It was just a picture of Whitley with his mechanics and balance all really out of kilter, he was almost falling over in the middle of the delivery and his arm angle was not right.
Agreed he has the hottest bat, but if the Astros wait until the trade deadline to call up Tucker, they avoid Super 2 and save a potential $20M. I'm fine with whatever they choose, just glad I'm not the one making these calls.
I assumed his service from last year already started the clocks. I'm not an expert on this stuff, so somebody who knows, please explain.
It’s total time in the bigs, so by not breaking camp it stalls any more accrual of time in the bigs for super two. Keeping him down until mid to late July this year probably avoids super two for him There was a big to do about this last year when the twins sent down Buxton in August and then didn’t call him back in September- they clawed back super two time for him pretty blatantly (though he was terrible at the plate last year and a little gimped) I know this isn’t popular but the smart move, for a lot of reasons, is to call fisher up and give him regular PT for about a month, keep Yordan and Tucker’s super 2 intact, and see if you can build some value for fisher to make him a potential major piece in a trade. The Astros are pretty smart and quite frankly they could put Tyler White in LF if they wanted and it wouldn’t affect what they are going to accomplish this year.
Thanks! As for Tyler White, they obviously won't do that but Diaz is of course an option at LF. Would be nice to teach him and/or Brantley RF for versatility.
In a perfect world for the FO, Fisher would have a monster couple of months, keep the runs and wins coming while Springer's down, and get traded at the peak of his value for a #3 starter while avoiding Super 2 for the others. Is reality going to set in and is Fisher going to drag the offense down and cost the team some wins (like White and Kemp arguably have) trying to replace Springer? I have a feeling he will, but I sure hope I'm dead wrong. Super 2 can really suck at times like this.
I was just throwing out the most ridiculous hypothetical on White to suggest how meaningless it is who the Astros give Springers AB’s to in the next 30-60 days. It just flat doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of winning the division and I still contend the spot you want to be in is 2nd place, hosting the twins, and waiting for the 3 way scrum amongst the AL East to play out in the wild card/divisional round anyway, but I won’t complain if we do end up as the #1 overall seed in the playoffs.
re: Tucker A year of MLB Service Time = 172 days on the active roster or DL. You are a free agent after 6 years of service. This MLB season is 186 days long. Opening Day was March 28. Tucker was on the roster for 51 days last season, so as long as he is on the active roster for less than 121 days this year, he hits free agency a year later The 65th day of the MLB year (186-121) is Saturday, June 1st. I may be off by a day or 2, I've had a couple of cocktails. If they're super worried about Tucker and Super 2 arbitration, and holding him down until theoretically around July 11*, they can kiss my ass. *Add Tucker's 51 days of service to the 54 approximate days of Super 2 "holding-down" and you get 105 days into the season, that's where I got July 11. See this post: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...-gets-called-up-in-june.298970/#post-12423836 Jeezuz...maybe I haven't had *enough* cocktails for this ****. Somebody check the math.
Not saying it'll last, but the Twins currently have the best record in baseball and on pace for a record # of HRs for the year. Be careful of what you wish for. The best thing the Astros can do IMO is forget about what everyone else is doing and play their best ball, and I'm sure that's exactly what the FO and team will do.
Since Tucker had 51 days last year, I would simply add 51 days after when the FO feels safe bringing up Alvarez [to avoid Super 2].
Astros really value hitting as well. Astros have a 40 man spot for Alvarez. Astros need to get Alvarez's feet wet. I believe if Tucker is called up, it affects his club control and/or arbitration. I doubt Astros worry too much about 17 at bats unless something is off with his swing.
Sure. That’s what the team and FO is doing, but as a fan I can look ahead and speculate, and I damn sure don’t expect the twins to be the power of the AL. I’d much rather play them then whoever comes out of a NYY/Boston/Tampa Bay wild card round in the ALDS
Astros also value extracting value for all their prospects, not giving away major league caliber guys and organizational depth. That’s why I will be very surprised if it’s not Fisher. I’m not pounding the table for a Fisher promotion or anything, as I’d like to see best player available, but it makes sense
Not necessarily. There are a couple of key dates. If Astros are angling for an extra year of control, Astros need to wait 51 days after the 14th game. Astros may not want to wait on Super 2 as that date will be about a couple months away. Though, Astros may wait until they can make a trade.
Since Tucker had 51 days last year, I would simply add 51 days after when the FO feels safe bringing up Alvarez... to avoid Super 2. [That means late July (I estimated July 24).] One quick note on Springer: I give the FO a huge amount of credit for consciously limiting his time in the OF by giving him more DH at bats this year - specifically to avoid injury. They tried. The one other silver lining for at least the team rather than Springer, is this probably brings down his average annual value re a contract extension (down to maybe $20-25M vs $25-30M) - given that even with more DH time he's still getting IR time, as he's about to hit his 30s. I'm a fan of anything that helps keep him an Astro.
Astros are not going to wait until trade deadline to bring up one of Tucker/Alvarez. With so many prospects up early in the NL, Super 2 likely has passed.
Hence the whole asterisk'd part where I said that. They'll need someone tomorrow for Springer, and Fisher or Straw make sense (an extra year of club control is a whole lot different than an extra year of arbitration wrt Tucker). Either has to stay in the majors for 10 days unless they get hurt. That 10 days puts you past Tucker's "club control" call up date. So they could swap them out at that point if so desired. If Tucker plays like he can, no reason they should care about Super 2. For one thing it's 6 years away before it hurts you, and there's always the option of buying out some arbitration with an extension. Or trading him. Or whatever. Altuve comes back in a couple of days. The Stros have said they're liking the 13 man staff right now. So....I'd be getting real nervous if I was Tyler White.
Yea.. It's time to start evaluating what you have and what you need at the deadline. I would bring up Straw or Fisher for Springer. Then dump White for Alvarez when they are comfortable with the super 2 status. Give Alvarez a chance to play everyday so you decide if we need another bat to go with the starter we need.
