Carlos Estevez to the Royals
And Ha-Seong Kim to the Rays, which I saw someone theorize could mean Brandon Lowe is on the block. You never know what insane price the Rays will demand, but he makes a lot of sense for the Astros, and they’ve reportedly tried to trade for him before.
I thought Estevez would have fit well in our bullpen.
EDIT: now that I’ve seen the dollars, we would not have done that. Too expensive.
Jim’s friends said a long time ago that the Astros had interest in him. I love the idea.
They don’t respect the law either.
Brandon Lowe is even more interesting if they decide to move Altuve to LF.
And they may be looking at him in LF strictly because of his poor defense.
I love Altuve. Please do not make me watch him in the OF
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All I can think with the Altuve-to-LF conversation is, what a weird niche for Houston to have not one, but two instances of “future Hall of Fame & franchise icon second baseman agrees to move to the outfield to make room for a free agent signee”?
I don’t want to watch him out there either, but his defensive metrics at second are the worst, or bottom two or three in the league over the last 3 years. His defensive runs saved is in the negatives so he’s actually doing harm playing there versus the rest of the league. Now, is he gonna be even worse in left??? That’s the question. Unfortunately, we have 2 DH’s on the roster now.
This is a real issue. Sorta.
Yordan is actually a playable LF if not exactly good. Furthermore, his career OPS is over 100 pts higher when playing LF (though they were essentially equal last year)
The team has mostly DHed him not because he can’t play but because of his value and injury risk.
All of the injuries I have seen from Yordan have come from baserunning (knees) or batting (hands). ( except that collision w/ Pena)
For me, the question is how much different is Altuve in LF? How much less important is his bat? How much less likely is he to get hurt playing LF?
However, the 2b vs LF thing is real. Last year, Astros 2b had 551 total chances while LF had 301
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For those of you that are better at seeing the nuance of defensive prowess than I, what is the root of Altuve’s decline? Reading the ball off the bat less effectively? Diminished first step speed? Throwing accuracy or velocity decline? Or is it he no longer has Correa to his right and Gurriel to his left (and Grienke in front) so his natural shortcomings are execerbated?
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Along those lines, I wonder if the shift rule change played a part in those metric declines.
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I will confess that I don’t know the for sure definite answer to your question, but Ferrin and Duquette were talking about this on the radio Monday. They specifically mentioned his range and his throwing ability has dropped off precipitously. They were somewhat doubtful that Parades’ range was going to be much better at second. If I remember correctly, the two of them were more keen on trying Parades in left and leaving Altuve alone at second, even though it isn’t ideal.
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Yes
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Altuve turns 35 in the first week of May.
He’s an autumn chicken.
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That was funny. Thanks for the laugh Jim.
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Whether it’s Altuve, Paredes, or Polanco/another acquisition, the biggest defensive upgrade they’ll be making at 2B is Christian Walker at 1B.
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This made me LOL.
Scherzer to BJs
I’m reading the Cubs are making a play for cease. If that’s the case, that means they are going all in on this season, as they should after acquiring Tucker for only one year. If that happens, I could easily see them going hard after Bregman.