I'd say the offense was underperforming (or just unlucky). The only loss that Hader probably could have done something about was the 2 out 1 run save he blew. But one run saves are challenging no matter what... and the fact that it was a 1-0 game still has the offense deserving some blame for that specific instance. As was mentioned earlier... a lot more questions being answered by the rotation's performance thus far (against three good lineups) vs. more questions being created by offensive woes or bullpen collapses.
To be fair . . . we've also played really good teams. Our schedule to start his year hasn't been super easy. Disappointing yes, but early days.
Meyers exit velocity this season is 92.2 which is elite. That itself isn't too noteworthy because hot stretches over a small sample can be white noise and not much else. Something more noticeable. In 22 and 23 combined he hit 3 balls 108 MPH, which was his peak. So far with only 15 BBE this season, he already has EV's of 109 and 110.
It's perfectly reasonable that it took 2 1/2 years for his shoulder to fully regain strength. And sometimes alterations to cover for a weakness cause other issues. How would we feel about him now, if the injury had never happened and this was the first 10 games of the next season?
If this was the start of 2022... he'd still be a 26 year old who hasn't stayed on an MLB roster for an entire season (or had enough AB's for pitchers to get a book on him and adjust accordingly). He's now about to turn 29 and we're asking the same things. I think he's as valuable as any part time CF in baseball... but a lot will have to go right for him to exceed the career arc of Jake Marisnick (who was still a very important player for those Astros' teams).
I don't see what looking at it from the pitcher side matters. Maybe everything you say is true, but we'll never know because small sample random variantion is so large that it completely masks eveything else. Name whatever split going forward for the rest of the season that will have a decent sample size that you want, odds are the Astros will likely outperform it. Random variability for runs/homer is a much larger factor than the skill of the Astros or their opponents over a 10-game stretch, and the Astros just had a probably 5 Percentile outcome for a 10 game stretch. I have not paid attention to CWS at all this offseason or the start of the season. I see they are 1 and 8 for a pace of 18 wins this seasons. I will take the over because we just have not seen a team bad enough to win just 18 games in decades if not over a century. No matter all the reasons one can say to explain the 1 and 8 record that may or may not be true, I suspect the CWS are better than a 18-win team because the difference in team skill just has not been that different in recent decades to matter.
Ok, great. Yes, things do even out. None of that is being questioned. I was just pointing out that there have been pitchers who choose to pitch to hitters differently in certain situations, and some of that could be noticeable in a small sample size. But when looking at a teams offensive performance against the entire league and all pitching staff roles (starters, bullpens, AAAA pitchers), that will even out over an entire season.... and I don't see this lineup having any problems meeting expectations if everybody stays healthy, regardless of Yordan batting 2nd (which I prefer because it gives him more AB's than batting 4th).
Apologies... thought he was already 28 turning 29. I see he was 25 turning 26 in 2022. I was told there would be no math, lol.
In Sunday’s outing, Hader said, he felt he was “just not getting the fastball executed on the inner half like I want to.” He said he had not dug too deeply into a cause but that he is “probably just not staying closed long enough (in his delivery) and letting my body naturally do what it does.” Hader noted his velocity was up Sunday; he averaged 97 mph and touched 98 mph with his fastball. He generated one whiff on six swings against his pitches, though, and has an unusually low 19.6% chase rate in an admittedly tiny sample size of five outings. His career chase rate is 30.6%. Though he used his slider to generate all three outs Sunday, Hader said that pitch is also not as sharp as he would like, saying it has “been kind of dogs---.” “I think it’s just kind of piecing it together,” Hader said. “Fastball velocity is there, it’s just the command’s a little off. It’s not missing much, it’s just missing enough, and I’m not getting swings. “The slider, I think, will then come. I think it’s kind of off right now just because of, like I mentioned, not staying closed long enough. When you’re not staying closed, the slider’s going to pop out, you’re not going to be able to stay on line and get extension — which is not going to give you that late life and that’s when you get those ones that kind of spin and stay up and do what it’s not supposed to do. “I think once we get to that point where you ride that mound a little bit longer and stay closed as long as possible, everything starts to kind of flow and get to where you need to be.” Hader said he expects he can make the necessary adjustment by “just getting off the mound as much as possible and making sure I’m riding it as long as possible.”
I have always felt Marisnick was a great comp for Meyers. But: Marisnick was a 3rd rd pick out of HS at 18 Meyers was a 13th rd pick out of college at 21. Marisnick made his MLB debut at age 22 Meyers made his MLB debut at age 25. Marisnick had exactly 1 season w/ 35+ PA and OPS+ of over 100 (2017). His 2nd best season is 86. As an Astro he was 85 over 1681 PAs. As much as I loved watching Marisnick in the field and on the bases, Meyers has a huge opportunity to finish his Astros career as a much better overall player.
He does? Ok. Lets settle for playing a full season with the big league team first... before we start extrapolating who will have the better career as a part-time OF.
Astros Temperature Chart (OPS) Jose Altuve 2B----------1.155 Jeremy Pena SS--------.964 Jake Meyers CF--------.945 Yainer Diaz C-----------.903 Yordan Alvarez LF----.819 Kyle Tucker RF--------.769 Chas McCormick LF-.733 Victor Caratini C------.571 Alex Bregman 3B----.564 Mauricio Dubon CF-.473 Jon Singleton 1B----.455 Jose Abreu 1B-------.220
Miguel Diaz who was recently picked up and pitched an inning I believe was designated for assignment to make room for that pitcher that's pitching tonight.
I think the last few games were pretty big for the bullpen. I’m comfortable with a 6 man rotation, Bielak as the long man, a rotating fresh arm of Scott/Coleman/Mushinski/etc., then 5 leverage arms in Hader, Pressly, Abreu, Martinez, and Montero.
