Can't wait. I'm not the judge of baseball talent this board is, but I just have a good feeling about what Kyle will do when he comes up.
Whenever they do call him up, he's going to play everyday at first. Expect initial struggles followed by eventual adjustment. That adjustment should determine if he ends up being on the playoff roster. Glad Luhnow also feels that making the playoffs is pretty much certain at this point, and we can start planning for that.
Jake is elite defensively, Elite But how much leash do you give a guy who is horrendous on offense, hoping he “gets it going”? He had the power surge last year, but honestly he has been a really bad offensive player almost his entire career. So with that in mind, there is no logical reason to think he is going to automatically come around this year Now if we didn’t have other options then maybe you suck it up and deal with his lack of offense for his elite D We aren’t going to give Kemp everyday at bats over him even though he has been great I really hope we see Tucker soon, not just because I think he is going to be great, but also because his pedigree is good enough to finally push Jake out of regular at bats
The issue is you'd like your fourth outfielder to be the elite defense/speed guy. That's really not Tony Kemp, despite his great hit skill. My idea scenario - trade Kemp, demote Jake, promote Tucker and Straw.
I really don't understand why we are still having to watch Marisnick strike out while Tucker is doing what he is doing right now. Tucker and Kemp haven't shown any particular vulnerability to LHP, Marisnick has demonstrated it to all pitching. We still have White on the roster, we could demote him and Jake, and promote Straw and Tucker. We would still be 3 deep at every position. Marwin goes back to utility IF. Kemp, Reddick, Tucker can semi-platoon to get them regular PA, and Straw is a spot starter/defensive sub like a 5th OF is supposed to be.
He's really good defensively, probably not Marisnick good, but good. Faster too. Jake just isn't giving us anything as a hitter, he's completely useless. The greatest defensive player in history couldn't play well enough to offset his pitcher level offensive results.
Makes you long for the days of the .250 hitting Adam Everett. I like what Kemp brings to the team but it might be better served as a utility player, with Tucker starting every day in LF. I wouldn't be surprised to see him called up not long after the ASB, with White being sent back down. Marisnick clearly has a long leash as they keep putting him in the starting 9. I have a hard time thinking they're going to drop him now.
Marisnick is more valuable off the bench as a late inning defensive upgrade/pinch runner than Kemp is. I'd send down Kemp and bring up Tucker right now. White won't be up much longer as I am pretty sure he will be demoted once Joe Smith is ready (and we will go back to carrying 13 pitchers).
The reasons Tucker hasn't been called up are: 1) Until 15 games ago, he was still adjusting to AAA pitching, hitting about .280. Davis and White, who were both hitting above .350, deserved their respective chances. 2) In just 1-2 weeks, Tucker should pass the super 2 deadline, giving us another year of cheap team control. 3) Once he's up, he's up. The astros aren't going to treat him like Davis, White or Kemp where they will send him down if he doesn't hit immediately. They will be patient in letting him adjust, which means they need to be pretty sure he's ready. As for creating the roster space, keep in mind that Joe Smith will come off the DL fairly soon. That means we will go back to 13 pitchers, so White will be heading down anyway. When Tucker comes up, Marisnick will go down permanently, which sounds great except you then lose pretty much all roster flexibility. I do think there's a case to be made for going to 12 pitchers given how often our starters are getting to the later innings.
Zero chance they send down Kemp. He's hitting .310 with a .390 OBP and has more walks than Ks. He's an ideal 9 hitter in front of Springer.
Kemp won't be in the lineup if Tucker is up, he will be a bench outfielder. Jake is the better bench guy for obvious reasons.
I don't understand how everybody says send kemp back to AAA. The dude is one of the only guys hitting .300 on the team and is consistently getting on base. He has speed and is an above average defender. He he is a great guy to have coming off the bench.
I agree he's solid coming off the bench. He's not an above average defender though - if he were this would be a whole different conversation. He's below average across the board defensively - range, instincts, arm, experience. He also has very little power. A slap hitting, above average speed, below average defensive player might be a good player off the bench on a contending-ish team, but we are trying to build a dynasty here. He's just not talented enough. Tucker might be.
The ideal bench guy is somebody who can pinch hit late in games, especially when playing national league teams. Jake is great in the outfield and fast as hell but dude is just awful at the plate. I'd rather have a guy like Kemp who brings similar speed with much better hitting. Plus you already have Springer, Reddick and Marwin as elite defense in the outfield.
