I would add.. - Altuve is taking a whole lotta pitches - too soon to discuss moving Walker up in the lineup, behind Paredes? - bench Yainer Diaz until he decides he isn’t swinging at garbage. And then bench him again the minute he does it again. Trade him for whatever we can get. Addition by subtraction. He literally sucks. All the talent in the world and pig headed as hell. I’m fine riding with Vasquez and Salazar.
as someone that wanted him to play more when Maldy was here, now I understand what Dusty was dealing with. I still thought he should have played more but Diaz is knucklehead.
Diaz now has nothing to do with Diaz in 2023, when he was at a .900 OPS most of the year. Dusty didn’t play him because he was giving Dana Brown the finger. He had done the same thing to Cristian Vazquez the year before and it made his head huge. It wasn’t because Dusty was the Yainer whisperer. Lol. Dusty cost us that postseason because he was stubborn. Dusty woulda sat Yogi Berra for Maldy.
My 1st series thoughts.... Meyers is going to easily be one of the 3 best OFs on the team unless a young guy or 2 really plays great. He'll get yanked around such that he'l struggle to get 400 PAs. Cam Smith made a couple of really good defensive plays. Probably the best defensive series I've seen from him. Hope it continues. He seemed inconsistent to me last year. Really trying to get interested in the Astros this season. Imai and Burrows are the only guys I'm really interested in right now. The comebacks have been nice, but just not feeling the bats outside 2 innings this year.
When Houston has Smith, Meyers, and Loperfido as their OF, they might have the best defensive OF in the league. That might not make up for their collective lack of offense, but it’s definitely a silver lining. If Meyers is shielded from tough righties in a quasi-platoon with Loperfido, I think he could have a monster season in terms of war/pa. Meyers is a career wRC+ 111 against lefties.
Do you think Meyers will hit better than Loperfido against non-tough righties, however that term is defined? Because Joey is career wRC+ 103 against righties and Meyers is at 84. A strict platoon between the two would make more sense, imo. And then bring in Meyers late in games for defense, in those games he is on the bench.
He can platoon when Yordan plays outfield. The pitcher decides who plays center between Meyers and Lopefido. If Cam doesn’t shows progress in the first couple months of the season, I would love for Cole to get a chance provided he keeps doing what he’s has been doing the last couple of seasons.
Probabiy not but I don’t think a strict platoon is ideal because of how good Meyers is on defense and because they will need to sub Alvarez out of LF a lot. If they did choose to do a strict platoon I wouldn’t complain.
Loperfido will probably hit RHPs better than at least one starting OF and should be in the OF most games versus a RHP. Will Meyers be the worst of the primary starters versus RHPs? I'm not sure, but I think he will be the one who gets subbed out mostly.
Have to think Meyers will be worst v RHP. If he’s not that means cam smith is unplayable (likely) or meyers went on a hester and is significantly outperforming his career norms and riding the luck (babip) dragon or something like that.
Meyers had a major shoulder surgery that usually affects at least 2 seasons after the surgery. I think the narrative on Meyers's career norms changes a lot if he has a good year. I'm not expecting Meyers to be as good as he was last year, especially versus RHPs, but his quality of contact stats versus RHPs was average as a rookie, slightly below average in 2024, and above average last year. It should not surprise anyone if Meyers produces a slightly above average year at the plate even if it is not expected. It should not surprise anyone if Cam struggles against RHPs, but has an above average hitting season. Meyers has not been one of the extreme splits guys versus RHPs and LHPs.
Granted, I should say I expect an IF or DH to get hurt such that the Astros won't have 3 guys that can play OF primarily and can hit RHPs.
cautiously optimistic. Not sold on our starting pitching, Spencer getting healthy will help......TUVE just his his 2nd...lol....yes ! DD
