TarponChaser said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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This is exactly how you become poor after you retire and need a new job instead of enjoying baseball retirement...

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You're not up to speed on what NetJets or WheelsUp and the like costs relative to commercial these days are you?

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Please, please regale us with tales of flying NetJets and chasing tarpon!



Skimmed the Bass story and don't really care if he's right or wrong, but he's made $10M total in his career which is nice but not exactly generational wealth. Good for him for being smart with his money.

Meyers homer last night pushed his OPS above Abreu, and he's closing in on Bregman.



We need those 2 to get going.

So Chandler is now behind a pay wall?

Winner winner chicken dinner for everyone.

Chandler Rome at the Athletic is about as perfect as it gets

miserable **** surrounded by miserable ****s

redline248 said:

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dshedd41 said:

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I'm excited to announce I've joined The Athletic to cover the Astros. My first story is about Cuban dominoes and Yordan Alvarez's mentorship of Mauricio Dubón during his breakout April - https://t.co/ZppLxzSI87

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) April 18, 2023

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I don't care about Chandler's employment news. The story here is that Yordan taught Dubon how to hit!

(I didn't actually read the article)

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And play Cuban dominoes.

(I did read it )

I know we've *****ing about a few guys underperforming and making jokes about Barry Dubon, but this thread has completely overlooked a particular player this year. And that player is, of course, TED.

He's on pace for:

• 30-30 season (38-38 actually)
• 142 Walks (just shy of Bagwell's record of 149 in '99)
• 9.5 WAR

We can and should expect greatness, but take the time to appreciate the greatness while it's happening.

Farmer1906 said:

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I know we've *****ing about a few guys underperforming and making jokes about Barry Dubon, but this thread has completely overlooked a particular player this year. And that player is, of course, TED.

He's on pace for:

• 30-30 season (38-38 actually)
• 142 Walks (just shy of Bagwell's record of 149 in '99)
• 9.5 WAR

We can and should expect greatness, but take the time to appreciate the greatness while it's happening.

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Still 7 RBI behind Yordan.

For real, though, can we get this guy in top 3 of the lineup! ffs

Best part of the Alvarez-Dubon story:

Quote:

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"We talk more about approach more than anything else. I haven't changed my swing. I haven't changed anything, it's just a new mindset," Dubn said. "Pick a pitch, go with a plan. If you're going to die, die with a plan. Don't try to change it. Don't be afraid to go up there and fail with a plan. I'm going to fail, just fail with a plan."

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texasaggie2015 said:

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fullback44 said:

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When Brantley comes back I hope Yulks could play center.. let Myers and Chaz come into spell outfield starters needing a break ..

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I'm not saying Julks can't play center, but it's worth pointing out that he played more games at third in the minor leagues than center field.

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I'm sure he can play in a pinch but he's probably just not fast enough. I have tried hard to understand fielding metrics and the one thing they all agree on is that range is by far the most valuable quality in an OF, especially a CF.

Tucker is a great example. GG RF, great arm, great instincts, good wheels. Despite his skill and considerable range, he still didn't have enough range for the org to want to put him in CF...and like most players, his sprint speed has been slowing down a little bit every year since he was 22.

Meyers is in the top 5% in sprint speed in MLB and that's what is keeping him out there. I don't know how much difference it makes, but it must make an enormous one for them to keep his feeble bat out there.

On other hand you still have Aaron Judge out there for the Yankees and until last year Springer was still spending most of his time in CF, so I guess every organization has a different philosophy - seems like Tucker would be just as good as either of those guys.

Johnsy3 said:

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All this talk of people playing CF...remember the days of 37 year old Craig Biggio patrolling center? Or speedsters Lance Berkman and Richard Hidalgo? What about power-hitting Jordan Schafer and Brandon Barnes? And, everybody's favorite, Carlos Gomez? Yikes.

We are so good overall defensively that I wouldn't mind Julks playing in CF over Meyers.

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How many runs did that cost us? I think the baseball world has a much better idea now.

Astros team ERA through first 17 games in 2022 and 2023:

2022 (MLB rank):
-Team ERA: 3.59 (18th)
-Starters ERA: 4.06 (21st)
-Bullpen ERA: 3.00 (15th)

2023 (MLB rank):
-Team ERA: 3.46 (10th)
-Starters ERA: 3.22 (6th)
-Bullpen ERA: 3.84 (19th)

— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) April 18, 2023

Farmer1906 said:

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I know we've *****ing about a few guys underperforming and making jokes about Barry Dubon, but this thread has completely overlooked a particular player this year. And that player is, of course, TED.

He's on pace for:

• 30-30 season (38-38 actually)
• 142 Walks (just shy of Bagwell's record of 149 in '99)
• 9.5 WAR

We can and should expect greatness, but take the time to appreciate the greatness while it's happening.

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Tuck is gonna have some "Pay Me Rick" shoes pretty soon.

Johnsy3 said:

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All this talk of people playing CF...remember the days of 37 year old Craig Biggio patrolling center? Or speedsters Lance Berkman and Richard Hidalgo? What about power-hitting Jordan Schafer and Brandon Barnes? And, everybody's favorite, Carlos Gomez? Yikes.

We are so good overall defensively that I wouldn't mind Julks playing in CF over Meyers.

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At the end of the day it's a math problem, right? Do the runs that Meyers saves you defensively make more of a difference than the runs he costs you offensively?

It's easy to hate Meyers at the plate because you can quantify his OPS and so on. It's harder to hate Julks (or whoever) in CF, because he doesn't necessarily look bad on a double or triple to the gap - you give credit to the hitter and move on...but the front office can know that Meyers would have gotten to it - and isn't preventing a double just as valuable as hitting one?

The problem is that I can't show the work because don't know the formula, but I'm confident that the front office does.

Harry Dunne said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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fullback44 said:

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When Brantley comes back I hope Yulks could play center.. let Myers and Chaz come into spell outfield starters needing a break ..

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I'm not saying Julks can't play center, but it's worth pointing out that he played more games at third in the minor leagues than center field.

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I'm sure he can play in a pinch but he's probably just not fast enough. I have tried hard to understand fielding metrics and the one thing they all agree on is that range is by far the most valuable quality in an OF, especially a CF.

Tucker is a great example. GG RF, great arm, great instincts, good wheels. Despite his skill and considerable range, he still didn't have enough range for the org to want to put him in CF...and like most players, his sprint speed has been slowing down a little bit every year since he was 22.

Meyers is in the top 5% in sprint speed in MLB and that's what is keeping him out there. I don't know how much difference it makes, but it must make an enormous one for them to keep his feeble bat out there.

On other hand you still have Aaron Judge out there for the Yankees and until last year Springer was still spending most of his time in CF, so I guess every organization has a different philosophy - seems like Tucker would be just as good as either of those guys.

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Yea. Those are all good points. We have a number of guys who "can" play CF, but whether or not that's optimal is a different question.

From a defensive optimization standpoint, would we want Julks in CF? Probly not. But hypothetically, what if he's mashing OPS .850? .900? .950? There's probably a breakeven point where the offense/defense give-and-take makes it worth it.

But it's all relative too. Chas is the incumbent and plays a good CF. So Julks would have to significantly outperform him offensively to outweigh the defensive downgrade and be the everyday guy. That's a tall ask.

At this point, barring a mega offensive breakout where we can't keep Julks' bat out of the lineup, I think Chas/Dubon will see most CF reps post-Altuve's return. If Julks keeps it up, I could see him staying with the big club all year and getting a few starts per week as Brantley/Yordan/Abreu rest.

I'd love for Jake build on his mini-breakout yesterday. That'd be a nice problem to have. But even if he doesn't, he still might have a role with the team in the playoffs as a defensive replacement/pinch runner.

Harry Dunne said:

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Johnsy3 said:

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All this talk of people playing CF...remember the days of 37 year old Craig Biggio patrolling center? Or speedsters Lance Berkman and Richard Hidalgo? What about power-hitting Jordan Schafer and Brandon Barnes? And, everybody's favorite, Carlos Gomez? Yikes.

We are so good overall defensively that I wouldn't mind Julks playing in CF over Meyers.

---

At the end of the day it's a math problem, right? Do the runs that Meyers saves you defensively make more of a difference than the runs he costs you offensively?

It's easy to hate Meyers at the plate because you can quantify his OPS and so on. It's harder to hate Julks (or whoever) in CF, because he doesn't necessarily look bad on a double or triple to the gap - you give credit to the hitter and move on...but the front office can know that Meyers would have gotten to it - and isn't preventing a double just as valuable as hitting one?

The problem is that I can't show the work because don't know the formula, but I'm confident that the front office does.

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Agree it's a math problem. I bet the math thinks Meyers and Julks will be similar over a full season until Julks proves otherwise for a long enough time.

It's not like we're stopping our top hitting prospect from getting ABs by player Meyers in CF.

maybe its just me but it seems like at least a couple times a week Myers is making bads plays in CF whether it's missing a cut off, throwing to the wrong base, etc. He might be able to run down a ball more than the next guy, but besides that I think he's an avg defender who sucks at the plate.

All I do is Nguyen said:

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So this is my extremely uneducated opinion but i think Hunter Brown needs to move behind Javier in the rotation. Louace and Urquidy aren't producing as well as he is right now. I am not sure how often you mess with a rotation but Brown's last few outings have been stellar.

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rotation order is irrelevant mid-season. Only matters in the playoffs