Astros' Diaz Blasts Yankees in Statis-Pro 2024 Debut

As much as everyone loves Dusty Baker, I was among the Astros fans all year wishing he would pay some mind to stats and put Yainer Diaz in to catch instead of Martin Maldonado, who has the lowest projected OPS of any one currently on a 40-man roster.

Appreciate all Maldonado did to steady the staff previously, but by last year's playoffs it was time to make the shift to keep rallies going. We post all the baseball reference links below - but looking at last year's stats and knowing Diaz only projects to get better, you can see why it was no surprise Diaz was the hero of our first Statis-Pro baseball game of the season. (See all player cards here). 

All Diaz did in our Statis-Pro baseball first game - the day Spring training starts - was to stroke a 3-run homer against former Astro Garrett Cole to put the Astros en route to an 11-4 blowout win, then deliver a 2-run double in the 9th inning of the second game to force extra innings, though the Yankees won that one 4-3 in 10 innings.

In the top of the 10th, Jose Altuve came as close to a go-ahead 2-run homer as possible when he had DEEP on this card, and then the random number for the drive was a 58.  Yankee Stadium allows a homer on 11-57, so he missed by one, which is basically a deep drive caught by reaching over the fence.

Game 1	1	2	3		4	5	6		7	8	9			F
Hou	0	0	0		5	0	0		2	4	0			11
NYY	0	0	0		0	0	0		0	0	4			4
Game 2	1	2	3		4	5	6		7	8	9		10	F
Hou	0	1	0		0	0	0		0	0	2		0	3
NYY	2	0	0		0	0	1		0	0	0		1	4

Some notes in our first look at Statis-Pro cards based on the 2024 projections:

One reason for the Yankees disappointment last season was the stolen based coming back and the Yankees not having any speed. Shortstop Anthony Volpe does now give them AA speed at the top of the line-up, and led off the season by reaching and stealing 2nd.

The Yankees current bull pen has very weak Statis-Pro cards, just a couple of PB 2-7s. The rotation looks great, with Marcus Stroman the No. 4 starter giving them seven innings of one run ball before the bullpen blew the lead.

(For anyone new to the game, the pitcher's PB is the key to the game, with the elite 5% who are PB2-9 keeping the action in their card on all dice rolls of 2-9 so the hitter only has a chance of extra bases on a 10-12 roll). From best to worst a pitcher can be 2-9, 2-8, 2-7, 4-7, 2-6, 2-5 or the worst 2-4).

It was the first chance to see the Ryan Pressly (PB 2-8) and Josh Hader (PB 2-9) combo, but since the Astros trailed 3-1 and it appeared their might not be  a bottom of the 9th in the last of a 2-game series we used them in the 7th and 8th. Lance McCullers Jr was then used in the 9th after the game was tied 3-3 since he could go multiple innings. We play all 2 game series and relievers can all pitch their inning in either game so I. This second game this was "use them or lose them" for Hader and Pressly. The "max innings" of 2 for them and most relievers really means to use just one inning, but they can pitch part of 2 innings if they come into finish an inning and then pitch a full inning.

Because we play a rule that each game counts as 3 games won 2 to 1 by the winning team, but swept if the winning team leads by 5+ runs after 8 innings without using their closer, the Astros officially are 4-2 and the Yankees 2-4.

Here are the links to the players who played in our game and some quick stats.

  Minute Maid Park Deep: 11'-36=HR, 37-88=SF Hits AB Other RF Kyle Tucker 3 h, ab: 10 2b Jose Altuve 3 h, ab: 10 DH Yordan Alvarez 3 h, ab: 8 3b Alex Bregman 1 h, ab: 5 HR C Yainer Diaz 3 h, ab: 9 HR, 2-2B CF Chas McCormick 2 h, ab: 8 1b José Abreu 3 h, ab: 9 SS Jeremy Peña 2 h, ab: 9 LF Jake Meyers 2 h, ab: 8 3B, HR h, ab: Game 1 Pitchers IP h, ab: R Framber Valdez 7 ip, r: 0 W José Urquidy 1 ip, r: 4 Rafael Montero 1 ip, r: 0 ip, r: Game 2 Pitchers IP ip, r: R Cristian Javier 5 ip, r: 2 Luis Garcia 1 ip, r: 1 Ryan Pressly 1 ip, r: 0 Josh Hader 1 ip, r: 0 Lance McCullers Jr. 1 ip, r: 1 L h, ab:

 Yankee Stadium h, ab: Deep: 11'-57=HR, 58-88=SF Hits h, ab: AB Other SS Anthony Volpe 1 h, ab: 8 2-SB LF Juan Soto 1 h, ab: 7 RF Aaron Judge 0 h, ab: 8 2b Gleyber Torres 4 h, ab: 8 HR DH Giancarlo Stanton 1 h, ab: 9 1b Anthony Rizzo 0 h, ab: 9 CF Alex Verdugo 2 h, ab: 7 HR 3b DJ LeMahieu 2 h, ab: 5 C Jose Trevino 0 h, ab: 6 11 h, ab: 67 h, ab: Game 1 pitchers IP h, ab: R Gerrit Cole 4 ip, r: 5 Jonathan Loáisiga 1 ip, r: 0 Ian Hamilton 1 ip, r: 0 Will Warren 1 ip, r: 2 Tommy Kahnle 0.1 ip, r: 3 Scott Effross 0.2 ip, r: 1 Cody Morris 1 ip, r: 0 ip, r: Game 2 pitchers IP ip, r: R Marcus Stroman 7 ip, r: 1 Clay Holmes 1 ip, r: 0 Clarke Schmidt 0.1 ip, r: 2 Chase Hampton 1.2 ip, r: 0 W