They are 2 completely different situations. Dusty was refusing to play the best players - leaving potential runs sitting on the bench. Espada is trying to find any pitchers that can get outs and not sitting any if them.
I truly think the front office gambled with the pitching staff going into the season. Unfortunately they lost the gamble. They better pray we aren’t too far back when supposedly Garcia and McCullers return. Verlander coming back will be a nice punch but let’s be honest, he’s not gonna be the same JV we knew.
This team does not need him to be. This team needs him to throw 6 innings and keep the team in the ballgame almost every time out. His history, ability, and command tell me he will do that.
Yeah, don’t get me wrong Espada has made some questionable decisions but literally every manager does, especially with hindsight. Not playing your best players is a completely different issue. And let’s be real, if Dusty was still the manager Abreu would probably still be hitting 5th and playing every day. At least Espada is showing he’s willing to adapt. I like the idea of getting Yordan more plate appearances hitting 2nd and having Tucker behind him. Bregman will eventually turn it on, like he does literally every season, and the offense will be fine. But damn Bregman has killed them so far.
Once the Texans became good you knew the Astros would fall off. There is a quota for quality sports teams in Houston.
Or maybe - and this is hypothetical - Dusty knew how to motivate and get the best out of players. Is Chas better than Dubon all the time? Or is an angry/edgy Chas what drives him to be better? Does having the job simply handed to him make him worse? What motivates each of the players on the team? Does a struggling player need rest or playing time? How does it vary between players? Does throwing every pitcher out there and not sitting people help them? Do some players get worse without solid routines or knowing in advance how they'll be used? Are some players better suited for the firedrill role? No one knows the answers to these things, but that's what being a manager is about it. Managing people is not as simple as "look at stat sheet; play who's best". People act like managers simply manage robots and players are simply what their stats show, and neither of those is true.
I think Espada has made some bad choices. Mostly around pitching, but the staff has also made solid choices look terrible. Overall he doesn't deserve the bile he is getting, but in this situation any manager would be getting it. Worst decisions so far IMO: 1) Sitting Jake 40% of the time and Dubon 60% vs LHSP. Those matchups need to he maximized. Thats when you give other starters days off. 2) pitching Hader and Pressly 7 times and Abreu 6 times (despite the 2 game suspension) when many times the game is out of reach. They are all on 75 appearance pace and that could prevent them from being sharp in September. Best decision: Sitting Abreu 5 of 15 games and being willing to continuously drop him in the order when he does play.
Could be. And maybe it would better for getting him out of his slump and making him more useful the rest of the season as he was last year. Or maybe not. It's not like benching him has helped the team so far in W/L. And unless you think Singleton is the future or benching him will help Abreu be better later in the season (which could be true), it might not help them in the future. In 2017, Luhnow - our genius GM - signed Beltran and he ended up being a 0.660 OPS DH - worse than Abreu - that played basically 80% of the time. And was invaluable to a WS run. He signed McCann - an aging decent but not great offensive Catcher - for his defense and veteran savvy despite alreadt having an 0.800 OPS catcher on the team. He spent like $35MM on those acquisitions and Beltran kept playing despite sucking because Lunhow and Hinch understood the human element and non-stats part of making a team good. Is having Yordan come up a few more times per season but with the 8/9/1 hitters getting on in front of him better than a bit fewer appearances but with more runners on base for him to drive in? Bregman, whether he's hitting well or not, gets on base really well. Is he better suited to try to drive in Yordan and Tucker, or is better suited to get on base for those guys to drive him in? Is it better to have a slow dude at #2 so that if he gets on base, he clogs up the basepaths? Or would it be better to have a guy like Tucker there where he can steal bases and force the issue and make it easier for the 3/4/5 hitters to drive him in? Anaytics support putting certain elite hitters at #2. But "any best hitter at #2" is the same simplistic thinking that people had 20 years ago with "no power at leadoff" or "best hitter at #3". Being adaptable and being smart are two different things. For example, always moving "cold" hitters down in the lineup and "hot" hitters up in the lineup is adaptable. It will also, over the course of the season, almost always result in poorer results in the longhaul - you'll end up, on average, with your hot hitters moving up and then regressing to the norm (getting worse), and vice-versa. It like the drivers in traffic who keep switching lanes to get into the one that's moving now, only to watch the lane he was just in start moving and his lane slow down. It remains to be seen whether Espada is just trying things with no rhyme or reason and making the team worse, or if there is a solid rationale behind the methodology.
