uhuh and you think Hinch has drastically changed his successful approach from last year to account for the slow start this year? Why would the manager who led the Astros to their first playoff win in 10 years alter his approach in the first 12 games of the new season? I can think of a number of reasons why the Astros are slow out the gate: high expectations & pressure from the off-season, starting the first 6 games on the road, bad luck, cold weather, etc... It's a long season, things will even out. If the team continues to struggle through July it is probably fair to start looking at the manager, but right now? Can you for certain say Hinch ISN'T doing everything possible to get the team back on track? While I'm disappointed in Gomez to start the season, his track record proves he will start to produce (barring some unannounced injury). I mean Hinch could've benched Gattis for the season after his 0-23 start or whatever but stuck with him and he ended up leading the team in RBIs and HR. It's a sucky way to start the season but there are always a few teams that start out slow and turn it on during the year.
Yes, we have 4 starters that are really number 4 or 5 starters in good games. A team did not wanted Gomez as they saw damaged good, we traded for him, got injured, and he has not been good for a long time now. Gomez has been average for over 1 1/2 year now. (second half 2014 and 2015, plus the start of 2016). Gattis was a very weak DH last year, we have Reed in the minors, is time for him to be in the majors, play 1b and White DH. Why is Hoyt in the minors? Hinch continues to make more or less same mistakes he did last year. The manager needs to do something about the bone head plays by the players on the bases, they are COSTING GAMES. Relievers, with a rotation that does not go deep in games, we need 1 more reliever. Knowing we have one of the worse hitting catchers in baseball, why not go after a very good backup??? One that can play over 60 games? Ohhh, yes, we got Kratz. Moran was awesome in ST, and started the year very good in the minors, Valbuena should have a short leash. We need Reed in the majors. Last year we were asking for Correa, this year we want Reed NOW.
The only reason Gattis lead the team in rbi is because Hinch used him in the 4th spot for the majority of the season, INSANE. He only had 88 rbi's for a team that had Altuve, Springer and Correa hitting before him. With those 3 you put a very good hitter and will get 120 rbi's in the 604 at bats he got last year, again, INSANE. Our great manager, STARTING THE YEAR gave days off to hitters that were hitting, INSANE. And the ones struggling, are playing, INSANE. Finally brings Giles in the 7th and losing, thats how he needs to be used until he proves he can pitch for the Astros, and again, Hoyt is in the minors.
what talent do they have? 4 at the top of the order, and keuchel. and mccullers (probably). no other elite talent. there's still a chunk in the minors, combined with enough of our major league talent that we should be a pretty good team, but a lot of us (i myself was guilty of this to an extent as well) got sucked into envisioning best-case scenarios for lots of these players. gomez is done. valbuena is useless offensively. castro, unless he is playing elite defense (which he isn't), has no business on a major league roster. it's not a stretch to think that any or all of our starting pitchers not named keuchel are in for regression this year. i try not to overreact, but holes are apparent, and it's ignorance to think that it's going to turn around to world series-caliber-levels just because we want it to. there are at least 4 regular rotational players (valbuena, castro, gomez, and i'm counting gattis) who we know won't be Astros next year, yet they are letting them hurt the team this year. that's just idiocy to me. teams aspiring for championships aren't filled with worthless stopgaps in the every day lineup.
Is time to make the moves: 1. Altuve 2b 2. Moran 3b 3. Correa SS 4. Reed 1b 5. Springer rf 6. White dh 7. Rasmus lf 8. Gomez cf 9. Castro c
Baffling. You look at the lineup and see Carlos Gomez in the 7 hole, you think this must be an amazing lineup... but damn are they struggling. They can't put it all together.
Last place with the second worst record in the AL and the fourth worst record in baseball. It might be time to worry just a little bit. Plenty of time though!
Preaching to the choir bro but some might say Altuve, Correa, Springer are pretty good talent that just disappears for long stretches.
