Taking was the main thing I expected to see significant work on this Spring so no surprise there. Results too be seen in a few weeks.
Has there been any reports or coverige about what are the princibles of new hitting coach group and how they are gonna help team effort in scoring and how they are gonna focus on players individually? More analytical or different theory about hitting? Would be nice if we could kill the trend of making minors players and traded here players worse at the plate and keep talking nothing to fix here. Or did we hire established coaches who themselves believe coaches on hitting don't really matter(cheerleaders) and we are going with same aproach Paredes taking few balls and rest doing what they want. Minus Pena who will come back probably late summer after forced to play injured with 1-6 season start.
“As we thought about everything– the fit, the resources, what other things we needed to do with our roster– it made sense for both sides to go in a different direction,” Hoyer said. “It was a good one year with him…When we were at our best, was when he was at his best in the first half…I’ve got nothing but good feelings about Kyle and I wish him luck.” If anyone wants to know about Kyle Tucker and who he is as a player and how he is viewed -- this sums it up, there are the comments of the Cubs GM. Kyle Tucker isn't a bad person, he isn't a chemistry killer and he isn't an overrated player. He just wants "the guy" money, and he has the talent of "the guy", but at the end of the day he doesn't have the desire of "the guy" and lacks the work ethic "of the guy".
As good as he was, he was never a leader on a team. He just wants to be a paid mercenary without any of the pressure of being the guy. LA is a perfect spot for him even without the money. He can be their 5th best player and be the best 5th best player in the big leagues.
“If a team calls, we’ll still listen,” Brown said. “Ultimately, we’re not making any decisions that are going to [negatively] affect our team. Right now, we like where we are. We have a good club, we have pretty good depth, we’re still trying to make some decisions in the outfield. We feel great about our rotation, we have a few decisions to make in our ‘pen. Ultimately, this is a really good team and I look forward to having some success out of this club.” Translation: Dana is no longer making calls.
Also in baseball , unless you are a pitcher I think it's nearly impossible to be "the guy" . You are one of 9 in the lineup and unless you homer you depend on teammates. Furthermore while tucker is a good defender, he's not a top 2-3 SS or CF , those guys and maybe a C can be "the guy" if they are also elite offensive players . Pena was the guy for us last year. But it would be a big risk to pay him 30 million that he's worth going forward since he probably will not maintain his level with the glove and in the box . For a longer time period I mean .
WBC strikes again. Just play our minor league guys if they have to. Absolutely killed us with Framber and Altuve 2 years ago. I hate it.
MLB season is 26 weeks long. Cam's wRC+ each week Monday-Sunday, with 1st week having 2 weekends - 4/6/25 1) 12 (6 of 9 team games) 2) 185 3) 117 4) 54 5) 71 6) 113 7) 148 8) 146 9) 85 10) -10 11) 93 12) 193 13) 229 14) 141 15) 55 ASB 16) -17 17) 2 18) 20 19) 42 20) 118 21) -85 22) 100 23) 100 24) 278 (6 PAs) 25) 149 (6 PAs) 26) -18 He clearly had a bad overall 2nd half and several poor weeks, but to say 20 of 26 weeks were poor is simply inaccurate. Sure, he had 2 weeks late that look good because if limited PAs but he had at least a 100 wRC+ in 13 of 26 weeks. I consider 125+ = great ( 8 weeks) 111-125 = good (3 weeks) 90-110 = average (3 weeks) 80-89 = bad (1 week) 79 - = horrible (11 weeks) Looks like a young player learning MLB, showing promise, but hitting a wall, to me.
He was pretty awful. Wasn’t he the least productive RF in baseball with that many at bats? But yeah of course he is young. Never said he wouldn’t be something some day. I’d like to see him earn all those at bats this year. And if you take away his week 12 and 13, his 2 best weeks, his production was real poor.
He had 493 PAs. 26 RFers had at least 450 PAs. Adolis Garcia was the only one with a worse wRC+ (83). Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos were tied with him at 90. There were 7 with less fWAR. Not a good season, but also not THE worst.
No but .673 OPS with 137 k’s in 493 at bats is putrid. If he resembles that this year, he needs to go to sugarland.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/03/astros-sign-christian-vazquez-to-minor-league-deal.html No downside.
I thought that Christian Vázquez did not like his treatment as an Astro. I am surprised that he would come back. I suspect that Vázquez might not have had many offers this offseason.
Vasquez has had an OPS of less than 600 over the past 3 years and is now 35. Sounds like a version of Martin Maldonado. Good insurance though considering it’s only a minor league deal
Updating: 1. SP who can start Game 2 of a playoff series: ADDRESSED (Tatsuya Imai) 2. LHH OF who can hit in the top 5 of a contending lineup: NOT ADDRESSED 3. SP who can capably give 130+ big league innings: ADRESSED (Mike Burrows and Ryan Weiss) 4. Backup C: ADDRESSED (Christian Vazquez and Carlos Perez added on minor league deals) 5. RH 7th inning RP: PARTIALLY ADDRESSED (Nate Pearson, Roddery Munoz, Ryan Weiss, and a slew of upside NRIs) 6-7. 2 Top 100 Prospects to improve the farm system and long term organizational outlook: NOT ADDRESSED (in fact this issue got worse as they traded away 2 fringe Top 100 prospects in Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito) Astros still have ~$10M in payroll flexibility. They also have an extra infielder and some young SP they can probably afford to trade. At this point improving the farm is going to have to wait until the draft. It feels like they should be able to add a LH OF bat but the market just doesn’t seem to be cooperating. If I were Dana Brown I would be focused on trading pitching to a rebuilding team to add a bat; Alec Burleson, Matt Wallner, Daylen Lile, Trevor Larnach, and Pavin Smith would be guys I would call about. I would much rather see Houston dump Christian Walker than trade away Isaac Paredes.
Brian MacTaggert did a Reddit AMA yesterday and he seems very confident that the Astros will make a trade before opening day. He has mentioned multiple times in the last 2 weeks that the Astro are open/trying to trade Jake Meyers. It seems odd to me, but he is more plugged in with the front office than anyone so I think Brown has options he would be willing to do but is holding out in case an injury on another team causes the market to shift in his favor. My hopeful opening day roster: SS Pena 1B Paredes DH Alvarez 3B Correa 2B Altuve LF TBD LH BAT C Diaz RF Cole CF Matthews Bench: Unroe, Allen, Vasquez, Trammell SP: Brown, Imai, Burrows, McCullers, Javier RP: Abreu, King, Okert, Sousa, Weiss, De Los Santos, Lambert, Blubaugh IL: Hader, Walter, Wesneski, Blanco, Pearson Optioned: Alexander, Gordon, Arrighetti, Teng, Ullola, Murray, Smith, Dezenzo, Loperfido, Whitcomb Back to Reds: Munoz DFA: Salazar Traded: Walker, Meyers
