Rasmus, Gomez, Gonzalez, White and Marisnick earned multiple starts in this latest series against the Rangers. They all have an OPS+ less than 100. Gattis is average; so, too, is Valbuena. Castro - while average - have obviously been a nice surprise. (ETA: I was including Valbuena in my initial six, which was anecdotal and not based on any actual numbers. As a 3B, his slugging is woefully inadequate, IMO. Guys like Valbuena, Gattis... you can carry 1 or 2 of them - IF the rest of the line-up is better.) It's a really bad line-up - and that doesn't even account for their #3 hitter slugging .380 since the first week of the season.
kemp was supposed to be the second coming of rogers hornsby and he hasn't panned out so I won't complain they haven't attempted to bring up talent this year. Moran looked like jr towels at the plate. Gomez and the horrific season dallas is having along with hinch still growing as a manager have been costly. But we still can be at .500 by all star break.
No successful team can rely solely on homegrown players. In this case, most of the callups have scuffled and the established player they traded for was even worse. Still should t preclude them from making more moves for established/track record proven guys. You can't waste the young prime years of the core.
Tell that to the rangers who's half the roster are home grown like mazara,odor,profar. Astros just need better leadership
A final thought (by me) on the Rangers. Its easy to overlook that they have the best record in the AL, and tied for 2nd in all of baseball. To do badly against them may not be as big a crime as many of us (self included) make it to be. Most seem to believe the Rangers have overachieved to this point. I suppose it wont be until the All-Star break or so before their performance to this point is deemed real or not. Having said the above, its unfortunate for the Astros to be in the same division with the AL leader. On a comparative bright side, the Royals (31-30) and Yankees (31-31) are not doing so great either. And their fans are probably just as disappointed with their respective teams as we are with ours.
Yes... they make aggressive moves every year to better the MLB club. Many of those moves involve trading homegrown guys. The key is that when they do land a big fish, they figure out a way to sign them long term (usually when that player falls in love with playing in baseball heaven). Luhnow's strong farm was a part of their success... but wasn't the only factor. Making shrewd trades and signings at the big league level are vital to both short and long-term success.
Rangers are lucky man! Just luck! Luck is gonna run out! They're due to regress! Why not against us man!? Lucky team! Astros not so lucky! If we could just get some Rangers luck on our side man! :grin: No Darvish. (Going for an MRI today though.) No Choo. Getting nothing from Fielder or Moreland. Starting catcher went out & were going with Bobby Wilson & Bryan Holiday. Bullpen was bad early (but has turned it around since). I'd hate to see them full strength.
Not saying the lineup is good, but doubt Astros routinely start 6 of their below average hitters at the same time when healthy. Astros need Marisnick off the team. Gomez, White, and whoever is at DH has killed Astros. Rasmus and Valbuena are okay players and are no where near as responsible for the crappy production as those guys playing CF and 1B\DH guys. Hell, if Astros could make two Rasmus clones, two Valbuena clones and had the clones replace Gomez, Marisnick, White, and the DHs...Astros would likely be over .500..not because these guys have been good, but that the other guys have just been much worse.
The Rangers do overachieve but that just means the Astros underachieve. Give me the team that gets the most out of its 40 man roster everyday of the week.
I said this earlier in the thread; their (now) inexplicable tumble to last place coincided with our not losing 100 games for the first time in four seasons. Then they got off to that horrible start last year - and I think a lot of us (myself included, frankly - many of whom probably hadn't been flowing baseball much because, you, 300+ losses can drain your interest) just assumed we were equals. We're not. In the five years prior to their '14 spill, the Rangers won 90+ games every year; last year, despite the bad start, they won 88. This year, they have the best record in the AL. The Astros are not on the same planet as the Rangers. (Yet)
