I like it, but if the train gonna move liability issues may come into play. How about "every Astros mascot ever"?
Only one game, but the lineup felt so much longer than the past 2 years. Love the Walker and Paredes additions. Wish we would have gotten another Lefty bat in the OF, but if Cam keeps progressing into a stud RF then I guess we can live without one… Abreu/Hader continue to be shaky like last year. Overall, vibes much better than 23/24
Strikes it takes against an Astros batter to illicit "not our season" comments during the first inning of every game in the history of game threads: 1
It appears the baseball gods have guaranteed victory on April 7th against Gilbert Celebrate in advance https://www.espn.com/mlb/team/schedule/_/name/hou/houston-astros
Great outing by Framber, Cam gets his first hit........Abreau and Hader were shaky but hung on there and then to strike out Soto, awesome start
Great job by Framber. I'm willing to give Abreu and Hader a pass since it is game 1, but those stress filled outings have got to stop. On the bright side, we are ahead of last year's start. I did not quite understand why Altuve was not subbed out for Chas or Dubon as a defensive replacement in the last inning or two.
The national media seem so fixated on the fact that we lost Bregman and Tucker. Yet they refuse to mention that we brought in Paredes and Walker (on top of the fact that we won the division last year while missing Tucker for half the season). It's been frustrating to see their unwillingness to give a fair characterization of our offseason.
I'm sure someone has already talked about this in detail. But the statistics really do backup what we were all seeing with our own two eyes last season. We were far and away one of the most undisciplined teams at the plate last season. Pitches seen per plate appearance, swinging at strikes percentage, total swinging percentage, etc. one of the 2-3 worst in all of these categories. And most of the top offenses last season were the polar opposite. I'll be interested to track these same stats this season to see just how different the approach is in 2025 vs. 2024. Here's the link to the page with all the data. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2024-pitches-batting.shtml
We upgraded massively at 1B, neutral at 3B, upgraded offensively in LF, downgraded offensively but upgraded defensively at 2B. RF could be a major downgrade, but if Cam or Zac emerges it might not be as much as we expected - especially relative to last year's partial year. 2nd and LF offset, 1B and RF offset and could be net positive, 3B is neutral. C and SS natural evolution should be positive and CF and DH neutral. I would argue it was at worst a neutral offseason offensively, and the pitching is significantly better and more mature than last year's opening day. No reason at all to think this team regressed over the offseason.
I wonder if there’s a preference not to make two defensive substitutions in the outfield. If that’s the case then it could make sense for now to sub out Cam instead of Altuve, though I think it will quickly get to the point where Altuve should be the one subbed out as Cam is the better athlete and has a stronger arm.
I’m optimistic that by June neither player will need to be subbed out in a close game. Both because they have proven they’re at least average on defense but also because their bats are too good to take out.
The Christian Walker acquisition will turn out to be the biggest deal we did IMO. Very underrated. He doesn’t get the flowers like some of the others but he is very good. As others have mentioned, the feeling with this lineup feels more confident than last year. Obviously losing Tucker hurts but I think Cam will be above average. Altuve and Alvarez were pretty much nothings yesterday and we still pulled it out. When they get up to speed and comfortable this lineup could be lethal.
