1 - Springer 2 - Altuve 3 - Bregman 4 - Brantley 5 - Correa 6 - Alvarez 7 - Gurriel 8 - Reddick 9 - Chirinos Straw pinch running. *Drools* Starting pitchers: 1 - Verlander 2 - Cole 3 - MadBum (gitrdone) 4 - Peacock 5 - Miley Harris Pressley Osuna 7th 8th 9th. *Drools*
Can’t argue too much with that 1-9 hitter lineup. It’s a shame Marisnick is bound to see reduced playing time, which underscores that he may well be part of any deal to bring some pitching in around the trade deadline.
If it was me... Bregman Alvarez Springer Brantley Correa Altuve Tucker Guriel Chirinos Best hitter hits 2. I think that might be YA I love Bregman at the top with his obp Altuve is the worst of our top 6 hitters so I will hit him 6th. This is a nice problem to have. Springer hits lower as Bregman and YA are obp monsters. I know there is literally zero chance this happens, but it’d be my ideal. Also switches handedness If tucker ***** the bed again then Reddick goes back in that spot.
??? When healthy... Altuve is the best hitter in baseball. I’d go: Springer Altuve Bregman Alvarez Brantley (to protect Yordan) Correa Gurriel Chirinos Reddick (set table for Springer)
In a dream: CF Springer LF Brantley 3B Bregman 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 1B TBD SS Correa RF Tucker C Chirinos Bench: Diaz, Marisnick, TBD With the TBDs being a star caliber 1B (Encarnacion, Smoak, Santana, Castellanos, etc.) and a starting caliber C (Lucroy, Narvaez, Avila, etc.) Otherwise, keep 13 position players with Reddick and Gurriel serving as a 1B platoon and Stassi as the backup C.
Is the Altuve who has gotten older, and hurt, the same Altuve as 2017 MVP? I don’t think so. You people are acting like saying he’s the 6th best hitter in this group is bad: Altuve Bregman Brantley Correa Alvarez Springer. Look at Altuve since he got hurt and tell me that’s not plausible Bregman, Brantley and Alvarez all control the strike zone better than him Alvarez, Springer and Correa all have more natural power than him Altuves bat to ball went from otherworldly to merely super above average. I hope Altuve gets back to 2017 but I think that might be gone. Altuve is merely 30% better than league average this year. The other guys are all better than that, this year. Seriously, it wasn’t an insult to Jose (my favorite Astro btw) it was a demonstration of how ridiculous this group is.
I'm all aboard the Alvarez hype train, but to say a kid who has 5 games under his belt "controls the zone better than and is a better hitter" than Altuve, a career .314 batter, is stupid.
Well, cross off Encarnacion. Too bad, he's really good and had been connected to us for a while. Castellanos is having a down year, plus doesn't really play 1B. Can't see Santana (or Abreu) being traded. I bet Santana would be really pissed if he was traded, he loves Cleveland, clearly regretted signing with Philly, and was happy to come back to the place he calls home. I love Smoak. Excellent eye at the plate, power potential, and you have to remember, in 2017 (his 38 HR all star year) he had Donaldson, Bautista, Martin, Morales and Pillar (when they were all really good) all in the lineup to protect him. I watch a decent amount of Blue Jay games because I like their young core, and I can tell guys like to pitch around him. They've done plenty of business with us, and based on past deals I'm confident they'll hand him over for a blocked AAAA pitcher with upside, since they love those types of guys (Hauschild, Paulino, Thornton, maybe one other?). I love Lucroy as well, he's not what he once was but would still be an excellent backup, give Chirinos much-needed rest, and he deserves a ring. Stubbs seems to just be Valdez's personal catcher.
He absolutely controls the strike zone better that’s beyond obvious. That’s not exactly an Altuve strength btw... Better hitter? I’m certainly projecting but Would you like to bet me OPS+ or wRC for the rest Of the season and take Altuve while I get Yordan? I will be happy to take that bet if you want it.
OPS? WRC? Alvarez is more of a slugger, duh. Hitting means hitting. As in getting hits. You clearly don't have a grasp on basic baseball terminology. Also, for you to say anything is "beyond obvious" when talking about a guy 5 games into his career, tells me you are not someone worth discussing baseball with.
I was an assistant GM in the north woods league, I can promise you I know a little bit about baseball. You are talking about batting average and saying I don’t know baseball- that’s completely ****ing rich dude. Hitting is about scoring runs. Ops and wRC measure that way better and you want to talk about BA? You’ve just brought piss to a **** fight.
I just looked up all the rate stats by the way and Altuve is literally 8th on the team in everything offensive that matters- behind the group of 5 I had and Díaz and Chirinos. Now, I have zero doubt he will be better than those two by the end of the year, and Alvarez in 5 games is definitely a small sample size, but controlling the strike zone is about swinging at strikes and not swinging at balls and yeah dude- if you can’t look at Alvarez spring, look at his stats in the minors, look at how he takes pitches up here so far and see that he’s got advanced strike zone discipline, while recognizing that’s never been Altuves thing then I don’t know what to tell you. A guy doesn’t have to control the strike zone to be great. Vlad didn’t. Altuve is on his way to the HOF and that’s never been his thing. But if you succeed that way you are an outlier, and when you lose some of that specialness that allowed you to overcome you either need to adjust or you won’t be great much longer.
CF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve (can flip with Brantley) LF Brantley (can flip with Altuve) DH Alvarez SS Correa 1B Gurriel C Chirinos RF Reddick
just last year Altuve was hitting .346 by end of june (no Astro is even near that mark having reasonable number of at bats) and .329 by the end of july. Its not like that was a long time ago. When healthy Altuve will hit above .320 guaranteed tuve