If Altuve and Brantley return to their prior form, then we should be fine offensively. Our bullpen remains top notch. Our starting pitching, even despite the injuries, remains extremely good. We have no depth however at pitching, so if any further injuries occur, we are downgraded significantly. I'll ride my steed into battle with our lineup, bullpen and a starting rotation of Framber - Javier - Hunter Brown. If McCullers rejoins then even better.
For as much as people raved about our starting pitching depth winning games in October, the reality is we pitched a 4 man staff. Urquidy didn't contribute, and Garcia only contributed because of the fluke 18 inning game. As long as you have 2 great and 2 good pitchers in October you should be fine. The pressure will be the regular season if one or both of Urquidy/Garcia are gonna be a down for a while. The rotation depth did play a key part in keeping the good starters fresh for October. Framber should be fine, but Brown and Javier have not done 180 inning seasons, and I doubt the team wants them to.
Since opening day France will be the 4th change to the active roster. And Altuve, Brantley, and McCullers are all trending toward being activated before the all star break. That means that the 26 man roster will have had at least 33 different players by then. 45 different players had at least 1 PA or 1 IP for the Astros last year. This current Astros team will probably look much different than the Astros team that plays in October. Let's hope October 1st isn't their final game of 2023.
It has been one month..... and he has been a slow starter recently. He has hit three balls that were only a few feet from being homers. FWIW he went through issues with his exit velocity/hard hit balls his second year in the league, if I remember right his EV was under 90 MPH and he still ended up with an OPS of like 850%. The only thing I have seen that is really different is his launch angle. The White Sox changed it last year and it sapped some power, and he still hasn't changed it back. That leads to less homers but it pays off in other ways. If he is still struggling at the all star break, then I think concern is genuine - however, even if he struggles, the Astros are in a lot better position to cover his at bats this year, than last year. The struggles this year have been against left handed pitching, he is having a hard time seeing the ball. They have been and are working with him on his hands, etc. They think it isn't decline related - and that would make sense, because last year he had one of his best seasons for exit velocity.
Regarding Abreu power short-comings, always remember in your analyses that it’s a short shot to The Crawford Boxes for a right-handed bat at Minute Maid Park so his HR struggles are even more glaring
This. We've seen this story many times in baseball. It's a thing and it's something that should factor into the Astros aggressiveness at the deadline... I'd hope.
For all the regular talk about the Crawford boxes, we have yet to see a player come in and juice their HR numbers. People make that observation every time we add a player but it never materializes, at least not in a significant way. If they were as easy to get to reliably as people made them out to be, MMP wouldn't be a neutral ballpark.
Yesterday France was scratched and today callup is announced and Saturday starter. Today Whitley is scratched and Sunday starter is listed as TBD.
I’m sure it took 75 years or so before they stopped saying it about Fenway… so MMP is still a baby in that regard. And yet whenever there’s a game there, Ravech has to point it out as if it’s some treasure trove of cheap HR’s. It’s been proven that Yankee stadium gives up the most amount of “1 in 30” HR’s in all of baseball. I’m glad MMP is neutral despite the quirkiness. And I’m glad its quirky as well.
At least Fenway is legit a top hitters park because of the monster. The 2 get comped all the time and MMP isn't even a slight hitters park.
Indeed. Now people are complaining about how they changed Camden Yards makes it almost impossible to hit a HR to LF… and it may end up going to how it was. The fences change almost every 2-3 years at Comerica. All parks have messed with dimensions in some for or another trying to find the “perfect” balance. It’s as old as baseball itself.
You need 8 dudes to win in the post season Thats it. Your path to win is starter gets to face at least 18 hitters and then you have a bullpen to take you home in the 6th-9th. The other dudes are for games you are losing so that you don’t waste your 8 dudes that are a path to winning the Series. Neither Urquidy nor Garcia are scheduled to be our 8 dudes in the playoffs. Javier, Framber LMJ, Brown, Montero, Presley, Abreu and Nerris.
We lose a game last post season without Garcia. No need someone that can fill in when one of our starters isn't sharp.
Agreed but the Astros swept that series. They likely win the series even if they lose that game. As for the "Theory of 8" I haven't really examined it yet
