One of these games was Blanco-Diaz at Dodgers Stadium. 6 IP 3 Runs 2 Hits 2 Walks 6 K's Pretty awesome for a BOR starter. .
That is exceedingly kind analysis. At no point has he ever proven to be as good a hitter as Martin Maldonado, and it isn't as if he has great expected numbers either. He just sucks.
Yep! But remember... "when this offense gets rolling based on 1-5 hitting as they're expected to... he will mop up on bad long relief pitchers that were also in AAA when he was apparently crushing baseballs."
It is kind - I tried to take into account that he has worked the count in the past, he has drawn some key walks, and most of his at bats have been in key spots - but the reality is that he has a hole in his swing, and there are just some pitches he cannot hit, even if he identifies them. If Abreu had an 800 OPS, then I wouldn't care - but Abreu is off to another slow start, and fair or not, scrutiny increases. I know Brown is really tough on his scouts - and tends to defer to his coaches, but I think he defers too much at this point.... he was going to promote Gelles and did not because the coaches freaked out, and now he is letting guys like Singleton be on the roster. At some point, Brown needs to walk that line between deferral and stepping in better. A lot of people are unfairly pounding on Brown. He had his hands tied with Baker last year. We don't know how his first class of prospects will do for at least a few years. He promoted Espada, in part because there was no one special out there that the Astros could get. He deserves credit for Diaz playing as often as he does, for trading for Verlander, and for Blanco being on the staff. He also is the one that sat down with Javier and told him that mastering his pitches wasn't enough, that he needed to work out some and needed to build up his stamina.
Agree with this. It's really a snowball effect. Abreu recovers and has good August, September, and postseason so front office feels confident that they only need to worry about a backup for rest days. Don't bring in an established veteran who will legitimately compete for playing time or push Abreu to perform better. Figure Abreu will need some off days, so need to bring in some young 1B w/ upside but who have options and can be bench players to compete w/ Singleton. None if them perform well enough to beat out Singleton who was on top of the hill to begin with and no options. Abreu reverts back to first half 2023 Abreu. Singleton is the backup and starts when Abreu has a scheduled day off but has done nothing and really has zero upside at this point. Even if they want Joey to play everyday, then bring up Cabbage. He may strikeout but he has defensive and baserunning value and upside to actually produce at the plate. Everyone has seen enough of Singleton and he is very likely to clear waivers anyway.
Agreed. Unfortunately (or fortunately) any future GM will always be held up to Luhnow and will have a target on their back if results aren't visible within 1-2 years. (as people forget that Luhnow had a 3-4 year 'ramp up' phase where he was allowed to experiment, etc. before expectations of winning were even a thing... but his end results did and continue to speak for itself). Unofortunate that we didn't get a chance to see what he would have done in this phase of the arc.... or hell, Jeff may have already convinced somebody to tear it all down again and perhaps the last 2-3 years of still great success never happen.
Leave it to dumb DFW to not take advantage of some sort of eclipse promotion... along with not scheduling a getaway day to mess with the Astros.
Henley likely just fluked his way into the majors being the only guy available at the right time on short notice. Certainly hope Frambers just under the weather or something.
Two most likely outcomes.... 1) Rangers are bewildered by facing a brand new pitcher. 2) Rangers curb stomp him. Number 2 is most likely. Bully get ready Of course Framber misses a start vs Rangers and not Oakland. Hope nothing serious. Offense can help by not sucking.
most likely scenarios for Framber 1. He’s being traded 2. He took off to check out the eclipse 3. Tommy John 4. Common cold 5. Some form of discomfort.
