What’s Critical to the Astros Lineup Going In?

Posts Tagged ‘What’s Critical to the Astros Lineup Going In?’

What’s Critical to the Astros Lineup Going In?

February 10, 2019

Hot Stove League Conversation

What’s Critical to the Astros Lineup Going In? Let’s start with the obvious. The Astros can’t afford to again have injuries that take Altuve down ~ and Correa way down ~ from their normally superior levels of performance. Those two guys must be well, again play well, and, hopefully, stay well for the entire season.

Next we have to stop avoiding the fact that we are trying to win without a first-rate, good-hitting catcher. Mike Stassi is a good back up, but he’s little more than a dead spot at the bottom of the batting order as a starter. We need to have no soft spots in our batting order. I don’t where we are going to find him, or at what cost, but we need that kind of leader-hitter catcher in our lineup as soon as possible.

Third, an along those same lines, we need a DH who is a consistent threat to hit ~ not a streaky guy like Evan Gattis, who’s still easy for the smart pitchers to pitch around when he’s hot. I liked the Gattis disposition; I just didn’t like the fact that we couldn’t count on him more often than his talent or style of play allowed.

Fourth, the Astros need to do whatever they can to help Josh Reddick find his offensive groove. Great as he is on defense, and as a terrific team player, he can’t stay in the lineup at age 31 with another .242 season at the plate.

It’s too bad we can’t take Jake Marisnick’s glove and Tony Kemp’s bat into one player and place him out him out there in center as we move Springer to right. That would take care of the outfield. That is, unless someone finds a way to awaken the home run genie that supposedly lives within the heart of young Kyle Tucker. Then we might have to re-think the outfield pattern all over the place.

Fifth, is a wait and see ~ since we’re still waiting to see if Marwin Gonzalez is truly gone for good. Without him, our roster is going to need several guys who can fill the utility position gap that will be created by the loss of that one super valuable utility man.

By The Way: There is no truth to the rumor that a deal that would have sent Marwin Gonzalez to Miami was killed when heavily invested owner Derek Jeter rejected a condition put forth by the player’s agent that the team would need to change their identity to the Miami Marwins as a condition of the transaction being finalized! 🙂

Below are the records of the seven men I’ve penciled in as our starters, even though I came close to dropping Reddick along with Stassi and Gattis. Apparently, the Astros already have cut bait on the latter.

Check out the current Astros roster too. (I don’t know what happened to Evan Gattis. He’s no longer on the roster).

It would be great if some of you would post your own thoughts here on what you think the Astros need to do about their season-starting nine hitters from the talent currently on hand. That link follows the table:

2019 Astros Starters / McCurdy Picks, Minus Two

BATTER	AGE	B/T	POS	BA	G	H	R	RBI	HR	SB	W	SO
			C
Y Gurriel	34	R/R	1B	.291	136	156	78	85	13	5	23	63
J Altuve	28	R/R	2B	.316	137	169	84	61	13	17	55	79
A Bregman	24	R/R	3B	.286	157	170	105	103	31	10	96	85
C Correa	24	R/R	SS	.239	110	96	60	65	15	3	53	111
M Brantley	31	L/L	LF	.309	143	176	89	76	17	12	48	60
G Springer	29	R/R	CF	.265	140	144	102	71	22	6	64	122
J Reddick	31	L/R	RF	.242	134	105	63	47	17	7	49	77
			DH