His defense is what has impressed me the most. Our pitching staff really seems comfortable which is extremely important this early on. The guy I really wanted was Yelich a few years back. While I know at that point Tucker's value was sky high and it wasn't a huge position of need, imagine him in this lineup. I'm of the opinion that we will land a front of the line starter and bat at the deadline. Just hope we keep Alvarez
His strikeouts are up and walks are down. He's knocking the tar off the ball. I was more in the expecting him to be good, not great, and definitely much less than on pace for a career year. More like a LHB version of Yuli than Bregman is what I expected.
The FO, coaches and Chirinos all deserve a ton of credit for identifying some adjustments he needed, then going out and making them.
When you have 7 guys with a OPS > .830, that is formidable. Brantley and Chirinos have both been better than I expected.
This may be due to him hitting cleanup in our lineup versus being a table setter in the Indians lineup. He’s definitely got legitimate pop in his bat, more so than the 15-20 yearly homers he’s been hitting.
I look forward to when Brantley is up to bat, that guy is a textbook example of how to approach hitting. Regarding Chirino, I’m very comfortable that he will give a good at bat regardless; a lot of times the catcher is a weak spot in the lineup that you dread, but Chirino has been impressive.
I used to feel like Moises Alou never had a bad game at the plate (especially at Enron/MMP).... starting to feel that way with Brantley.
We went to the game last night and I thought of the exact same comp. He reminds me of a lefty Moises: lightning quick hands, very few "bad" plate appearances, the production... it all reminds me of peak Alou. Excellent signing.
Terrible name of article, but the info is good. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/houston-has-no-problems-with-michael-brantley/
They straight up mentioned in the broadcast yesterday that Springer talks with Brantley A LOT about batting. He and Springer are leading the league in hits. It sounds like the number one factor to getting George back into WS MVP mode is his good friend Michael Brantley. Incredible.
