These discussions am assuming are with your Astros inside buddies, right? Totally team thinking going on. Like a family. Their not going to throw one of their own under the bus. Certainly illustrates how different the team can be perceived form the inside vs the outside.
Prime Joey Gallo in CF is a solid everyday player. Joey Gallo at 1B is a fringey guy who strikes out too much to play on a contender. Makes sense they’d keep Loperfido at CF.
I don't get heartburn over Diaz playing at 1B other than it not being his long term position. Abreu is hardly a good defensive 1B and indeed has the worst OAA on the team this year and was tied for the worst on the team last season.
Correct. Those are with the front office people or involved in player development. I personally would never ask a player about another player unless they were retired..... players for as long as I have spoken to them usually stick together. This Astros group is very much a group that sticks together, the only group I can think of that was this tight from the perspective of the locker room is that Bagwell/Biggio group with Dierker as the manager. That group would say very little about guys on the team.
Sure. That would absolutely be preferrable. You don’t really want average bat and average glove at 1B but my main point is this nightmare could be solved tomorrow if they had the will to do so.
Does this family attitude include the top FO guys, Crane and Brown, or are you mostly talking about the guys in the dugout? Are there former players included in this? Bagwell ect...?
No - just the guys on the field from what I have heard. Guys like Bagwell will always publicly support veteran players on the Astros - but they have different discussions behind closed doors. Some of the guys like Reggie Jackson and Enos Cabell are the opposite of when they were players.
Worst Starts for Eventual Playoff Teams Year Team.... W L Final Record 1914 Braves-- 4-18 94-59 1981 Royals-- 7-16 50-53 2015 Rangers 8-15 88-74 2006 Padres.. 8-15 88-74 2001 Athletics 8-15 102-60 1974 Pirates.. 8-15 88-74 https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-astros-are-rapidly-digging-their-hole-deeper-and-deeper/
Thanks for these insights. I suppose what it boils down to is that sometimes, a organization or group just doesn't see itself the way others see them.
Will Crane's Jose Abreu and Josh Hader deals end up equivalent to Drayton McLane's Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell? I mean this in the following sense. At the time, the Doug and Greg deals were viewed as a major good thing. A big step forward. Moves that would make the Astros contenders for years to come. Keep them relevant.
Hader needs to be better, much better. Will add the fact Miller hasn't pitched b2b games this season and has only pitched 2x in 3 days once. He's well-rested every time. Astros need to get Abreu off the field for a while. He'll likely never be an 800 OPS guy again, but there's little doubt he's injured on top of his deterioration. He's killing us on offense and defense, and is arguably the biggest factor -- if you pinned it on one player -- we're 0-6 record in one-run games.
Abreu got a pass last year because we won despite his atrocious play. This year, I wonder if these losses combined with even worse play, will signal the end of his time as a regular. In my opinion, it should.
“How bad is a 7-16 start? Well, only two teams have everovercome such a rough season-opening stretch to later make the postseason.” https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-astros-are-rapidly-digging-their-hole-deeper-and-deeper/
The current playoff system has existed for all of 2 years. tell me how many times a team has started 7-16 and roared all the way back to 6th place in the league and I will be a lot more interested in these pieces (not complaining at you just suggesting how to compare apples to apples.
The most insane thing is the texans are a more likely superbowl champ then the astros are world series champs. If you told me that 12 months ago......
