What is the over and under in days before Astros Fans are screaming for Brown/Espada's head for starting Benintendi?
Meyers's last 700 PAs have been a lot better than Benintendi's last 700 PAs despite only having one shoulder for a decent chunck of those. Meyers is a lot better defensively than Benitendi. If Benitendi was an Astro, he should be behind Tucker, Chas, Alvarez, Meyers, Loperfido, and Dubon for OF playing time. Frankly, Loperfido and Dubon should not get any playing time in the OF as well except as an injury replacement. Benintendi has had one good year since the Red Sox got caught a second time for sign stealing. That was 6 years ago that the Red Sox were caught a 2nd time. I would not send down Kessinger unless it was just to get him PT. I liked his defense last year on the left side of the IF over Dubon who is a pretty good IF defensively. I've got no faith in Abreu, Singleton, and Cabbage.
I have a little faith in Cabbage. He has Kris Karter vibes, but he is still young and there is small chance that he can figure something out.
I agree with almost everything you said. If Houston acquired Benintendi I would assume they think they can fix him, in which case it makes sense to play him. But I would also understand adding him as just a 4th OF lefty bat with on-base skills and keeping Meyers as the starting CF. I am a big fan of Meyers and don’t at all understand why he hasn’t played more this season. I have no faith in Abreu. I do still think Singleton could be a good hitter but this team doesn’t have the leash to give him. I think Cabbage would make a fine bench player and he has potential to be like Loperfido: a Joey Gallo level fringey everyday player. I do like Kessinger and would like him to get down for a month or two just to be able to play. Hes not a 33 year old AAAA guy. He doesn’t warrant more time on the big league roster but I think shuffling him in and out with somebody like Cabbage would keep him sharper than just letting him ride pine so much.
WC? Wild Card Finals? (I kid, I know you mean ALCS) If Crane is bad, it is in the same way Jerry Jones is bad. In other words, he assembled a great staff that won it all by developing a great team and then coasted with a subpar coach(es) leading great players for a while. I'm not sure Crane is bad or not, but the Astros front office/manager/owner do not seem as aligned as they were between 2015-2019. He's still got time to not go full Jerry (i.e., it is okay to not to be perfect, but when you make a mistake, don't ignore it). Maybe Espada and Brown click going forward, but I can't recall anyone in the Luhnow and Click regimes being as bad as Abreu has been among position players and still allowed to start most days for as long as he did. This is with Luhnow tanking a few years. Maybe Loperfido ends this.
Too many people in the organization care about batting average over advanced stats for Meyers now... positive WAR with better OPS+ than Chas.
From 2011 thru now, here are the Astros with lower wRC+ during their time with Houston (min 400 pa): Jordan Schafer Brandon Barnes Carlos Gomez Martin Maldonado
Martín Maldonado was bad but not Abreu bad ... but Dusty could not seem to quit him some Maldy. The Astros giving Abreu one month at the start of the season to get going is somewhat understandable. If the Astros decide to move on from Abreu ... like they appear to be doing ... Abreu is not playing through an injury. ... or at least an injury that he can actually recover from.
Abreu is a piss-poor defensive 1B though with a wRC+ of -21 with 77 PAs. Abreu this season in 22 games Abreu -1.2 WAR Worst 22 games under Luhnow or Click Shafer -0.5 Barnes -0.6 Gomez -0.3 Maldy -0.6 (-0.7 under Brown's tenure)
Reading between the lines ... Abreu's back may be permanently ****ed. Hitting can dramatically fall off in your late 30s but fielding? If this is the case, Abreu is fully cooked and can't pass a physical if traded.
Yeah Abreu is the worst overall player Houston has had in the last 15+ years. Especially if you only look at 2024. But I think there’s at least an argument that Gomez did more damage to the organization, given he was being counted on for more and they gave up Hader for him.
It's crazy. I listen to the talk shows and they somehow think that Dubon and Chas are hands down better than Meyers. Meyers should have been playing 85% of games on center field.
Abreu was bad most of last season. Sure, there may be stretches when Abreu goes nuclear, but a guy as bad as he was most of last year should not have been given a month with as bad he has been. You give guys time like Bregman and Chas who have recent track records and are hovering around replacement level time.
Gomez didn't make that trade. Though, if one is going to look at opportunity cost that should be on the GM (or owner), I'd say Abreu's salary and the Astros willingness to continue to play him because he's being paid is a pretty big opportunity cost ($58M+another 12M so far in negative play).
Lol... I was thinking "WC" Finals as the Western Conference Finals, which is the baseball LCS equivalent and matches the context of 7 consecutive seasons.
Are they really calling Loperfido up to play OF when they are already not playing Meyers as much as they should?
Even with guys who suck as bad as Maldy they at least have the positional adjustment doing work for them. 1B and DH when they stop hitting become like a anchor in terms of negative value.
