There's a distinct pattern of how some posters respond. It's mainly only present in this forum... the most pretentious forum in CF.
My ideal lineup right now: 1. Springer (RF) 2. Reddick (CF) 3. Altuve (2nd) 4. Gonzalez (DH) 5. Correa (SS) 6. McCann (C) 7. Gurriel (1st) 8. Bregman (3rd) 9. Aoki (LF)
It's not even June yet and because of the back end of rotation not consistently able to get past 4 or 5 innings, Devo has pitched a lot so far. Just a concern to me about him being possibly used up before it's even summertime. Imo I feel his overuse may be a big contributor to his lack of effectiveness recently but the points you raise are valid.
Swapping Marwin to 1st and Yuli to DH would be better. Reddick to left, Jake to center, Spring to right every other game.
The disconnect you're going to continually run into is that the Astros don't overreact to short term anything. Sometimes it will work (not releasing Peacock), sometimes it won't (giving Gomez so long). But philosophically, they aren't going to look at 50 or 100 at bats and make a change. You'd have moved Correa down after April and then missed out on his 1.000 OPS in May. It's just hyper-reactive buy-high / sell-low stuff. Over the course of the season, Correa and Altuve are almost certain to be their best overall hitters, and they are going to stay in the 3 and 4 spots as a result. Everyone else will move around as needed.
Marwin will never bat clean up over Correa. I know Marwin has been hot, but these decisions are made using very large sample sizes. Baseball is a game of streaks, you have to base those decisions off much larger chunks of data to determine who a player really is and where he should hit. It's for that same reason that the team is nowhere close to giving up on Beltran.
Never implied Marwin should be everyday cleanup just that he could fill it while filling in for Correa
Maybe they thought his skillset is better suited for the 2 hole than Gattis or anyone else. Regardless, you specifically asked why Correa was set in stone in the cleanup spot. I'm just explaining why that is.
Team was bound to hit a rough patch. It just so happens bats have gone cold with RISP at same time as random injuries and illnesses. Beltran's performance of late does concern me. If he can't find the fountain of youth to be a consistent threat at DH then team will have another item on their shopping list come trade deadline.
Not sure I fully trust anyone in this bullpen right now. I really hope McHugh comes back to form to be a solid number 3 guy, and if he does then we need to look at adding a real stopper to our pen because these dudes put my nerves on edge, I'm not even confident in Devo anymore.
Sure seems to be a bit of panic right now. Could you imagine what the reaction would be if they hit a stretch like the Cubs did last year? (Didn't they lose 9 out of 10 at one point?). Anyways, win today and they win the series. Keuchel back on Saturday.
The runs against Devo were flukey, especially due to that double up the third base line that Bregman would have speared if he were an inch taller. One of the problems with a guy Bregman's size is that he just isn't your prototypical corner infield body type and for good reason. Maybe he should play further back to maximize his range and see if his arm is strong enough to compensate for it. But yeah, after his double it was two groundouts that plated the runners including one that could have been a double play had Gurriel fielded it more cleanly. Not like Miggy or Victor Martinez were fast runners. This is kinda what happens when you sit Correa just because. The dude's 21 and the baseball schedule means you play on average 6 nights a week. The Astros have gotta be the most risk-averse teams out there when it comes to getting people prophylactic rest. If Correa plays maybe you can have Marwin start taking more time from 1B because he'd definitely be a defensive upgrade there.
A win tonight and we took 3 of 4, and in baseball you don't worry about games, you worry about series. If you take it tough every time you lose a game you are gonna drive yourself crazy because baseball teams lose...a lot, even the good ones.
The team just won 2 straight before yesterday. Not exactly a "rough patch". Not perfect, but not awful. Gotta let the Cleveland series go and move past it. This is a crazy statement. If you expect a bullpen to give up zero runs perpetually, you're always going to be on edge. Compare the bullpen against other bullpens, then respond. You can trust them while still understanding that runs will happen, and losses will come with the territory of being a baseball team.
Be honest, how many of you just starting following baseball? This is BASEBALL. It's not a sport you truck through teams with your dominant talent. Bats go cold, great pitches get hit out of the park, a weird bounce on a grounder changes a potential double play to a 2-run double. Great teams lose a lot. A 100-win season, regarded as impressive as a 60-win season in basketball, is actually a 50 win pace by win percentage. If you stress yourself out by day to day normal baseball things, you're going to be miserable, even if you follow a 100 win team.
For the most part, I dont think the responses your pointing to are the result of baseball naivety. Instead, they are the result of passionate fans that feel like the parts we have can be utilized in a more efficient fashion. Things like batting order, defensive shifting (or not), who plays where and when, and so on are things that the manager can manipulate, and therefore manage. Sure, many comments are in hindsight, but applying what we have learned from the past to what we do in the future is a process that enables us to improve on what we have.
Yes. There are a lot of casual fans and those that are posting in here due to the current success that seemingly don't know how to watch and enjoy baseball. I have jokingly longed for the 100 loss seasons because the actual baseball talk was much better. You just can't over-analyze every pitch, at-bat, inning, and decision or you will just get all angry. Teams will lose. Players will fail. Managers will make good decisions that don't work out and questionable decisions that do work out (and vice-versa). A guy hitting well and batting 7th may actually be hitting well BECAUSE he is batting 7th. Moving guys up and down in the lineup doesn't work over the long haul. Pitching guys in all sorts of situations doesn't work over the long haul. Players are human. They like routine. Fans need to understand that. As a point of reference, the Astros got off to that great start in April. Currently they are doing better in May. You'd think they are on that 100 loss pace (well....I guess over the last 6 games they are, so let's move everyone around and fire the coaching staff).
