THE PALLILOG
Here's why Astros have a different role in mind for one of their best players
Mar 12, 2021, 8:10 am
Carlos Correa could be the leadoff man. Composite image by Jack Brame.
Inside three weeks to Major League Baseball opening its regular season. Yay! The Astros will do so in Oakland against the team that ended the Astros' three year grip on the American League West title, though the Astros then dispatched the A's in an American League Division Series. Both teams are of lesser quality than they were starting last season, giving some hope perhaps to the Angels. Still, the Astros and A's are the top two picks.
General Manager James Click wasn't particularly believable in saying it was purely coincidence that the Astros made a deal with free agent pitcher Jake Odorizzi shortly after Framber Valdez suffered his season jeopardizing broken finger, but it's an excellent signing on the risk/reward scale. Odorizzi turns 31 in a couple of weeks. He had his career season in 2019 with the Twins making the AL All-Star team and finishing 15-7 with a 3.51 earned run average. 2020 was a fail with only four starts, and two injuries. Neither injury was to his pitching arm. For six consecutive seasons (2014-2019) Odorizzi made at least 28 starts. He can be a valuable innings eater, and signing him for two seasons plus a cheap player option for 2023 assures the 2022 Astros of having at least one starting pitcher with at least one good full major season on his resume. Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke are free agents-to be. Valdez, Lance McCullers, and Jose Urquidy have a combined zero good full big league seasons.
Speaking of good full MLB seasons, Carlos Correa has exactly one on his resume. Only in 2016 did Correa stay healthy and excel. If he and the Astros don't agree on a contract extension before Opening Day, Correa has gobs of money riding on his health and performance this year. Interesting of Manager Dusty Baker to say that he's thinking of Correa as his leadoff man alternative to Myles Straw starting the post-George Springer era. Straw is the fastest Astro and it's not close. But it's baseball not a track meet. If Straw can slap out enough hits (he should be practicing bunting every darn day) and draw a decent number of walks he can be fine as a leadoff man. He was routinely overmatched and atrocious at the plate over 82 at bats in 2020, but fared a bit better over 108 at bats in 2019. Straw was a .300 hitter in the minors, as a total Punch and Judy hitter. He totaled four home runs in more than 1800 minor league at bats.
Correa represents quite the contrast. Average speed, but some tremendous power though he has yet to hit 25 homers in a season. That's not just about the injury history. In the short 2020 Correa mustered all of five homers in 58 games played before going off in the postseason.
Straw should bat 9th out of the gate. If he proves up to it, moving to the top of the order certainly becomes an option. Over the course of a full season the leadoff spot in a batting order comes up well over 100 times more than the nine hole. Going with (until/unless proven otherwise) one of your worst offensive players in the leadoff spot is simply not smart.
Another loss for the Rockets
This rotting corpse of a Rockets' season resumed Thursday night with a loss at Sacramento. The Kings are lousy as always, heading for their 15th consecutive non-playoff finish. The Rockets are worse, now 11-24 for the season. Their losing streak is 14. A Houston Rockets franchise record-tying 15th is a near certainty with them playing at Utah Friday night. The Jazz is 27-9. Presuming the highly likely outcome comes to pass, the Rockets "go" for history Sunday at home vs. the Celtics. The corpse is not being revived. General Manager Rafael Stone has until the March 25 trade deadline to get what he can for Victor Oladipo and P.J. Tucker, and maybe drug a colleague into taking Eric Gordon.
March Madness
More fans would prefer it the other way around, but Texas is a vastly better college basketball state than college football state these days. Baylor is a favorite to reach the Final Four. It's no pipe dream for Houston, Texas, or Texas Tech. The Bears, Cougars and Red Raiders all stunk on the gridiron in 2020, the Longhorns were their typically disappointing selves. Texas A&M is the notable exception with Jimbo Fisher having Aggie football in a way better spot than Buzz Williams has the hoop team.
Prairie View and Texas Southern could play Saturday for the SWAC Championship and automatic NCAA Tournament bid, though in the semifinals TSU has to upset Jackson State which like PV went unbeaten in conference play.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. 2021-24, who QBs more wins: Dak Prescott or Deshaun Watson?
2. David Johnson last offseason, Mark Ingram this. What RB do the Texans add next offseason, Marshall Faulk?
3. Daylight Saving Time kicks in late tomorrow night, yes! Best "Time" songs: Bronze-Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes "The Time Of My Life" Silver-Jim Croce "Time In A Bottle" Gold-SOS Band "Take Your Time"
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With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.
While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.
Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.
And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.
It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.
Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.
The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.
They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.
Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.
Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?
As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.
The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?
Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!
Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan. We drop two episodes every week on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel. You can also listen on Apple Podcast, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.