been alleviated) when his agent demonstrates to him how much more money he could potentially make by being a top 3-5 catcher in the league as opposed to a top 15 1B/DH. I know catchers have shorter careers but if his knees started to give out he could still switch to DH later. But if the dude can continue throughout his career what he has shown so far this season, he could receive MVP votes at some point.
If JV and Framber want Maldy catching their games then there's no way it's not going to happen. Even if the evidence shows that Diaz gives the team a better chance to win. Dusty isn't going to go against the wishes of these two aces. Diaz should be at DH (or even at 1B from time to time) in these games. As for the rest of the SP Diaz should absolutely be the catcher. Yes this team values defense and there's no case to be made this year that Maldy gives them this over Diaz. As much as Dusty gives players days off he should be doing that with an aging Maldy who plays the most physically demanding position and trying to keep him as fresh as possible for the playoffs. If they go to a six man rotation Diaz should be catching everyone except JV and Framber.
I am super stoked that Yainer Diaz is our best catcher right now, is young, appears to be a stud at his position for the imminent future! Diaz is so good that the Astros traded away Korey Lee who had been molded for years to be the heir apparent at catcher position; now that is all Diaz. Maldy has been great in his tenure, but he is flailing now (maybe Dusty is hoping that Maldy can fix his offensive struggles), obviously Maldy is comforting to the coaches, and to certain players, etc. But I can say I feel really good about the future at catcher with Diaz.
Not when they directly contradict the observable facts, and bring no observable facts to support their testimony. Then they are just opinions. Athletes and managers have incorrect opinions about other players all the time - they are humans with human relationships and feelings. I would even be fine with deferring to pitchers’ unsubstantiated opinions if it made them more comfortable and they pitched better. But even that would leave evidence - and it doesn’t. If the goal is to increase the odds of winning, they are wrong to prefer Maldy. It isn’t an argument or debate - it is just wrong. And yes, we all know we have no power here - no need to keep repeating it. Also no need to pretend those who do have power have an argument worth defending.
At some point we have to accept that the Astros, who all have been doing this for years and make millions to know these things and know better than us. Diaz is on the rise and Maldy on the way down but it's still Maldy's team. For now
No, we don’t. The smart people in the front office haven’t said anything. Dusty has, and Dusty has been objectively wrong multiple times due to his personal biases and human preferences. And don’t start looking for examples of teammates misvaluing each other or you’ll never stop.
All I know is that I am not there. I don't have near the information they have, and I'm not egotistical enough to think I know better than them. You say over and over that they are wrong and you are right. Do you make millions of dollars deciding these things and I just dont know who you are?
He has been offered surprisingly high up positions in the Astros front office. He wants to work with Sarah Gelles
If you look at a sport played in public and you see the incredibly obvious disparity in actual results on offense, catching defense, and pitching, and all you can repeat is “someone who is paid to make the decisions believes it is right, so they must have some magic private info that contradicts what we can all see play out in front of us (and that magic info must be different than the blatantly wrong things they do say publicly like “their RBIs are close and their batting averages are the only difference”)”, there is no point discussing it.
I want Diaz to start at catcher 75% preferably vs RHSP and Maldy 25%. Watching Maldy strikeout, get passed balls, and throwing errors makes me nuts But I would never say I know better than the Astros or that they are wrong. That would just be ridiculous. They know so much better than any of us and anyone who says different is clueless.
