This team can't keep putting pressure on the pitching. Walker being terrible, Alvarez being terrible and hurt, and Diaz and Altuve being terrible for large part of the season make it impossible to expect thus to be a good offense. The biggest issue with that when two of your starters project to be below average ( Meyers and Rodgers/Dubon), one average ( Pena), and one a rookie who needs time ( Smith/ Dezenzo) you give yourself absolutely no room for error. The fact that this team is maintaining 500 under those conditions is a real testament to the bottom of the lineup and especially the pitching. But those things can not continue to exceed expectations. At dime point the top 4-5 hitters need to take some of the pressure off.
As much as we need a 2B, our biggest need is a true mid rotation or better SP 32 of our games have been started by Hunter, Framber, Blanco or Arrighetti and we are 18-14 in those games (a 91 win pace) The other 20 games we are 9-11 (73 win pace) Blanco ain't likely coming back, so even if we add a legit mid rotation we will be counting on Lance + some combination of Gusto/Gordon/Blueballs
Yeah losing Blanco for the season and having Arrighetti out until July means Houston will be in the deadline market for SP. They can probably get thru the next 2 months with the guys they have, especially while Gusto/Walter/Gordon are pitching pretty well. Keep an eye on Walter; it’s no guarantee but I think there’s a chance he could be pretty good. Not Brown/Framber level good, but he could be Blanco/Urquidy/Garcia level good.
Dana brown said garcia and Javier are back in July and Dana brown always tells the truth so we are totally golden.
For Cam Smith to have come straight from college and be an above average hitter plus an elite fielder already speaks volumes to how talented he is. Crazy he’s learning in the big leagues, maybe not this year or next but I truly believe he’s destined for stardom.
Yeah...but nobody taught him how to bunt. Ask the Stros Forum. This is allegedly a very important skill to learn for a guy who has hit 1/2/3 since he was in LL.
check out his OPS for May. Solid game sample and just a great line. He needs to be moved up in the order soon. https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/5080766/cam-smith
Yes. He should ideally hit 3rd or 6th depending upon Altuve being back to if not his old self not actually old and washed.
Colton Gordon has been surprisingly effective in his time so far. Probably can’t maintain it, but he’s at least showing what it would look like for him to become a good SP at this level - limiting walks with a fair number of Ks with decent contact management. He’s not getting by largely with smoke and mirrors like JP France did
I think he has really good stuff and potential to be a really good MOR pitcher. Gusto has looked good as well.
His slider is very good, and his fastball isn't as bad as it would appear given its limited velocity. I think he needs to further develop his changeup or curveball to give him a more balanced profile, but overall his stuff is fine.
I think more or less out on Gusto as a SP at this point (although he could still be a very good reliever), but if the Astros can find something with Gordon and/or Walter they should be in great shape in the second half assuming they get one or two SPs back. Churning out nobodies into quality SPs may still be the Astros' ace in the hole as an organization.
He’s still fresh to the league and the sample sizes are kind of small but it looks like his fb plays up and generally he is not walking guys and not giving up hard contact, which is a very effective combo. It just remains to be seen which way he goes from here. He does not have a put away pitch and I don’t consider it very likely that he develops one, so he is going to be limited in that way. So far his curve has been ineffective and so long term he will need to improve that pitch or abandon it. There’s certainly an avenue for him to be an effective big league SP long term, even up to a #3, but it’s also very possible he could get figured out and start getting rocked. For now he sure is coming in clutch as a guy who started the season as the like 10th SP and is suddenly the SP4.
