I get it. We have to blame someone for the players sucking and Espada is an easy target... Yordan 1 for 8 Altuve 1 for 6 Yainer 1 for 7 Paredes 0 for 7 Smith 0 for 7 Walker 1 for 6 It's just SO difficult to see why we are losing....... Oh.. and the pitching sucked too. Yup, manager is TOTALLY the problem Espada is on the last year of his contract. Barring a deep playoff run he will be gone. Manager is an EASY fix. The roster is subpar and has a lot of dead or underwater contracts which is not an easy fix.
I dislike Espada. I won’t be sad if/when he is gone. that said, I like the lineups so far. Yordan and Paredes in the 2 and 3 holes respectively. Pena leads off when playing. Altuve leads off when Pena has sat. Cam smith has been in the 6 hole in the fully healthy lineup, with walker and yainer behind him. I agree with that approach. I wouldn’t complain if Cam and Walker were flipped, but prefer giving Cam the 6 hole. Loperfido/Matthews platoon to start the year is a good choice. Loperfido looks nice so far. What is lower than dogcrap? That’s what Yainer is. Jake Meyers at the bottom to turn the lineup over isn’t a bad deal either. Another possible table setter for Yordan at 2 hole.
Something nobody has mentioned - How can the pitchers have confidence in Yainer knowing a strike? Espada expects them to let him do all the challenging? I agree there needs to be rules not suggestions but that only works if pitchers trust the catcher.
This is still all a work in progress for everyone. Every team has different rules right now because no one has figured out what's best. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...w-automated-ball-strike-challenge-system-rule For example, of the 19 teams interviewed, 5 are allowing pitchers to challenge, 4 are allowing but discouraging it, and 10 are not allowing it. In a month, all that's likely to change. I think it also depends on your pitcher. If its Verlander, you probably trust him a lot more to make good decisions than some rookie or random reliever. Maybe most relevant here is that it seems to be front offices deciding this - not managers. Espada might have little or no say in this. There's also an issue that the ABS strike zone is NOT the rule book strike zone, which means Umps are in a bind and will likely start calling the ABS zone instead of the ones they've been using before. So what might have historically been a strike in the players' minds and what am ump might still call for now could still get overturned by ABS. Until this sorts itself out over the next month or two, you're probably going to see lots of bad decision making by everyone in terms of challenges. It's just part of the process.
But they also haven't used the ABS strike zone. Now that they will get publicly judged (humiliated?) for not following the ABS zone, I suspect that's what they'll gravitate towards since thats the incentive structure. So it'll be a different zone that people are used to, which will have an adjustment period.
The only people in baseball that are used to the ABS zone are the fans. Everyone else will have to get used to it. We’ve been relying on it for years.
First time I have disagreed with lineup decision this year - DH should always and only go to Yordan, Paredes or Altuve. I understand Espada wanting to play Vasquez at C in day game after night game. Then just sit Diaz. I get that maybe he wanted to get Diaz going at the plate. I also get that the park in Sacto is small, whereas Denver and Seattle are large. I don’t care. With three straight series on the road, I cannot support playing Yordan in LF unless it is needed to get Paredes in the lineup. We are gonna need to do it in Seattle, don’t do it now.
I would move Walker up to 4 the way he is hitting. He’s our best power/RBI hitter outside of Alvarez. That being said, I can’t complain about the results. I just think Correa hits into too many double plays.
9 games is a too small sample size for anything. It's unlikely Walker is suddenly a 1.000 OPS hitter, and moving people up on hot streaks (or down on cold streaks) just probably means you'll constantly be moving people up just as they are returning to the mean and going colder. If he's still a superstar hitter after a month or two, maybe it's a different story.
Walker led the team in RBIs last season even with his shaky bat. I'm not against keeping things the way it is but his profile is that of a clean up hitter.
The Astros have a tremendous luxury of having 5 all-star level infielders sharing 4 positions. If Joe Espada can manage rest and recovery, that is going to bode extremely well for postseason success. The outfield manned by Alvarez, Smith, Myers, Loperfieldo, and Matthew’s looks quite promising. Smith and Myers look like they are elite defenders. Loperfido and Matthew’s look very capable in the outfield. Alvarez is a respectable left field outfielder. And all of those guys should have a very good bat. To start the season the overall offensive group has looked very good with the bat. Sure they haven’t face the elite teams, but the Astros have been swinging the hot bats! And MLB is a marathon, it’s not a sprint, so you can’t discount wins and you can’t get hyped for outliers. The elite teams beat up on the bottoms dwellers and play the other elite team at nearly even. So far it looks like a solid start. Hunter going on the IL is a bummer, but the Astros should have depth to weather a few missed starts by their bonafide ace.
To be honest, the Astros have done the reverse. We have beaten up on good teams and then fallen apart facing bad teams. This is counter intuitive, but a pattern.
This organization needs a reboot from top to bottom. Though the hitting coach can stay a little bit longer. Espada just sucks and no one in the clubhouse is going to listen to him. I think we kept the wrong pitching coach.
