Those teams are good, among other reasons, bc they're racking up wins against the Astros. The yankees have a quarter of their wins against us.
Or when Hinch ripped a new one into him when he handed the bat to the first base coach after a homer...
I think we have our answer to turning around the season. You need to attend every game for the rest of the season. You're our lucky charm @AWIN !
He had some decent playoff hits, as he's always had. What he's doing now is beyond age related decline, beyond off-season irresponsible muscle building, and beyond just mental... his numbers are those of one that doesn't belong on a roster on any level. Even pitchers who used to bat 9th had better numbers. Even Maldy had better numbers. Its so outlier-worthy that even the staunchest of analytics guys have nothing to explain why this is happening. Which screams that it has to turn around. If he played any other position on the field, he'd have been taken out back and unplugged.
WE have example of this in the recent Astros history. We won 3 division titles in a row in 97-99, **** the bed completely inexplicably in 2000, even with some borderline MVP type performances from our stars, and more or less ran it back without any major changes in 2001 and won the division. Then, we made an LCS and then WS 3 and 4 years later- barely missing the playoffs in the two years in between. It wouldn't at all be surprising to me if the 2025 Astros were really good (we lose only Bregman) we take a little step back in 26 with loss of Tucker and Framber, and compete for WS titles in 27 and 28 with the core of Yordan, Diaz, Pena, and whoever else develops between now and then.
I'd make that move in a heart beat. I seriously doubt that they'd do it for minor league talent alone though, unless it was for a pretty decent prospect. Burger looks like his name, but he has some talent and can play two of our most underachieving positions. Depending on the cost, I'd love to see him here.
With nobody emerging from the farm (Dezenzo was really the only realistic possibility, and he’s yet to play this season), the Astros could be in a pretty desperate position next season. Bregman could potentially be the only every day caliber 3B available in free agency this offseason. Matt Chapman, Yoan Moncada, and Eugenio Suarez all have options that might get picked up, and JD Davis and Gio Urshela are probably better suited as bench players. And the trade options seem pretty barren: Burger, Ryan McMahon, Luis Rengifo, and Abraham Toro are potential options and none of them jump off the page. If they don’t add Burger then Dubon may very well be the everyday 3B next season.
Heck we made it to the World Series after starting the season 15-30 in 2005... 2000 was pretty explainable... everyone in the pitching staff got spooked when Enron Field opened... Lima, Reynolds, Holt were unplayable there... Dotel and Wagner had their worst seasons in their career... and we thought Scott Elarton was our heralded ace. (Opting to trade Halama, Garcia, and Guillen instead of Elarton for Randy Johnson had a huge impact.)
Bregman is at the point that it is likely something mechanical or injury related. Currently, his EVs dropping drastically lately look like an injury. He had a few games in a row that it "looked" better a couple of weeks ago. I'd expect it to turn around when he works through whatever it is, but not knowing whatever it is kind of makes it tough to keep putting him out there. I'm not one for putting a guy in the back of the order for a slump, usually (i.e., for non-injury stuff, it is hard to figure out when a slump will end or begin until well after the fact). I'd say he's at the point that he probably needs at least a couple of days off to try to see if that works him through whatever it is. I'd love for him to hit three homers against the Tigers though even if it makes me wrong.
Dubon doesn’t sound like a bad option as a stop gap until they can develop a long term guy, I understand Bregman turns it up the second half of the season but he looks noticeably worse to start this season. Would not give that guy long term money, but we did get great value for him from that first extension.
On the topic of Bregman, I wonder how long his struggles have to go on before his team considers approaching the Astros about a short term deal (one year and some player options) If he truly bombs season, be it for injuries, slump, pressing, whatever, his contract plummets. Teams are well aware 2019 Bregman means absolutely nothing now. I don't think the version of Bregman we've seen since then is good enough for teams to overlook one terrible season and still give him 200 million, much less 300 heading into his 30's
Bregman isn't even walking much this season which is more of a concern than anything. That was his super power.