T The sad thing is that his .315 OBP is the 4th best on the team behind Alvarez/Tucker/Bregman. Chas too if he had enough AB to qualify
Just gotta get Altuve back and Bregs right. Hopefully Abreau starts to come around, if not, you can use an internal option at 1st base. What they've gotta do is get the depth back in the bullpen. My trade targets would be Perez and Chapman
Diaz somehow has a .320 xwOBA for the season, which is fourth highest on the team. Pretty remarkable he has been that good with how sparingly he has played.
When you remove Yordan Best exit velocity Best barrel rate 2nd best xSLG (behind Tucker) 3rd best xOBP (behind Tucker and Bregs) But yeah, we need to make sure Corey Julks gets more than twice as many PA and Maldonado starts 80% of the games. No upside in letting Diaz get regular AB's to get better.
Julks has been pretty terrible after feasting on some early BABIP luck. His xwOBA is tied with Hensley's for worst on the team. He shouldn't see any action at all unless absolutely necessary.
It is clear Diaz should be in the lineup everyday, at least 40% of the time as the catcher and also as the primary back up at 1B, DH, and LF. It is very stupid and wasteful that he hasn’t been playing more. I’d like to see this lineup moving forward: 2B Dubon/Altuve SS Pena DH Alvarez 3B Bregman RF Tucker C Diaz 1B Abreu LF McCormick CF Meyers Batting Pena 2nd carries risk, but it deepens the lineup dramatically and gets Bregman between Alvarez and Tucker where he should see a lot of hittable pitches. Abreu down to 7th takes the pressure off of him and there shouldn’t be an easy out in the whole bunch. Once Altuve comes back I’d send down Salazar and Hensley and call up Matijevic. A bench of Dubon, Maldy, Julks, and Matijevic gives you a lefty right mix, power speed mix, and enough positional versatility to cover everything.
I think it's time that Dirden replaces Julks on the roster. We have all seen what Corey can do and he's been better than we could have expected, but the league has video on him now and he is settling down to a below average player. .640 OPS with a 29% K rate and 3% BB rate, and .570 OPS this month for a defensively limited player who needs to be bat first? The bench has no lefties besides Salazar and the team needs to see what it has in Dirden before the younger prospects start knocking on the door. I could see Justin bringing a spark just like Julks did too.
If Salazar goes down Dusty will never, ever play Diaz in the field. He will start once every 5 games and that's it. Sending Julks down would be the move I would make first. Not because it's best for the team, but because it would be the only way to get Dusty to play one of the young hitters. Granted, it wouldn't surprise me if Dusty pulled another petty act like he did when we traded Straw and played the same guys for 2 weeks just to avoid playing Diaz or Matijevic
He is striking out 36% of the time in the minors. He shouldn’t be called up until he can get that number under control.
I understand that is a concern. He had a terrible start to thexseason but his K's are coming down week by week, including "ONLY" 27% the past 10 days. And that's with 11% BB rate and 7 extra base hits among his 13 knocks in 33 ABs in 8 games. I realize it's a small sample size but he did well in spring training and he would be replacing a guy on the roster who has 37.5% K rate, .432 OPS, and no extra base hits for Houston over the same time period
