eagle eye Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 Did anyone notice that the MLB First Year Player Draft was just completed? What a difference between the NFL draft and the baseball draft in terms of hoopla. The NFL draft is a major event covered in depth by ESPN and the NFL Network not to mention the extensive coverage given by sports networks and local sports reports. Baseball’s draft sort of gets swept under the rug as so many other things are more important in the grand scheme of the sports world. There’s the NBA and the NHL finals grabbing headlines. The French Open tennis tournament is in its 2nd week as the field is narrowed down to the final which will be on Sunday and the NFL teams are in the last week of voluntary OTA’s. The MLB draft is such a ho-hum, oh-by-the-way event it flies way under the radar. The reason, in my humble opinion, is because even the #1 pick in the draft will never see the field this season, or next. Maybe even the season after that. Carlos Correa was the #1 pick in the 2012 draft as a 17-year-old phenom out of Puerto Rico. He was drafted on June 4, 2012 and he made his MLB debut June 8, 2015. 3 years and 4 days after he was drafted. Of course, you have a guy like Alex Bregman who was the 2nd player drafted in the 2015 draft and one year later he made his MLB debut for the Astros in July of 2016. It was still a full year before he came up to the bigs. So why get excited about the MLB draft since you won’t even see the drafted players for years down the road. It’s not like basketball or football where draft picks are supposed to contribute right away. There are no minor leagues in either sport. The teams grab those players by the seat of the pants and chunk them into the deep end of the pool and not only expect them to swim but they are expected to win the race. Like the game of baseball itself, there is no sense of urgency to get these players on the field. Baseball is a passive sport and their approach to new players is passive as well. Let them get experience and seasoning in the minors and when they are ready they will get the dream call up to The Show. As I said, the draft was completed over the last 3 days. 40 rounds are in the books. The Astros are happy with their draft as they looked to restock their minor league system after having to trade away a chunk of their talent to get players like Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Ken Giles. In many cases those draft picks end up being poker chips used by teams who are going all in to win big. The Verlander deal was the move that won the Astros the World Series last year and the Cole deal was an effort to win it all back-to-back but it cost Houston a lot in terms of the minor leagues. The Astros have built a strong organization that should guarantee success for a long time. Jeff Luhnow, Reid Ryan and the rest of the Astros front office have shown they know what the heck they are doing. They are, as I said, very pleased with this year’s draft even though they were picking late in the rounds. Linked below is a recap from Astros.com of the draft which included drafting Alex Bregman’s little brother AJ, one of two left handed pitchers drafted this year by Houston and Carlos Correa’s younger brother JC, an infielder, and Jose Cruz’ grandson Antonio Cruz. (Wait-what? Grandson??? God, I’m old.). The Astros also drafted Antonio’s big brother Trei Cruz in last year’s draft. https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-pleased-with-their-2018-mlb-draft/c-280114008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 10, 2018 Author Share Posted June 10, 2018 Wow, did Charlie Morton ever throw a stinker of a game last night. Morton, in just 3.2 innings of work, walked 6 batters and he tied an American League record by hitting 4 others. He also gave up just one hit that ended up scoring one of the 3 runs he allowed. In the first inning Morton walked two batters and hit another one to load the bases. He got a visit from pitching coach Brent Strom with 2 out and the bases loaded and he proceeded to strike out Isaiah Kiner-Falefa on 3 pitches to end the inning. In the second he wasn't so lucky. He led off the inning hitting Redneck Odor and walking the next 2 batters to load the bases with nobody out. He buckled down and struck out Shin-soo Choo and he got a taylor made double play ball which Jose Altuve booted allowing a run to score and no out to be recorded. Morton gave up an RBI sac fly to Nomar Mazarro but then he hit Jurickson Profar with a pitch. He got Joey Gallo to fly out to left to end the inning but both runs in the inning were unearned because of Altuve's error. Houston is so frustrating and to add to that frustration they have become the kings of hitting into double plays. I was looking at team stats the other day and I was shocked to see that Houston is top 5 in almost every offensive category except for home runs where they are 12th. I think we can all agree that Houston has not been clicking like people expected before the season began. God help the rest of MLB if the offensive gears begin to really mesh. The Astros starting pitching is not as dominating as it was in April and May. Charlie Morton just failed for the 3rd time to notch his 8th win. He didn't have near his best stuff last night but he was good enough to limit the Rangers to just 3 runs. Believe me, it could have been much worse. The Astros guaranteed they win the 4 game series with Texas with their 3rd straight win last night. They will be looking to pull out the brooms when they play the Rangers this afternoon. Dallas Keuchel will be looking to end his current losing streak this afternoon. It's a help that Keuchel has had success against the Rangers and it doesn't hurt that the Rangers suck. That said, Keuchel has to figure out why he is giving up so many home runs so far this season. Keuchel is a ground ball pitcher who depends on his command of the strike zone and especially early in games he hasn't had that Tom Glavine-like command he had when he won the Cy Young a couple of years ago or that took him to 11-0 prior to his neck injury last April and May. Happy Sunday people. It's sunny, hot and a great day to soak up some A/C and watch a baseball game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 This week's recap is a lot jollier than the past two. First, Houston went 5-1 on the week. They split a 2-game series with Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday and followed that with a 4-game sweep of the Rangers and they began their longest road trip of the season in Arlington. The Rangers series was hard fought especially Saturday and Sunday's game because the Astros starting pitchers struggled and both failed to make 5 innings of work. On Saturday Charlie Morton put his 7-1 record on the line as he tried to for the 3rd game in a row to get to 8 wins. Morton flat was bad, as he walked 6 and he hit 4 others with 1 hit. All this in just 3.2 innings of work. It's a testament to Morton's heart that he only gave up 3 runs during his outing. He battled the Rangers and himself. The bullpen came on and held the Rangers scoreless over the final 5.1 innings. Tony Sipp, Ken Giles, Will Harris and Hector Rondon closed the door on a 4-3 win. Today, Keuchel only managed to last 4.1 innings as he just couldn't seem to close out a batter. He gave up a whopping 13 hits but he didn't hit anyone and he didn't walk anyone. The shame of it all is Houston staked Keuchel to a 6-0 lead after 2 innings but Kuechel started giving it back as he gave up 2 runs in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd and the final 2 in the 5th. Houston did take the lead on a solo monster home run by Yuri Gurriel who celebrated his 34th birthday today. Will Harris allowed a double and an RBI single in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game again. In the 9th, as befitting a weird weekend of baseball Houston scored on a balk by pitcher Keone Kala. The controversial nature of the balk call got Rangers manager Jeff Banister kicked out of the game. Hector Rondon got his 3rd save of the week as AJ Hinch has been using Rondon as his closer. It was disappointing to have to start the week out with a split but the Mariners came in a very hot team on a 5 game winning streak and they finished the weekend 4 gamer against Tampa Bay 3-1. After the Houston series Houston was one game behind the Mariners and with Seattle going 3-1 it mean Houston closed the gap and end the week tied with the Mariners. Seattle has played 2 less games than Houston so they are slightly ahead of Houston by winning percent. The Yankees lead all of baseball with a .700 winning pct with Boston right behind at .667. Seattle is next at .631 and then Houston at .627. No team in the National League is even close to the teams in the AL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 The Astros completed their 2nd straight sweep by beating the Oakland A’s 7-3 in an afternoon contest yesterday. Justin Verlander went 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, no walks with 7 K’s. Verlander did a good job on the way to his team leading 9th win on the season. His season record now stands at 9-2 in 15 starts. The Astros offense has certainly picked up over the last 10 days and they are starting to give runs support to the starting pitchers who have taken a step or two back from the awesome staff numbers they put in up in April and May. As a staff the starters are going fewer innings with roughly the same amount of pitches and they are allowing more runs lately than they did in prior weeks. What that tells me is, the hitters are catching up to the pitching overall and the pitchers may be a little less sharp than they were to start the season. It’s all good as the pitching has been good enough to hold teams down while the offense’s output has improved - a lot. In the past week Yuli Gurriel has joined Jose Altuve as the only players to be hitting .300 or better on the team. They were joined yesterday after a 2-4 game by Tony Kemp who joined the group by upping his BA to .301. Tony Kemp has played his way on to this roster both with his play but his bat as well. Derek Fisher was the guy who Houston wanted in the lineup and he had every chance but after two months he was hitting below the Mendoza line and it was even more noticeable because the rest of the lineup was struggling too. In late May Fisher went on the DL with a gastrointestinal problem and in that time Kemp was a spark that seemed to ignite the whole offense. JD Davis was another guy who the Astros brought up when Josh Reddick went on the DL but, unlike Kemp, his bat was ineffective and he went back to the minors when Reddick returned. The current lineup sans Fisher and Davis and with Kemp has caught fire and they have won 8 straight and 8 or their last 10 games. Besides showing up with his bat Kemp has flashed the leather as well. Whether playing left or center field Kemp has made plays, some spectacular, in the field. Welcome to the fold Mr Kemp, I hope your stay will be a pleasant one! As Houston’s batting averages climb you have to wonder about Jake Marisnick. He seems to be the only guy on the team who can’t break loose from the terrible start at the plate he’s suffered through so far. As he watches his team mates batting averages climb he is still languishing with a .164 BA. Virtually every man in the Astros lineup struggled through the first 6 weeks of the season. Even Jose Altuve slumped as his BA was dangerously close to falling out of the .300’s at one point. Virtually every man in the lineup has rebounded as the Astros are starting to look like the team that won the World Series 7 months ago. All except Jake. Even a short stint at AAA Fresno didn’t help rattle Jake out of the doldrums. I like Jake and I think the Astros like him too. That’s why they are being so patient with him. The thing that is special about Marisnick is he is a plus-plus fielder. He’s fast, he’s a quality fielder and he’s got a cannon for an arm. Just the other day against Oakland Jake ran a ball down to deep center field, robbed the batter of a home run and he began a relay that doubled off a runner who was at first who thought the hit was going for extra bases at least. Heckuva play by Jake. I just wish he could get his bat going. He’s a career .222 hitter and last season after concentrated offseason work he was much improved at the plate hitting .243 before being injured in early September. Jake missed all of the Astros postseason as a player because of the injury and you wonder if the injury, a fractured right thumb may have something to do with his troubles at the plate. Any way you look at it, Jake is struggling. I hope he is able to figure out his problem, as all of his team mates have, and get back into the groove. I’ll take a .240-.245 Jake Marisnick any day of the week and I’ll bet the Astros would too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 There is absolutely nothing to complain about when you win 11 games in a row. When you set a team record for a 10-game road trip by going 10-0. The previous record was 8-2 so Houston beat that record with their win Saturday. Sunday’s win was just lagniappe in that regard. Saturday’s win was nice because I wasn’t expecting to win because I didn’t have any confidence in Dallas Keuchel. Keuchel had been struggling surrendering runs at an alarming rate and he was definitely the weak link in Astros starting rotation for the past month. He was 0-3 in 5 starts and he looked helpless at times. Saturday was different. He looked like the old Kuechel. He kept the ball low and moved the ball in and out in the strike zone. He went 6 innings allowing just 6 hits, 1 BB with 5 K’s. The most telling stat was his ground ball/fly balls stat. Keuchel was 12/0 for the game which is definitely vintage Keuchel. In fact, neither of the 2 runs allowed were earned. Lance McCullers was victimized by an error in yesterday’s game too. In the bottom of the 1st McCullers got into a bases loaded-one out jam as he walked two and allowed a hit to load the bases but he got a ground ball out of Hunter Dozier but Alex Bregman made a bad throw to the plate one hopping it to Brian McCann who could not handle the throw. A run scored and no out was recorded on a ball that should have resulted in a double play. McCullers went 6 innings allowing 4 runs, 2 earned and he left after his 6 innings down one run in a 4-3 game. The Astros came back with 3 in the 8th and another in the 9th to take the game 7-4. It was enough to win and it saved McCullers from having to eat the loss. This past week was great as Houston swept Oakland and Kansas City to go 6-0 for the week. The Astros have retaken possession of 1st place in the AL West by 1.5 games as Seattle lost 2 of 4 against Boston at home. Houston now has 3 starters with 8 wins as Charlie Morton finally got his 8th on Friday night. Justin Verlander got his 9th win of the season on Thursday in the finale against Oakland. Keuchel is lagging behind his fellow starters with a 4-8 record but if what we saw Saturday is a return to form then this is a very strong rotation no question. The return to form by the offense is nice to see. And it comes at a very opportune time. While the starting rotation carried the team through April and May, it has been the offense that has taken up the slack so far in June. The starters have combined for an ERA over 4 but Houston’s offense has averaged 6+ runs per game. The offense, and a suddenly effective bullpen, have carried the team during the recent win streak. Evan Gattis, Marwin Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel have been red hot and Gattis and Gonzalez have gone from below the Mendoza line to hitting in the .255 range. Yuli Gurriel is now the 3rd member of the Astros lineup hitting .300 or better. He joins Jose Altvue (.337) and Tony Kemp (.316) in the .300 club. The only hitters who have been struggling lately are George Springer, who was terrible against KC, and Brian McCann who broke a 2-15 slump with 2 hits in 4 AB’s yesterday. The Astros took over from KC yesterday in a stat I’m sure they would not like to be leading. After hitting into 3 double plays yesterday, 2 by Springer, the Astros lead all of MLB in that category. The had the 3 rally killers yesterday as they had men on 1st and 3rd with just one out when a twin killing ended the threats. Houston should have beaten the Royals in a rout but it didn’t happen that way. On the one hand Houston is getting a lot of base runners but on the other they are killing themselves with poor hitting with runners in scoring position. If you had one gripe about this team right now it would be that. But, it’s a trivial gripe as Houston has won 11 straight games. Now the challenge will be to win as consistently at home as they do on the road. Houston leads the bigs in road wins with a 29-11 record. The Astros will play 20 of their next 26, all the way to the All Star break, so they have an opportunity to improve on their 19-14 home record. None of the opponents Houston faces have a record above .500 so this will be a prime opportunity for Houston to extend their lead in the AL West, their standing in the AL overall and show the rest of MLB that they do not intend to be a one-hit wonder. It all starts with Tampa Bay for 3 games beginning tonight. Gerrit Cole will be looking to join Justin Verlander in the 9-win club as he looks to extend his AL best 130 K’s for the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 The Astros got their 12th straight win last night with a walk off 2-RBI hit by Alex Bregman. The bases were loaded at the time of Bregman’s hit thanks to walk, a hit, a lovely sacrifice bunt by Tony Kemp to move the runners into scoring position and a catcher interference on George Springer. Bregman took a slider on the outer half of the plate and pulled it into the gap in left center for the game winning runs. Houston trailed virtually all game When Gerrit Cole gave up a 2-run home run after a walk to give Tampa a 2-0 right out of the box. Gerrit Cole wasn’t good in the first 3 innings as he walked the bases loaded in the 3rd and then allowed two run scoring hits to extend the Rays lead to 4-0. Cole righted the ship beginning in the 4th and he ended up going 7 innings. Houston chipped away at the Rays’ lead and they were trailing 4-3 when Bregman got his game winning hit giving Houston a 5-4 win. This is the third time in franchise history the Astros have logged 12 game winnings streaks. They did it before in 1999 and 2004. Reymin Guduan was recalled from AAA Fresno just a few days ago to replace Joe Smith who was placed on the 10-day DL back on June 10. After making one appearance in a 13-5 win over Oakland Guduan was placed on paternity leave for the birth of his child on June 15. Tyler White was called up to replace Guduan. Yesterday Guduan was reinstated from paternity leave after the birth of his child. On the same day he was optioned back to AAA Fresno. We knew Evan Gattis was hot as a cheap pistol at the plate lately but yesterday he was named AL Player of the Week for the week of June 11 to 17. Last week he hit .417 with 4 home runs and 15 RBI’s. It is the first time in his six-year career he’s won this honor. In a press conference yesterday with Astros owner Jim Crane and GM Jeff Luhnow it was announced that Luhnow had agreed to a contract extension and a promotion to Team President in Charge of Baseball Operations and General Manager. Luhnow had been the GM of the team since 2011 when he was hired while working for the St Louis Cardinals club. Luhnow turned the team around from being a 100-loss team to a 100-win team and 2017 World Series Champions. The terms of Luhnow’s deal were not released. No other changes to the Astros organization is expected at this time. Justin Verlander will go for his 10th win of the season as he hopes to lead the Astros to a franchise record 13th win in a row. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 21, 2018 Author Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) Houston rebounded after their first loss in 13 games on Tuesday with a nice 5-1 win last night over Tampa Bay to take the series 2 games to 1. Several interesting things happened last night in the process. The series win over Tampa was the first time Houston has won a series vs the Rays since moving over to the American League in 2013. The Astros are grateful to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for allowing them to play what would have been a home series if not for Hurricane Harvey in their stadium. Tampa stepped up after the Rangers would not swap home series with Houston in the aftermath of Harvey. The Astros organization is very appreciative of Tampa for their understanding and hospitality in a very difficult time. As a fan, I really began to hate the Rangers for their no-class gamesmanship in their attempt to derail the Astros march to their first World Series title last season. It was a bush league move and I’m so happy Texas totally sucks this season. If you believe in karma then you have to acknowledge the universe is paying the Rangers back for being so chicken you-know-what. The Rangers behavior is in stark contrast to how much the Cowboys and Mavericks did to help Houston as they could not even return to Houston to check on their families and homes in the immediate aftermath of Harvey. Tampa showed grit and they gave all Houston wanted on the field. Nathan Eovaldi and Blake Snell are two really good pitchers who we will see again in ten days when Houston travels to Tampa for 4 games next week. The Astros have become the first MLB team to reach 50 games. The have a 50-26 record, 24 games over .500. They have a 3-game lead in the AL West as Seattle has lost two straight to the Yankees. The Yankees technically have the best record in baseball based on winning percentage. Their .690 WP bests 2nd place Houston’s .658 but the Yankees have played 4 to 5 games fewer than anyone else due to rainouts. Houston had the first back-to-back-to-back homers in ten years last night when George Springer, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve did it in the bottom of the sixth inning to break open a 1-1 tie. The last time Houston had 3 HR’s back to back was May 2, 2008 when Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee did it. Jose Altuve’s shot was his second of the game as he jacked one to left field in the bottom of the 4th to tie the game at 1. In all, Altuve went 3-4 on the game with a double and 2 dingers. Every man in the Astros lineup had one hit during the game last night. The only person with multiple hits was Altuve. Earlier this week Altuve became the AL leader in batting average at .342. After last night’s outburst that has increased to .347. 2nd place belongs to the Red Sox’ Mookie Betts at .340 and 3rd place is the Reds’ Scooter Gennett with a .336 BA. Altuve leads the majors with 105 hits on the season and he is on a pace to rack up his 5th straight 200-hit season. He is on pace to get 224 hits which is just 1 shy of his team record 225 hits he set in 2014. The play of the game was likely in the bottom of the 1st inning when Tony Kemp made a diving catch of a sinking liner to left field to end the Rays half of the inning. The bases were loaded and if Kemp doesn’t make the catch two runs would likely have scored and the Rays would still have been batting. It could have changed the whole complexion of the game. As it was, Charlie Morton went on to pitch 6 strong innings, allowed just one unearned run while giving up just 2 hits and 4 BB’s with 4 K’s. The four walks and a hit batsman show he still has some control issues but he’s pitching well again and he joins Justin Verlander in the 9-win club. It was surely due in large part because of Tony Kemp’s stellar effort in the first inning. As Milo Hamilton used to say, “Put a gold star on that play!” Houston gets a well-deserved day off today. They resume play on Friday night as Dallas Keuchel looks to build on the great outing he had last Saturday against the KC Royals. Keuchel went 6 strong innings allowing 2 unearned runs. He will be facing the Royals again and we all are hoping his last outing was more a back-to-form performance rather than an anomaly in a not-so-great season. He will be looking to improve on his 4-8 season record. Last night was the biggest single game attendance of the season due, in all likelihood, to the promotion offered by the Astros. The Astros gave away a replica World Series ring to all people who came to the game. Heckuva keepsake and it obviously inspired the crowd to a playoff level of intensity as Houston came back to win the game and the series against the Rays. Edited June 21, 2018 by eagle eye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 The Week in Review - Welcome to Sunday Night Live!!! I'm not Chevy Chase and neither are you. Several things ended this week a couple had something to do with the Astros........ First, the winning streak that began about two weeks earlier came to a screeching halt as the Astros offense went silent in a 2-1 loss to Tampa. Despite 6-2/3 innings of his usually brilliant pitching Just Verlander came up with bupkiss despite giving up just one run. It was 1-1 heading into the 8th as Ken Giles came on and did his usual crap job allowing a double and an RBI triple to score the go-ahead run which was enough to break the streak at a franchise tying 12 games. Houston bounced back behind a nice outing by Charlie Morton who went 6 innings allowing just 2 hits and one unearned run go with 4 BB's and 4 K's. Houston won 5-1 to take the series against the Rays. The Astros had won the first game of the series on Tuesday that took the streak to 12. After the rain that had been drenching the area finally came to an end on Thursday which was a day off for Houston, as luck would have it. Or was it? . The Astros offense came out and was the epitome of futility as they fell in the series opener to the woeful KC Royals by a score of 1-0. The Astros had base runners pretty mush all evening but they couldn't get a hit off the Royals starter, Danny Duffy - he of the 5.55 ERA. It was pitiful to watch how futile the Astros were against Duffy. What was even more frustrating was watching Keuchel pitch so well and not be rewarded for the effort. Not only that, but Houston lost the game in the top of the 9th when Ken Giles gave up a double and an RBI triple with 2 outs that gave the Royals the series opener. It didn't get much better on Saturday as the offense continued to struggle. Lance McCullers Jr pitched okay although he did give up a 3 run home run in the top of the 4th to give the Royals a 3-0 lead. Houston answered with 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th. That's the way the score stayed until the bottom of the 9th when Evan Gattis tied the game with a sac fly. The score remained 3-3 until the bottom of the 12 when the baseball Gods finally granted Houston a break. George Springer walked to lead off the inning. Alex Bregman got a doink single just out of reach of the first baseman who couldn't catch up to the ball in shallow right field. To make matters worse, he bobbled the ball allowing both Springer and Bregman to move up an extra 90 feet. Jose Altuve was intentionally walked setting the table for Carlos Correa. With a 1-1 count Royals reliever Justin Grimm made a mistake and left a ball up over the plate and Correa drove it into right center for a walk off single to earn a win for the Astros. Today, behind some nice pitching by Gerrit Cole for just 5 innings. Cole labored through those 5 innings tossing 104 pitches. He only gave up 2 hits with 3 walks and he added to his AL leading strikeout total by adding 8 K's. Through all that he only allowed 1 run and the bullpen did its job with Collin McHugh and Tony Sipp each gave up one run but it didn't matter as Houston scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 1st highlighted by a grand slam by Yuli Gurriel. The Astros were never threatened after that. Houston won the game 11-3 and the series 2-1. The Astros went 4-2 on the week but it was a struggle. The offense that came alive over the previous two weeks struggled like crazy at home. The split between home and away is puzzling. Houston has the MLB best 29-11 record while they are 23-16 at the Juice Box. Short porches in left and right field and huge alleys in left and right center field but Houston can't seem to take advantage. The only guys in the Astros lineup that seem to hit okay at home are Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel and Josh Reddick. Go figure. Houston has opened up a 4.5 game lead over Seattle who struggled against the Yankees and Red Sox this week just the same way Houston did 3 weeks ago. The Astros and Red Sox are tied for the most wins, 52, have identical 52-27 records but they are percentage points behind the Yankees who are the 3rd team to reach 50 wins this past week. The Yanks are 50-25. Houston will face the Blue Jays for the first time this year. The Blue Jays are in 4th place in the rough AL East with a 36-41 record but if anything the past week has taught us is that Houston is capable of losing to practically anyone when they are at home. It will be the opportunity for former Astros Teoscar Hernandez and Tyler Clippard to get their World Series rings. Both were dealt to Toronto in the offseason. Houston now has 26 of 40 draft picks signed and all of their top 10 picks. The Astros are very pleased with their draft this year as they reload an already stacked minor league system. Only a few of the Astros picks were right out of high school as Houston opted for drafting college grads. Only 8 picks came straight out of high school. One of those high school picks is the Astros round pick, Jayson Schoeder, is a right handed power pitcher from Juanita High School in Kirkland Washington. He was committed to attend the University of Washington but he opted to sign a contract with Houston. He signed for $1.25 MM which is above the slotted value of $965,300 for his spot in the draft. The Astros have a little something to brag about at AA Corpus Christi. Randy Caesar of the Corpus Christi hooks set a Texas League record notching his 40 game in a row with a hit. Here's a link to the article about him from Astros.com. https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-prospect-cesar-extends-hit-streak-to-40/c-282623404 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 27, 2018 Author Share Posted June 27, 2018 Houston reached the half way point of the season last night and they did it by beating Toronto 7-0 giving them their 2nd best record after 81 games in franchise history with a 53-28 record. Their best record came last season when they were 54-27. Obviously, this year’s team is a bunch of slackers. While on a pace to win 108 games last season the Astros had their usual August swoon having their only losing month of the season and they ended up winning “just” 101 games. This year’s team is on pace for 106 but they will still have to go the August gauntlet unscathed to hit that mark. George Springer has had his own swoon to deal with in the second half of the month so far. In his first 10 games in June he got hits in 9 of the 10 with 3 multi-hit games. His past 11 games are a different story. In 45 at-bats over the past 11 games he has 4 hits. That is an .088 batting average. That sucks for a guy batting last in a lineup much less your lead-off hitter. It’s been painful to watch. Springer was in the midst of an 0-20 stretch when he got a double in his final at-bat last night against Toronto. The relief on his face was obvious and he was so happy to finally get a hit he asked for the ball he hit. One hit doesn’t end a slump but it’s a start. Springer, who was hitting in the neighborhood of .295 when the slump began, has lost 30 points on his batting average. He is currently hitting .263. As Astros fans, we certainly hope last night’s hit was just the slump-buster we have all been waiting for. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. After a couple of rough starts we saw the April version of Charlie Morton last night. In 7 innings of work he allowed zero runs on just 4 hits, 2 walks and 13 (that’s not a typo folks) K’s. Morton becomes the first pitcher on the staff with 10 wins. It seemed like the offense was taking another night off until Evan Gattis got a base hit that scored Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve to give Morton a 2-0 lead after 5 innings. Houston scored 5 runs in the eighth inning thanks to a 3-run homer by Jake Marisnick, who is breaking out of a season long slump over the past few days, and a 2-run shot by a red-hot Alex Bregman who went 4-5 last night with 3 doubles and the HR. This afternoon the Astros send Dallas Keuchel to the hill in the series finale against Toronto. Keuchel will be looking to continue his run of good pitching. He’s 1-0 in his last two starts and he really should be 2-0 but for lack of offensive support in his last outing when he didn’t allow an earned run. One o’clock game this afternoon for the series win and a 6-3 home stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 28, 2018 Author Share Posted June 28, 2018 Okay, so I was too busy watching Japanese porn to notice that Alex Bregman hit a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to snatch victory right out of the jaws of defeat at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday afternoon. Believe me, I am ashamed of myself for the misalignment of my priorities! Okay, so maybe part of that wasn’t exactly true. I was at work and I forgot the Astros started at 1:10 yesterday. I remembered just as I was about to leave work at the end of the day that Houston was playing a get-away game. I peeked at the score and it was 6-5 Jays. Houston just hasn’t got the same mojo for late inning heroics that they had in 2017 and assumed they lost. Biiiiiiigggg mistake on my part. Of the 4 walk-off hits the Astros have had this year Alex Bregman has 3 of them. Yesterday’s game was number 3. Tony Kemp led off the inning with a single and he advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch by Jays reliever Ryan Tepera with George Springer batting. Springer flew out to left bringing Bregman to the plate. Tepera had an 0-2 count on Bregman when he left a fastball too much over the plate about belt high and Bregman smashed it high off the wall above the Crawford Boxes in left field giving Houston a 7-6 win for the game and the series win over the Jays. This made the 6th straight series win for the Astros who went 10-0 on their last road trip and they finish the current 9-game home stand with a 6-3 record. Dallas Keuchel’s evil doppelgänger began the game yesterday allowing 5 Blue Jay runs in the top of the first. It seemed as though everyone in the Jays lineup hit a double in the inning. It gave the Astros some semblance of hope when they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to a 2-run double by Evan Gattis and an RBI single by Josh Reddick scoring Gattis to keep the score close at 5-3. Keuchel put up goose-eggs for the next 4 innings and Houston inched closer to Toronto on the strength of doubles by Alex Bregman and Evan Gattis making the score 5-4 after 5 innings. Then the evil Keuchel came out in the 6th as he loaded the bases with one out. Keuchel recovered and got Devon Travis to hit a sharp ground ball to Jose Altuve. Easy-peazy double play, right? Wrong. Altuve misplayed the ball and he didn’t even record one out. The run scored from 3rd as everybody was safe on the play. That was it for Keuchel who had thrown 98 pitches in the game. At least Keuchel didn’t have to eat a loss in this one. Brad Peacock came in with the bases still loaded and struck out the next two hitters to stop the bleeding and that was probably the thing that saved the game for the Astros. The score was 6-4 after 6. In the eighth Alex Bregman led off the inning with a double and 2 batters later Gattis doubled off the same spot of the wall in left that he hit to in the 1st inning to score Bregman to make the score 6-5. In the 9th came Bregman’s heroics and it was ballgame. Fun Fact: Houston, Boston and the Yankees are the only teams in the majors with a winning percent over .650. The next best is Seattle with a .617 WP. Boston and New York have a .667 WP while Houston has a .658. Houston has also played one more game than Boston and 6 more games than New York. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 Short and sweet this morning. Astros win the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0. The stars of the game were Lance McCullers who was great. He went 7 innings allowing no runs. His dominance is illustrated in the fact that he only allowed 3 hits with 2 walks, a hit batsman and he had 7 K’s. Only 2 Rays base runners even reached 2nd base against him. McCullers is now 9-3 on the season and his ERA is down to 3.55. The Astros offense couldn’t figure out any of the 3 pitchers the Rays used. They were 0-4 with RISP and they stranded 9 base runners. The one bright spot was a solo home run by Jake Marisnick in the top of the 5th. Jake has been on a roll lately as he has run his batting average up to .199. That doesn’t sound great, I know, but after floundering around most of the season with a .160-ish BA it’s definitely an improvement. His low point of the season was .118 on April 21st but he’s been gradually improving since then actually raising his BA 81 points. Jake is hitting .324 for the month of June. His career stats say that he won’t sustain that but we will certainly take for as long as it lasts. If his BA ends up in the .240-.250 range I think fans and the Astros will be happy with that. Yuli Gurriel has been hot as can be. As of Wednesday, he led all of the MLB in batting average with runners in scoring position with a .435 average. That is a phenomenal stat. George Springer did not break out of his slump with his double off the left field wall in Tuesday night’s game. It did set the table for a 2-run homer by Alex Bregman in the Astros 7-0 win. Trouble is, he hasn’t had a hit since unless you count catcher’s interference which MLB does not. Springer has hit the ball hard a bunch of times but it goes right to someone or someone makes a great play to rob him of hits. Springer is now 3 for his last 54 AB’s. Maybe AJ Hinch just needs to sit Springer for a couple of games to break this bad mojo he’s living under. Who knows? What I do know is Springer is better than he’s showing. I just hope he hasn’t forgotten that himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 The Astros lost to Tampa last night 3-2. It was a combination of bad defense and poor offense. The Astros offense made a pitcher, Wilmer Font who came into the game with a 6.46 ERA look like Justin Verlander. In the 6th inning Font apparently hurt himself by pulling a muscle in right lat area. He tried to push through the pain ultimately he was taken out in the middle of pitching to Jake Marisnick. Diego Castillo came in for Font and he ended up walking Marisnick and the next batter, Alex Bregman hit a bomb into the left-centerfield seats. That made the score 3-2 in favor of Tampa who scored 3 runs in a weird 4th inning for Gerrit Cole. After two leadoff singles and men on 1st and 3rd the next hitter, Adeiny Hechaveria, hit a long fly ball to deep center field. Jake Marisnick race back and seemed to make the catch just as he banged into the wall but when he hit the wall it jarred the ball loose. The man on 3rd scored and it left Cole with men on 1st and 2nd and still nobody out. A sac bunt left Houston with men on 1st and 3rd. Cole struck out the next batter and he seemed to have gotten out of the inning without any more damage when he got Kevin Keirmaier to hit a ground ball to SS Marwin Gonzalez who then threw the ball into the Rays dugout. The errant throw allowed two more runs to score on the play. Cole struck out the next batter for the final out but it was clear he was upset at the turn of events in the inning. Of the 3 runs scored only 1 was earned as the runner on third would have scored when Marisnick dropped the ball even if he had held on for the out. That was all the scoring as Cole went 6 innings and Collin McHugh pitched two scoreless innings. Unfortunately, the Astros offense didn't even threaten to score after Bregman's HR. If you look closer the offense didn't have much of a lineup last night. George Springer was given the night off, Carlos Correa was placed on the 10 day DL with back soreness earlier this week and Yuli Gurriel is off on paternity leave. AJ Reed was called up to replace Gurriel and he made the start at 1B going 0-3 in the game. Josh Reddick, who hits much better at home than he does on the road went 0-4 hitting in the 3 spot and Evan Gattis hit cleanup, or actually he didn't hit cleanup, going 1-4. Houston had a pretty weak offense on the field last night and it didn't help that the defense let the team down too. Game 3 of this 4-game series is this afternoon beginning at 3:10 PM. Justin Verlander will be making his 3rd bid to get his 10th win of the season. Tampa will send Ryne Stanek to the hill to make his second start of the series. He pitched 1.2 innings in Thursday's opener. This is what Tampa is forced to do because they have a lack of starting pitching so relievers have to give them innings on days when Nathan Eovaldi and Blake Snell are on their off days. To fill the open roster spot while Carlos Correa is out the Astros have brought up LHP Cionel Perez. He was active on Friday night but he did not make an appearance in the game. With Houston's loss and Seattle beat Kansas City 4-1 picking up a game on the Astros. They are currently 2.5 games behind the Astros who, as I mentioned before, are struggling offensively right now. If Houston can't find out where they put their offense they could go into the All Star break in 2nd place in the AL West. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 1, 2018 Author Share Posted July 1, 2018 June is over and given he troubles the team has had to deal with for most of the month I say good riddance. It wasn't all bad of course. A franchise tying 12 game winning streak and a franchise tying 11 game road winning streak, both streaks overlapping a bit. The bad was the struggles the starting pitchers had. To a man all their ERA's went up 2 runs or more. The final starts of the month for Justin Verlander yesterday was indicative of the June swoon. It wasn't just the pitchers, the offense has struggled for two weeks. George Springer is in the middle of an epic slump. Evan Gattis is starting to struggle and Josh Reddick can only seem to hit the ball when the team is home in Houston. There are exceptions to that too. Alex Bregman has been on fire as has Yuli Gurriel who leads the majors in batting average with runners in scoring position. An then there's Jose Altuve who been, well, Jose Altuve. Lump all this together and you have a team who is still leading the AL West but that lead has dwindled down to just 1.5 games thanks to the Astros 2 game losing streak coupled with a Seattle Mariners 6 game winning streak has seen the division tighten up considerably. Houston is now standing at 55-30 for the season. Boston has the best record in baseball at 56-28 and the Yankees are second best at 53-27. Nobody else in either league other than Seattle is even close to the top 3. It's been a challenge as Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel can't seem to find their mojo as of late. Lance McCullers and Charlie Morton have had their struggles too but they have all been spectacular at times. Finding some offensive consistency would be helpful. It would certainly take the pressure off the pitching staff. But, the stats aren't as bad as they seem if you take a closer look. In 2017 Houston led just about every hitting stat there is and they were in the top five in the others. Houston isn't leading anything but they are still near the top in most most categories. It's a just a case of 2018 is just a different year than last year. As much as we all would love to see the Astros dominate the way the pundits predicted but when you think about how often the pundits are wrong you realize they just gave us all unrealistic expectations. I really think that may be it. We all just expect too much out of the Astros. Lets take a look at hard numbers. The Astros are currently 3rd in team batting average, 2nd in runs scored, 2nd in total hits. The Astros are #1 in batting average against which mean the perceived pitching woes are just not true. The Astros pitchers are tops in staff ERA. The Astros have 14 games left until the All Star break and all but 3 of them are at home. Hopefully, they can find a bit of their mojo as they head into the break and hopefully the starting pitchers can find their way back to the April/May dominance again. I thinking if this team catches fire in September they way they did last season we will all be some happy campers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 Houston had a bad week last week. They went 3-4 on the week after losing the opening game against Toronto last Monday night they finished the week losing 3 in a row to Tampa Bay. Tampa just isn’t that good but when you are missing 3 big contributors to your lineup like George Springer, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel and almost every other position player seems to be in a slump you can’t win very often. The Astros offense is painful to watch right now. Case in point: yesterday Houston was trailing Tampa 2-1 in the top of the 8th inning. They finally got to Rays starter Blake Snell who went 7.1 of nearly no-hit ball. The Astros had the bases loaded with just one out and Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel coming up to bat. You had to figure Houston will get the tying run across at very least, right? WRONG!!! Jose Altuve struck out swinging on a pitch that was so far outside he couldn’t have hit the ball with a telephone pole. Next up was Gurriel who hit a weak ground ball to short for the 3rd out. No runs with bases loaded and one out is almost unforgivable. All this and the defense has been shaky all week. Yesterday with men on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs and a 1-0 lead Charlie Morton was pulled by AJ Hinch (another too early hook by AJ Hinch IMO). He brought in Chris Devenski who gave up a short, bloop single to right field to Matt Duffy. Josh Reddick was there and he fielded the ball on the first hop then he turned around and became a spectator watching both runners score to take a 2-0 lead. It’s maddening to think how far up his derriere Reddick had his head on the play. Maybe-MAYBE the first runner scores but there’s no way a runner should score from first base on a ball hit no more than 130 feet from home plate. So, in the 7th Houston takes a 1-0 lead on an Evan Gattis solo home run and they give it right back in the bottom of the inning on a bonehead non-play by Josh Reddick. Then came the bases loaded fiasco in the 8th followed by a solo home run in the bottom of the inning by Tampa’s Mallex Smith to make the score 3-1 (thanks a lot Brad Peacock!) Evan Gattis got a solo home run in the top of the 9th but that was it. Tyler White walked after Gattis’ lead off HR but Josh Reddick grounded into a double play and Marwin Gonzalez grounded out to end the game. See what I mean? Maddening. Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole both robbed of wins because of a lack of offense and poor defense this past week. The bad thing is Houston is now on a 3-game losing streak and the Seattle Mariners have pulled to within ½ game of the Astros in the AL West because they are on a 7-game winning streak. Seattle will lap the Astros this week if the team can’t figure out how to get out of their own way. Houston stinks right now. In four games against the Tampa Bay Rays they scored a grand total of 7 runs. That’s less than 2 runs a game on average and you don’t win many games doing that. In fact, if not for Alex Bregman and Evan Gattis and a solo shot by Jake Marisnick in Game 1 Houston literally would not have scored at all against Tampa. I have never liked the hitting coach for the Astros and given the extended slumps so many of the Astros have been in this year I like him even less now. Houston has a day off today so I’m counting yesterday’s loss an extension of the June Swoon. To me, July begins tomorrow in Arlington where Houston will finish the current road trip with 2 against the stupid Rangers. Houston will play the final 11 games before the All Star Game at home. 4 against the White Sox, 4 against Oakland and 3 against Detroit. None of these teams should be able to hold a candle to the Astros except for the fact that the Astros aren’t very good right now either. Like I said, Maddening!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 The Astros had a good game against Chisox last night. It was close until the bottom of the 8th when Houston scored 7 runs highlighted by an Evan Gattis 3-run dinger. It's a good thing too because Brad Peacock in the 9th inning thought he was pitching in a home run derby. Going into the 8th Houston led 4-1. If Houston doesn't get those insurance runs the 2 homers and 3 runs Peacock allowed would have tied the game. I guess you let your guard down a bit when you are working with a 10 run lead. Lance McCullers won his 10th victory of the season after going 7 innings and striking out a career high 12 batters. The 10 wins are also a career high. Today it was announced that Jake Marisnick is being optioned to AAA Fresno and Astros top prospect Kyle Tucker is being called up. It was just a matter of time for Tucker, who has been tearing it up in the minors. I kind of feel bad for Jake though. The guy has really struggled at the plate all season but in spite of his struggles at the plate he continues to be one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. He made a highlight reel catch last night in the 8th inning. Shading toward right-center a ball was hit toward the gap in left-center. Marisnick got a great jump on the ball and on a dead run he dove and caught the ball in midair for the final out of the inning. I like Jake and I hope he figures out what he needs to as a hitter and I hope he gets called back up in September. The Astros offense could use a shot in the arm at the back end of the batting order. AJ Hinch said Tucker will be in the lineup tonight and will play left field and bat 7th. We could be seeing the future of the catching position. The Astros had to call up Tim Federowicz after Brian McCann had to have arthroscopic knee surgery this past week. On the same day McCann went on the DL Max Stassi was hit by a pitch in the right wrist. There were no broken bones but he has been day-to-day ever since. Federowicz has made 4 starts since his call-up and he's hit .263 so far and he got his first two RBI's last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 10, 2018 Author Share Posted July 10, 2018 (edited) The Astros first week in July was a good won. Yeah, I know but when you go 6-0 for the week you can forgive a corny pun. The Astros joined the Red Sox as the first two teams to win 60 games this season. The Astros still trail the Yankees in winning percent but the Yankees are playing a double header today so they will make up one of the 4 games they are behind most of the league. Houston finishes the week 3.5 games up on Seattle who lost 2 or the 4 games against the Rockies (Kids, tell Colorado thank you. Thank you Rockies!) While Seattle stumbled a bit a 6-game winning streak by Houston is most welcome especially after losing 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay to end the previous week. First the Astros won a short 2-game series against Texas meaning they have won 8 straight against the Rangers this season. After Texas was the four-game sweep of the White Sox. Houston completed a season sweep of 7 games against the Pale Hose and that is significant because the Astros had never swept a season series against either an AL or NL team before. So, Houston ended the week with a 3.5 game lead in the AL West and they are tied with Boston with most wins in all of MLB. Also this week the Astros saw Charlie Morton win a team high 11th game and Lance McCullers won his 10th. Unfortunately Justin Verlander was denied his bid for his 10th win of the season and Gerrit Cole was denied his 10th after the offense failed to give them run support. Verlander's game was a real kick in the nuts after he went 7 innings allowing just 4 hits and 2 earned runs and failed to get the win. 3 of the 4 games he has tried to win his 10th game Verlander has given up just 5 earned runs. The phrase 'snake bit' comes to mind. Dallas Keuchel got some luck as he won both his games last week beating the Rangers on Tuesday allowing 2 runs, both unearned and he came back yesterday with a one-run gem. Keuchel went 7 innings and he needed every one of those innings to allow Houston to get 2 measly runs on the board. A 4th inning solo HR by Jose Altuve and 2 out, 2 strike suicide squeeze play in the bottom of the 7th to qualify Keuchel for the victory. Collin McHugh and Hector Rondon each pitched a scoreless inning to preserve the win with Rondon getting the save. As I sit here writing the recap I'm looking at the A's make the Astros hitters look foolish which is a shame because Gerrit Cole pitched 6 innings of shutout ball with 3 hits, 3 BB's and 11 K's. Somewhere in notching those 11 K's Cole became the all-time leader in strikeouts before the All Star break. Brad Peacock was so impressed he gave up the only run of the game so far in the top of the 7th to A's RF Stephen Piscotti when he allowed a solo HR to lead off the inning. In the bottom of the 6th the Astros had one last chance to score to help Cole qualify for the win. Houston had men on 1st and 2nd with just one out and Jose Altuve at bat. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. Altuve hit into an inning ending double play to end the threat. Did you know that Cole had 7 starts with a no-decision? And did you know that Houston won 6 or those 7 games? It looks like Houston will lose this 8th no-decision game as the A's have scored another run in the 8th to make the score 2 zip. When you face pitchers with an ERA over 4 you don't expect to be held to just 3 hits and no runs through 7 innings. Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander have to have sore crotches after continuously being kicked in the groin by the lack of offensive support they get when they pitch. One last note. Houston brought up top prospect Kyle Tucker for the White Sox finale on Sunday. In his first game in the bigs Tucker went 1-5 with a walk and 3 K's in his first 3 AB's. Tucker's walk late in the game came with the bases loaded giving him his first big league RBI. He was the talk of the Astros postgame show but really, he's struggling in much the same way Alex Bregman did when he first came up. Bregman began his big league career going 1 for his first 34 AB's. So far in two games Tucker is 1-7 giving him a .143 BA which, technically, is worse than the guy he replaced. Jake Marisnick was hitting .190 for the season when he was sent down in favor of Tucker. Look for Tucker to get a lot of AB's this week prior to the All Star break. I hope Houston can come back in the 9th and sneak out a win. They have George Springer, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve coming up to bat. The Astros also have Yuli Gurriel on the bench to pinch hit after AJ Hinch gave him the night off. The A's went down in the top of the 9th so it's all up to the limp noodle offense to pull one out. I'm going to bed. Edited July 10, 2018 by eagle eye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Quick notes on the A’s series so far. First, could Houston be more frustrating to watch? Monday the offense was nowhere to be found and on Tuesday the bullpen tried to give the game away. Twice. In both games you have to feel for the starting pitchers, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander both pitched 6 innings of shutout baseball only to see victory slip through their fingers yet again. In Verlander’s case, He had a 4-0 lead all the way into the 9th inning. Unfortunately, the bullpen had one of their epic meltdowns. The ring leader of the meltdown was Ken Giles. He allowed 3 base hits and a run without ever recording an out. Hector Rondon wasn’t any better as he allowed the 2 runs he inherited from Giles to score plus a run that was charged to him that tied the game at 4 before he could record the 3rd out. Verlander had to be thinking “WTF is going on??? Whose mother do I have to kiss to get a win around here?” as he watched the 9th inning unfold. I’m tired of the Ken Giles show. More often than not it sucks. You can’t trust him and this is the 2nd time this year Giles was so bad he passed his bad mojo to the other guys who relieved him that cost, or almost cost the Astros a win. Collin McHugh allowed a solo HR to give the A’s a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th. Not a great night for the bullpen. Alex Bregman seems to always be at the plate in walk-off situations. He was there again in the bottom of the 11th. After a walk to Josh Reddick and a base hit by Kyle Tucker it left the Astros with runners on the corners with no outs. A ground ball up the middle by Tony Kemp looked like the A’s were going to get Reddick at the plate but C Jonathan Lucroy couldn’t handle the throw allowing Reddick to score the tying run. Tucker at 2nd and Kemp on 1st with no outs. George Springer came up and he flew out to right field for the first out of the inning. Now it was Bregman’s turn. With a 1-2 count Bregman swung and just clipped the top of the baseball. It hit in foul ground right beside the plate but it rolled forward and eventually went fair. At that point the A’s catcher picked up the ball and attempted to tag Bregman who thought the ball would stay foul and he never ran. Bregman jumped back and the ball slipped out of Jonathan Lucroy’s hand. Bregman made a dash for first and Lucroy’s throw hit Bregman in the head, skidding off his batting helmet into right field. Kyle Tucker scored from 2nd base for the win. One of the most bizarre walk-off plays ever. This is the second time Bregman has been involved with a walk-off that was beyond weird. On April 8, against San Diego, Bregman hit a high pop up that traveled all of about 15 feet from home plate with a man on 2nd base. The runner went on contact and his hustle paid off as the Padres first baseman overran the play and the ball dropped harmlessly in play just as he crossed home plate with the winning run. It’s hard to say which play had a greater weird factor. Jake Marisnick didn’t last long at AAA Fresno. As you recall Marisnick was sent down to make room for Kyle Tucker who got the call up based on his excellent production in the minors. As it turns out, Jake never went to Fresno, he never left Houston, because AAA was going into their All-Star break which took place this past Sunday. Yesterday, Gerrit Cole was put on bereavement leave due the loss of a grandparent. Cole will only miss a couple of days and he will be back in time for his next scheduled start on Saturday. This is the 2nd of his grandparents to pass away this season. As for Jake? This is just a slight reprieve as he will likely be headed to California by the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracula Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 When feeling depressed about the freakin, what the hell are they doing, may they all go to that special place in hell, Astros, just remember the wise advice from Animal House's Bluto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 Week in review; Houston had a crap week going into the All Star break going 3-4 for the week. They lost 3 of 4 against Oakland and they should have really come away with a 2-2 split at very least. They won the series with Detroit after beating a sad sack Tigers team who had the opposite record of the A's going in. The Tigers had lost 19 of their last 23 games. The sweep of the Tigers would have pretty much salvaged the week but it wasn't going to happen. Justin Verlander was making his 5th try at winning his 10th game of the season and he came up snake eyes yet again. Part of it was the offense's ineptitude against a lousy pitcher in Francisco Liriano didn't make matters any easier for Verlander. Actually, Justin's day sort of reflected the previous 98 games of the season. Sometimes the Verlander was really good but then, all of a sudden, Verlander couldn't get anyone out. In the first inning he struck out the side and in the 2nd inning he allowed a single, home run and a single. While pitching to the 4th batter in the inning he tried a pick-off move on the man on 1st and promptly threw the ball away allowing the runner to advance all the way to 3B. A sack fly to right-center and all of a sudden it's 3-0. Houston closed the gap to 3-2 over the next two innings but in the 6th evil Verlander re-emerged. He allowed back-to-back HR's to extend the Tigers lead to 6-2 after he allowed a solo HR to lead off the 5th making the score 4-2. The Astros got an oh-by-the-way run in the bottom of the 9th to make the final score 6-3. Verlander struck out 12 Tigers hitters but he also gave up 4 home runs in the game. All pretty much mistake pitches that none of the Tigers missed. The good, the bad and ugly all in one game. Just like the previous 98 games. Houston has the 2nd best record as m in Astros history going into the All Star break at 64-35. That's 2 games off the pace of last year's team who was 66-33 at the break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 17, 2018 Author Share Posted July 17, 2018 I honestly figured Alex Bregman’s Home Run Derby appearance would be nice but I really didn’t expect him to get past the first round regardless of who his opponent was. Bregman is 6’ tall but he really doesn’t look that big on TV or from the Crawford Boxes at the Juice Box. You want to give Bregman the benefit of the doubt because you just love to watch him play. His first-round opponent was Kyle Schwarber of the Chicago Cubs. For the record, Schwarber is listed at 6’ tall too but when he and Bregman hugged it out at the end of their first-round match Schwarber looked bigger, read taller, than Bregman. I’d bet you a cheeseburger Bregman is really in the 5’9’’ to 5’10’’ range. Either way, their first-round matchup was really entertaining. Schwarber went first and he hit 16 home runs. Every player has 4 minutes to hit as many HR’s as he can. A player can win a 30 second bonus if he hits 2 HR’s that travel 440 feet or more. Schwarber hit two long balls that qualified him for the extra time so, he had 4 minutes and 30 seconds to hit his 16 dingers. Seeds for the Derby were decided by how many HR’s each player had hit going into the All-Star break. Bregman was actually the higher seed as he hit 20 round trippers to Schwarber’s 19. Where all this power from Bregman has come from is a bit of a mystery since he only hit 19 homers all of last season. Bregman took his 30 second timeout around the 2-minute mark with 7 homers. After his break he came back and got on a roll and he got to 15 homers with about 25 seconds left. Bregman hit a rocket that would have tied Schwarber but it hooked foul. Bregman had about 4 swings to tie but, all his efforts fell just short of the mark with his last swing hitting the left field wall about half way up. Without the power to generate the long balls needed to qualify for the 30 second bonus all Bregman had was the 4 minutes everyone gets. Without the bonus Schwarber would not have beaten Bregman because Schwarber only had 14 HR’s after his 4 minutes and he was able to hit just 2 long balls with the bonus. Bregman had to feel pretty good about his first appearance in the Derby and he was surrounded by teammates from the Astros who were his own personal rooting section. Schwarber ended up in the final against the National’s Bryce Harper who beat Schwarber in a 60 second hit-off after the two were tied at the end of the regulation. Way to go Alex Bregman! You did the Astros proud. Good luck to you and the other Astros and American Leaguers in tonight’s All-Star Game. A nice time will be had by all!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 If you watched the All-Star game last night you saw a pretty good game that featured the unusual stat that every single run, save one, in an 8-6 AL win scored because of a home run. There were 10 home runs hit in the game and all but 2 were solo shots. The multi-run shots were hit by Seattle’s Jean Segura who hit a 3-run shot in the top of the 8th giving the AL a 5-2 lead at the time and a 2-run shot by Cincinnati’s Scooter Gennett in the bottom of the 9th that tied the game and sent the contest into extra innings. That 3-run shot by Segura was the difference in the game in terms of overall scoring. Still, a really nice game with the last 3 innings of regulation and the 10th inning featuring a pretty awesome display of power. The AL led 2-0 as of the top of the 3rd thanks to solo HR’s by Aaron Judge in the 2nd and Mike Trout in the 3rd. It was star vs star as Judge homered off Max Scherzer and Trout hit his HR off Jason deGrom. Blake Snell of Tampa gave up a 2-out solo shot to the Cubs Wilson Contreras in the bottom of the 3rd to make the score 2-1. The score remained the same heading into the bottom of the 7th when Houston’s Charlie Morton gave up a solo HR to Rockies SS Trevor Story Tying the score at 2. In the top of the 8th came Segura’s 3-run shot making the score 5-3. In the bottom of the 8th the NL came back and got a solo HR off Morton by Tampa’s Christian Yelich, in his second inning of work, to close the gap to 5-3. The AL went down without scoring in the top of the 9th. In the bottom of the inning came Cincy’s Gennett’s 2-run blast to tie the score at 5. In the top of the 10th Alex Bregman hit a leadoff HR to give Houston a 6-5 lead. George Springer was up next and he went deep to extend the AL lead to 7-5. Jean Segura followed with a single. Mitch Mooreland was next and he hit a slow rolling single into right. Segura was hustling all the way and he advanced to 3B on the play. Yan Gomes struck out next for the first out but Michael Brantley picked him up by hitting a sac fly to left that allowed Segura to score making the score 8-5 and the only run scored in the game not as a result of a home run. Oakland’s Jed Lowry grounded out for the final out of the inning but the damage had been done. Former Astro and current Blue Jay JA Happ came to lock down the game for the AL but Happ gave up a solo HR to Cincinnati’s Joey Votto to make the 8-6. Happ buckled down after that and he retired the NL 1-2-3 to end a really good game. In the 10th it was like a 2017 World series flashback with the Astros and Dodgers coaching staffs coaching the game for their respective leagues and Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling on the mound facing the Astros Alex Bregman and George Springer to lead off the inning. Just like the WS Houston hitting bested Dodger pitching as Bregman and Springer went back-to-back to give the AL a 2-run lead. Alex Bregman won the MVP Award and I’m happy for him but he was wrongly credited with the game winning hit when he was responsible for the go-ahead home run. Bregman was 1-2 with a K and a HR. Nice but not MVP worthy. George Springer actually hit the home run that was responsible for the winning run and Springer went 2-2 with a HR, a single with 2 runs scored and an RBI. If a Houston player was going to win it should really have been Springer. If it was up to me Jean Segura would have won the MVP. He hit the 3-run homer in the 8th and he singled and scored the AL’s 8th run to give him a 2-2 night with 3 RBI’s, 2 runs scored and a HR. Fans voted online for the MVP and Bregman is a fan favorite so good for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 The week wasn't terrible but the last two weeks Houston had a chance to sweep bad teams and on consecutive Sundays the team as a whole stunk to high heaven. After winning back-to-back games to begin the post All-Star Game run to the playoffs Houston failed to show up against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Lance McCullers started today and it was clear the AS break hurt him. He lasted only 4.1 innings giving up 5 runs putting Houston in a hole they couldn't crawl out of. Joe Smith pitched a third of an inning without giving up any runs and Brad Peacock did the same and virtually every other pitcher who made an appearance today sucked. The Astros offense was pretty much anemic too. Oh, George Springer and Marwin Gonzalez had multi-hit games but everyone else was a limp noodle. Jose Altuve came into the series hitting .333 and after today's 1-5 day he's down to .328. Evan Gattis continues to struggle. Yuli Gurriel has begun the 2nd half of the season in lousy fashion and where, oh where, is the Alex Bregman who won the ASG MVP award? Houston took a 14-5 shellacking just a week after Detroit put a smack-down on them. Houston did win the series and they picked up a game on Seattle last night but they gave it right back today as they continue to lead the AL West by 5 games. After Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander looked like the #1 and #2 starters in the rotation, McCullers looked like a poor man's #5. It's messed up how much better Verlander's 10-5 record looks than McCuller's 10-5. McCullers is still the starter for Houston I trust least. It's the offense and their lack of consistency that bothers me. On Friday Houston eeked out 3 runs in support of Keuchel and fortunately that's all he needed. On Saturday Verlander struck out 11 Angels in 6 shutout innings but how messed up is it that I was still biting my nails in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings before the Astros closed out a 7-0 win that featured George Springer's 6th career grand slam. In both games Houston had multiple opportunities to score more runs, especially early, but failed to do so. With Gurriel, Evan Gattis and Josh Reddick struggling they was they are in 2018 the only bright spot at the back of the Astros lineup has been Tony Kemp. Jake Marisnick and his .199 batting average has been sent to AAA for Kyle Tucker's .143 BA. Tyler White was sent down because he just can't seem to figure out big league pitching and the brought up for the 3rd time this season JD Davis. Davis has more position versatility than White and, if truth be told, even though White was hitting .219 to Davis' .200 the potential of Davis has a higher ceiling. The fact is the only starter hitting .300 or better is Altuve and his BA is heading the wrong way and Yuli Gurriel's .301. Springer is 30 points lower than last year. Reddick's BA is 60 points lower than last year. Worst of all Marwin Gonzalez' BA was .303 last year and his average after today is .236, 67 points lower than last year. Carlos Correa was around 50 points below what he hit in 2017 when he went on the DL on June 28. It's a testament to the Astros resilience that they actually have the 2nd most wins in baseball behind Boston. The Bosox are 70-31 as they won their 70th today. Houston is 66-36. This matters as home field advantage in the playoffs was a huge key to Houston's World Series win last fall. Houston is 4.5 back of the Red Sox in the home field race. Houston goes to Colorado for a 2-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday before they come back to the Juice Box to play the Rangers next weekend. Either the AL West is tougher than it was last year or Houston just isn't as tough as they were last year. Who knows but if they don't start to mesh they could be in for a very disappointing fall in their quest to repeat as world champs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday evening. I never do that but I was out and about running some errands and I was listening to the Patrick Crayton show and his topic du jour was, “Do you think the Astros are underachieving?” I answered out loud to the radio in my truck and emphatic, “YES!” Coming into the 2018 season the experts all agreed the Astros offense was much better than the one that led all of Major League Baseball in almost every offensive stat you could find. Wow, did the experts ever set us all up for a big letdown. I believe if the offense was what it was in 2017 Houston would have 80 wins by now with a double-digit lead in the division and the best record in baseball. Statistically, the 2017 Astros offense were a juggernaut and this 2018 club was projected to be better. What are you gonna do, cry about the fact that 3 of your top 6 starters (Springer, Correa, Reddick) are hitting 50 points worse than last season? No. Are you still going to sit around pouting because other contributors are having an extremely subpar season compared to last year (Gonzalez, Marisnick, Gattis)? Hell’s no!!! Are you going to going to have a hissy fit because your starting shortstop and catcher have missed, and will continue to miss, time due to back issues and knee surgery? Not on your life! All that said Houston still has the 2nd most wins in MLB and their run differential, the difference between how many runs Houston has scored and the runs their opponents have scored is an astounding +188 which leads all of baseball by almost 20 runs. By contrast 2nd place Seattle differential is +1! Plus freaking ONE!! and they are only 5 games behind Houston in the AL West standings!!! Boston, who has the best record in the league is at +169 and nobody else is even close. The dichotomy between what the Astros are and what they are not is inexplicable and a source of frustration to fans who bought into the preseason hype. And still they are winning games. Right now, I would juggle the Astros lineup starting with putting Tony Kemp (LF) in as the leadoff hitter. His .301 BA and .400+ OBP is just the table setter for the lineup as it stands. I would keep Bregman (3B) and Altuve (2B) hitting 2nd and 3rd. Springer (CF) would hit cleanup and Gurriel (1B) would hit 5th. The Astros have missed Correa’s pop in the lineup and Springer has the juice that been missing with Correa out. Reddick (RF) would hit 6th and Marwin Gonzalez (SS) 7th. Gattis (DH) would hit 8th and Max Stassi © would hit 9th. I would ride this lineup without change for the rest of July and into August and see what happens. I’m tired of screwing around with the Kyle Tucker’s, JD Davis’s and Tyler White’s. It’s too late in the season to be patient with players who aren’t producing the way they should or, the way you would like them to. In April and May you can be patient but August and September you need to win games. Houston takes on Colorado in Denver tonight and tomorrow. Gerrit Cole is on the mound looking for win #11 on the season. Houston has 60 games left in the season to be played over the next 69 days left in the season. What that means is Houston will get more days off than they had pre-All Star Game. They have only 28 home games left in the season which means they play 32 games on the road. Fortunately, playing on the road is no problem at all for this team. If Houston continues to play at a .647 winning percent then they will finish the season with a 39-21 record which will give them a final tally of 105 wins and 57 losses. That’s better than the 101-61 record they had last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 28, 2018 Author Share Posted July 28, 2018 Aside from an inexplicable 6 run outburst in the 10th inning of Game 1 against the Rockies on Tuesday night this Astros offense has been horrendous. Opposing pitchers with ERA's over 5 have been making this team look like crap. Now, to add injury to insult Dallas Keuchel wasn't his best in Game 1 against the stupid Rangers and the bullpen was even worse. Add to that this limp noodle offense and you have the cellar dwelling Rangers kicking the stuffing out of the Astros to the tune of 11-2. I don't like it when Houston loses but losing to the Rangers is just the pits. (I just threw up a little bit in my mouth ---- yech!) The past few years, even when they have been good the Astros go on vacation in August. Last year the only losing month for a team that won 101 games was August. It actually started in late July when Carlos Correa went on the DL and now Jose Altuve is nursing a sore knee (we hope it's only sore) and he was held out of last night's game. Correa might be about ready to come back as his rehab has gotten more aggressive of late. It's about time with him already being gone over a month now. That's the rub about Correa, he seems to need to spend significant time every season on the DL. It makes you appreciate how durable and reliable Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were. Houston has made a couple deals to bolster the roster this past week as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches. First, Houston got catcher Martin Maldinado from the Angels in exchange for minor leaguer Patrick Sandoval and $250 K. Maldinado is a nice pickup as he's a Gold Glover which is an upgrade behind the plate and the best thing is he leads the AL and he's 2nd overall in MLB in throwing base runners out. He's gunning down base stealers at a 44.4% clip this season. At the plate, even though he's only hit .223 for the Angels, it's still an upgrade over Tim Federowicz who was optioned to AAA to make room for Maldinado on the roster. Maldinado made his first appearance for Houston last night as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning and he drove in the Astros 2nd run on a sac fly. The other move was to get reliever Ryan Pressley in a deal with the Minnesota Twins. Pressley is a definite upgrade for Houston as they get a player who will be with Houston through the 2019 season and he's one of the best relievers in baseball. So far this year he is 1-1 with a 3.40 ERA. He has 69 K's in 47-2/3 innings. Pressley is tied for second in innings (51) in the AL and he's tied for 3rd in K's and he's 7th in K's/9 innings (13.03) AJ Hinch said that he will be a good fit in Houston because he fits the style the Astros like to pitch. It is quite possible he will see action this series against Texas. The good thing is the Astros didn't have to give up any of their top prospects for either deal made this week. To get Pressley Houston traded minor league prospects Jorge Alcala and Gilberto Celestino. Nice work by GM Jeff Luhnow to upgrade the roster without giving up much in the process. Now, if he could just figure out how to jump-start the blasted offense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle eye Posted July 29, 2018 Author Share Posted July 29, 2018 This week in review is easy. The Astros suck. They went 1-4 on the week wasting pitching performances by Charlie Morton, Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander and today Lance McCullers was both good and horrible as he struck out 11 Rangers batters but he also allowed 4 runs, 3 earned as Houston was swept by the hated Rangers in a series where they only averaged a tick over 2 runs per game. The bullpen was decent for a change as 3 relievers over 3.2 innings did not allow a run. The Rangers didn't overpower the Astros in the series they just didn't suck as much as Houston did. When the opposition runs starting pitchers out with an ERA over 5 on consecutive days and the limp noodle boys can only muster 2 runs you have to just throw up your hands and wonder WTF out loud. Tony Kemp is the best hitter the Astros have right now and he's the only man on the roster with an OBP over ,400. Why he's not leading off is a total mystery to me. Kemp needs, and deserves, more at-bats than the 3 a game he's getting at the ass-end of this suddenly putrid lineup. He should be hitting leadoff and Springer, who has hit 3 homers since the All-Star break, should be hitting cleanup. Gurriel should be hitting 3rd and he would see better pitches with Springer behind him. I don't know where they are but the real Josh Reddick and Marwin Gonzalez and Evan Gattis better show up soon or the Mariners will pass the Astros by lickety-split. Houston has such high hopes for JD Davis but he sucks and has every time he's been brought up to the big club. His .190 BA makes me long for Jake Marisnick to come home from Fresno. Tyler White was brought up to replace the suddenly absent Jose Altuve who was placed on the 10 day DL with that bum knee he aggravated in the 5th inning on Wednesday against the Rockies. White did what White does, he played well in the first game but, and trust me on this, he will suck from here on out. White has been up and down more time than a yo-yo over the past 3 seasons between Fresno and Houston because he can't seem to consistently solve big league pitching. Kyle Tucker is struggling as you might imagine a rookie would do but he is almost as bad as Alex Bregman when he first came up in 2016. This team is dying for some offense and AJ Hinch won't do anything to shake the offense out of their doldrums. Just before the All-Star break the offense struggled and they have struggle since the ASG and still Hinch does nothing. He is doggedly determined not to make any changes even though this team needs to be shaken, not stirred, like a James Bond martini. The only saving grace of the past week is that Seattle and Oakland have been slumping too. Houston is still leading the AL West by 5 games although that will change as Seattle is handing the Angels a loss this afternoon which means Houston's lead will shrink to 4 games by the end of today. Houston is still the 3rd best team in the AL as the Yankees have equaled the Astros 67 wins on the season with 3 fewer losses and both are way behind the 74 win Red Sox. Home field advantage seems like a pipe dream right now. What to hear something scary? Houston plays Seattle 10 of the next 20 games. Generally, Houston is terrible in August and the end of their July isn't exactly a rosy picture. Martin (pronounced mar-TEEN) Maldinado made his first start of the season for Houston since he was acquired on Thursday. He was behind the plate for a team record 19 K's for the game. How do you strike out 19 batters and lose. Well, your starter sucks and the offense sucks worse, that's how. I saw Maldinado giving the home plate ump an ear-full for squeezing his pitcher. That's what Houston has missed with Brian McCann on the DL, a backstop to remind the umpire to pull his head out and call a strike a strike and a ball a ball. Thank you Mar-teen. Welcome to Houston. Verlander is 10-6 in 23 starts, Cole is 10-2 in 21 starts and Morton is 11-2 in 20 starts. All 3 are in the top ten in K's with Verlander and Cole #'s 4 and 5. Verlander and Cole are in the top ten in ERA and all 3 are in the top ten in Batting Average Against them with Cole #2, Verlander #5 and Morton #8. How in the world do these guys have so many (23) no-decisions between them? (knock-knock-knock. Hello offense, could you please wake the heck up? Hello bullpen, could you find a way not to suck every other day?) It was a bad week and as July rolls into the Astro-dog days of August I worry this team might not even make the playoffs much less win the division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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