I’d agree Dubon over Pena with Chas and Brantley in the OF would be the best combo of offense/defense. That said benching your everyday starting gold glove level SS at this point would be an incredibly ballsy move by any manager. The time to play Diaz more over Maldy was the regular season. Given the current state of things I would not make the switch now. There was an Athletic article where players were calling out Maldy’s walk for getting the rally in the fourth started. The “right” analytical play may be Diaz, but benching Maldy now might not got over well in the clubhouse either. If 1-8 are hitting and the pitchers think Maldy helps them somehow, that’s good enough for me.
This, probably Diaz being cold now from lack of PT, and when a lefty is on the mound are the only decent reasons to play Maldy over Diaz. Maldy being the better player is not one of them. I'd still go with Diaz over Maldy for RH SPs.
when they say 'ranked 86th out of 92' , is that base don this twitter guy's personal data ? not disparaging the guy, just curious
Lack of playing time and he is still a rookie that has holes in his swing / will chase junk. The one thing Maldy does better offensively is take a walk. I’d be happy if Diaz started at least a few games in the post season, but at this point Maldy is the starter for better or worse. It’s not the time to change that in my opinion.
Based on what? The Rangers and Astros had the same record, and the Rangers had a lot better run differential and most model's W/L expectations had the Rangers over the Astros. Baker in basically a "must win" used Stanek, Brown, Maton and Montero....... and saved France. That move paid off greatly, and not many managers would have done that down 2-1 in a series against the Rangers offense. Dusty isn't starting Maldonado because of his bat. He is starting him because of how he handles the pitching staff and for the game he calls. So far the Astros have played 8 playoff games and given up 27 earned runs........ for a 3.38 era..... and that is against the Twins and Rangers. If this keeps up and someone wants to give some credit to Maldonado and Baker - then I won't argue with them. Dusty has even some how had the balls to go to Montero in the post season, and he has gone 4 games without a run. It is a hard situation (leaving the pitcher in), last year in the playoffs it paid off really well. I agree with you though, there have been times (especially with Verlander/Valdez) that he left them in longer than I would, but it paid off most the times in the playoffs. My guess is that we won't see that this series - as it will be a game 7 if Reptile pitches and I think we see a fast hook if he is tired. The Astros are really lucky that Javier got his second wind the last 3 weeks of the season - because they never let him rest and his arm was clearly not right.
Hole in his swing? His biggest problems are plate discipline (chasing junk as you pointed out) which leads him swinging at bad pitches that almost every player over 5'6 can't hit and pitch recognition leading to him sometimes being out in front of breaking balls and offspeed pitches. Every batter has holes. If Diaz recognizes the pitch, and it is in the zone, his swing is easily in the Top 10 batters in hitting the ball and doing damage.
The Astros had tons of injuries early on and no Verlander, with a fairly healthy team The Rangers aren't even close to the division title or same record...
Of course Dusty is starting Maldy because he thinks Maldy is a superior defensive catcher. I don't believe Maldy'd defense is worth 0.50 ERA over Diaz's (edit: this is versus RHPs).
I'm Team Diaz all the way. But you could make a fairly credible argument that a) Diaz's AB in game 2 with the bases loaded may have been the worst AB in this postseason (Chas' AB a few innings later might've been worse) and was a big reason - not the only reason but a big one - they lost that game; 2) Maldonado's AB in game 3 with the bases loaded may have saved the series. They got a gift on the Scherzer WP - but cashing in that bases loaded situation with 2 outs was GIGANTIC. No one ever would've predicted that, of course. But it's why I mostly reject this "BAKER SHOULD'VE STARTED SO-AND-SO BECAUSE WE WOULD HAVE WON!" idea. You just never truly know what's going to happen in any given baseball game.
At least no matter how this series plays out, Maldy will not be back next season and we will finally have the opportunity, thank God in heaven, to move past these tiresome arguments.
is that a forgone conclusion? in the event they go all the way, I wouldn't be so quick to assume a return isn't a realistic option that interests both sides. Especially with JV back w/ the rest of the starters there's entirely too much respect and praise for him from the players to organization for 0 interest in a return while they still have this WS window open
I would like Maldy here at some capacity to be a mentor in terms of how to handle staff and call games.
