Lots of talk on here about some of the young guys in camp that have looked great. Alvarez, Toro and Tanilu along with Whitley, Martin and JBB have no doubt been impressive. I’d like to take a moment however to talk about two veterans who have really had good springs to this point.
Jake Marisnick has really impressed. Much has been written about the change he has made to his stance at the plate. It looks to be paying off. While his .310 batting average to this point is encouraging, it is his reduction in strikeouts that has been the most welcome surprise to me. Last season He struck out 39 percent of the time. So far this spring, his K percentage sits at 13 percent. Agreed, he is facing some pitching that he won’t see when the season starts. Nevertheless, his new approach seems to be working. When the season starts, if he can cut last season’s 39 percent K percentage down to under 25 percent, this team will really benefit from his being in the lineup and not just defensively.
The other player who has impressed is Robinson Chirinos. Steve Phillips said the other day that he was really surprised when he interviewed Chirinos because Robinson was so excited about the analytics the Astros were using to help him improve offensively and defensively. Robinson has totally bought into what the Astros want him to do to improve and he can’t wait for the season to start. He has had a very good spring at the plate hitting .348. While I don’t expect that to continue when the season start against better pitching, if he can up his batting average from last season by 15 to 20 points, this lineup gets much deeper than it already is.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
