Walker is still a good player and their MLB coaching rest of his career isn’t written in stone like Abreu. Walker was hurt in the Spring and he came back before he was ready. He also had like a 450 OPS after the first 20 games and has played a lot better since then with an OPS of near .800 since then…. It looks bad because of how horrendous his start was. Had he sat the first 3 weeks of the season until he was 100%, we wouldn’t be so worried. He is not a natural hitter - he is not going to have a high batting average or on base percentage and he will strikeout a lot but he has power and gets enough walks to be a good offensive hitter. I don’t and never have profiled him as a 4 hitter - but better used later in the line up. The glove is elite as well. I am confident he will be fine with the Astros and still don’t dislike the signing, but I do think right now he is being asked to do a role he isn’t best suited for.
Joe is by all accounts a very good man - however Joe has thus far not shown a high aptitude for managing a baseball team strategically. Hopefully he improves - some managers do improve.
A couple games over .500 - and at several times looked like they were close to turning the corner either way. The pitching is good enough to win the World Series. I’m not sure the hitting is good enough to win the division - not to mention a World Series. Getting Alvarez back and hopefully healthy will make a big difference and Altuve and Walker should hit. Meyers and Pena likely slow down some - but they both seem improved. I still think they are a bat short right but I would love to be wrong, and they can deal for one later if they are in position for the post season.
He has improved in some ways already - even if marginally. I am not counting on it, but it isn’t unheard of… ask people how Hinch was at his first managing job… others too like Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine improved… even Dusty Baker, for all his flaws - had learned how to manage the clubhouse after struggling with it early in his managing career
Damn Josh Hader 1.50 ERA and 10 saves. Hunter Brown 1.48 ERA If we can get more consistency from Framber and Ronel our rotation is actually pretty deep. Hopefully Javier is coming back healthy too. Amazing how the Astros consistently have dominant pitching year after year.
Pena is on fire. Love to see it. Altuve remains completely lost up there. I know it's not his style but he needs to relax up there. He's really pressing 1 game out of first. With all our problems and injuries you'll definitely take it
And the 4th best run differential in the AL. All things considered, they're doing better than I expected. I can't shake the belief that this is a pretty average team, but you can't be too disappointed in where they're at right now.
If they’d won that White Sox series I’d be totally cool with where they’re at. As it is they’re only a couple games off pace. These series against the Rangers and Mariners are huge.
I think they're above average but I understand exactly where you're coming from. The frustrating thing is how many games they're given away either by leaving runners on base, head scraping managerial decisions and stars underperforming
I can't really watch games until my wife goes to bed. Tuesday night, I turned on the game in the bottom of the ninth. Wednesday night, I turned on the game in the bottom of the eighth. Need to make sure she takes her melatonin early for the next 4 nights!
