What I like about Vazquez that distinguishes him is that he is a native Spanish speaker, and four of our top five starters are native Spanish speakers, and three of them don't speak great English. That's one of the reasons I think Maldy is so well liked by the pitchers on this team. That's not to say a Spanish speaking catcher is a necessity, as most MLB catchers can speak Spanglish, but I think it helps a lot.
I have a great friend who is from Guatemala. He speaks English very well but did not learn until he was in his 30s. He said when a native Spanish speaker hears English, he translates it into Spanish in his head. Then he processes it Then he thinks of his response in Spanish Then translates it in his head and responds in English. Your point is a good one. The group of international pitchers on this team are very very close also. They are a sub culture of their own ( plus Julia). A catcher that fits with them culturally is also a big plus.
It is helpful for our pitching staff to have a native Spanish speaker at catcher... however, I'm actually quite disappointed in how long it has taken for several of our players to learn English. How can you live and work in a country for years and still need a translator for an interview? Come on. With full immersion (and the right effort) these guys should be capable English speakers after a year.
Maldy is being paid to be the smartest catcher in the game. Not the best bat, or even the best glove, the best mind.
But Chas has always had more service time than Meyers (almost a full season). If Meyers starts a game in CF and gets a couple of hits, Dusty will start him over McCormick the next 10 games. Dusty was looking for ANY reason to keep running jake out there last year. The Astros reluctantly finally turned to McCormick when playing meyers and dubon over him just couldn’t be justified anymore. Chas had to be frustrated with that treatment. I would say Jake has been in a more privileged seat than than McCormick ever was. Most fans on this board still think Jake is better (or at least they WANT him to be better for some reason). I guess we shall see what happens. Both Chas and Meyers better be ready to play come spring training. If it’s remotely close, Meyers will win the job.
Dusty benched Meyers hard after the team first traded Straw. He spent 2 weeks keeping Meyers glued to the bench strictly out of spite, he wasn't always Dusty's chosen son. When Meyers finally got off the bench he played extremely well until he got hurt and when he first came back last season. People act as if Meyers has sucked his entire time with us. The team running Meyers out there to see if he could regain form isn't the most insulting thing imaginable. Dubon was largely indefensible Dusty favoritism, there was reason for trying Meyers.
Yeah, I think it does, not that it matters much. I have been in a situation where someone passed me over in favor of their relative. It didn’t feel fair, but it stung less knowing that it wasn’t anything against me personally.
Most of the Spanish speakers on the Astros understand and speak English. They choose to do interviews in Spanish because that is what they are more comfortable with and because it gives them some degree of cover. For example, Yordan Alvarez took a number of English classes on his own volition because he wanted to master the language. He chooses to conduct interviews in Spanish for comfort. However, when it comes to instruction or conversation with his coaches and teammates, there are no issues.... same with Jose Altuve, who speaks English very well but doesn't want to do interviews, especially after the hate he has received. I know that Christian Javier can speak English well when he wants to. The only guy I know that played a long time and didn't understand English was Vlad Guerrero and with his personality it isn't surprising. His son however can speak English, but is more comfortable speaking Spanish. Yao Ming and Ichiro Suzuki also spoke excellent English but choose to do most PR work in Mandrin and Japanese. Ken Caminiti was born in the USA and could barely speak English.
I'm a big Meyers homer but Chas deserves the nod in CF over Meyers in the start of 2023 imo. My ceiling with Meyers was 2-2.5 WAR player hitting about .750 OPS and doing above avg def in CF.
“That Ohtani fella better learn to speak American if he’s going to take all our American money…” (borderline racist CF posters, maybe)
I love both Meyers and Chas. I hope and expect both to get 300+ PA and do very well this season. To me the difference is that Chas is viewed as a true 3 position OF who is better at the corners but good at all 3 spots. Therefore a great 4th OF. Meyers is viewed as a true CF. Because of this, I could see Chas keeping a spot on this team for several years while Meyers is passed by guys like Gilbert, Barber, or Leon. It would not surprise me if Meyers gets much more playing time in 2023 and maybe 2024 but not on the team in 2025 while Chas still is. Regardless of performance.
I will be watching Jake Meyers closely this spring. It is very reasonable to assume his entire 2022 was tainted by the labrum injury. He has 90th % speed and incredible defensive instincts in the OF. But in 2022 his offensive numbers (k rate, bb rate, barrel %, and HR/FB rate) all tanked. It could easily be that all of that was due to the injury sapping his power and his time off throwing his timing/approach. In 2021 his arm was above average and his bat was good enough to make him a borderline star player if he were able to sustain his performance over a full season. McCormick is slightly slower, has a slightly weaker arm, and slightly less power than Meyers. But he is still a good defensive CF overall and has had far more consistent offensive production.
I thought Jake always had a below average arm. According to baseball savant: 2022 it was 84.1 mph avg and 89.4 max which was 42% MLB. 2021 was very slightly better: 84.9. And 89.5. But that rated 60%. OF arms must have been weaker across MLB in 2021.
Where do you get that meyers is faster? Where do you get that Meyers had a better arm this year? Also, where do you get that Meyers has more power? I guess you pull the first 2 off savant. More power? That definitely goes to Chas so far. Then there is the eye test. McCormick was way better at the plate and in the field last year.
Meyers looked pretty good to end the season last year. I think he will do well if given a shot this season. He obviously was not ready when he returned following his injury last season.
Meyers, in his career… 296 AB’s 7 hr 17 BB 104 K’s he was obviously better before the injury but lots of players do as well as him when they are called up. How do we know he wasn’t gonna get figured out. He still struck out 50 times in his first year with just 10 walks. He had 6 home runs in 163 plate appearances. This year he had 4 less hits in basically the same amount of at bats. Its just that he only had 1 home run this year. I’m sure the power shortage was due to the injury but maybe not. However, to act like he was some superstar about to explode or even that he was our CF of the next few years just based off his 163 plate appearances in 2021, is weird to me.
