Interesting read. It is always fun to see what people are looking forward to seeing from a team that isn't promising too much. Players I am excited to follow: Jason Castro[ - The dude was nails during spring training and ended last year on a high note. The Astros have lacked decent offensive catching for more than a decade, and Castro the Astro from Castro Valley is showing some promise now that he is finally healthy. If he puts up more than 16 homers and bats over .250, I would consider him to a great piece moving forward and he could show some great promise for this team. Jose Altuve - The only thing left for Altuve to do is to prove to the rest of the league that he is more than an undersized second baseman. If 2013 proves to be a year where he can bat lead off and still produce a .290+ AVG while seeing his walk rate increase, what more can you want? The guy stole 33 bases last year with most of those coming in the second half if I recall. Frankly, I hope DDS rips up the minors in the next couple of years, but Altuve can prove to be one final valuable commodity. I think this is the year that everyone in baseball realizes that he's a true professional. Brett Wallace - After working on his swing the past off season, Wallace is in a make or break year that has the look of being a good one. OPS is going to be the name of the game for him batting second this year, and his walk rate is what I personally will want to see increase. If he can hit those lasers that he was hitting when he first came up a couple of years ago, I think it will be a great year for him. As much as I would like to see him be a great homerun threat, he seems like more of a doubles machine that can hit for average. The walks must go up, and the SO rate MUST go down. Chris Carter - An Astro that can hit more than 30 bombs?? Hasn't happened since 2007. His strike out rate will suck, but it will be nice to have a man that can change the course of the game with one swing. What intrigues me the most is if he can play left field. With Singleton on the way up, I would love to see Carter become a reliable option in left field so that he can remain an important bat to this club. Either way, I am excited to see a power bat. His potential for power is tremendous, but living with the strike outs will prove tough. Lucas Harrell - Though he struggled during the start of last year, I think he is our best bet to a pitcher that finishes with a sub 4 ERA (like he did last year). His splits were favorable at home, but his WHIP was better while on the road. What I find most interesting looking back on his stats is that in July, he had his highest BAbip, but his lowest ERA of any month. The difference? His strike out rate was much higher. Lucas will have another decent year if he can keep his strike out rate decently high (above 6.5 yielded promising results for him). As for the rest of the team, I am excited to see if Bo can lead them to the success that they are capable of achieving. Anything more than 62 wins is considered a pretty good success for these guys in my book. I worry that the bullpen will struggle, and I would love to see Lo and Chapman reach the majors before the seasons end. Peacock is my wildcard starter that I see being the second best starter on the team by year's end. I still want to see Bud move to the 'pen where I think will have the most success possible (outside of facing the Cards for 33 games). I am excited. It is the start of another season, and though I do not get to watch most of their games, I will have my boxscores. Better times are ahead of us, but hey, these guys would have to do something amazing to let you down since nothing is expected of them. Happy watching to all, and I hope that we see some guys produce!
I'm excited to see which young players step forward. I'm looking forward to seeing what Dominguez, Castro, F. Martinez, Carter, and Maxwell can do with 400+ PAs. Likewise, I'm excited to see if Harrell's second half was for real, and if Peacock, White, and Lyles can be mid-rotation starters. On the major league level, the youngster's success is going to define a successful season much more than W-Ls. Going forward, I really only count Altuve (and I'm excited to see if he can improve) as a core piece, but hopefully 2-3 others can emerge join him on next great Astros team in a few years. I'm also just as excited to see what Correa, Ruiz, Springer, McCullers, Deshields, etc etc do in the minors. The organization's success is going to ride on those guys as much, if not more, than it will the players on the current major league roster. And I really can't wait for the June draft and the July 2 international signing date. I think we'll finish the year with the #1 farm system in baseball and, in five years when the major league team is winning 90+ games every year, we'll look back at this time as what laid the foundation for the success, just like 1988-91 seeds bloomed in 1995-99. If you can get past the major league W-L, the TV situation, and the PR mistakes, there are a lot of exciting things happening on the baseball side. And 2014 is going to be even more fun when Singleton, Springer, Cosart, (Appel?) come up for good.
I wouldnt say "excited" is the word, but I intend to follow their progress. Its still too soon to expect any prospect help (the kind that changes the W/L column significantly) so 2013 looks like a lame duck year. A few individual stories may be interesting though, especially at the minor league levels. The only thing really exciting is the anticipation of the minor league boost that arrives at some point. I do look forward to a few things though. 1) How Porter handles the club. What level of popularity he maintains, or not. 2) Who breaks out and who falls off the map. 3) All the posts with wheels falling off. Should be a bunch of them so maybe we get some new pics 4) How the other AL west teams fare. Getting acquainted with these clubs and the AL in general. 5) What Crane does and says over the year. Does he dig himself a PR black hole through some misguided remarks or does he maintain sympathy and admiration for doing what needs to be done without unfortunate distractions.
Learn to watch the potential of the young players rather than the score board. You'll enjoy it a lot more. Also, keep track of the AA/AAA games every night. Pretty much my every Astros night.
I was at yesterday's game and Singleton, Springer, Correa, and DeShields all started. The future of the team is bright. Mike Foltynewics is going to be stud next year too. He was throwing consistently throwing 98mph fastballs with a 75mph curve.
Excited to see how Correa, Springer, and Folty progress. Springer and Folty should make debuts this season if they play well. Correa sounds like a true future star. Also curious to see of Castro's power carries over from spring training. A catcher who can hit 25 bombs and is quality defensively is a big damn deal.
