His lack of homeruns this season has been weird since he's hitting hard at a high rate but not as many has gone outside the park. Hopefully, the law of averages will come into effect and he will start hitting a crap ton of homeruns in the second half of the season.
He has become a more selective hitter, but while decreasing his swings at balls off the plate, he has just watched many pitches over the plate, especially early in the count. His swing path is also a little different with many barrelled balls staying in the park as line drives. But this seems to be changing recently. He's gone from 9 HR to 16 HR in very short order. Two weeks.
So much great came out of this game. Coming back against the A's who rarely loses a big lead, building a division lead over A's by 4.5 and Valdez pitching out of a 5th inning with men on scoring positions (1st and 3rd with 0 outs). It seems to me that Valdez gets in trouble when he is happy and smiling, but when he gets pissed off, he pitches better. In the playoffs last year, Valdez had a mean streak (Correa had to calm him down) and was the best pitcher in the postseason.
MLB Network: "The Astros are a Kimbrel away from putting the season on ice." Finally some recognition
Are they talking that trade into existence? I was wondering if the Astros would go big and add a back-end arm versus a setup man? Not sure how that dynamic would play out with Pressly, but it certainly increases the target pool. Crane has been known to step in and get things done by raising the ante so to speak and authorizing his GM to make a big move.
Unfortunately, his strikeouts are the same and he walks a lot less because pitchers know he almost never swings at the first pitch. He's still a monster but not the same historic monster that he was in his rookie season. Maybe pitchers are pitching him differently since there is some data on him now.
Crane has the chance to own Houston from the a sports perspective since the Texans and Rockets will be trash for the foreseeable future.
I think he's adjusting to the Adjustments pitchers are making. I don't know how to do it, but I get a sense that he's gone after earlier count pitches in the last two weeks. I'd love to verify it.
Having Kimbrel and Pressley pretty much dominating the 8th and 9th. You would only have to depend on the other guys for the 7th inning since all our starters are dependable for 6 innings.
That would be nasty...but expensive. Click said on Sean Salisbury this morning that he's not prevented from going over the luxury tax cap but it will also be expensive prospect wise.
Kimbrel would be an all-in move for this season and next. Other than shortstop, we are pretty much set for next season. As long as we don't have to give up Lee, I'm good with anyone on our team that isn't playing big minutes for us now.
His OPS bottomed out at .829 because people were adjusting to him, but in the 25 games since he's walked 18 times to 23 K's, which are both better rates than his rookie season. He's only swung at 36% of pitches over that stretch (compared to 46% prior, and 43% his rookie year) He has been significantly more patient over the last month, and his EV and barrel rate have jumped a lot to go along with the walks.
I haven't watched every game so that is good news. He scares opposing teams more than any other player on our roster and you can't pitch around him because of Correa. Once we get Bregman back, this lineup is going to be sick. Literally no breaks at all.
Blummer was incredulous and amused that the A's gave Alvarez an intentional pass in the 6th inning to get to Correa. Now THAT"S Barry Bonds treatment.
It does seem somewhat manufactured and more conjecture/leaked by people not with the Astros. Remember, even though its a different head of the front office, there were little to no speculation that either Verlander or Greinke would end up on the Astros, till they did. Teams actively trying to acquire players do not announce that they are actively trying to acquire players. Said players former teams or agents usually would do that to try and drum up additional interest or play hard-ball.
This. Yordan didn't hit a "hot streak" until recently and has been due. He is on pace for a 162 game average of roughly 310 avg 37 homers 135 rbi and a .950 OPS ...... after coming off an injury and a season that was a wash out last year.... and he usually has had TWO hot streaks by this point, and so far he is just on his first. The reality is that he is just a monster as an offensive player. As long as he is healthy, he is going to be an elite bat.... not just a homerun hitter, but someone that will hit for a high average.
Bonds would have had 100 homeruns if they actually pitched to him. Most of those walks during his drug years were intentional
My comment was not about his bat but the fact that while his batting average is still high, and strikeout rate was similar, he drew less walks and his homerun numbers were relatively pretty low until recently.
