Houston Astros Regular Season Thread

[Guest eagle eye]

KABrother88 and Big T you guys are right on. Altuve is part of the Astros future and he deserved to get paid for his work. It's too bad he didn't make the All Star game this year along with Jason Castro but Astros fans know what we have at 2nd base. Cosart is on his way now. I think the Astros front office has to consider a permanent call up. But, lets be careful here. Yes Cosart had a magnificent start but When hitters don't know pitchers usually the pitcher has the advantage. I'm going to trust Jeff Luhnow and Reid Ryan to make the right call here. For sure you don't want to rush a player up and put him in an impossible situation.

[Big T]

I know the whole argument of hitter not knowing a new pitcher, but the other side to that story is that Cosart threw 67% fastballs and a MLB hitter should be able to hit a fastball even from a new pitcher he doesn't know. So that goes to show you that Cosart's fastball was phenomenal last night. Actually, he had two fastballs working last night. His 4 seamer has a natural downward cut that allowed him to get three DPs and a two seamer that has some nice run on it. So don't give all of the credit to the fact that Cosart was new to the Rays hitters, give Cosart credit as well.

[Guest eagle eye]

I know the whole argument of hitter not knowing a new pitcher, but the other side to that story is that Cosart threw 67% fastballs and a MLB hitter should be able to hit a fastball even from a new pitcher he doesn't know. So that goes to show you that Cosart's fastball was phenomenal last night. Actually, he had two fastballs working last night. His 4 seamer has a natural downward cut that allowed him to get three DPs and a two seamer that has some nice run on it. So don't give all of the credit to the fact that Cosart was new to the Rays hitters, give Cosart credit as well.

 

Slow down there big fella. I believe I said Cosart had a "magnificent" night. I just pointed out that Cosart held the upper hand being a pitcher without much of a scouting report at the big league level. You don't throw 6-1/3 innings of no-hit ball and not dominate. So, if I was misunderstood, I had to clarify.

 

The Astros lost a heartbreaker today to the Rays 4-3 losing in the sixth inning with Lucas Harrell on the mound. Harrell threw 47 pitches in an inning and two thirds but only 22 strikes. I don't know what happened to Harrell but he can't find the strike zone these days. 47 pitches in that short of an outing is ridiculous. I like Harrell but he may need to go back to OKC for a while to iron his accuracy issues. Personally, I think he's trying to be too fine because he knows the offense isn't going to help much. Harrell isn't wild he's trying to paint corners too much instead of relying on his pitches. When you can't count on your offense to score you try to throw shutouts and it rarely works out that way. The Astros need to do something before Harrell's confidence swirls down the toilet completely.

[Big T]

I was one of the few not drinking the Harrell cool aid last year. I just wanted to see him do it again before I bought in. But despite that, I think that Harrell can be a serviceable MLB pitcher. And I agree with you EE that they need to send him back down. Plus that would make room for Cosart. ;)

[Guest eagle eye]

Houston goes into the All Star break losing another series. This time to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and they got shut out again to boot by a score of 5-0 behind the 5 hit pitching of the D-Rays Chris Archer who went the distance. Archer was pretty efficient tossing 112 pitches for the game compared to Houston starter Erik Bedard who threw 109 pitches in his 5 innings of work. 67 of the pitches were for strikes leading me to believe he went deep into counts. He had six K's and only 2 walks so the Rays worked Mr Bedard pretty good. Bedard only gave up 3 runs and only 2 were earned while he allowed 8 hits. Overall the Rays bashed Houston into submission on a 12 hit attack while the Astros did muster 5 hits but were never a threat. The All-Star break is generally referred to as the midway point in the season but it's actually 13 games past the halfway mark this year. The Astros stand 33-61 after 94 games with a winning percent of 35%. If Houston wins 35% of the remaining 68 then they will end up 24-44 for the second half with a final record of 57-105. Ouch. Three years in a row of 100+ losses. Three years in a row to get the number one pick in the draft next year. Right now Miami (35 wins), the White Sox (37 wins), Milwaukee (38 wins) and the Twins (39 wins) are in close contention for the best of the worst category.

 

Oh well, I'm going to chill out tonight and watch the Home Run Derby and enjoy the fact that Houston, for the next three days, won't be losing a game! Who do you like for the HRD? The odds on favorite is probably Chris Davis of the Orioles but you can't leave out Prince Fielder in the discussion but the real dark horse tonight may be the Rockies Michael Cuddyer. I'm going with Davis myself although I don't really care who wins I just want to see a good show. The bright lights, the Big Apple, the Mets home stadium---doesn't get much better. Except when you look at Citi Field and it's a biggun. The left field line is 335 feet and the right field line is 330 which are manageable but the power alleys are 385 and 398 respectively and to straight away center field it's 408 feet. So, the winner is going to earn it.

[Big T]

Fielder is gonna win it again. There is a difference between line drive power and just power. And while I'm sure Davis has power, his is a line drive power hitter. Fielder's is a all out uppercut power swing power hitter. There is a reason he has won this thing twice.

[Big T]

If this keeps up, Lucas Harrell won't be an Astro for long.

 

http://www.astroscounty.com/

[Big T]

Well so far I'm wrong and EE is right. Prince Fielder has been eliminated in the first round while Davis is still in it in the second round.

[Guest eagle eye]

My guys lasted only one round longer. Chris Davis reportedly tore off a callas in the middle of his hand which had to hamper his production on the second swing in the 2nd round. I wasn't sure if my dark horse, Michael Cuddyer, would advance to the final but Bryce Harper put him away which 8 homers in the second round. Yeonis Cespedes of the Oakland A's edged Harper in the final 9-8 in a thrilling finale to the HRD. It looked like Harper had more momentum going into the final after a rather lackluster performance in round 2 but Cespedes had just enough pop left to win the day, or evening. BTW Cespedes was only there for the HRD, he didn't make the All-Star team. Credit captain Robinson Cano for choosing Cespedes. Michael Cuddyer did show that he has legit power and he's not just a Mile High Phenom.

[Big T]

Let me just say that Cespedes was my number two pick. lol

[Guest eagle eye]

I get goose bumps at the end of Major League when Ricky Vaughn is called out of the bullpen and as he emerges onto the field "Wild Thing" starts blasting through the stadium PA. Goose bumps I tell ya. Last night it happened again. When Mariano Rivera ran on the field with Metallica's "Enter Sandman" blasting over the PA the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The fact that none of the AL defense was on the field to give Rivera center stage it was freaking awesome! The fact that he sat down the NL 1-2-3 to end the game was just perfect. Moments like last night are what makes sports so amazing. Thank you Mariano you've been great for baseball.

[Big T]

Two orders of business today. First, congrats to Brandon Barnes for becoming the eight player in Astro's history to hit for the cycle. That helped take away some of the sting of losing the game 10-7. Second order of business. It looks like despite Norris's bad to horrible start last night, last night maybe the last time we see him pitch in an Astros uniform. Jarred Cosart and Ambriz have both been called up. Cosart will go into the rotation meaning that someone in the rotation is gone. Also, with Ambriz being called up to the bullpen, that means that someone is probably leaving the bullpen. Harrell maybe? Maybe he is heading back into the rotation for Keuchel? Or maybe someone from the pen is about to be traded. We will see how it all unfolds. But one thing is for sure, Norris is not going to be an Astro at the trade deadline. BTW, Cosart starts on Tuesday.

[Guest eagle eye]

The post All-Star break hasn't been kind to Houston in the first two games. First, they put up a rarity--7 runs. But, it wasn't enough because Bud Norris had a crap night and the Stros lost 10-7 despite Brandon Barnes big night. Then, last night Erik Bedard takes a no-no into the 7th inning before Jose Cisneros blew the no-no put the Astros in a hole they could escape from eventually losing 4-2 despite only giving up one stinking hit the whole game. Hopefully, Jordan Lyles can help Houston salvage a win and avoid being swept by Seattle.

 

Robbie Grossman didn't do so well in 28 games he spent with the big club earlier this year but he's back at OKC and he's tearing it up in the month of July. Hopefully, he big July didn't peak with his 5-5 performance against Memphis and against former Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter doing rehab work following some injury issues. Grossman's big league hangover carried over in OKC as he drug his batting average down from .324 when he was called up to Houston down to .228 after hitting .167 in June. Since his hot streak began he's hitting .377 and his overall average is up to .268. He has said that he came back to OKC to work on some things and the changes he has been working on are now beginning to pay dividends. He is part of the Astros future so you hope these changes are long term.

 

I'm surprised that the Astros haven't mentioned who they will have to send down with call up of Jared Cosart. The Hector Ambriz deal was at the expense of lefty Bret Olberholtzer who goes back to OKC. As Big T mentioned Bo Porter named Cosart a permanent part of the Astros starting rotation but you would think someone has to go and if the info Big T posted about Harrell it would seem he is wearing out his welcome in Houston. Harrell appears to need a major attitude adjustment if he wants to pitch in the bigs.

[Big T]

HUGE NEWS FOR THE ASTROS!

 

Carlos Pena and Ronny Cedeno are sent down and Jonathan Villar is called up! Now we have both Cosart and Villar up it's only a matter of time till we see Springer and Singleton or Springlton as I like to call it. We could very well see Appel, Folty, and NiTro in the spring and maybe as soon as the rosters expand. Astros fans, the future is starting to arrive!

[KABrother88]

HUGE NEWS FOR THE ASTROS!

 

Carlos Pena and Ronny Cedeno are sent down and Jonathan Villar is called up! Now we have both Cosart and Villar up it's only a matter of time till we see Springer and Singleton or Springlton as I like to call it. We could very well see Appel, Folty, and NiTro in the spring and maybe as soon as the rosters expand. Astros fans, the future is starting to arrive!

 

Great news...Villar is an exciting player and I've been looking forward to seeing him (not that I can watch him or anything). He still has a few holes in his game but the guy is only 22 and won't be 23 until May so he has time to work on those parts of his game. Do know he has a cannon for an arm at SS and he is a fast guy. Only time will tell if he will be able to get on base consistently enough to use his legs.

 

That being said I believe that a couple of SS need to start moving in the minors...I would like to see Fontana get a promotion to CC (currently the only SS on their roster is 2009 first round pick Jio Mier who I think we can say was a miss) and maybe move Correa to A+ Lancaster...Correa has played well all year in Quad Cities...I know management wont rush him but I'm always a firm believer of a player needing to be challenged and Quad Cities just doesn't seem to be doing that anymore

 

Another minor league note...CC catcher Max Stassi (our #16 prospect according to MLB) who we received as part of the Jed Lowrie deal homered last night for the 5th straight game...he is teamed up in AA with Rene Garcia who was a AA all-star...Catcher has been reported as a weak spot in the oranization but there are guys who are playing well that just aren't talked about...another example is MP Cokinos in A+...a 31st round draft pick last year who is currently thriving in the hitter friendly California League to a tune of .335 with 10 HR and 26 doubles

 

One more note for the Astros future...the front office did a great job signing 32 of our 40 draft picks including all of our 1st 14 selections

[Guest eagle eye]

+1 KABrother88! As for Big T's news all I can say is WOW! I posted a while back that I haven't been impressed with Pena so I'm glad the Astros made this move. As for Ronnie Cedeno I would rather they sent Jake Elmore down. Elmore has been an error machine since he came up. He's made 5 errors in 15 games and it always seems to be at the wrong time. Elmore hits for a better average than Cedeno but he started out hitting leadoff and now they plug him in at No 9 in the batter order.

 

Don't get too itchy to get Mark Appel to the bigs. I really think the Astros will be cautious with him and I don't expect them to rush him through the minors unless he's truly ready. Appel will be at spring training next year but I fully expect him to go back to the minors before all is said and done.

 

As for Villar this is a good thing but I'm wondering what will happen when Carlos Correa is ready to come to Houston. Will they deal Villar or move him or Correa to 3rd? It's a nice dillema to have. We'd have our own version of A-Rod and Jeter!

[Big T]

You can also take Stassi's numbers even further. Six bombs in his last nine games, hitting .342/.413/.868 over his last ten.

 

As for Appel EE, he has a promotion deadline clause in his contract so he has to be moved up in the organization by a certain date. The absolute lowest we will see Appel in the minors next year is CC. But, Luhnow has already said the Appel will get his shot at the opening day rotation in spring next year. As for Correa and Villar, neither one has played a big league game and both could end up as busts. Don't put the cart before horse. I actually don't expect Villar to be a impact MLB player. A serviceable number two hitter is possible as he is a great bat handler and is a great bunter, but not an impact player. Hope I'm wrong about that.

[Guest eagle eye]

I agree that Villar and Correa can be busts but Villar is kicking butt in AAA and Correa is playing well in A ball. I was a little over the top comparing them to A-Rod and Jeter but I was just having fun. You have to admit that Villar is better at AAA than Jake Elmore and Ronnie Cedano so the hope is he will be pretty good at the big league level. The caveat will be at the plate. Can he hit big league pitching? That's the rub for any player. They all can catch, field and throw but can they hit? I'm a glass-half-full guy where my hopes for prospects are concerned. Nobody is a bust until he is actually a bust.

[KABrother88]

Won't take long for the team to get their first look at him...he will be batting lead off tonight...can't get to the article in a non mobile format to copy the link but in the chronicle Adam Everett said Villar was a special talent and he believed he had the mental make up to be successful in the bigs

 

Also I haven't seen this anywhere but I think Altuve will have to step up a little more in the leadership department for this team...the Astros have already committed to him with the contract extension and now with the only 2 position players with notable experience gone we will need him assume that leadership role

[Big T]

I haven't seen this level of excitement in MMP this high in the past seven years. Tonight's crowd was large and loud as Cosart made his home debut. And give the fans credit, while some did leave toward the end of the game with the Astros trailing 4-2, the majority stuck it out and was treated to a three run bottom of the ninth for a walk off win for the Stros. First, after struggling through the first inning with 30+ pitches and giving up an unearned run, Cosart proceeded to go seven innings giving up just one other run. When he left the game in the in the middle of the seventh the score was tied 2-2. Then one of the worst bullpens in the history of MLB proceeded to give up a two run bomb to make it 4-2. At this point I turned my XM radio off and said it's over....... It wasn't. Bottom of the ninth Matt Dominguez drills a two run HR to deep left center to the right of the balcony and ties the game at 4-4. Villar and Altuve both reach base with one out and up comes Castro. One of the pitches bounces in the dirt and Villar at second makes a move like he was going to try and take third but slams on the breaks at the last moment. Altuve not seeing him stop gets half way to second looks up and slips down and all the catcher has to do is throw the ball to first base and Altuve is picked off. The only problem is the catcher doesn't know how to throw to first base and throws the ball down the right field line and Villar scores from second on a close play. And I missed all of this because I didn't have faith lol.

[Big T]

A couple more points real quick:

attendance was 32,249.

Villar in two games hitting .500 4 for 8 with 3 runs scored. 3 for 4 tonight 2 runs scored.

Cosart in two starts 15 innings pitched 1 earned run 0.60 ERA but a terrible 6/6 BB/K ratio.

Brandon Barnes was injured. Heard it was a left calf strain or pull. He is day to day.

 

 

[Guest eagle eye]

So, Big T, were you in Miami when the Heat made their big comeback in game 6 of the NBA finals? LOL! I also have to slightly disagree with you about the bullpen overall. I think the Astros have stumbled onto a couple of good relievers in Travis Blackley and Paul Clemens and you can include Josh Fields in that but Jose Cisnero is another matter altogether. I can't believe his ERA is only 3.38 because it seems like every time he pitches he's given up runs. You know I have my issues with Jose Veras as well. I'm glad he didn't get the chance to pitch last night.

How about the 'Stros getting to Grant Balfour in the ninth?! Balfour was 26-26 in save opportunities this year and he got smoked! Add the fact that Balfour was on a 44 game save streak dating back to last year and it's was a pretty awesome win! It's only the 2nd time this year the Astros have come back to win after trailing in the 8th inning.

What can you say about Jonathan Villar but wow? Hopefully, he will continue to pace the Astros offense for the rest of the season and Altuve is in a great spot in the 2 hole. Now if we can do something about the bottomless pit in the 4 (Chris Carter .225) and 5 (Brett Wallace .208) holes we might have an offense that scares people a little.

[Big T]

Bullpen blows another one. Astros were leading 3-1 and the pen gave up three runs and Astros lose 4-3. Altuve hit his forth HR today and I think the little man is starting to heat up a bit. It would be nice to see him get back on track and end the year hitting around .300.

[Big T]

Alright, Mike Folty just went eight scoreless with 8 strikeouts. But the most impressive thing is that he threw back to back 99 MPH pitches in the seventh inning. Yet the MLB scouts do not have Folty as a 1,2, or 3 pitcher. In fact, several don't even have him as a starter. So the question is, Is Folty a top of the line starter or is he better suited for a closing or eighth inning role?

 

Personaly I think this guy could be a very good MLB starter for a while. My only concern with him is that as a fireball thrower, would he wear down as the season progressed and if he had success, could he maintain that over a career or collapse like Tim Lincecum.

 

I would like to get y'alls views on this.

[KABrother88]

It all depend on his secondary pitches...everyone knows his FB is plus (saw it was clocked at 103 earlier this season on YouTube, albeit in the 1st inning)...his change up is his 2nd best offering and has the potential to be another plus offering...that being said he still needs to improve it to get out Major League hitters consistently...to me his future role all depends on his curve ball...I've seen some that would get out many ML guys and then some that would make you question how he's gotten this far. However he is only 21 and he has improved every year of his professional career up to this point...if he gets the CB to an average pitch I see him as a 3-4 starter depending on how the rest of the rotation lines up...if he an somehow improve it to above average I could see him as potentially a #2...of course his position in the rotation also depends on the development of the other pitching prospects...if that CB doesn't get better he could be a very good closer for a long time

 

I'm not too worried about the velocity on the FB deteriorating like some guys...Lincecum is a smaller guy and has that delivery that makes pitching coaches cringe...Folty has a good pitchers build and a fairly smooth delivery...that has also changed since last season...before he kept his hand in front now goes over the top...looks similar to Roy Halladay's