Yea this looks like a poorly conceived offense with lots of high strikeout guys with above average power and very little fundamentals.
BABIP has been abnormally low through the first 8 games. It will get better, starting to hit the ball hard more.
Looking at the Astros tonight, the offense looks absolutely awful. They were hyping this team up as improved especially on the offensive end. Most of the hitters look lost and appear to be pressing at this point. Most of the lineup just doesn't look like professional hitters. Just taking YOLO swings and hoping for the best.
Down 4-0 in the bottom of the 9th. I give them 1% chance to win. A's mastery of the Astros (in)explicably continues
It does look dismal at this point but you cant help but think when(if) they do start hitting they will relax and start having some fun and feed off each other. Right now they are pressing and its hard to watch.
This lineup is such garbage. When is the narrative that Castro is good, just struggling, going to stop? He comes up so small so often. Don't get me started on Gattis. Carter and him back to back is just downright painful to watch. Can anyone explain why Marisnick is hitting so low when no one else can touch the ball? In conclusion, this lineup has already made me stop watching games. If we get down, I have no hope of a win. Also, I have hated Qualls for a decade. Rant over.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> are batting .197 as a team. Their lowest batting average ever through the first eight games.</p>— Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) <a href="https://twitter.com/AceballStats/status/588178784093872129">April 15, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Law of averages says that we are bound to stumble into some good regression. That doesn't make these games less *****ty to watch, though. I've been to 3 games this year and seen 2 runs knocked in...
Another couple of losses should do it. In all honesty, outside of opening day and this past Sunday, this team is boring to watch.
The A's just own us. It's no big deal. Let's just hope McHugh can salvage one win out of this series for us. If we can attain a 4-5 record with this offense so far, who knows what happens when our batters figure out that big wooden stick is supposed to hit the fast approaching sphere.
How much better should we really expect it to get? We're 29th in batting average right now. Last year we were 25th. The year before that we were 26th and 29th the year before that. Yeah, we're not as bad as we're hitting right now (hitting below the Mendoza line as a team), but even when they play up to their normal level, it's still not going to be very good.
One day, when I have time, Im going to dig up posts by some of the people here that claimed the Astros would have an elite offense because of the additions of Valbuena and Gattis. I lol'd then and I lol now. If we can end with an average offense, that will be huge. I just cant wait to get out of this terrible slump.
Trying to find a bright spot in this rough start, I really like what I've seen from Castro. That 2013 season was a huge aberration, and I think it fooled many (including Castro himself) that he was a top shelf power hitter. Last season he fell back to reality, he constantly looked for pitches to drive and he just ended up striking out a lot, and not walking. Looking at the advanced numbers, it was fairly clear that 2013 season was never a realistic expectation for him. This season he has gotten back to his earlier approach (so far anyhow). Castro at his best is a guy with a good walk rate and decent pop. I've thought all along if he can get his walk and K rates back to where they were in 2012, he could have still be a really productive hitter. It's early obviously, but it's a promising start.
