Ag4life80 said:

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JV is all about JV. He's a mercenary. We know someone way up in the Astro organization. Whenever he was approached about doing a charity event with other players, it was 'contact my agent' . He was the only player with that attitude, btw.

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He might be a mercenary, might not. I don't know.

But, if I had a $33M contract, and therefore was paying may agent $1M+ per year (possibly double to triple that with endorsements), you can bet I would make my agent deal with all of the non-baseball stuff.....

100% would take Correa there over Straw. He has a career ~.350 OBP so that's strong. Plus he's got that HR power at the top like George did. He Ks a little too much for my likening but he always draws walks (see the 350 obp). I'd probably go Brantley or Altuve in place of him, but I wouldn't complain.

bearkatag15 said:

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Of the two id prefer Correa at lead off

But I think Altuve, Brantley, Tucker or Bregman would likely be better options. I like Correa in the 3 or 4 hole with a lot of RBI opportunities

Ag_07 said:

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What's wrong with Straw and his 1.063 OPS this spring?

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It's in March and not April-Oct.

I guarantee you Chandler has no idea what Tags is referring to there (some here may not even get the reference)

I do not think the Correa ship has sailed, but I do think the extension before free agency has. We'll see what the market is for him.

Any extension means two-time offenders in the luxury tax. It'll hurt if JV or McCullers turn down QO. It'll cost Crane another 30-42%

We've been near, at, or above the luxury tax for a couple of years now. Crane has shown he is willing to spend to keep a winner. Kudos to him. He talked the talk before and now he's walking the walk.

Right now we have 56.9 M on the luxury tax books for 2022. The League average is 56.7 M. Even if Jimmy Crane says "We gotta cut cost. I want to be 30% under the cap!". That means we'd still have 87 M to spend. 25 M for Carlos, 12 M for Lance, 8 M high-end bullpen piece, 3 M low-end bullpen piece, 3 M backup catcher, 30 M for Thor. And 6 M to spare. That was fun.

Pahdz said:

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I guarantee you Chandler has no idea what Tags is referring to there (some here may not even get the reference)

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Chandler probably thinks its a sexually charged comment and is writing an emotional piece about how there's no room for that type of locker room talk anymore in sports.

Farmer1906 said:

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100% would take Correa there over Straw. He has a career ~.350 OBP so that's strong. Plus he's got that HR power at the top like George did. He Ks a little too much for my likening but he always draws walks (see the 350 obp). I'd probably go Brantley or Altuve in place of him, but I wouldn't complain.

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I'm as much of a "Straw guy" as you can be, but I'd take almost anyone in the lineup there over Straw. Straw needs to be 8th or 9th most days.

Let's be VERY optimistic and say he can hit .270 with a .340 OBP along with good baserunning and zero power. Well that's OK in the first inning, but that OBP is still going to be (hopefully) in the bottom half of our starters and now you're giving a guy that even with those numbers is still a .700 OPS guy 100 more ABs over the course of the season than if he were batting 9th. Then after the 1st inning, he's also just as likely to have RBI opportunities as anyone else in the lineup.

I can understand why your leadoff hitter needs to be not just your best hitter but a good baserunner (at least capable)...2 hole as well. You don't want Yordan leading off with a walk or single and holding Altuve or Correa back on a ball in the gap, or not being able to take 3rd on a single and so on...but after that I think it probably ought to be your best hitters in order 3-9.

Metrics nerds school me if I'm wrong.

Harry Dunne said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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100% would take Correa there over Straw. He has a career ~.350 OBP so that's strong. Plus he's got that HR power at the top like George did. He Ks a little too much for my likening but he always draws walks (see the 350 obp). I'd probably go Brantley or Altuve in place of him, but I wouldn't complain.

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I'm as much of a "Straw guy" as you can be, but I'd take almost anyone in the lineup there over Straw. Straw needs to be 8th or 9th most days.

Let's be VERY optimistic and say he can hit .270 with a .350 OBP along with good baserunning and zero power. Well that's OK I guess in the first inning, but that OBP is still going to be (hopefully) in the bottom half of our starters and now you're giving a guy that even with those numbers is still probably a .700 OPS guy at best 100 more ABs over the course of the season than if he were batting 9th and past the 1st he's also just as likely to have RBI opportunities as anyone else in the lineup.

I can understand why your leadoff hitter needs to be not just your bast hitter but a good baserunner (at least capable)...2 hole as well. You don't want Yordan leading off with a walk or single and holding Altuve back on a ball in the gap, or not being able to take 3rd on a single and so on...but after that I think it probably ought to be your best hitters in order 3-9.

Metrics nerds school me if I'm wrong.

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You got it IMO.

You want your best hitter getting the most ABs (Bregman, Yordan) but you also want these guys to have RBI opportunities so their doubles and HRs aren't with no one on. You also don't want someone like Yordan clogging the bases for your speed guys.

Here is how it worked out for us in '19. Correa could potentially be getting 80 more plate appearances if he bats leadoff vs 6 hole. Straw could potentially get 134 more PA if he bats leadoff and not 9 hole.


Get your best hitters at the top. Split up your lefties. Don't waste your best power guy in the 1 hole.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, but here a few things I would absolutely do in all my ideal lineups.
Bregman needs to be top 3
Yordan needs to be top 4
Yuli needs to be no higher than 7
Straw and Maldonado/Castro need to be 8/9
Don't bat lefties back to back, maybe even put 2 righties between them.

After the first inning, Straw can be the same distraction on the basepaths batting ninth as he can batting leadoff. Let our big time sticks get more ABs.