Episode 101 of Breathing orange Fire is up. We talk pitching, as the Astros have allowed fewer runs than anyone in baseball right now and speculate as to whether it can continue. Listen, share, rate and subscribe.
Pitching looks sustainable to me. For the Astros to be 15-13 with Alvarez, Diaz, Walker, Blanco, and Arrighetti combining for -0.7 fwar is really encouraging. Gusto has been a revelation. Pena and Brown might have leveled up into superstar status. This looks like a 95-105 win talent team that is only on pace for 85 wins.
I don’t think so but we’ll see. It is really hard to peg Houston’s most likely trade chips right now. If I had to bet on which players are most likely to be traded away it would be Shay Whitcomb and Jose Fleury, just because they are decent prospects who are playing well and I think other teams will ask about them. But if Houston is going to add significant value at the deadline they’re going to have to give up more than that. There’s tons of moving parts still with pitching health/performance and the OF/2B depth chart. If McCullers comes back and looks good then it probably becomes a lot more likely that at least one of Gusto, Arrighetti, Wesneski, Blanco, or Blubaugh will be traded.
I predicted Hunter brown would win cy young before the season. He could do that and he will still be worse than he’s been year to date. Last year I thought the bullpen would be best in baseball. It wasn’t. This year it might be. The Astros bullpen can still be the best in baseball and, like Brown, they will be worse than they’ve been so far. However, I think the other 4 (5?) starting pitching slots will be better. I don’t expect the astros to give up less than 530 runs which is their current pace, but I do expect them to be a top 3 or top 5 run prevention team. the defense, by the numbers, has been outstanding so far by the way. Not only in not committing errors but also in being well above average in turning batted balls into outs. I predicted 92-97 wins. I see no reason to back off that right now.
San Diego (83) and the Mets (87) have allowed fewer runs then the Astros. Astros have allowed the fewest in the AL.
Hunter Brown is a badass. Hey remember when the Duster left him out to take an 8 run beating? Pepridge Farm remembers.
Dusty kept trying to get 1 too many innings out of him his rookie year. Really did him a disservice. He just wasn’t ready for that yet.
If they trade Blubaugh/Fluery/Whitcomb etc... they better be getting back a guy like Donovan and have 2-3 yrs of control.
