Okert beat out Beeks and you know King is the other lefty.
Where is Beeks?
So Singleton is out….cut yesterday with no options.
Dezenzo is a lock.
That leaves Smith, Hummel, Short and Rodgers vying for the last two spots.
Also, Okert and King ( both Lefties) have been told they have made the pen as well as righties Montero and Contreras.
Whitley and Ort will likely take a couple of those spots when they are ready.
Post Spring Top 30 is out.
1st-4th
Smith/ Matthews/ Melton/ Janek before Desenzo.
All but maybe Matthews get an MLB look in 26 ?
“time between the corner outfield positions and first base”
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-players-who-stood-out-during-spring-training
I hate to sound out of it, but could somebody please post a projected starting lineup for opening day?
Not until the Cam vs Chas is settled….there has been a bit of chatter that Chas will be traded or let go….we’ll see……And does BR or Dubon start at 2B?
Guessing here
Tuve-LF
Yordan-DH
Yainer-C
Walker-1b
Paredes-3b
Pena-SS
Cam-RF
Rodgers-2B
Jake-CF
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Pollard (and others):
What are your thoughts on Paredes and Rodgers so far?
Paredes has been underwhelming but it’s spring….not sure if he is a slow starter.
Air conditioning field could not be better suited for his swing….hoping he can do better than .230 with a .290 OPS….he should hit 30+ hRs either way.
Been pleasantly surprised by Rodgers. his main problem has been all the ground balls that he hits, not enough line drives. But this spring he has hit the ball hard at a good contact rate. If he can keep that up, I would start him at second base ahead of Dubon.
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I think they might start Dezenzo instead of Cam if it isn’t Dubon or Chas. Just being on the roster is a lot for a dude with 32 games in the minors under his belt - throwing him in the middle of the lineup would be very un-Astro.
I read earlier that if he does make the roster, he will have made the majors quicker than all but two players ever - Pete Incaviglia and John Olerud being the other two.
But Cam is squaring almost everything up. I’d start him on Day 1 and see where it takes us.
Not everyone needs the same amount of time….
And that must have not included pitchers……plenty have gone straight from a college mound to big league mound and back in the day some came out of HS and spent almost zero time in minors….
Larry Dierker played just a handful of games in the minors out of HS and made his mlb debut before he turned 18.
There’s smoke that Cam has already been told he will start in rf.
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I get it. This just isn’t the way the Astros have done things, and there’s some risk involved since they don’t really have experience in managing guys like him through the process.
The good thing is that there are fall-back options so that they don’t have to leave him in the lineup if he needs a reset at some point.
I didn’t know about this initiative that might incentivize clubs to bring guys up quicker:
https://www.mlb.com/news/prospect-promotion-incentive-faq
Thanks … I’m concerned about 3b with Paredes. I would consider starting the season with Zach there and Cam in RF.
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I get it.
And I really like Dezenzo but they are going to give Paredes every opportunity to show what he can do.
He was an All-Star for the Rays so he deserves a shot to prove what he did with the Cubs was an anomaly.
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Its also the Astros’ M.O. to chase the player with the contract. So if you get paid big money by the Astros you are playing one way or another.
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I guess it’s that way throughout pro sports … kind of a downer for us fans looking for the best team makeup to win.
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Paredes has proven he can be a great offensive player in the big leagues. Zach hasn’t done that yet, so it wouldn’t make sense to just hand him 3B.
Cam Smith made the opening day roster.
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I just saw that!
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