The Astros placed star third baseman Alex Bregman on the injured list due to a left quad strain last week, although the timeline for his potential return was undefined. Manager Dusty Baker offered a little more clarity today, telling reporters (including Mark Berman of FOX 26) Bregman would be out for “two to three weeks or more.” With the All-Star break about three weeks away, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Bregman doesn’t return until the season’s unofficial second half begins July 16. The Astros have primarily relied on Abraham Toro in recent days, winning all seven of their games since Bregman went down.
In other health situations around the league:
- Giants first baseman Brandon Belt left this afternoon’s game against the Angels after stumbling while running the bases. He has an undisclosed right knee injury and will go for an MRI, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Belt has quietly been fantastic this season, hitting .253/.365/.518 with 11 home runs across 197 plate appearances. If he winds up requiring an injured list stint, it’d be a tough blow to a Giants club that currently holds a 3.5 game lead in the National League West.
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided updates on a pair of injured players in a session with reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com and Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). Shortstop Corey Seager, who has been out since May 15 with a fractured right hand, is still feeling some soreness that’s delaying his embarking on a potential rehab assignment. Seager’s injury called for him to miss at least a month, but it seems his progression is going a little slower than the team had initially hoped. Meanwhile, reliever Corey Knebel, who went down with a right lat strain in late April, is targeting a return to the big league club by the end of August.
- Braves manager Brian Sntiker told reporters (including David O’Brien of the Athletic) that catcher Travis d’Arnaud is “right on track” in his recovery from a torn ligament in his right thumb. The team hopes he’ll make his return at some point in August. With d’Arnaud out, Atlanta has primarily turned to rookie William Contreras behind the dish. The 23-year-old has held his own, hitting .227/.306/.437 in 134 plate appearances.
Belt’s slash line is not “fantastic”…
“Quietly fantastic”. A 1.3 WAR through 74 games is pretty good, but agree that it’s not fantastic. His .518 slugging and .884 OPS is getting closer to fantastic though (for him anyways).
Approaching a .900 OPS is not fantastic, or are you implying fantastic doesn’t do it justice?
I would love for my teams players to rock an .900 OPS. I would gladly accept a less than fantastic .400 OBS and a .500% SLG and we got ourselves an allstar.
That’s an OPS of .883.
2021 league average OPS is .708.
In any season, an OPS > .800 is good, & Belt is actually close to .900.
Looking at his numbers in this offensive environment? Yeah, I can see using the term “fantastic”. It’s definitely a subjective term. Probably the basis of differing takes.
bballlover93:
Still stuck in that old BA importance syndrome I see.
Funny how a guy can have a .365 OBP, a .518 SLG, giving him an OPS of .883, an ISO of .265, and have 11 HRs, despite missing almost 20 games, as a LHH in a park that makes HRs difficult for lefties (144 OPS+), a guy can do all that, but if that BA is only .253 it can’t be quietly fantastic.
As a Yankee fan, I can assure you I covet that production out of 1B. Got Voit back, so I’m hopeful. But Ford/Gittens/Bruce were…man, bad.
So bad.
& that’s before taking his glove into account.
Good player having a good season.
this is what y’all REALLY need – get one of these
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chambch01.shtml
Would certainly help.
I was at The Stadium with my grandfather when Chambliss took Littel yard. I was 8. Ever since, I can’t imagine being anything *but* a Yankee fan.
But why stop there? I’d take that entire infield if it were possible.
Astros had one of those back then with Bob Watson. we have one now with Yuli, my FAVORITE guy to see at the plate with runners on base these last several years (and Brantley).
Runs gonna be scored in droves.
Oh, I certainly recall Watson.
Played for the Yanks, too. GM before Cash.
here’s Chambliss’ Yankee contract for those years : 5/$1.2MM; 240K per 77-81
Extrapolating that to present day would be a little over $1.1MM.
So, yeah. A bargain.
If Giancarlo Stanton is my comp, Michael Brantley should be getting paid 52 million per year – hey, don’t throw things at me 🙂
Uh.
Can’t imagine throwing things at you.
But.
Giancarlo Stanton: 40.5 career WAR
Michael Brantly; 27.4 career WAR.
I know you are loyal to your guys & I respect that. But Stanton is legitimately on an HOF track. &…well, Brantly is not.
Hey Ducky,
I’ve always liked Belt. From what I’ve heard he’s a very good clubhouse guy. But, yeah, he can have some ABs that frustrate me.
But I’m not sure there’s another guy in MLB that isn’t more hindered by the park he plays in than Belt. I’ve often wondered what kind of numbers he (and Barry Bonds) would have put up had he played for the Yankees.
We can all cherry pick whatever stats and data we want to justify our opinions.
Stanton 40.5 career WAR?
Brantley 27.4 career WAR?
What does what a player did 5 or 10 years ago have to do with their value now?
How about:
Stanton 6.5 bWAR since 2018
Brantley 12.2 bWAR since 2018
How about:
Stanton 2.1 bWAR since 2019
Brantley 8.4 bWAR since 2019
How about:
Stanton 1.1 bWAR so far this year
Brantley 2.0 bWAR so far this year.
now do Astros W/L vs EVERYBODY elses since opening day 2015
Astros BA vs everybody elses since opening day 2017
Astros batter k’s vs everybody elses since opening day 2017
Astros runs scored vs everybody elses since opening day 2017
and if you want to leave out 2020 that’s not cherry picking – 2020, like 1981, is absolutely worthless for statistical comps for the vast majority of players and teams
What?
You did such a good job on the Brantley, I was asking you to show just how awesome the entire team has been for YEARS, vs everybody else doing launch angles and TTO all the time, rather than good, solid, fundamental
Baseball.
Oh. I was a bit confused.
Point made but that’s a lot of research.
Maybe over the weekend
Not sure you really want to be citing their (ahem) hitting “performance(s)” from 17-19.
The Astros had a…mmmm, pretty big advantage during that particular time period. Everyone would hit better if they knew what pitch is coming, man.
So.
well, except they are doing the exact same thing offensively this year that they did in those years, which suggests many things to the observant and objective analyst
here’s a good place to start
https://champsorchumps.us/records/most-mlb-wins-since-2015
So now they were doing it in 2019?
And stop acting like they were the only team. I would be my house LA and New York were doing the same thing (or something similar). That is one reason you can, absolutely, cite those seasons.
Ducky is a good one, so I don’t mind his take
but, dear jjdoo2, you don’t need to defend our boys; Astros are rubbing truth in everybody’s face these days.
Look.
I’m not one of those Yankee fans that has a screenname such as “cheaterasstros” or whatever.
It’s ancient history by now.
Ya know?
& I know you guys feel obligated to defend your team/championship. I get it. Personally, I’m thankful that I’m not forced into having to make that kind of choice.
It’d certainly be easier for me as I’ve had the good fortune to cheer for 7 championship teams. But it’s a lot different for you guys as this is your sole experience with winning a World Series.
So – in theory at least – it would be a lot easier for me to disregard an extremely questionable title.
I am not insensitive to that.
Bottom line: the Astros lost picks, were fined the absolute maximum, & lost people to year long suspension.
They were the *only team* to incur anywhere near all that.
So the “everybody did it” argument is both unproven & probably very wrong.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, bro.
Enjoy it – or whatever – but don’t expect the fans of almost all of MLB teams to not question it’s validity.
the best defense is a good offence 🙂
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team
The everyone did it only implies to what the Braves were punished for..
Everyone knows that, and the only reason they got such a large penalty was because they wanted to send a message to everyone to STOP it.
Also, because no other GMs like Coppollela l, he was pretty much disliked by everyone as well..
So you don’t have an issue with your recent championships being led by PED users? Or is that level of cheating ok? Or is it ok since most of the league was doing it?
You have to be extremely dense and/or lack any common sense to think Houston was the only team.
Ducky is correct. I think other teams do it (it was said in the mlb report the Astros weren’t the only ones) or have done it (Greenberg’s Tigers and Willie May’s Giants certainly did. Greenberg admitted himself and so did May’s Giants admitted it. Yes, they used technology to illegally relay signs), BUT until actual proof is presented it’s mostly speculation. I like Brantly but Stanton he is not.
Thank goodness he’s not Stanton, or we wouldn’t be winning so many games
If he was Stanton, our line up would be a bit more fomidable.
Dude, we have scored FORTY FIVE more runs than ANY body in MLB, that anybody being the Dodgers; everybody else, even more
you are totally over valuing slugging – we have TROUNCED our opponents for years, without leading in HRs
Dude, Brantley is not an MVP.
The “or something similar” is a pretty big difference JJ
For example. A player could watch video after a game, figure out a teams sign sequence and share with others. Then when on base they know what to look for
That’s INFINITELY different than someone feeding signs live, and about all you can claim against NY or LA. There’s actual evidence the Astros cheated. Astro apologists are so freaking ridiculous
Obviously didn’t mean something as simple as finding sequences after games. That is not what I was saying, and you know it. It is extremely ignorant to assume only one team did what Houston did. Players change teams too much and have friends on other teams. No logical person would think it was only Houston.
While I agree that it is not the only stat that matters, it is quite obtuse to say that batting average isn’t important. Hitting matters, and you can use all of the peripheral stats you want to justify anything, but at the end of the day you have to be able to hit. Having said that, Belt is having a fine but not great season, which could easily turn into a very good season.
” it is quite obtuse to say that batting average isn’t important”
gif of entire stadium standing o,
Perhaps the most important thought ever written here. Soon, those remaining front offices that DON’T get this, WILL get this, after the Astros continue to roll everybody offensively for one or two more years
Maverick12:
You keep saying hitting, when what you’re talking about is only the hitting percentage, while ignoring the other aspects of hitting. It’s obtuse to diminish other informative stats and place too much importance on the average. BA does not always show how well a player actually hits.
Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew had a career BA of .256. But more importantly, his high OBP (.376), and SLG (.509), and his career 143 OPS+, resulted in a 60.4 WAR. That should show just how important the batting average is.
BA should be taken into account, but it needs to be properly weighted, among other numbers, with the knowledge that a somewhat low BA can be misleading.
Not to mention two guys can be hitting .280, and it have a totally different impact on his teams ability to win. (The object of the game)
One guy can get to a .280 BA while racking up single after single, but the other can get there via HRS, 2Bs, etc.
It’s common sense, hence the reason we use advanced stats and other stats to read further into a player’s TRUE impact..
Great pitchers give up 2-4 hits per start
You really are happy with them being less valuable? That’s BA>slugging In a nutshell
“ ” it is quite obtuse to say that batting average isn’t important”
gif of entire stadium standing o,”
Except no one thinks this way if they’re under 50?
BeforeMcCourt:
Not sure why you need the age slur. I’m someone over 70, and grew up with BA/OBP/SLG, plus HRs and RBI and just about nothing else. Even OBP was considered the least important in the slash line,
But you don’t need to be under 50 to accept better analytics. I think the rejection of advanced metrics in favor of older stats stems from not understanding the analytics. But, my guess is there are plenty of fans under 50 that don’t understand them either, and are continuing to argue for the importance of outdated stats like BA.
I was very critical of the 7-year extension the Giants gave Belt which expires at the end of this year. Looking back on it I see the organization did essentially get what they paid for based on his consistent production, but the injuries have also remained consistent. It’s gonna be a tough call for Zaidi this winter. I think they’ll extend the QO, but Belt’s market is tough to predict. Any thoughts, Giants fans?
First Base has been such a bad position to be a free agent in the past few years. Its hard to gauge where interest could come from. We can believe the Blue Jays could have interest because 1) they are supposedly looking for a left handed hitting 1B right now and that could continue into the off season. And 2) the Blue Jays are interested in everyone. The Brewers have a continuous black hole at 1B so they could be in. Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo are also free agents this winter and while i, and i imagine many others believe their teams will sign them back to new deals they would be more coveted than Belt if they reach free agency
@solaris, Belt has been a player that I have found “mildly” frustrating over the years. One, he is very injury prone and spends a lot of time on the IL. Two, he is very streaky. He’ll go periods where he can’t buy a hit (but does have a great eye and draws a lot of walks). On the other hand, he’s streaky, and when on a hot streak, like the past few weeks after coming off the IL, he’s very productive. Also on the positive side, he is a fantastic defensive player at first. He’s tall, stretch’s out well, and fields his position (IMO) along with some of the best in baseball. So….the frustration comes in with too many injuries and a cold bat on/off. I think Z will let him go (and Cueto) and will offer Posey and Crawford each a two year extension. Just my opinion..
Agree that’s what they’ll do with those four. They have a few 1B options under development in the minor leagues, but those are at least a year or two from being ready, so Zaidi is probably already working on a non-Belt solution.
I think you’re right about Posey and possibly Crawford. The Posey scenario is likely to spell the end of Belt’s time in SF because realistically they’ll move him to 1B next year and install Bart as the primary C. While Belt’s injury history will limit the years and dollars he receives elsewhere, his concussion history alone moves him down in the FA pecking order. Everyone knows if Belt is your 1B you MUST have a solid Plan B because he will spend about 1/4 – 1/3 of any season going forward on the IL.
And no one cares!
Even after losing Bregman the Astros are still the hottest team in baseball, and now they got Tucker back. 10 in a row and counting……
10 in a row and still can’t keep the A’s away they better keep winning or the low budget A’s gonna take that division again
The low budget A’s better not go on a losing streak, or the Astros will eventually pull away.
A’s have won the division once in the past 6 years and that was a joke season. Nobody in Houston is scared of Oakland
Actually, I’m a hard core Astros fan, and I don’t take the a’s lightly.
Well found one…. I’m much more worried about Chicago than I am Oakland. But, they dominated both teams this season.
I agree. You simply must respect what the A’s continue to accomplish. Year after year.
This year is no different. They continue to outperform their expectations and talent. Thats the sign of a good, well run team.
But the Astros have many of the same attributes and are deeper and more talented.
In a 162 game season, body blow after body blow, eventually the A’s will fall behind
I would think so, and I would hope so – I want another championship or 2 or 3 as much as anybody – but it’s day by day war until that final out in November.
Need to beat Detroit tonight 🙂
If the team plays better when you’re not playing, it should tell you something. Mr. Bregman, meet Mr. Trout.
God, Belt is made of glass!
An exaggeration. This phrase is overused these days
Not as overused as “nature is healing”. I prefer the made of glass because it seems to be true with this fellow.
Nah, he isn’t even close to eliciting that phrase
“Slugging” out of context isn’t a relevant statistic.
What context would you want? (I don’t mean this question snarky.)
AngelsAdvocate:
Why make a post like that? If that’s what you think, then offer something to back it up.
SLG may be flawed, but it does attempt to help separate the value of what a player does when he hits the ball. Say three guys go 1 for 4. Each have a BA of .250. So how do you show the value of what they did when they got their hit if one had a single, one had a double, and the other had a HR?
Oh. I was a bit confused.
Point made but that’s a lot of research.
Maybe over the weekend