I can quibble wrt the back of the bullpen and maybe OF5. A lot of the pitching evaluations is done on the backfields and in the bullpen sessions. The Astros pitching staff has a great track record. I don't get what they see in EDLS, but they must see something they like. :shrug: There are some ST camp arms like Lambert, Roa, Munoz, Cosgrove and Carlson, who become FAs if they do not make the MLB team. And Hader and Sousa within a month will also need roster spots, so that is another consideration. Trammell as OF5 makes some sense. Cole (17 strikeouts in 42 plate appearances) needs development time in AAA. Dezenzo has an injury. OF5 should not see much PT, so someone like Brice Matthews, might be better served starting everyday in AAA. [Crawfish Boxes] Projecting the Astros Opening Day Roster 3.0 Starting pitchers: Hunter Brown, Christian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows, Spencer Arrighetti, Lance McCullers Jr Also considered: None Bullpen: Bryan Abreu, Bryan King, Steven Okert, AJ Blubaugh, Ryan Weiss, Enyel De Los Santos, Kai-Wei Teng Also considered: Roddery Muñoz, Peter Lambert Catchers: Yainer Diaz, Christian Vázquez Also considered: Cèsar Salazar Infielders: Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Jeremy Peña, Christian Walker, Isaac Paredes, Nick Allen Also considered: Brice Matthews, Zach Dezenzo Outfielders/DH: Yordan Alvarez Jake Meyers, Cam Smith, Joey Loperfido, Taylor Trammell Also considered: Zach Cole , Zach Dezenzo
Here is the thing with Cole. His strike out rate last season in the AAA and the majors was exactly the same and he still managed a great OPS and respectable OBP. Maybe it's just who he is. I rather have someone that strikes out a lot than someone who grounds into double plays. Here is a fun fact. He's only ground into 11 double plays in his entire adult life.
It’s no secret that I’m fascinated by Zach Cole. He does almost everything right except making consistent contact. Potential elite fielder Elite speed Strong arm Hits for power Walks Steals bases Very selective when swinging with an average pitches per plate appearance close to Paredes at above 4 pitches. Almost never grounds out into double plays with only 11 of them over 6 years. Very good on base percentage at every level I can see him getting MVP votes with a .250 batting average. The question is if time in AAA helps him with this or should we just see if he can continue to do it at the major league level. Minus the first 4 games of spring training, he’s hitting at a pretty decent clip and tracking at his norms at every level. And even in the first four games where he never got a hit, he walked 4 times and stole 4 bases. That’s equivalent to a leadoff double.
All of this is true. It's wild to me that his swing and miss problems are mostly limited to swinging and missing pitches *in* the zone. I mean, ****, if you could ever fix that the ceiling is through the roof. Eyeball transplant from Ted Williams' frozen head?
I wouldn’t be thinking this way if his short time in the majors last season didn’t look exactly the same as his time in AAA. Maybe his nickname should be the aberration.
Obviously he sees well enough to seldomly chase bad pitches. It’s like he does everything at the plate super well except actually putting a bat square on the ball when it’s down the middle.
Cole is the rare player who can be a viable 4th OF hitting .180, a quality regular hitting .200, an all star hitting .220, and an MVP hitting .250.
Not at all, amigo, it's all good. But even if I was, Chas's throw would be wide right and 3 hops late.
Welp. Let’s just see if he goes .842 OPS over a full season and/or makes a leaping catch at the wall to preserve the lead in a WS game. I bet he does neither.
