It's a long season, so I'm hoping this is just a typical losing streak and not us finally coming back down to earth.
I'm optimistic about Moran as well but not right now, he's not ready. He's hitting .276 in AA with 0 homeruns.
Exactly. It's only June; no need to start freaking out yet. I do hope we explore trading for a 3B in addition to a starting pitcher. Depending on how VV and LMC do over the next few weeks, we might need the 3B more than a pitcher. Valbuena has shown some pop but many of his ABs are just straight ugly.
Valbuena is in an epic slump right now. Over the last 3 seasons he had a .724 OPS, and a .266 BABIP. This season he has a .639 OPS and an unsustainable .171 BABIP. A huge part of his struggles are his increase in PA against lefties. Prior to this season his career high was 94 PA last season. He already has 63 PA this season against them. He can't hit them effectively, and he never has. We are in a left heavy stretch recently For whatever reason his productivity has gotten much better over the last 3 seasons, but only against righties. He clearly needs to be part of a platoon, but we really don't have an alternative right now, Marwin is an even worse hitter against lefties than Valbuena over his career.
Great info; thanks. Can someone sprinkle some magic dust on Lowrie's wrist already? He'd be a great solution right now at 3B.
Has a .936 OPS so far in June Might want to pump your brakes on that And Gattis at 1B? Seems to finally be staying healthy while at DH and not on his legs all game, health has always been his issue It's a six game streak....everyone needs to relax
no need to hit the panic button. even with our bats on zombie mode, 2 out of the 6 losses were lost directly by 2 players, not going to name names but um qualls and villar. win tonight and get a day off.
If you would have told me before the season had started that we would have a 2 game divisional lead in mid June AND would call up our best player along with other top prospects, I would have thought you were the most optimistic homer on this side of the Pecos. The sky is not falling. We are good presently and set up nicely for the future.
I think that is a very narrow view. Yes, two players contributed directly to runs given up. But the entire team, minus Correa, have contributed to lack of runs scored. And that is a team problem at the moment, not a individual player one.
good posts by seal, Beard, conquistador above. Echo all of those things. It's a long season and a 6 game streak is almost inevitable. Let's make sure this is the one big slump for the year. With the rotation changes, lineup change addressing the major hole (which should have cascading effects), and a bit of improvement in luck...I'm not too worried at the moment.
Projections are based on ones starting point. While I agree with what you said, you could also say that 10 days ago if you had told me that our division lead had shrunk to 2 games, I would have thought you were quite pessimistic.
but you already knew, offensively, this is a hot and cold team. It's who we are. The sooner everyone accepts that the less frustrating leaving men on bases gets. Ok, it's still frustrating.
The Astros went from scary good to scary bad. I hope this bad streak ends soon. I'm ruffled. Are they trending downward back to who they really are...a team not mature enough to consistently compete and win through an entire season? I'm definitely wondering on that one. It's always a bit scary to start off so strong because you think it's unsustainable and/or most teams do get better as the season goes along. If you start out so strong, then maybe the only place to go is down. This is like a correction. I recall one analyst picking Rangers to place 23rd and Astros to place 24th at the end of the season. Both are over-performing to expectations at this point. Will it last or will they go back to being cellar dwellars?
Just goes to show that how good you are cant be measured by 10 game win streaks and 6 game losing ones. Take away both these streaks, and we are a .545 team. And that's still slightly above pre-season expectations.
It hasn't been scary bad, the team hasn't been getting blown out all of these games. Just regression back to the mean on one run games... this is around where our Pythagorean record lies.
Hopefully avoid injuries. Blum brought up that Vincent was hitting 100mph in the minors? Are we expecting an ace calliber pitcher?
If he threw 100, his agent was the one supplying the radar gun. I'm expecting him to work between 91-94, maybe topping out at 96.
I doubt, unless his pitch count is low, he'll go 6. He's mostly pitched out of the tandem system so it might take a couple of starts (like McCullers) to stretch out those extra couple of innings. I'd be plenty happy if he went 5 and we're in position to win.
