I'd peg McHugh as a solid #3. Would be fantastic if we could get a Cueto to slot in the #2 spot behind Keuchel. Keuchel-Cueto-McHugh-Feldman would be a very good rotation to have should we get to the playoffs. If Villar isn't going to hit or defend, I'm not sure why he's here.
If the Astros win 52.5% of their remaining games, they will hit 90 wins on the year. Most definitely doable. If they get to 88 wins, that will probably give them a very good chance at a wildcard...which means a winning percentage of 51% for the remainder of the season. Easy. Having said all that...Im aiming for 100.
The Astros may very well be a fluke... but the Ws still count just the same, and if you string enough of them together... People can counter with "it's just May" all they want (and they're right). But the Astros have a seven - 7! - game lead in the division. They haven't wrapped it up by any means - but no other division lead is larger than 4.5 right now. It's possible they could build a significant enough lead to more or less play four corners the rest of the year. This is interesting......
i think the Stros have been a little lucky (playing over their heads) so far but that's to be expected with a team doing so well out of nowhere so far. One thing that's interesting is that Gattis, Carter, and Springer haven't played quite up to their potential although they're doing very well as of late. Given that they're in a fairly weak division I think they have a very legit shot at playoffs if Keuchel and McHugh keep pitching at roughly the level they've started the season at. Keuchel's ability to get batters to hit weak grounders and keep the ball in the ballpark (0 HR allowed this season) has been nothing short of amazing. If the season were to end today he would be the clear Cy Young winner.
No; but Lowrie, Rasmus and (especialy) Marisinick have played out of their minds, which balances everything out. I think we're seeing the offense (mostly) fully-formed, just currently miscast: they're going to hit in bunches, they have a lot of power... and there might be stretches where they can't hit water from the beach. They're not going to win 117 games... but it feels like a balanced offense that can pick itself up. To me, the *really* interesting aspect is the possibility of adding a Singleton, Correa, Moran (etc.) to the line-up.
Only Correa figures to be an improvement to this team. What this team could use is another starter, but I don't think there is a guy the team can really feel that confident to call up and be better than what we've seen from the BOTR.
We're on pace to actually worry about the AL winning the all-star game for the first time ever (we weren't really in the mix at the break a decade ago). And it could be a hunk of our players with their fate in their own hands. Just fun, fun stuff.
Yeah, I still don't understand why people are so confident that Moran will even develop. The Marlins certainly weren't.
If Singleton can put it together at the ML-level, he would represent a tremendous upgrade over Carter, who's .546 OPS has to be be the worst among everyday starters.And I don't know what the advanced stats say on Valbuena - but the sub-.300 OB% right now is ghastly. Thos are the two larger concerns, for me, along with a Lowrie-less SS position.
You could say that about any and every one of these guys. He was a top 6 pick two years ago, has had a promising start to his professional career, and the team saw enough in him to trade away a promising young starting pitcher. What, at this point, suggests he won't dvelop? That's a wholly unfair characterization. They didn't cut him, or trade him for lesser value; he wasn't languishing in their farm at an advanced age. They dealt him for a highly-regarded young pitcher with success at the ML level - teams don't normally gives those arms away; they cost quite a bit.
It's still early in the season, but I think the mindset should slowly be changing from having a shot at the playoffs to making the playoffs being the more likely scenario. The Astros are currently the betting favorite to win their division and now have the 3rd best odds to win the AL (behind KC and Detroit). Teams can fall apart and a lot can change with injuries or trades, but I don't think the Astros being over 0.500 or most of the division being well below has been really fluky. The Angels are most likely the one to improve; Oakland and Texas are outright rebuilding, and Seattle may have been a bit of a one-year-wonder last year. Their roster is not terribly impressive. It will be interesting to see how the Astros do once they start playing more non-AL-West teams. So far, they've only played Cleveland and San Diego out of their division, but May brings a lot more variety of opponents.
Jayson Stark @jaysonst Best-kept secret in #Astros streak: Reliever Will Harris - 13 IP, 2 H, 0 runs, 17 K. Another savvy waiver claim by a team that does it well 44m
what happened to those rangers fans that would come in here to tell us how awesome they were and how they had a team built for greatness? It's a long season. Young teams making the next stride usually slump in june. I'm just enjoying the moment. Watt I love about this team is that they can play long ball, small ball, sandlot you name it.
I don't know that he's struggling... I'll admit to not being overly familiar with the league, the stadium, etc. But he's posted a .807 OPS thus far - which is above-average for the PCL, as far as I can tell.
Springer, Carter and Gattis are hitting now. They still have some hitting to do because they are all below their expected numbers. Having said that 85% of the season is left, they all can have plenty of ups and downs to get to those numbers, they are all up at the moment. Springer .930 OPS over last 15 Gattis .904 OPS over last 16 Carter .875 OPS over last 11 Marisnick, Altuve and Rasmus have huge numbers. Rasmus and Altuve have shown to be close to this level in the past, and Marisnick may be a revelation, but overall I i think some regression is likely for all 3. Marisnick .411 BABIP Rasmus .389 BABIP Altuve .375 BABIP Overall everybody is hitting right now, the entire team is killing the ball. Luckliy we haven't wasted it going 14-1 over the last 15. I think a level of slump is coming to offset this team wide breakout, hopefully some guys stay hot and it isn't a team wise flatline
