I dont disagree with you, but I think having the "gloom and doom" attitude when you still have 154 games to play is premature. It's perfectly fine to be disappointed in the start, but to say "blow it up/this team sucks, etc" (I'm not saying you said this and I'm not quoting anyone) isn't fair. The bright side is that the starting rotation has been very good. Unfortunately, we have proven bats in the lineup that are severely under-performing. With 154 games still left to play on the schedule, they have plenty of time to turn things around. Astros finished 7-17 last April, and IMO, if the Astros finish at worst .500, I think they'll be in fine shape.
You can really chalk up the struggles to almost half of our everyday lineup grossly under performing expectations so far, Reddick,Altuve, Bregman and Gurriel. Reddick has been poor, but given the high volume of lefties so far, that was predictable. A wave of righties will come along and he will make things happen. Altuve also has been a train wreck. Too early to worry about a guy with 3 awesome years under his belt, but god he has looked very bad. Bregman and Gurriel are of greater concern because they have no real track record of success. Both of them failing would hurt, but I think we could still have a good lineup, and that's not even considering one of our farm hands coming up and making an impact.I'm still confident this offense will come around, as frustrating as it has been to start. It must be rough on you guys that panic and wanna throw crap when things don't go well. We are 4-4, as unpleasant as it has been to watch we aren't in some huge hole.
I don't disagree with anything you just said. I think people are concerned because production is nowhere near what we thought it would be from this lineup...and we think back to April 2016 when we heard over and over again, "it's still early!" Of course it's still early...but these games count as much as any others on the schedule.
What did this team in last April was that they couldn't score and they couldn't keep the other team off the scoreboard. I highly doubt that they'll score 100 runs this month, but I also doubt that they'll allow 100 runs this month either. Pitching will definitely steal a few games... we've already seen that in the opening series.
A lot of teams are starting out slow with their bats. There's been a ton of low scoring games over the past week or so. This always typically happens in the beginning. Obviously weather isn't much of an issue in Houston, but give it a month's sample size before you judge the offense at all. I would look at it that way regardless of if the bats were hot or cold because a week is not a big enough sample size for any measure. There are still scrubs around the league that are hitting well that will come back down to earth by May. Everything usually evens out eventually in baseball, it's a long ass season. You just need to have a big enough sample size to judge.
The games do count. Some of the guys struggling will continue to struggle and be replaced. Some will rebound and flourish. Making irrational moves based on 8 games will guarantee failure. Failure may still happen as baseball is fickle. Marwin, Marisnick, and Gattis have played a lot. Besides for Bregman, replacing a guy will involve cutting him. Altuve, Beltran, and Reddick have earned more time with past success. Bregman, outside yesterday, has been making contact, but sending it at people. Doubt Astros are ready to cut Yuli just yet, but as far as position players go...this is the only gripe I take remotely seriously. However, it doesn't fix Bregman, Beltran, and Altuve. If those guys don't perform better, Astros are likely going to fail no matter what else happens.
I think you and a few others read too deep into these types of posts. If someone says specifically the season is lost or that we will never recover, then that is one thing. "Blowing them up", as I read them, is nothing more than emphasis the majority of the time. I think its more about "we want things fixed now". Not after every guy gets 60AB's or some other formula.
Guys who have a proven past record shouldn't be axed, I agree. You have to put faith in their game coming around. Yuli and Bregman are not in that category, and thus, are the most scrutinized up to this point. Personally, I think the only move warranted at this point is moving Bregman down in the lineup. Let him hit 7th or 8th until he figures things out.
Sooooo...there's a possible weekend MMP run with Hangout Boy in the near (after Easter) future. You should come.
The game threads are pretty easy to predict: If you're watching the game and notice that the Astros haven't scored any runs, then come to game thread if you want to see everyone complain about the offense and how they can't hit the ball. If you're watching the game and notice that Springer hit a walkoff homer then come come here if you want to see "SPRINGER!!" or "I'm so happy to be a fan of this team" It's part of being a sports fan with all the highs and lows. The main difference between baseball and other sports is that there are so many more games which means more opportunities to complain about the team performing poorly than other sports. With with Rockets you can take a couple of days off during the season to avoid that mess of a game thread after a loss. Anyways, cheers to the bats waking up tonight.
So according to ESPN the Astros are not going to actually bat in the first 3 innings and just accept "0's" in a hope that they will be rested for innings 4-9.
Wow, Forbes valued Astros at $1.45 billion, up 32% from last year but near the middle of the pack for MLB
