2025 Season Astros General Discussion Thread

It's actually a little odd as the Astros were on the cutting edge of looking at spin rates and optimizing breaking ball shapes. I would have suspected they used every tool available to do so ... so I am pleasantly surprised the pitching held up well.

 

To me, it appears the Astros went after guys with high spin rates in the draft and IFA. Other teams prioritized fastball velocity. Adding spin is more valuable the faster a pitcher throws (less time for batter to react). Gerrit Cole and Verlander likely benefited a lot as Astros (I'd guess this was a bigger cheat than the sign stealing), but the Astros organization just wasn't dependent on turning meh high velocity fastballs into dominant pitches. It looked like the Astros had a little control problem for a couple of pitchers, but about 25 other teams had issues getting the Ks they were getting. MLB went with a dead ball in 2022 to mask how much the sticky stuff was impacting the game.

The Astros were punished for their cheating being "systematic and extensive". Every team dropping in this chart basically shows cheating was systematic and extensive throughout MLB with every good AL team at the time besides the Astros being on the right (as in right versus left and not right versus wrong) side of this chart.

 

This team is not impressive or intimidating in any way.

Want some salt in the wound? Bregman and Tucker are top 10 in the MVP race. 8 homers for Bregs and 9 for Tucker.

But no, we are smart with our money. We trust our home grown guys with band aids and glue.

 

@IdStrosfan looks like I was right about the Rodgers contract assuming Rome is accurate here

 

2 million dollars seems pretty cheap for a serviceable 2nd baseman.

 

Glass half full

I think it's still more likely that Walker isn't rapid age related decline settling in but rather- I missed 4 weeks in spring training, my timing sucked, my injury probably wasn't fully healed and that buried me under a mountain of **** (combined with a little bad luck) the first 4 weeks of the season. He's been fine the last couple weeks I want to say.
Altuve scares me and has for 3 years- every offseason I ask is this going to be the year he isn't a good player anymore. Maybe it's this year. Or maybe he has a lot on his plate with a new position and got in a little bit of a funk and will get out of it.

Alvarez has been limited by Chronic injuries his entire career and he's always been good. He's made out of glass. I assume he's not going to be an 85 OPS plus guy forever and whatever limiting factor on him for the year will be based upon PA's not being terrible as an offensive player.

Smith was never going to be a superstar (this year). He's playing a good RF, he's a plus on the bases, he takes competitive AB's and we've seen flashes. He's right on time and needs to play more or get sent down so we get another year of club control and he gets more consistent AB's to develop. Yainer is maybe not a super star (I've had hope) but I can't imagine that he's become Maldonado overnight- we can agree that his ceiling might not be as high as we hoped it would be and still expect him to play a LOT better. Incremental improvement sucks.

Rodgers is starting to hit a little bit. Dezenzo is hitting a lot and if that continues and Rodgers isn't a thing Altuve goes back to 2B maybe?

Absolutely no push back or any positivity I can give you on the manager. He sucks **** through a straw and should be fired yesterday. He's a clown.

Farm system devoid of position player stars. I think there's some guys that I have high high hopes to be elite pitchers down there. If you can produce cheap elite pitching you can buy expensive elite hitting (maybe). And, we don't know Matthews won't be a star. He could have his contact click like Springer did and he's probably a borderline star if that happens (not holding my breath).

4 starting pitchers on the IL have given us a chance to find guys that we wouldn't have otherwise that have been really good. Blanco and Arrighetti last year, Gusto this year. If they all get back we will be better off for having to walk that path.

AT least the dead money is gone after this year

Nobody in the division is a jugernaught even if they are all better.

It's probably somewhere in between what you wrote and what I wrote.

 

I like this a lot better than Snakes assessment if for no other reason than I can’t deal with a summer of suckage from the Astros.

I know Father Time is coming for Altuve, but I just refuse to believe this is the year. Altuve will find some magic somewhere and start bashing baseballs again. That is one hero I really don’t want to see fall.

 

Brendan Rodgers yay or nay? I wish Espada would’ve given him more consistent playing time - if the Astros are in contention at the mid-point, they could def upgrade at 2B regardless.

 

An owner who is too old to start on another total rebuild when he could just cash in and watch a good game once in a while, while enjoying life with his family.

 

It's funny to see the disconnect between Astros fans and HOF standards. I think 95% of Astros fans think he's a no doubt first ballot HOFer. He has 53 War. That aint enough. Barely over 200 HR's. 2100 or 2200 hits. He needs to have a tail of his career that's reasonable or he's in trouble. If he starts putting up negative War from here on out I'm not sure he gets in the HOF. Biggio didn't put up negative War until his age 41 season and had 8 WAR from his age 35 season to the end (and had 1100 hits). Altuve doesn't need to be that good at the end of his career but he's got to be better than cooked this season.

 

Things would be much better if Yordan was doing what his averages said he should be doing.... and that's with Altuve regressing, Walker still oscillating, and Diaz being jekyl/hyde-ish.

Pena has been the most consistent/impactful offensive player this season and he only moved to the leadoff spot 2 weeks ago?

Their pitching is that good and barring injury there, should keep this team afloat till the bats either get hotter (or average-er) and they have reinforcements arrive.

 

Agreed completely. What I’m saying is- what if he goes backward in WAR. There is no guarantee he gets 4 more in his career and 2 of those guys you mentioned he is behind are not in the HOF.
I don’t think he has to do a ton to get in but he needs to do some stuff, he can’t become unplayable and a negative war player for the rest of his career and expect to definitely make it. Hopefully we laugh at this hand wringing at the end of the year. I’m white knuckling it as it pertains to him right now though.

 

My head says every bit of this is correct and will prove out over 162 games. My fandom says oh no, we suck and will never be good again.

 

I’m not projecting out 5 seasons of negative war. I’m saying if he’s a -2 or something this year and he never goes positive again his career will be functionally over, he won’t accumulate stats for counting purposes and he won’t pass any 2B on all time WAR lists or the like.
they would either cut ties with him or keep him around as a mascot for the rest of his contract if something like that were to happen but yeah/ hes not going to play every day for 4 years and out up -10 war or some thing like that.

 

Thanks.

It's interesting and something I wasn't aware of.

Edit: I just read that until Saturday the Astros can option him or release him and save the prorated amount of his $2M contract

 

I’m guessing they keep him but he hasn’t been great to say the least.