Houston Astros Regular Season Thread

[Guest eagle eye]

The boys from H town got our hopes up with the week they enjoyed two weeks ago that actually bled over into last Monday with the final game of the 4 game sweep of the Angels. This past week Houston had the opposite type of week. Two weeks ago they went 6-1 winning six in a row and last week they went 2-5 losing series against Oakland (1-2) and Kansas City (0-3) to go along with the win against LAA. In the series against KC they only scored 4 runs. I'm talking series now. It wasn't that Houston didn't have opportunities, they most certainly did, but they couldn't get a lousy hit to save their lives. Castro, Martinez, Altuve, Carter and Dominguez were all equally inept this last week as they were on fire the week before. Baseball is a funny game. Just when it looked like they were on to something they regress back to what they had been for most of the season. I guess some people, or teams, don't know how to handle success.

 

NOTE: The Astros completed their draft over the weekend and what was a glaring need in the organization, pitching, was addressed. Oh boy, did they address it. 24 of their 40 picks were pitchers including the No 1 overall pick in Stanford's Mark Appel. They did waste one of their picks but I suppose it was worth a shot. In the 35th round they chose Roger Clemens baby boy Kacey. Kacey Clemens has already committed to the University of Texas, his dad's alma mater, and if you look at it there's no way Clemens wasn't going to college. It was worth a shot it guess.

[Big T]

So after this draft, where does the Astros farm system rank?

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1663276-2013-mlb-draft-re-ranking-all-30-mlb-farm-systems-post-draft/page/30

 

That's right! Wow this system has come a long long ways in the last 16 months.

[Guest eagle eye]

It's true that the farm system has turned around and it's true that Jeff Luhnow has been instrumental in the changes but let's give credit where credit is due. The turnaround began under Ed Wade. I'm not saying he was the second coming but under his watch he acquired Jonathan Singleton, Jared Cosart, Jordan Schafer, Brett Olberholtzer, JA Happ, Brett Wallace and Jonathan Villar among others. With Happ and Schafer the Astros acquired other picks and prospects under Luhnow. I'm not dissing Luhnow. I like what he's been doing including piggy-backing starting pitchers in the minor leagues. It allows the Astros to see a healthy sample of as many as twice the pitchers than if this was done the traditional way. It will help identify who will be good as starters and who may be more suited as relievers. Before revisionist history takes over let's acknowledge Ed Wade's part in the resurrection of the Astros franchise. That's all I'm saying.

[Big T]

Luhnow has been a part of the Astros organization for less than two years now. Out of the Astros top ten prospects he has brought in five of them and six of the top eleven. And when Appel and Andrew Thurman sign he will have brought in seven of the top ten and eight of the top eleven. He also brought in Matt Dominguez, Jed Lowery, and Chris Carter. In the four years that Wade was here he traded Berkman, Lee, Pence, Oswalt, and Bourn and received only Jonathan Singlton, Jarred Cosart, Bourn, and Mark Melancon. He was also in charge of the Astros draft and managed to only bring in Springer, DDJ, and Folty in the Astros top ten. Wade did not do a good job as GM. Luhnow has come in and completely turned this organization around in less than two years. When Luhnow inherited this mess, the farm system was ranked 22nd in baseball. It is now ranked 2nd just two drafts later. In Luhnow we trust!

 

The fact that you would mention Wallace, JA Happ, and Schaffer as two of his big pick ups just goes to show you how bad he was. Villar is ranked a number 12 in the system but Olberholtzer is not even ranked in the top 20.

 

Then on top of everything else, you had to go pick the one thing I think Luhnow is doing wrong and say that you like it. The whole piggybacking thing that's going on is horrible! They pretty much have taken starters and made them into glorified long relievers. A Starter is supposed to go a minimum of six innings and preferably seven. To have one go five innings and the other go four is beyond absurd. It is by far the worst thing that Luhnow has done since joining the Astros. Stretch out your starters and put the rest in the BP. There are not ten starters on every team in the Astros farm system.

[Guest eagle eye]

Nice. A little debate, I like it! First you look at the ownership Ed Wade had to deal with compared to Luhnow. Wade was hired by a guy who was trying to make the team affordable to sell. After whatever caused Drayton McClane to let Gerry Hunsicker go after he built a perennial winner has still got me scratching my head. Then he appoints Tim Purpura GM and he mortgages the whole franchise chasing a world series. He got the Astros a trip to the big dance but destroyed them in the process. Wade comes along with a severely penal budget and precious little support so I think, under the circumstances, he did pretty good. Big T you say "all he brought in was Singleton, Cosart, etc." but who are the first names next up on the road to Houston? Singleton and Cosart. Not chopped liver there. As far as the deals for Happ, Schafer and Wallace I remember how glowing you were when Schafer was brought in. Because he was put on waivers and picked up by Atlanta doesn't make him a bad pickup. It certainly isn't Ed Wade's fault he couldn't stay healthy. As for Wallace he's been a great minor leaguer but not so much in the bigs. You can't win them all. In JA Happ they got good work from him while with the team and in the trade with Toronto Luhnow acquired 7 players including an over-the-hill Francisco Cordero. Not so hot of a deal there. BTW Happ was pitching well for Toronto until he was hit with a batted ball.

Now Luhnow was hired by a new owner with deep pockets and carte blanche to do whatever he wants. He also inherited a team who is doing well to win 50 games and as a reward gets the No 1 pick in the draft two years in a row. Maybe three if things keep going. I'm not downing Luhnow. I like what he's doing overall including the piggybacking of his starters in the minors for just the reasons I mentioned in my post. This is a totally new concept and I really like it and one of the innovative ideas owner Jim Crane was hoping Luhnow would bring to the GM job. It does two important things. First, it's allowing Houston to give needed innings to twice the players which is helpful in determining the role they will play for the organization and second it preserves the arms of the prospects. Stamina isn't much of a factor for a twenty-something pitcher but seeing how they handle both the starters hat and the relievers hat without overusing them is priceless. You still want a little something left when they finally make the big club and you want a player who can handle pressure. Piggybacking delivers on both items. And by the way the Astros minor league system is by your own post one of, if not, the best in MLB and a lot credit goes to Luhnow no question but the turnaround began with Wade.

[Big T]

I'll admit that you do have an argument with the whole ownership thing. However, You are talking about an ace, two of the best RBI bats in the game, and maybe the top leadoff hitter in the game and all he got out of those trades were Singleton and Cosart. And while Singleton is ranked number one in the system, Cosart has dropped from being number two to number four in the system and is projected to be no better than a number three starter. His stock has dropped significantly while in the Astros system. Still at that he is a very good prospect. At the time I did like the Schaffer move, but as we all well know he did not pan out as I and many Astros fans hopped. Happ was never a good pitcher for the Astros and Luhnow received some very good value for him including Wojo at number 15, Kevin Comer at number 17, and Carlos Perez at number 20.

 

While the number one overall pick has done quite a bit for Luhnow, it is the picks that have come after the number one pick that has made him the best GM IMO in baseball. Nolan Fontana, Carlos Ruiz, and Lance McCullers are all in the Astros top eleven and they were all picked after Carlos Correa.

[Big T]

In other news, the Astros have signed several of their draft picks.

 

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/team/draft.jsp?c_id=hou

 

This page updates every day so you can check and see who has signed and who is still pending.

[Guest eagle eye]

I'm not arguing that Luhnow is not as good as Wade. All I'm saying is that Wade should get SOME credit for the turnaround of the Astros organization. To minimize this or that just because Ed Wade had a hand in it isn't fair to Wade and I've explained why I think that way. I'm not a "Wade guy". I just recognize what he was actually able to do despite a next to impossible situation. I'm not saying every move Luhnow has made has worked out because it hasn't but he is doing a really nice job. How nice won't be known for 2-4 years all we can say right now is the minor leagues are much better since he took over.

 

Back to the present. What the bleep has happened to the Astros offense? The have been pitiful since the 1st of June. In the eleven games since the month began Houston has scored a lowly 28 runs which averages out to be 2.54 runs a game. Throw out an 11 run explosion against the Orioles last Wednesday and the Astros have only scored 17 runs or 1.7 runs a game for those ten games. That plain sucks. The Astros have actually been shut out twice in the last three games. Maybe Bo Porter needs to shake up the lineup again or get everyone drunk before the game--something--to get the bats going again.

[Big T]

I just tried to do this a couple of minutes ago and after about thirty minutes I accidentally deleted my post so now I have to start over again. I have compiled a list of guys and their stats from the minors so we can see where the system is at right now. There are some pretty good numbers and some that leave me a little disappointed and some that just surprised the hell out of me.

 

Name Games BA RBI HR 2B 3B OBP SLG

Jonathan Singleton 13 .286 10 3 4 1 .370 .609

Carlos Correa 50 .292 41 4 12 1 .395 .426

George Springer 61 .303 50 18 18 0 .405 .618

Delino Desheilds 48 .280 22 2 7 5 .369 .402

Rio Ruiz 46 .215 22 3 9 0 .318 .325

Nolan Fontana 44 .303 25 5 8 4 .430 .488

Jonathan Villar 60 .275 31 5 9 5 .332 .424

Domingo Santana 54 .260 36 12 14 1 .353 .515

Preston Tucker 64 .312 58 11 17 1 .373 .518

Tyler Heineman 44 .299 20 2 11 1 .402 .429

MP Cokinos 37 .316 27 4 11 0 .396 .485

 

Name Games ERA IP W/L BB K WHIP

Jarrod Cosart 13 3.39 63.2 5-3 38 68 1.34

Lance McCullers 15 2.10 55.2 3-4 26 62 1.22

Mike Foltynewicz 16 2.38 64.1 3-0 32 67 1.29

Nick Tropeano 15 3.71 60.2 1-4 20 59 1.35

Asher Wojciechowski 14 2.80 70.2 5-3 23 63 1.12

Brady Rodgers 16 4.41 63.1 5-3 13 55 1.32

 

There are several other guys with impressive stats but these were the guys that jumped out at me. The Hitters OBP and the pitchers K/BB ratio shows you just how Luhnow and his staff draft use saber metrics while drafting. Even though Appel, Thurman and Emanuel have not signed yet add those three to some of the ones above and we can have a hell of a pitching staff to come in the next few years.

[Big T]

Astros win 6-1! Had to score six in the ninth to do it but they got it done.

[Guest eagle eye]

It took Houston 18 innings but they finally scored a run! After that the flood gates opened and the six runs was the most since the 11 they scored against Baltimore over a week ago. They are home against the White Sox starting today. Win six in the row lose six in a row. Hopefully, as the season wears on the wins will come more than the losses but when you think about it the Astros played .500 ball for the last twelve games before last night. If you look at it like that it doesn't look so bad. Did Jordan Lyles pitch a game last night or what? Seven scoreless and you can't do better than that. It was nice to see the bats finally wake up let's hope this is a trend and not an anomoly.

[Big T]

Nine more draftees have signed with the Astros including second baseman Anthony Kemp!

 

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/team/draft.jsp?c_id=hou

[Big T]

Just heard that Conrad Gregor has signed as well. That makes both fourth and fifth round picks who have signed early and get to start their professional careers early. I always like seeing that. Looking like Appel is going to hold out a while. Said he just wanted a break...... I already find this guy annoying. I sure hope he does not end up a bust.

[KABrother88]

Just heard that Conrad Gregor has signed as well. That makes both fourth and fifth round picks who have signed early and get to start their professional careers early. I always like seeing that. Looking like Appel is going to hold out a while. Said he just wanted a break...... I already find this guy annoying. I sure hope he does not end up a bust.

 

I read somewhere that he has to wait until after the Stanford graduation ceremony anyway which isn't until the 16th

[Big T]

Just heard that Conrad Gregor has signed as well. That makes both fourth and fifth round picks who have signed early and get to start their professional careers early. I always like seeing that. Looking like Appel is going to hold out a while. Said he just wanted a break...... I already find this guy annoying. I sure hope he does not end up a bust.

 

I read somewhere that he has to wait until after the Stanford graduation ceremony anyway which isn't until the 16th

 

I did not know that. But I either read or heard in an interview, can't remember which, that he was going to take some time off and go on a vacation before entering into contract negotiations with the Stros. The bad thing about this is that he is a college senior so there is not a signing deadline for him so he and Bora$$ can hold out for as long as they want to get the money they want. I hope this does not turn out to be detrimental to the team. Go ahead, sign the contract and get your professional career started so you can get to the majors as quickly as possible to help out the big club. Anyways, I'm worried that Bora$$ is going to ask for something over allotted money that the Stros have available and this is going to turn into a standoff. I really hope i'm wrong here.

[Guest eagle eye]

When the Astros drafted Appel it was reported that they were not in a hurry to rush Appel into the bigs and were content to have him pitch a little bit this summer in the lower level maybe instructional or A ball league because they realized he just finished pitching a full college season. It's not the same as last year when they were able to wrap up Carlos Correa early. It's obviously a whole different set of circumstances but I'm not that worried. Scott Boras is a deuche but I can't believe he'll hold Houston for ransom on this deal. When he'll play hardball with Houston is the next contract if Appel is the real deal. As it is Appel will probably make a nice sum but Houston can't mortgage the rest of their draft to sign one guy and Boras should know this. It's like the NFL before the rookie salary cap. The top ten picks don't sign until No 1 sets the bar.

[Big T]

Hang on, are we talking about the same Scott Bora$$!? This is the guy who stated when the new rules went into place that his mission was to "Break the system." Scott Boras does not care about the teams that his clients play for. All he wants and all he sees is money. I hope your right and I hope i'm wrong, but these two are the ones that held the Pirates ransom last year before not signing because the Pirates were not willing to sign over the slot. I'm hoping that Appel really wants to play for his hometown team and goes ahead and makes a deal or this could get real ugly real quick. Boras is a snake who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

[Guest eagle eye]

I agree with you, Big T. Boras is a piece of excrement. He's out for the most bucks for his client because his share of the pie is bigger. I do have some trepidation about the negotiations and maybe I'm taking the wishful thinking angle but Jeff Luhnow is no rookie and I think he will be able to play hardball if necessary with Boras. Besides, the negotiation position of a college grad is not as good as for an undergrad. What's Appel going to do, play in South America or Mexico for a year? The Astros own his rights so he's not playing for money in the USA. Last year Appel didn't get the deal he wanted in 2012 so he went back to school. That option is off the table now. One other guy in play here is Reid Ryan. As the new team president Ryan has a wealth of baseball front office experience and I'm sure he's had to deal with Boras before. The best option for Appel is to sign and if he sits for a year he will not have had game experience plus a year of salary is lost. The fact that Houston is his home town team may cause Appel and certainly his family to push for him to sign.

 

The Astros have signed 14 of their 40 draft picks so far with the highest signings being their 4th and 5 round picks.

[Big T]

He can play independent ball and make millions doing it. It wouldn't be the kind of millions the Astros would be willing to give him but it would still be millions. He could do that then become free of the Astros and sign with another team for the amount sought as his rights would no longer be owned by the Astros. Do I think this will happen? No. But can it? Yes. I expect him to sign within the month but not before some heated negotiations and a possible overpay. If the Astros were to sign him for over the allotted slot money, they would not loose their first round pick next year as it will be a top ten pick. However, they would loose their second round pick and get penalized by having to pay a fine and being docked allotted slot money for the next upcoming draft. This is why Bora$$ should be banned from representing any player for the MLB. Hope the Astros stay smart and get the job done. At this point give him all of the allotted money but not a cent more.

 

In other news, looks like the Astros and second round pick Thurman have reached an agreement and he will sign early next week!

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/06/astros-to-sign-second-round-pick-andrew-thurman.html

[Big T]

Well..... Looks like all of my fear of Appel and Boras stringing this out just my be wrong. Just found this.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/06/astros-nearing-deal-with-mark-appel.html

 

Like we all suspected it is going to take the whole allotted draft money to get him to sign, but it looks like it will get done. The big problem here is that with him signing for so much that is not going to leave the Astros with any extra money to throw at the other prospects like HS C Nottingham, HS CF Martin, HS LHP Nicley, and HS RHP German. All of these guys have firm commitments to colleges and might take a little extra money to get them signed. So we may loose some of our top 11 draft picks. Hope not and that they all sign. We need SP in this system.

 

Here are some other Astros fans reactions form the Astros Forum. They all seem to have the same concerns.

 

http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ml-astros&tid=87603

[Guest eagle eye]

Tired head is creeping in about this stuff. It's inconceivable that we could pay an untested (in the pros anyway) pitcher more money than most of the Astros roster combined. Okay, that's an exaggeration but you get my point. Appel could be the cornerstone of the staff for years to come if he turns out to be the real deal. That is until the Yankees come calling when his contract is up. In 2012 the Astros signed a phenomenal amount of their draft picks so it has possibly raised expectations for signings. Inking Nos 1 and 2 is nice and getting No 3 signed would give Houston their top 5 picks. That ain't bad no matter how you slice it.

 

Mendoza Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the baseball term. For the musical group, see The Mendoza Line (band).

The Mendoza Line is an expression in baseball in the United States, deriving from the name of shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose batting average is taken to define the threshold of incompetent hitting. The cutoff point is most often said to be .200,[1] and, when a position player's batting average falls below that level, the player is said to be "below the Mendoza Line". This is often thought of as the offensive threshold below which a player's presence in Major League Baseball cannot be justified, regardless of his defensive abilities. Pitchers are not judged by this standard, since their specialized work and infrequent batting does not require as much hitting competence. The expression has been also extended to other realms to indicate a low-end cut-off point.

 

I printed this just in case fans didn't know the origin of the phrase, 'Mendoza Line'. I honestly didn't know it originated in the late 70's. I thought it was much older than that. Mendoza was a player for the Pirates, Mariners and Rangers who could flash leather at shortstop but couldn't hit a lick. Actually, his career BA ended up his nine year career (1974-1982) with a .215 but Chris Berman and the other guys from SportCenter made the phrase famous when ESPN was in it's infancy.

The reason I went into the history and vocabulary lesson was because Houston has two players in the lineup, Jimmy Paredes (.195) and Trevor Crowe (.196) who are the very definition of why Houston's offense is so bad most of the time. You just can't have your left fielder and right fielder so inept at the plate and yet Houston is actually leading 2-1 going into the top of the 7th. Go figure.

[Big T]

Speaking of Crow.... he single handedly won that game for the Stros last night. It was his hustle and speed that caused the error that led to the two Astros runs.

[KABrother88]

Looks like we got Appel signed for...reported to be between 6 and 6.5 million...if so great job front office

 

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/22430071/astros-no-1-pick-appel-agree-to-deal-worth-more-than-6-million

[Guest eagle eye]

Never discount the fury of a mother who doesn't get her way! LOL. Seriously, the fact that Appel is a homer and it was his dream to play for the Astros even Scott Boras couldn't buck that! What's really amazing is Big T got his wish--to sign Appel for less than the slotted amount of $7.8 MM. Even if the final amount is the $6.5 MM to think Appel's agent couldn't, or wouldn't, demand more is down right amazing. Welcome home, Mark!

 

The Astros held on to win a tight game despite a monster game by Mark Sale the White Sox starting pitcher. Sale went 8 strong innings including 14 K's of the 24 outs he recorded. In fact, the 2 runs Houston scored were unearned. As Big T mentioned Trevor Crowe's hustle to beat a force out at second on ground ball by Brandon Barnes allowed Ronnie Cedeno, who got on base ahead of Crowe because of an infield error, to score when the throw to second by SS Alexi Ramirez missed its mark with Cedeno advancing to 3rd. A ground ball by Jose Altuve ended up being an infield single scoring Cedeno giving the 'Stros all the runs they needed. All this occured in the 5th inning. No matter because Erik Bedard allowed only one run in his 6 innings of work logging 3 BB's and 6 K's. Jose Cisnero, Travis Blackley and Jose Veras pitched the final three innings without allowing a run earning Veras his 12th save.

 

Tonight the Astros are on TV! The fox game of the week features Lucas Harrell (4-7) facing the Sox's John Danks (1-2). In the top of the sixth the Astros are leading 4-1 lead by back-to-back homers by Jason Castro and Chris Carter in the 4th inning. I missed the time frame but in recent games, maybe the last month the Astros starting pitching is second only to the Oakland A's with a 2.78 ERA. Harrell gave up a run in the first and was in a full blown jam but he pitched his way out of trouble allowing only the one run and he's retired the minimum since the first inning. The sixth inning is over and after another scoreless, hitless inning the home team still leads 4-1.

[Big T]

Sorry EE but I have to correct your post real quick. His name is Chris Sale not Mark Sale. And Bedard did not give up the run. It was scored on an error and was unearned. All three runs scored last night were unearned.