Boy, was i was fortunate not to buy season tickets after the world series last year. I would have been ticked off to drive down there and watch 2 runs in 3 games. Or watching hinch use the same players with 200 batting avg over and over.
As things are, not many options there. But I do want to push forward the idea again that right now, we would be better off with one more position player and one fewer pitcher. We would have to throw someone like Sipp or Smith under the bus though. I think its hurt us only having 3 position players on the bench, and one of those is your 2nd catcher and shouldn't use him. That leaves 2 and typically they are guys struggling the most at the plate. Wouldn't it be nice to have a guy on the bench that could gets hits?
Whether it happened last year or not, almost the entire offense is in a funk and needs to get better. Over the last 7 days, only (2) Astros have hit better than .250 (Springer/Altuve). (3) guys are hitting at or below .100 !!! This has to change. It will change. http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/hou/split/61
All they have to do is leave the (not so) friendly confines of MMP. Seemed to work last time they went on a road trip. Granted they'll begin this road trip with against the D-Backs and their quality pitching, but I think a road trip will be good for the offense nonetheless. It really has been strange how big of a difference there's been in the offense's production on the road vs. at home during the past season and change. It wasn't as pronounced last season, but so far this season they're hitting .226 at home and .280 on the road.
What's frustrating is how many strikes our batters seem to be taking. I just don't recall our guys looking at so many strikes last year.
Maybe this was their way to try to cut down on strike outs? Being more disciplined at the plate? Maybe this bunch does better just letting them go out there and smash everything.
https://climbingtalshill.com/2018/05/03/astros-observations-general-lack-offense/ Here is the current OPS by each position and the current rank in the American League. First base: .640 OPS (14th) Third base: .719 OPS (12th) Left field: .617 OPS (12th) Center field: .669 (11th) Designated hitter: .541 (15th) ---------- -------------- -------------- ---------------- ------------------- If I translate the numbers into one sentence, it would be this: I do expect for Gurriel, Bregman, and Springer to start hitting better based on their batted ball results. xwOBA – wOBA Gurriel: .307 – .281 = -.026 Bregman: .361 – .321 = -.040 Springer: .404 – .337 = -.067
Trying to watch at work, its already depressing. We lost games with elite pitching, probably losing games when we aren't pitching well even more. Last year I felt like every lead against us we could come back on, now I feel like if we are down one its over...
