He's had a nice last 2 weeks. Not enough to move the needle though.

Anybody expect Kessinger to get a start tonight?

Don't think it makes much sense to give up assets for either one of those catchers

Marvin said:

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I have no idea how to separate Meyers and McCormick in terms of future value.

I do wonder how they compare to Brantley when and maybe if he returns. And I mean the Brantley coming back, not the one that last played some time ago. Age and injury might knock a peg or two off his production. I'd hate to give up one of those guys and then regret it if Uncle Mike fails to return to form.

Or, maybe the front office is not taking that into consideration. They may be focused on a one-for-one replacement outside of Brantley. Beats me, but DB has his work cut out. This seems much harder than the Straw decision.

---

Even with Jake's big game last night, he's still behind Chas in wRC+ and OPS. He's probably a slightly better defender than Chas, though.
edit: According to Statcast percentiles:
Jake - 94 sprint speed, 95 OAA, 86 jump, 57 arm.
Chas - 76 sprint, 89 OAA, 81 jump, 44 arm

As to Brantley, he was already losing power and performing worse against LHP. The ideal situation would be to platoon him and Chas in Left field (if we kept both Chas and Jake). Dusty hates ideal situational matchups, though.

Marvin said:

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I have no idea how to separate Meyers and McCormick in terms of future value.

I do wonder how they compare to Brantley when and maybe if he returns. And I mean the Brantley coming back, not the one that last played some time ago. Age and injury might knock a peg or two off his production. I'd hate to give up one of those guys and then regret it if Uncle Mike fails to return to form.

Or, maybe the front office is not taking that into consideration. They may be focused on a one-for-one replacement outside of Brantley. Beats me, but DB has his work cut out. This seems much harder than the Straw decision.

---

I think we know what we have in Chas. He is a good player -- not a superstar. He is also more of a corner OF, but doesn't hit RHP well enough to stay out of a platoon.

Jake is the wild card. We aren't exactly sure which Jake is the real one -- the one we are seeing now, or the one who has struggled mightily.

Julks is what he is. He can hit the ball hard, but he's not the solution either.

The only reason I would see moving any of them would be for a significant upgrade.

To me, they are all stop gaps until Gilbert and other lower-level younger players are ready for the bigs.

agproducer said:

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Marvin said:

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I have no idea how to separate Meyers and McCormick in terms of future value.

I do wonder how they compare to Brantley when and maybe if he returns. And I mean the Brantley coming back, not the one that last played some time ago. Age and injury might knock a peg or two off his production. I'd hate to give up one of those guys and then regret it if Uncle Mike fails to return to form.

Or, maybe the front office is not taking that into consideration. They may be focused on a one-for-one replacement outside of Brantley. Beats me, but DB has his work cut out. This seems much harder than the Straw decision.

---

I think we know what we have in Chas. He is a good player -- not a superstar. He is also more of a corner OF, but doesn't hit RHP well enough to stay out of a platoon.

Jake is the wild card. We aren't exactly sure which Jake is the real one -- the one we are seeing now, or the one who has struggled mightily.

Julks is what he is. He can hit the ball hard, but he's not the solution either.

The only reason I would see moving any of them would be for a significant upgrade.

To me, they are all stop gaps until Gilbert and other lower-level younger players are ready for the bigs.

---

Mostly fair. Except Chas plays an above avg CF.

I would keep a close eye on the Blue Jays.

They're not currently in a playoff spot (3 GB of a WC) and if they fall out of contention I could see them selling off some of their talent and they have a lot.

They're really an odd team. They're loaded but they can't ever put it all together even with a new manager.

Meyers, Hensley, Julks and Chaz for Springer and the BJs pick up some salary!

Let's take another look at the mystifying marvels of Brandon Bielak.

Last night he was hard hit 18 times! By my rough estimation he threw 7 pitches that I would call meatballs.
He threw 37 sinkers, 9 of which were hit hard, and had zero swing and miss.
He threw 34 change ups, only 3 of which were hit hard, and had 5 swing and miss.
Threw 22 four seam, 1 hard hit, no swing/miss
He threw 11 sliders, 4 of them hard hit, including the homer. That pitch wasn't even located poorly, hat tip the hitter, I guess. No swing/miss
Threw 2 curves, 1 hard hit, no swing miss. That curveball was also located pretty well low and away (single).

So, he was pretty lucky last night. 18 times hit hard, but 8 of them resulted in outs. For those of you who watched, was he throwing too many balls with the change up?

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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The BJs pick up some salary!

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Isn't that illegal

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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Meyers, Hensley, Julks and Chaz for Springer and the BJs pick up some salary!

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Who plays CF?

Farmer1906 said:

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1-8 plus Abreu make up a pretty damn good team.

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(Edit to see if I could recreate the chart larger)

Raise your hand if you thought Tucker would be more of a liability in the OF this season than Yordan. Altuve on pace to be right there with them defensively through only 11 games.

Farmer1906 said:

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Keeper of The Spirits said:

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Meyers, Hensley, Julks and Chaz for Springer and the BJs pick up some salary!

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Who plays CF?

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Gilbert?

Farmer1906 said:

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agproducer said:

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Marvin said:

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I have no idea how to separate Meyers and McCormick in terms of future value.

I do wonder how they compare to Brantley when and maybe if he returns. And I mean the Brantley coming back, not the one that last played some time ago. Age and injury might knock a peg or two off his production. I'd hate to give up one of those guys and then regret it if Uncle Mike fails to return to form.

Or, maybe the front office is not taking that into consideration. They may be focused on a one-for-one replacement outside of Brantley. Beats me, but DB has his work cut out. This seems much harder than the Straw decision.

---

I think we know what we have in Chas. He is a good player -- not a superstar. He is also more of a corner OF, but doesn't hit RHP well enough to stay out of a platoon.

Jake is the wild card. We aren't exactly sure which Jake is the real one -- the one we are seeing now, or the one who has struggled mightily.

Julks is what he is. He can hit the ball hard, but he's not the solution either.

The only reason I would see moving any of them would be for a significant upgrade.

To me, they are all stop gaps until Gilbert and other lower-level younger players are ready for the bigs.

---

Mostly fair. Except Chas plays an above avg CF.

---

Agree, but he's been projected, IIRC, as a corner OF.

Keep Julks and Myers. Get rid of McCormick.

redline248 said:

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Marvin said:

---

I have no idea how to separate Meyers and McCormick in terms of future value.

I do wonder how they compare to Brantley when and maybe if he returns. And I mean the Brantley coming back, not the one that last played some time ago. Age and injury might knock a peg or two off his production. I'd hate to give up one of those guys and then regret it if Uncle Mike fails to return to form.

Or, maybe the front office is not taking that into consideration. They may be focused on a one-for-one replacement outside of Brantley. Beats me, but DB has his work cut out. This seems much harder than the Straw decision.

---

Even with Jake's big game last night, he's still behind Chas in wRC+ and OPS. He's probably a slightly better defender than Chas, though.
edit: According to Statcast percentiles:
Jake - 94 sprint speed, 95 OAA, 86 jump, 57 arm.
Chas - 76 sprint, 89 OAA, 81 jump, 44 arm

As to Brantley, he was already losing power and performing worse against LHP. The ideal situation would be to platoon him and Chas in Left field (if we kept both Chas and Jake). Dusty hates ideal situational matchups, though.

---

Jake has started just 43 games in the OF this season, and leads the league in total zone runs (number of runs saved above average) for all outfielders with 10. Verdugo also has 10. Jake has been the most effective outfielder in the game with regard to this stat.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB-leaders.shtml

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/meyerja02.shtml

Normally Betts crushes this stat, but his numbers are down I guess this year for fielding, and he's had to play some 2B and SS for the dodgers.

Umpire: Scott Barry
Final: Astros 11, Blue Jays 4#Ready2Reign // #NextLevel#HOUvsTOR // #TORvsHOU

More stats for this game 👇https://t.co/vLjcQqk7rM pic.twitter.com/E03ltTy9kB

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) June 6, 2023

iamtheglove said:

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AggiEE said:

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Beat40 said:

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The Abreu discussions are wearing me out. Because of his contract, he's playing this year unless he gets hurt or unless Dana & Crane decides he's done.

It's easier just to root for a guy who was once a damn good hitter to find it again than complain every. single. night.

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He can play, but at some point he becomes a massive liability if his performance continues to be worst in the league at that position and where almost anybody would be more effective in that role.

It's not hard to get a competent bat at 1B but I'd hate to possibly put the season at risk due to a sunk cost fallacy.

If he's still batting with an OPS in the .500 range in
August with no signs of improvement and a contested division, he needs to see massively reduced playing time

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I guess this is where I disagree. Yes, he has been a massive disappointment and has not figured it out after more than 2 months. But in spite of it, and not having Altuve, Uncle Mike, McCullers, Luis and Urquidy for more than a handful of games, we're still tracking toward 95-100 wins, so I don't see where the season is at risk due to Abreu. Heck, we're 19-7 over the last month which has been a really enjoyable stretch.

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You never know, but we are not leading our division and we should not take for granted that we will continue winning at our current pace

You don't want to act when it's already too late

Mathguy64 said:

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I hate to tell everyone the bad news but Abreu is going to play basically every day all season. They owe him $60MM for the 3 years. There is no way in the world he gets DFAed. In the last year maybe Crane eats that sunk cost but no chance in the world in year 1. I can't even see him getting benched.

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I'm afraid you're exactly right. A couple of weeks ago I suggested hoping for a minor injury that would force Dusty to find another option but the thread police came down on me pretty hard for that. Now since the we've had someone threaten to punch our elderly manager in the throat if he keeps batting Abreu cleanup, and another couple of threads suggesting Abreu be framed for a scandalous murder.

Would hoping for a bad case of athlete's foot or something like that to get him on the IL and save face for the Astros be too far out of line?

I'll be making the trip to Houston for the Nationals series. What is the best site to get Astros tickets?

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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Hard for me to get rid of McCormick after that World Series catch. He doesn't make that and we might not win

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I don't disagree, but we can't assume Meyers doesn't make that play as well.

OKCAg2002 said:

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Keeper of The Spirits said:

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Hard for me to get rid of McCormick after that World Series catch. He doesn't make that and we might not win

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I don't disagree, but we can't assume Meyers doesn't make that play as well.

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Regardless if he could, would, or couldn't. The fact is, he didn't. He didn't take Cole yard either. Chas has a sentimental attachment to the fans that Jake does not. But sentimental attachment should've about 500 spots down the list on what matters when deciding on how to handle a player or position.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Beau Holder said:

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You have more inside knowledge to actually opine on this 2015, but it seems to me like Jake is the one the team sees the most potential in.

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This is correct.

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Comments like this make me wonder what the real reason Crane parted ways with Click. The report of Click betting his job on Jake seems much smaller now if the new GM sees Jake as the most potential as well.

Maybe it really is as simple as they didn't work well together, Dusty and Click didn't get along and Crane chose Dusty over Click, or Click didn't seem to make the splash trades Crane wanted to see (JV, Greinke). Reality is it's probably all.

Just one of the oddest things from last offseason, especially when you were able to see the extension he got done with Yordan in contrast to the Judge contract. He really set the organization up incredibly there.

However, I'm excited to see Dana's first trade deadline and how he approaches it.

Beat40 said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Beau Holder said:

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You have more inside knowledge to actually opine on this 2015, but it seems to me like Jake is the one the team sees the most potential in.

---

This is correct.

---

Comments like this make me wonder what the real reason Crane parted ways with Click. The report of Click betting his job on Jake seems much smaller now if the new GM sees Jake as the most potential as well.

Maybe it really is as simple as they didn't work well together, Dusty and Click didn't get along and Crane chose Dusty over Click, or Click didn't seem to make the splash trades Crane wanted to see (JV, Greinke). Reality is it's probably all.

Just one of the oddest things from last offseason, especially when you were able to see the extension he got done with Yordan in contrast to the Judge contract. He really set the organization up incredibly there.

However, I'm excited to see Dana's first trade deadline and how he approaches it.

---

I don't disagree with you but I'm not sure how much credit to give Click vs Crane on the extension. Whoever got Yordan to agree to it greatly helped keep the window open in the mid/late 2020s.

Beat40 said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Beau Holder said:

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You have more inside knowledge to actually opine on this 2015, but it seems to me like Jake is the one the team sees the most potential in.

---

This is correct.

---

Comments like this make me wonder what the real reason Crane parted ways with Click. The report of Click betting his job on Jake seems much smaller now if the new GM sees Jake as the most potential as well.

Maybe it really is as simple as they didn't work well together.

---

I can confirm this is 100% accurate. Crane is a hard man to work with and Click did not get along with him. Actual job performance had little to do with it.

Farmer1906 said:

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OKCAg2002 said:

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Keeper of The Spirits said:

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Hard for me to get rid of McCormick after that World Series catch. He doesn't make that and we might not win

---

I don't disagree, but we can't assume Meyers doesn't make that play as well.

---

Regardless if he could, would, or couldn't. The fact is, he didn't. He didn't take Cole yard either. Chas has a sentimental attachment to the fans that Jake does not. But sentimental attachment should've about 500 spots down the list on what matters when deciding on how to handle a player or position.

---

Agreed that nostalgia shouldn't play into it.

Meyers has an uncanny knack for making the right reads on fly balls and now that he's fully healthy he no longer makes pitiful throws (although he'll never have a plus arm). His defense is just overall better than Chas and definitely better than Julks.

I think hitting is where Meyers could really separate himself. Again, now that he's healthy, we're starting to see what we saw when he first was called up to the bigs back in '21. I think he has a way higher ceiling than Chas and again, definitely more than Julks.

Seems to me that Crane is an alpha and Click seemed a bit too beta.

Dana on the other hand seems very alpha, no nonsense, here to get shlt done type which from my point of view seems to be more in line with Crane.