One series: What does it all mean for Astros?

The Astros lost their three-game series in New York to the Yanks in fairly spectacular fashion. After a solid come from behind 5-3 win on Makeup Tuesday, they coughed up two big hair balls in a row. On Wednesday, Collin McHugh luckily got one out while giving up five runs or his ERA would have been infinity rather than 135.00 and the Astros were trailing 6-1 after one inning. The Astros rallied back to close the gap to 6-5 in the second inning and everyone relaxed until Michael Feliz and his bullpen buddies imploded leading to a 16-6 blowout. On Thursday Mike Fiers coughed up a 5-2 lead and new reliever (notice – not called closer) Ken Giles piled on giving up a 3 run homer in an 8-5 loss.

So what are we looking at here?

  • The Astros are 1-2 and wasted solid, but not over the top offensive efforts in the last two games of the series. Six and five runs would have won a lot of games last year.
  • Last season the Astros started off 1-2 against Cleveland after winning the opener and they were at home to start 2015.
  • The Astros gave up 24 runs in the last two games.
  • In all of 2015, the most the staff gave up in two consecutive games was 22 runs when they were collapsing against the Rangers in mid-September.
  • Are the Yanks a really great and patient offensive team? Have they figured out that you lay off the Astros off-speed stuff outside the zone, take your walks and then stroke those sitting duck fast balls out of the park?
  • It is hard to say. Certainly some of that happened with McHugh and perhaps with Fiers was based on that. Feliz looked like a young guy thrown into the fire and told to throw 100+ pitches no matter what happens. Giles continued a bad trend from spring training of running his fastball into the meat of the opponents bat.
  • Certainly the conditions were not ideal to judge anyone’s pitching as both teams’ staffs looked fairly vulnerable. Well, the Yanks bullpen blew the first game, but locked down the next two with a series of 6′-10″ 100 mph hardballers from the ‘pen, or so it seemed.
  • And Carlos Correa went 0 for 4 in the last game. Time to sit him down – right? He isn’t hitting over .500 anymore.
  • On the other hand Tyler White looks like a “hitter” – plain and simple. If they sit him when Evan Gattis returns they will regret it.

The starting pitching is the key here. The Astros with Lance McCullers out are a more vulnerable staff. If McHugh regresses more (last season he regressed a good bit in ERA, but still won 19 games due to run support) they could have continued troubles. The problem is that too many short games by the starters takes a toll on the bullpen. Bringing Chris Devenski up was smart as they would have no one in the bullpen to go more than an inning or two while Feliz recovers from pitching a complete game worth of pitches in 4 1/3 innings.

It’s only 3 games, the first 100 yards of a marathon, but the fans are worried. Is it justified? What do you think?

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186 responses to “One series: What does it all mean for Astros?”

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  1. Well I have to think McHugh or Feliz are not that bad. We need LMJ and another hard thrower, we just have to many guys that all look the same, the F’s. Very encouraged by the good swings of Tucker and Valbuena. Of course CC and White have been all world. I guess worried about any hitting from the catcher spot.

    If you factor in Altuve and Springer, except GS, have been pretty quite, have to think we are going to score a lot of runs. I’m looking forward to see how they look out of the cold. I think Strom can fix a lot of things and Uncle Jeff will need to do whatever it takes, especially if Giles for 5 gets uglier.

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  2. White is our first baseman. Tucker has to fight for PA against Gattis.

    The worry is justified but it’s not time to get on the ledge.
    1. If Giles flames out, we probably only gave up guys blocking Musgrove, Devenski, etc. I like VV, but his fly ball tendencies are scary.
    2. Don’t walk the punch and Judy guys. Gardner should be forced to swing the bat. I’m calling the Gregorius HR a fluke.

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  3. The weather killed Astros’ pitching and the Yankees jumped all over that.
    As long as people keep saying that Castro’s bat doesn’t matter, other teams will pitch around the #8 guy to get to him, because he hits like a pitcher., By the way, he’s hurt and that’s why Kratz finished up the second game. Making excuses up for veteran catchers who can’t hit is going to cost the Astros. The Astros remind me of Gary Kubiak when it comes to the catching position. Kubiak used to not play draft picks on offense unless they were #1 picks because he wanted to take two years to develop them. That’s the way the Astros are with catchers, always wanting old guys who suck behind the plate and at the plate and not trusting young guys.
    That statement has nothing to do with the opening series. I’ve talked about the catchers many times.
    I think Correa’s 0 for four was more the result of the previous day’s game loss. He overswung on practically every pitch on Thursday, trying to make something big happen. He will learn to let the game keep coming to him rather than lunging at it.
    The Brewers made sure to adjust their pitching rotation to get Jimmy Nelson into the Astros’ series. We’ll see how the Astros handle that 94 mph fastball and big knuckle curve this time.
    The series in NY was perfectly set up for the Yankees: No practice Sunday for the Astros sitting in a hotel in the rain. No game Monday with the Astros sitting in their hotel and the Yankees at home.
    Freezing temperatures and no batting practice the next three days because of rain. The Yankees have to be thrilled at how perfectly MLB set them up for a series win.
    I absolutely have no complaint with the way Michael Feliz pitched Tuesday. He must have been in shock having to come into that situation and under those circumstances. People tend to forget that Michael Feliz is only 22. and has been coddled his entire career in the minors. The Astros have never let the guy pitch enough innings anywhere and he has never really been stretched out anywhere. He is a product of the Astros pitching philosophy which basically sucks and is the reason why we have to buy or trade for pitchers from somewhere else. Keuchel is Keuchel because of himself, not because of the Astros. The proof of what I’m saying is a look at the Astros pitching at AAA and the majors. They don’t know pitching or catching. Hopefully Tyler White and Preston Tucker save the Astros’ know-nothing butts at DH.

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  4. If they had a payroll commiserate with their opportunity, then they’d have depth in the rotation, and maybe even some legit corner IFs. This is a good team, but rife with holes.

    They are about $40-60mil short where they need to be a championship team.

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    • Maybe. Here’s the problem: which players were they going to get in FA last year? Price and Greinke got monster deals. After that, teams gave big money to middle-to-back of the rotation guys…which we already had at lower cost. Was there an option available at catcher that I missed? I will allow that trading for a guy like Lucroy was an option, but it costs prospects rather than cash.

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    • You may be right, but they have had four years of high draft picks and so far they have one guy rushed to the majors at age 21 to show for their pitching development, and he starts the year on the DL because they are so afraid of him having to throw 200 innings. They should have pitchers like the Mets have to show for all their high draft picks. Luhnow’s biggest failure is having the wrong philosphy for developing pitcher’s. Who do we have starting? Keuchel, who Wade drafted, and other people’s pitchers. Starting in Fresno: Rodgers, Peacock, Hauschild, Wojo and Devenski(Not!). OMG!

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    • And Appel and VV pitch for Philly because we have not developed one true reliever in four years. Luhnow’s development of Appel and VV was a total failure, to add insult to injury.

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      • Appel was overused in college, and is not the same pitcher he was there. VV has been injured most of his minor league career. I don’t think either one was a development failure, though I do agree with you that the Astros philosophy sucks when it comes to pitchers and catchers both and could cost us down the road.

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  5. When it comes to budget for any of these teams I think allocation / where you spend trumps how much you spend.
    The fact that the Astros are spending around $15 million total for some of their best players (Keuchel, McHugh, Correa, Altuve, LMJ, Springer, White) gives them tremendous flexibility on payroll. Frankly I hope they wait a while to decide what areas they are going to spend more money on (or to shift money away from a Feldman or Gomez or Castro).

    But 3 days in the cold and the damp is not quite a big enough sample to judge a team. I did not like what I saw the last two days on the pitching side but I can wait to see how it plays out over time.

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  6. Good to hear from you Bopart, but it’s way to early to determine that there is no depth in the rotation. And I’d go out on a small limb right now and suggest that our corner infield situation is much better than it was a year ago. Will be interesting to see how things develop and how the club might react should your concerns be real.

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  7. I don’t understand the argument that in 2016 over paying for free agents equals Championships. The Royals did it with 91 million last year. I can easily see the top 8 payrolls in baseball not see the WS. Dodgers, Yankees, Red sox, Tigers, Giants, Cubs, Angels, Rangers.

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  9. * It’s only 3 games, the first 100 yards of a marathon, but the fans are worried. Is it justified? What do you think? *

    Fans care. Fans cannot get on the field [thank goodness]. When things do not go as well as they had hoped, fans cannot do a single thing about it except fret and worry. So, when the team loses – or even when it or components of it play poorly and still manages to win by the skin of our teeth – the most natural thing for fans to do is fret and worry. Fans worry about everything short of perfection. It has always been that way, and it always will be. If we care, we worry. Some of us worry out loud; others worry silently.

    There are, of course, always going to be some fans who will swear that they don’t say worry. They lie. They want to think themselves above worry. They are not. They may lie to themselves, or they may lie to us – or they may do both – but they still worry. Worry and fandom go together like BA and OBP.

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    • I think there’s a little concern here about pitching more than anything else. I wouldn’t think Giles would be this bad (at this point) and there are other concerns as previously mentioned. I’m not concerned about hitting and Tyler White is “super”. It may have been the wonderful NY springtime weather so we shall see. Hopefully, it’s all a hiccup and not anything serious. However, there are some that could have a gold brick and all they talk about is the crease in it (nobody in particular).
      Let’s see what transpires in Milwaukee this weekend.

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  10. fans worry (and whine) about everything short of perfection. its three games. we need to get a bit more into the season before we can do any meaningful evaluation.

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    • Always interesting stuff in these lists Bo. One thing that strikes me is that the Dodgers are paying more for those on the disabled list ($77MM) + those who are no longer on the team ($23MM) + those that are making major league money in the minors ($5+MM) than the total obligations including the 25 man roster for 13 other teams.
      Insane…..

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  12. A change of pace…. as was asked in a blog a couple of days ago,

    Who will be the first to be called up?
    Dan P and Larry Leach win with Musgrove being called up!!! Congratulations.

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      • Sarge, part of me was hoping you were right about it being Musgrove – and that we would find ourselves with another McCullers scenario. But I suspect Joe will be required to string together at least 6 or 7 excellent outings like last night’s at CC, and perhaps even one or two at Fresno, before we see him in Houston.

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  13. * The starting pitching is the key here. *

    Yes, and I for one will feel a whole lot better when someone – anyone – in the starting rotation actually pitches better and more effectively in a regular season game than they did in ST. Feldman, Fister, Fiers and McHugh, come on guys – at least one of you please show us something encouraging soon!

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  14. Well I’m always the eternal optimist, but I’m betting they end the season closer to their league leading ERA of 3.57 from 2015, than their current 3 game ERA of 9.36.

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  15. Really, if you look back on the spring training games, the only 2 that had a pretty good spring was Wandy, and Keuchel. I’m not sure why, but the rest of this rotation didn’t do much to impress. The weather certainly did play a BIG factor in New York but there was no excuse for McHugh, and Fires to have such a BIG meltdown. I’m going to look forward to the next three games, that will be played in a temperature controlled ball park…..and see who does and doesn’t pitch well. Especially Fister.

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  16. Lineup tonight
    2B Altuve
    RF Springer
    SS Correa
    3B Valbuena
    CF Gomez
    1B White
    C Castro
    LF Marinsick
    SP Feldman

    And no DH tonight against the Brewers…..

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    • OK, Hinch needs to pull Gomez or Pettis after that one. There is no excuse for trying to steal third with two outs and your hottest hitter at the plate. He got caught by a little league move for Pete’s sake!

      Comeback will have to start next inning.

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  22. How about Devinski? He holds the line. Then Fields comes in and its KAKA again. Tyler white hits a HR. Is this guy the second coming of Babe Ruth? Unreal.

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  26. My son’s baseball coach knows an MLB scout. He told the coach, before the season started, that the Astros were going to struggle this year. He said their pitching over-achieved last year and it would regress this year. Yes, it’s still early, but dang it, if he hasn’t been correct, so far. I didn’t want to believe it, but maybe he’s right. Maybe the Astros simply aren’t as good as the majority of us thought.

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    • That’s a possibility. But if LMJ and McHugh could just come close to what they did last year with the added hitting this team should still be near the top. The bullpen will have to live up to last year as well.

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  27. Devenski should stay up with this club……as a matter of fact he should get a start, before McCullars comes back. If Fister pitches like I’m thinking he’s going to tomorrow…..he’s going to the bullpen, and we go with Devinski, and McCullers.
    Like I said earlier tonight……the pitching in ST was *UG…LY*. And can you imagine if we had Tyler White manning 1st base last year DAAANG!!!White should be either leading off or hitting behind Rasmus. Gomez is a wreck, and getting yourself picked off doesn’t endear yourself to the manager. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

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  28. That may have been a dumb play by Gomez, but his ,250 batting average makes him look like Ted Williams compared to Altuve’s .188, Springer’s .118 or Castro and MarGo’s Blutarski-like .000.

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    • True, but don’t bat him ahead of White. If you expect White to drive in runs you have to position him where guys are on base when he comes up.
      We’ll see how the FO handles the lineups today.
      I’d like to see both Whire and Tucker moved up behind Rasmus.

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      • Well, Sandy, you got what you wanted. White is batting 5th and Gomez 6th tonight. Let’s hope it gets them going.

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    • I love the Animal House reference – “Zero. Point. Zero.” Just wish it did not refer to any of our players.
      Guys will warm up. Guys will cool down. But White has great approach to the plate.
      Amazing we are scoring this much with the top of the lineup (1 and 2) struggling.

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      • That gave me a laugh OP. I must be in the minority, but I like Gomez. He does do some bone head things sometimes, but he is fun, has energy and passion for the game, I’ll take that any day and that was a hell of catch last night. He can still play this game better than a lot of folks. If we can just hold a team to 4 runs we will win a game.

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      • Kevin,

        I like Gomez as well and think he is going to help the Astros this year. I would even be open to signing him to an extension as we lack OF depth beyond this season.

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      • I’m not attached to Gomez the way I am Springer, Altuve, Correa, Keuchel, etc. When I check the box score, his name is not one I search out. I don’t dislike him, but feel at this stage of his career we should see fewer bonehead plays.

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      • Can’t agree with you on Gomez. He’s getting 9MM this year and will likely ask for a 3 – 5 year deal looking for 15MM a year. If he was hitting 290 with 25 HR’s it might be doable but not at this juncture. And need I remind you that his agent is Scott Boras.

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      • Zanuda,

        If he hits .270, which he is very capable of doing, with a 20/20 season I would have no problem giving him a 3/$45M contract. It will probably take more than that, but we don’t have anyone better in the minors at this point and he is probably the best FA OFer that will be available at the end of this season. In addition, his defense in CF is excellent. I trust Gomez much, much more than I trust Marisnick as an offensive player.

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    • I’m with you. I know it’s too early to panic, but when it comes to my favorite team that plays my favorite sport I tend to panic often during the season. 🙂

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  31. On the other hand, once again probably minority, but I have been saying for 2 years that Fields is nothing more than a guy that has decent velocity that everyone hits. He has never impressed me , a good outing evrey 6th time out, AAA dude.

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    • Again, I agree with you, Kevin. I would much rather see Hoyt in the bullpen over Fields. There is a reason he was a rule 5 pickup. His fastball is too flat and he can’t get over his off-speed pitches for strikes consistently.

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  32. Let’s face it – there is no perfect team out there and ours is not one. But the key component to last year’s team was very steady pitching – both starting and relieving. Now the starting pitching was spotty in the beginning of the season, but the ‘pen was lights out especially the first half of the season.
    It looks like the team may be a more consistent scoring team. But they will not contend without solid pitching. It may take a while – it may take Devenski sliding in – it may take LMJ returning. But they need that foundation to perform.

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    • Absolutely! As great as Tyler White and Correa have been to start the season we are still 1-3 because our pitching, especially the starting pitching, has been abysmal. We will have to pitch better if we plan to contend this year.

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  33. What I’m wondering about Devenski is his extreme falling off the mound to the first base side. There is no way he can field a bunt down the third base line. I don’t think I have never seen a pitcher so out of position to field. I had to do a double take last night.

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  35. Folks, I want to breathe and have the Astros be fine as much as anybody on here. I’ve been following them longer than most. But I can’t stand false hopes. The pitching isn’t there and I’ve been saying it for a while now. Nobody answers, except Sandy and Nancy, and that’s okay. I know I’m female, not deeply decimalized, not highly bespoke baseball wise. All that’s okay. But it’s not that easy on the field. I hope you’re right. I hope everything’s coming up roses. We have excitement in Keuchel and Correa and Altuve and White and Springer and Rasmus, and we have a contending team, but to say we’re talking World Series, or even necessarily play-offs, I don’t buy it. I hope I’m wrong.

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    • Diane –
      I don’t think we are failing to reply due to gender. I think the problem is uncertainty. Look at Collin McHugh. Before the 2015 All Star Break his ERA was 4.50 / after 3.11. Scott Feldman 4.80 vs 2.79. . Early on last year we had poor 5th spot performances from Wojo, Deduno, Obie, and Straily.
      The poor spring time and early season performances may portend problems or be meaningless. We need to give it a good 2 months to see who they really are in my opinion.
      So in general I’m not jumping on it because there is just not enough info to say anything for certain.

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      • Dan, I just got a sinking (as opposed to a sinker) feeling on Saturday and wanted everything to go back to square one. Astrosuffering. It’ll dissipate.

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    • Diane I personally think you always bring some great posts. I think right now all are knees are knocking on SP.

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    • I’ve been around a long time too, Diane. Just curious, how long have you been a fan.
      And Dan and Kevin are right about your post. Always interesting and thoughtful. It just depends on what thoughts the others are involved in as to whether they answered. I’ve been reading this blog daily since 05.

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      • Sandy, my dad brought (or carried) me to Buffs games. Then out to the Colt 45s Mosquito Central. And opening game at Astrodome, etc., not to bore. Found the blog in 2005, but it was my understanding Chip closed it down a few years back. So I wasn’t really checking in until I found it by accident. Now I read it as I’m able — work interferes with play — but don’t comment too often. Can’t add that much, except when I get a strong feeling about something like I did on Saturday. I just can’t see putting too much pressure on our guys.

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    • All I can say is that you are one of us. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is that you are blogging here.
      I’m riding a roller coaster. When pitchers who are capable are getting bombed, I want to throw stuff. I traipse off into the woods, like I did this morning, and use a tractor and a chain and drag dead fallen trees out and make a burn pile. Then my children and grandchildren get the benefit of the fact that I want to burn something very badly.
      So tonight, after the game is over, maybe I sit and watch Rome burn, or get on my computer and say how happy I am that the Astros won. And I put the music from Legends of the Fall on and sit back, take my meds and fall asleep to the soothing vision of Tyler White chugging into second base after another double, remembering that we pegged him correctly before anyone else did.

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    • hi diane,
      you are always welcome here and i think your posts hit right at the heart of issues. i havent responded to the pitching post, well one because ive been super busy of late and two im lazy, but really the main reason is i dont think we have seen enough yet to be able to accurately evaluate what we have. so i cant agree, but i cant say you are wrong either. probably after 3 times through the rotation or month into the season is a better place to try to get a good grip on our pitching situation. but thats just my take on it. keep posting! we need everyones perspective.

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    • Hey girlfriend!! Don’t forget me! I get in more arguments with these guy than anyone! But that’s fine with me…..we might be girls but our voice counts!! I look forward to seeing your posts! You are a pretty savvy baseball mind! I don’t like false hope either, and it might take eating a contract or two, but I’m tired of Luhnow trot out pitcher’s that USED to be good and letting guys like Musgrove and Devinski get traded. Let’s get back on track tonight you rubes!!

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    • Diane,
      We on this blog are equal opportunity bloggers and bloviators. Don’t care about any of those PC type items but we all have a singular interest which is we love our Astros. All are welcome and I think I can speak for all that we welcome your input. If I was half as knowledgeable about baseball as I thought I was I’d be running a team, not rooting for it. I don’t know about everybody else but I was a baseball fan in Houston when they were the Buffaloes and played at Busch stadium off Cullen Blvd. I’m sure there are others that have been fans just as long. So you keep right on posting.
      At the start of the season we all are setting the bar high because we came so close last year. We’ve got some great young talent on the team and some seasoned veterans. It’s easy for us to get frustrated or down because of our expectations but that’s a good reason for the blog. Chip, Brian, and Dan have given us a forum for us to voice our opinions and I’m sure we’re all grateful for it. Don’t be discouraged and you continue to tell us what you think. Nobody here is bashful and we all have no trouble voicing opinions.
      Great to have you on the good ship Chipalatta.

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      • Yes, Zanuda, I go back to the Buffs too. I worry about the pitching and hope we haven’t traded anybody away that we’ll be going down swinging at.

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  37. Ok you RUBES…..let’s win this game!! You know what the difference between Tyler White and Jon Singelton was this spring? White did everything he could to get better.
    He went to the Dominican to play winter ball, ended up with a MVP while he was down there! Jon Singelton sat on the couch eating donuts and watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island. I love that kid!!

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  39. Tyler White is such a polished hitter for a rookie. He waited until he could get a pitch he could get to the OF and got the SF we needed. He is such a refreshing change from Chris Carter, Evan Gattis or Jon Singleton. My guess is that Duffy gets sent down when The Bear is ready to come off the D,L. There is no way they can send down White.

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  45. A good solid win – continued good offense and just enough pitching. OK guys – win tomorrow and get back to .500.

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  47. I caught the last 5 innings on MLB and it was a nail biter but chalk up a win for the good guys. Rasmus and White did the big damage tonight. It looks like scoring runs is not a problem. Hope the pitching comes around. Giles looked better tonight. Let’s hope Keuchel gets us a another “W” tomorrow and we come home after a 500 road trip. That’s not too shabby.

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  48. So we got the win, I grilled chicken, kids had a bonfire and I got to watch some baseball.
    Church tomorrow, some more baseball and I think I’ll start on a new burn pile. Oh yeah, a little Jordan Spieth, too. Sure feels good to get a win.
    The Astro’s announcers talked about the CC hitters tonight, but I don’t think they mentioned Francis Martes threw 6 shutout innings, allowing one hit, no walks and got the win for the Hooks.

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