You don’t get better by losing the best starting pitcher in baseball. If Verlander is amenable to staying, Crane needs to work it out, and you move some of your starting pitching depth to address other needs.
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I would think it would have to be a very team friendly deal with the understanding that he will come off the bench maybe.
Gurriel said he wants to come back. I have no idea what the team will do.
That’s a tough call.
Skills in the field remain to notch.
Decline at the plate father time catching up? Approach?
His numbers are much lower than last year. If it is bat speed / reaction time, that’s a big drop in just one year. Of course, age related decline can happen rapidly in a ball player.
He’s still only struck out 58 times this year and has 34 doubles, 3 more than last season. Hard to believe he could go from a batting title winner in ‘21 to hitting .246 the next season. Has to be some degree of bad luck involved I would think.
Gurriel’s numbers this year are remarkably similar to 2020: .232/.274/.384 then, .246/.294/.377 now. But then, he followed up 2020 with the best year of his career, so who knows…
That’s a good point. Although, we wondered why his '20 numbers sucked and then he had his career year in '21. Juneberno.
Yuli’s babip is a prime reason for the lower numbers
.336 last year
.269 this year
235 in 20
.301 17-19
Around .300 is league average
So very “lucky” on babip in 21 and very unlucky in 20 and 22
Hard hit % is also down about 8% from 42% last year to 35% this year, he was at 37% in 20 and 44% from 17-19
So those two things are the main reason for the struggles it seems to me. Whether he can rebound is another thing
His percentile against the league
His actual numbers are better this year than 20 but the underlying numbers are worse, across the board. Exit velocity is what worries me, even in 20 he was still hitting the ball hard but he’s not this year.
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The weird thing about Gurriel’s season to date is he looked great at the plate in Spring Training. He was driving the ball with a lot of authority, but it just hasn’t translated during the regular season.
Technology exists to measure bat speed, right? I’m asking…there must be.
Yep
Bat sensors like Blast are one example
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Could be fatigue which probably comes from the age factor.
Javier moving to the pen (temporarily?) while the Stros go back to a 5-man rotation (temporarily?)
The only way that makes sense is to manage Javier’s workload
This would be my guess. Javier is 1⅓ innings away from the most he’s thrown in his life. Garcia pitched 155 last season so they are probably more comfortable with him racking up more innings. Javier has also had more experience pitching from the pen
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Thanks for posting this.
If I am reading this correctly, the more worrisome trend may be the drop off over time of barrel%. I suspect that contributes to this year’s decrease in velocity and all the expected (x) values.
That, plus his decrease in sprint speed percentile makes me wonder if father time is catching up. His drop in OAA may also be saying something about his range.
He is 38, the age when his father retired. If the Astros re-sign him, I’d guess they would have to have a more robust backup plan. Maybe that ups the chances for keeping Mancini.
Monthly spits for Yuli 2022:
March/April .224/.246/.358 10K/2BB
May .214/.264/.357 16K/5BB
June . 241/.313/.437 11K/8BB
July .289/.340/.411 10K/5BB
August .272/.307/.321 11K/5BB
So he has gotten better as the year has gone along but even his better is below his career average .287/.331/454
That’s pretty awesome…
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Back to a 6-man rotation? And what does this say about the expected return of JV?