"[Fisher]'s frustrated because of some of the tough at-bats and the swing and miss," Hinch said. "He can still run the bases well and is playing good defense. He's mixed in a couple of games here and there, but there is a sense of urgency that we'd like to see him be a little bit more consistent at the plate. He knows that. We know that. He's been at this level for a few months now to where the league is adjusting to him, [and] he's got to adjust back to the league."
Altuve, Bregman & Springer are slugging a combined .398; JaKe MarinicK (see what I did there???????) has as many home runs (2) as Altuve + Bregman. There's about to be a pretty significant regression to the mean for those three guys. And the Astros are still winning 70% of their games. But, sure - let's fill pages of the internet complaining about the 9th hitter in their line-up (makes wanking motion; walks out of the room and slams the door - not politely, either.)
Our pitching will regress to the mean too, we're not really gonna have 3 sub 1.5 ERA starters for the whole year. Hopefully the home run regressing happens before and we go on an epic run.
Regression to the mean for the pitching staff still would have Astros as the best pitching staff. Regression to the mean for the batters likely means the Astros offense settles in at being the best or really close to it.
While it is true that the Astros best bats have not in general have not hit like they normally do, the lack of production from the LF spot and the DH are fair game to complain about. While it is true that the Astros have won close to 66% of their games, we would have several more wins if we had decent output from that spot. When one of the regulars rest, the whole in the line up becomes even larger. As it is, the Angels are one game from being ahead of us in the standings, so we need as many wins as we can. It isn't dire straits yet, but you have to believe that at some point the Astros will make a move. I heard a lot last year from some smart posters that the Astros didn't need to make a move at the deadline for a top line starter. Well as it turned out, we did need to and we won a WS.
Dumbass question: what is it about Fisher that makes the organization give him greater leeway than the rest of the AAAA-type guys (Davis, White, Kemp, Reed, etc)? From what I remember (and probably mis-remember), Fisher was never projected to be much until he had a nice streak in AAA, then he was suddenly tagged as a "contributor." Is this accurate? I feel like for most of his minor league career, he was regarded as level with guys like Teoscar Hernandez and a notch below guys like Domingo Santana. Maybe I'm wrong, but so far I don't really see anything that makes me think he's gonna be around in a post-Kyle Tucker world.
We have a solid MLB 1B, we don't have 3 OFer's. Plus FWIW, White and Reed still have more MLB PA's if I'm not mistaken. It isn't as if Fisher has gotten some extended look. They are getting a look mainly for lack of options and a desire to not use assets on an external replacement while waiting for Tucker.
Outside of swapping out Fisher and calling up prospects after Super 2 has likely passed, do you expect the Astros to do anything until closer to the deadline? I highly doubt Astros make any trades before it gets much closer to the deadline. Astros didn't make a move by the July Deadline, though, and got lucky they didn't as they needed those prospects to get Verlander once he showed his mechanical issues were gone. I doubt Astros would have won the World Series with either Darvish, Gray, or Quintana as I'm not sure any of those guys were better than McHugh, McCullers, and Morton in the playoffs. Kudos to those that noticed Verlander's mechanical issue and that it was corrected before the July Deadline as no team was willing to even risk placing a waiver claim on him. Astros got very lucky that Luhnow's stubbornness with prospects enabled them to still have them and Crane was willing to open up his pocketbook at precisely the right moment.
https://www.chron.com/sports/astros...-to-remain-patient-through-Derek-12861481.php Sounds like Fishers days are numbered (at the ML level) if he doesn't improve real soon.
For those who know more about baseballs minor league rules etc can you tell me why Tony Kemp is not up instead of Fisher? Is he out of options meaning if we call him up we can’t send him back? He seems to have good numbers down in AAA where as Fisher just looks like he couldn’t hit a whiffle ball.
Trout goes oppo effortlessly - glad bases were empty. Hope we get to Ohtani early. Don't want his gaining any confidence, Morton sweating, or our bats getting tight.
Did I hear that we lost our hitting coach in the off season. I just wonder if that has anything to do with the strikeouts up team wide and what appears to be a poor plate approach compared to last year.
