Yes- while he was mediocre to plain bad for April/May/June - in July he had an OPS over .800 and is even better in August with an OPS of .825. Plus there are not a lot of great options until Yordan and Meyers come back… Espada flooded the top of the line up trying to get his 3 best hitters as many at bats as possible. I get the annoyance of Walker and his strike outs and he hasn’t had a monster month yet to off set his poor May, but he hasn’t been as advertised the last 6 weeks.
I didn’t bother to look it up but I could have sworn the tombstone Astros article was in 2005 and way early in the season when they were like 15-30 or something. Either I’m getting Mandela effect or developing memory loss.
You are absolutely correct, of course, it was June '05, and it was Jose de Jesus Ortiz, not Justice. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/18...ind-the-chronicles-infamous-astros-tombstone/
Altuve since July 2 32 games .363 BA 26 Runs 8 HRs 27 RBIs 1.067 OPS That's Yordan 2019 level hitting.
Cam Smith since July 1 32G, 138 PA, 9BB, 41K, 9R, 15 RBI .205 .261 .268 .529 Defense never slumps, though.
Correa brings an edge and intensity to the Astros that at times can be lacking. The Astros are a very professional group and play hard, but guys like Altuve, Hader, Framber and Alvarez are not vocal guys with an edge. Correa has that quality, and with Verlander gone - the Astros needed someone like that, who brings just enough spice to play off the other guys. The confidence he has in an Astros uniform also helps.
It feels like the overall exit velocities for the team have picked up since the trade deadline. It helps that they got Pena back, and Correa and Sanchez can rip it back at 110 mph+, but Walker is back to hitting the ball really hard in general. It also seems like Correa, Sanchez, and Walker are all guys who can hit good pitching. Hopefully Cam Smith starts to figure things out now.
