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Hank Chinaski

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Everything posted by Hank Chinaski

  1. I think he signed same day. But he was available for 4 months up to that point, and Dubon was the only defensively versatile player in the roster at that point.
  2. I’d assume that he’ll regress to his expected/established major league performance level. Just like I do with Alex Bregman.
  3. I would have rather brought back Diaz or signed Profar to have a defensively versatile guy on the roster who is also a competent offensive player. Or upgraded elsewhere (C, OF, etc).
  4. Oh I don’t think signing either of those guys made sense. I’m talking about a guy like Syndergaard or Heaney or someone like that, who could have been had for cheap, to add depth to the rotation. We have exactly 5 starters now, one of whom is a totally unproven rookie. There’s no room for error there. Even if he is an upgrade, is there a reason that it took the entire off-season to make the hire? I’ve no problem with Brown (agree he should be good), but the timing felt like an unforced error. Agreed. We decided to roll with Maldy, probably with the idea that Lee and Diaz are capable too. I think that’s OK, but not if you’re also accepting subpar offense at so many other positions… The problem with Dubon is that he’s an atrocious offensive player. He’s fine as the last guy in the roster. But nothing was done to prevent from having to depend on him most days. Brantley is fine but you knew going in that you weren’t getting a full season from him. So the problem isn’t Brantley per se, it is that you signed him to fill a role that he’ll be unable to fill for an undefined amount of time, with no other plan. Again, any individual off-season move (or non-move) in a vacuum is defensible. But the moves need to make sense taken together, and these didn’t…which is unsurprising given that, again, we decided it was fine to not have a GM.
  5. This is the result, as has been discussed, of sitting on the sidelines for the entire off-season without a GM (and thus, without any coherent plan). If you are going to lose Verlander and his 1.75 ERA, maybe you shouldn’t assume that the pitching results will be consistent in ‘23. And if you accept that, perhaps you should (1) bolster the rotation, at least in terms of depth, via free agency, to mitigate risk; (2) bolster the lineup and position player depth to mitigate the effect of the pitchers almost inevitably allowing more runs; or preferably (3) some combination of both. Signing Abreu was a fine move and represents an upgrade at 1B. But nothing was done to address issues related to depth (particularly utility, OF, DH) or on the pitching side. So you’re left in a situation in which you’re depending on guys every day who are unlikely to be good. Altuve’s injury is exposing the lack of quality depth. @Wulaw Horn was alluding to this all offseason. The way that the GM thing was handled never made sense; the result is a roster that is pretty flawed and didn’t really have to be.
  6. I mean, the lineup is fine (with Chas, Hensley, maybe Diaz) if the pitching is what it was in 2022; problem is, it almost certainly will not be that good. Regression from the pitching staff (which is a near certainty) can be overcome with a better offense; problem is, we’re replacing an MVP-caliber player with Dubon and Hensley, and are rotating quad-A players in the DH spot (to go along with the C who can’t hit and the SS who isn’t a good offensive player either). There is nothing hyperbolic, or even pessimistic, about stating that this team/roster is clearly worse than last year’s, because it is probable that the pitching results will be significantly worse and the offense is unlikely to offset that regression. This just doesn’t seem controversial.
  7. Pena isn’t a good offensive player. I’m glad he got hot in the playoffs though.
  8. Yes…and the odds of the exact same pitchers matching their historically good results last year were very low. Then we lost the best one. Perhaps we shouldn’t have punted on the off-season?
  9. Oh. Well yeah, that’s not going anywhere. But seriously, look at the lineup again.
  10. The problem is that the season has started. These games count. These are part of this year’s team. So yeah, it’ll be nice when Altuve, Brantley and McCullers play. But the 2023 Astros don’t have Altuve, they have (Altuve * 0.6). And I’ll be stunned if either Brantley or McCullers contribute anything if significance this year.
  11. JV threw 175 innings with a 1.75 ERA. The probability that Brown matches that is astronomically low. We’d all be thrilled if he threw that many inning with a 3.50 ERA. that’s giving up twice as many runs. That equates to more losses.
  12. We’ll see. Replacing Verlander with a rookie is a bigger deal than anyone seems to acknowledge.
  13. It’s not freaking out to acknowledge that this team is significantly worse than last year.
  14. ‘15-‘16 I guess were the only years both were good while in the same division.
  15. He was basically Reggie Bush without a Heisman QB or being surrounded by an entire offense made up of NFL players.
  16. Man, I just don’t see 100 wins with this roster, or really anything close to it. This has all the makings of a wild card team at best. The lineup lacks depth. The rotation lacks depth. Bullpens are unreliable. Its not a bad team; it’s just not that good either.
  17. I mean, this lineup actually happened in game 4:
  18. Right. I just don’t hate the rangers. I liked them as a kid when the AL and NL were distinct (I wish they still were). They’d occasionally be on HSE in Houston. Usually we’d got to a game or two in Arlington each summer to see AL teams that never came through Houston.
  19. I’m good. My rants last week weren’t about the ability of Yordan, Altuve, Tucker, Abreu or Bregman to produce when they’re healthy - there’s no reason to think they won’t. My rants were about the rest of the roster and how the front office actively chose not to address weaknesses.
  20. Bregman will be fine; Altuve will hit when his thumb is ready. And you totally forgot about Abreu. I agree that the lineup isn’t quite what it’s been because of the injuries; but it will still be good when at full strength.
  21. Oh yeah…not saying we should have given him the contract the Mets did, just that last years club was better positioned to “flip the switch” than this year’s is.
  22. We also had Altuve and Verlander.
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