One of my all time favorite Astros. Such a smart player and stylish af. I would’ve liked to see one veteran bat on the bench this season, I think we are relying on a lot of young guys with question marks there. But I wish Yuli the best, Astros legend
He changed in around 2015: https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/06/13/yulieski-gourriel-cuba-mlb-free-agent The reverse Akeem to Hakeem.
The Yuli scouting report coming in: Gourriel has all the attributes to be an above-average offensive player. He has plus bat speed and squares up all types of pitches with good hand-eye coordination and barrel control. He wraps his barrel behind his head, angling the bat toward the pitcher, but he gets the barrel into the hitting zone quickly and has good plate coverage. He stays within the strike zone and uses the whole field, and with plus raw power on the 20-80 scale, he offers a balance of being able to hit for average, get on base and hit for power. Badler added that Gourriel is an above-average defender at third base, with "athletic, agile and has quick reactions off the bat," good hands, range and a 70-grade (plus-plus) arm, not to mention a high baseball IQ. That certainly sounds like the profile of a player who can help teams. Wow... after SI article, one of the biggest what ifs this decade... Gurriel as a Dodger or Yankee
Players get older. Yuli already looked too old last year. Even World Series winning teams become second rate non-contenders if they don't bring in new players. Yuli is an All-time great Astro and deserves everything and anything that the Astros could give him except a contract to be one of the 9 starting position players for 2023.
We REALLY need to bring in Yuli in some front office capacity. What he has done for the Astros and the Cuban pipeline is bigger than all of his on-field contributions (which were amazing, not knocking that at all). He made it cool to play for the Astros, seems like he made it somewhat of a destination place for young Latin American players. Who the f wouldn't want to play alongside Yuli?!
Smart in a very stupid way lol (I can only assume it was sarcasm because who could possibly think that smart?)
