His sinker which is his primary fastball is only 1.5 mph slower than his peak and less than 1 mph slower than 2022. His knuckle curve is a tickle slower also. However, he was never a guy that was going to blow the ball past you. He just needs his fastball to be good enough to keep batters honest to setup his breaking balls. Imagine his knuckle curve being a tickle slower also makes it break a little more. the key for Lance is confidence to throw a fastball in the zone without it being a meatball and command of his knuckle curve. If he’s throwing strikes, he’s going to be valuable.
I understand that and don’t mind that in a playoff scenario, but I don’t want Alvarez in LF 100+ games.
They have Triston Casas returning soon with no spot. All the media continually **** on us for our log jam while glazing the Red Sox all offseason. Kind of hilarious considering all we have to do is put Yordan in LF and it’s solved while they have nothing they can do.
It doesn’t need to be 100+ games. If he can just play 50 times out there, that’s enough to make this work.
Right but OP wanted Alvarez out there every day unless I misunderstood. I don’t mind Alvarez playing LF 50X a year, but when you get into triple digits, there is a real risk.
I think with as old and injury prone as our guys are, having 5 very good infielders is a good thing. I don’t want Altuve spending too much time in left field, but he can play 10-20 games out there to make it flexible. That being said, if they gave up one of their outfielders and Tolle for Paredes and one of our top prospects, I would not say no. Tolle is going to be a stud.
I do. If he gets hurt he probably would DHing too. He doesn’t get hurt in LF often. Not trying to jinx him lol
The most encouraging things I hope to see these next 2 games would be Correa and Smith each hitting a majestic towering home run. Diaz may be a lost cause.
It's still early.... https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/table/batting/sort/OPS/dir/desc ... and I don't care. Go Stros !!
Nah. That’s just scaredy cat stuff. If he can play 50, he can play 100. When has he gotten hurt playing LF? he hits better when he plays the field
I think Yordan probably tops out at ~80 regular season games in LF, and most of those he should only be playing 6-7 innings before being subbed out. Basically he can start almost every home game in LF; he’s familiar with the park and it’s not enough games to impact his load management. He probabiy shouldn’t be starting more than a handful of road games in LF; there’s an increased chance of running into a wall, and increased chance of him running more during play due to bigger LF zone. But that gets Houston their ideal lineup for 80 games, with Paredes getting plenty of time between that and effectively serving as the primary backup at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, and DH. Theres some benefit to additional rest, even for guys like Pena and Paredes who are in their prime, but especially for aging players like Altuve, Walker, and Correa, and for injury prone guys like Alvarez. There’s also some benefit to having increased sense of competition among players (although there’s downside risk there too). I don’t really see Houston as having a roster crunch; what they really have is a weak outfield. They don’t need to subtract an infielder, they need to add an outfielder, unless a platoon of Loperfido and Matthews can generate star-level production playing between LF and CF, or Smith can be a star on his own.
Altuve isn't going to hit 1.300 OPS the rest of the season, but I don't think Pena, Paredes and Correa will be below 700 either. The thing I'm happy about is that Alvarez is mashing again, and Altuve and Walker aren't succumbing to father time yet. Last season we were in the playoff chase with Alvarez injured or ineffective, Walker looking like Abreu 2.0, Paredes injured for half the season, and Correa only with us less than half the season. We also had a zillion injuries to our pitching staff. Here is how we should improve from last year. Healthy and hitting Alvarez Not totally sucking Walker Correa for a full season Paredes for a full season Altuve back at second base Joey Loperfido looking like he belongs Cam should be better with experience Healthy Javier and McCullers Hopefully Espada won't pitch Hader 2 innings for no reason at all Better hitting coach and approach Better third base coach and concentration on base running We are legit 7 deep in starting pitching including Arrighetti and Blubaugh ( we also have guys like JP and Gordon in Sugarland that can eat some innings) Here is how we may have regressed We lost Framber Pena and Meyers will probably not hit as well as last year.
Funny how we have 2 guys in the system that have this type of profile. Big tools guys that hit the ball hard with contact problems. If both Matthews and Cole work out, we will cooking with gas for the next 5 year.
That play where he was running towards the gap and it looked like both knees exploded is all I need to see. He also got hurt stepping on home plate. my man is injury prone and limiting his opportunities to get injured are key.
Astros players current stats Spoiler Altuve and Yordan are pulling an extra 700 OPS collectively from where they'll likely finish, mostly Altuve. So, spread 700 points to players "underperforming" to maintain Astros current status. There's enough choices with Diaz and Cam being the biggest targets. Cam is 200 away from league... Diaz, Jabreu. Correa prob the biggest disappointment but it's early. Most teams have a couple slumping players throughout the season but can still maintain a good offense.. Altuve and Yordan will slump too.
At this point, its about how much better is Abreu or Duran than a Loperfido/Matthews platoon and how important is it to keep Yordan out of LF? Is that difference enough to reduce the infield depth?
Thats what I was going to put. This team got rid of Leon and Melton and still has a plethora of guys with 25+HR/40+SB potential who SO FAR can't manage a K rate under 30% or .325 OB%.
