Position Change in RC+ from 2017 to 2018 2B -58 CF -44 1B -36 LF -23 DH -9 SS -6 3B 1 RF 16 C 28 Basically, Altuve slumping is about 44% of the difference between last year's hitting and this year's hitting. Marisnick even as just a backup is killing the production in CF.
@jim1961 I was just looking around on baseball-reference and I'm really not sure what to make of these stats. They suck against "power" pitchers and are killing the slopballers. They are, like I thought, putrid with RISP & 2 outs. And if I'm reading this right, they have been in 0-1 counts 40 more times than they've been in a 1-0 count. They also kill the ball when they swing at the first pitch. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=HOU&year=2018
According to that link, they hit better in plate appearances when they take the first pitch than when they swing at the first pitch.
174 PAs when they swing at the first pitch, they're hitting .333; as I'm reading it. I could be wrong, it's been a long sweaty stupid morning. You seem like the kind of guy who could figure this out for us on fangraphs or something: what's their take % of strikes as opposed to last year? They sure seem to be watching more so far this year as opposed to attacking. Again, I could be completely wrong though.
off topic but didn't know where to post this... relates to a division rival though: pretty sure JV throwing shade too:
They are hitting 0.333 when putting ball in play on the first pitch. They are hitting 0.225 the other 271 AB (301 plate appearances) when they swing and miss at the first pitch. Big difference is the walks. They rarely walk if they swing at first pitch (15 out of 475 PAs). I like the tOPS+ stat as it compares a player or team to himself or itself with 100 being average performance. Astros have a tOPS+ of 95 when swinging at 1st pitch or their OPS on swinging at 1st pitches is 95% of their average OPS. 28.9% swings this year on first pitch. 28.7% swings last year.
Twitter is both a gift and a curse. Our players are a bit too talkative on Twitter, buut that's just me.
Upton with the nice, short, powerful swing... and of course a runner had to be on. Game could be over considering our offense's suckage. Angel's starter is having a good season. Score some runs, please.
Quiet here. Guess that happens when the offense sucks nuts and the Rockets are about to go on vacation. Glad we have 2017 World Series.
The Astros have not played well against the best competition this year at all. Outside of their fast start, they are a .500 team right now.
That feeling you get when you fall behind 2-0 and realize that 1/3 of the time your team doesn’t even score 2 runs...