Astros are better offensively, but are they good enough?

The Astros are a better team than they were in April and most of May. Since starting 18-28 they have been a good 56-36. Last year they were a ho-hum 46-46 after a 29-17 start to the season.

Their offense is slightly ahead of last season at 4.60 runs / game vs 4.50 r/g last season. It is pretty obvious that their recent offense is much better than they have seen in a while. With the addition of Yulieski Gurriel and the red hot Alex Bregman, and the offensive uptick that a hot Evan Gattis has brought since getting more catching starts, this lineup is more than Springer, Altuve and Correa. The team has averaged almost 6 runs a game over their last 25 games, which is a big step up from earlier in the season.

The defense has been strong this season, especially an outfield that often features Jake Marisnick, George Springer and Colby Rasmus.

The pitching has taken a step back with injuries and inconsistency hobbling the starting pitching rotation. The staff is giving up 4.29 r/g as opposed to 3.81 r/g in 2015. With very good performances by the bullpen overall, the biggest concern down the stretch will be the starting rotation without Lance McCullers Jr. and possibly without Dallas Keuchel.

The questions for you today are:

  • Can a pitching rotation featuring Doug Fister, Mike Fiers, Collin McHugh, Joe Musgrove and …. Brad Peacock(?) lead this team to the playoffs?
  • Or can this team score enough runs to overcome that pitching rotation?
  • Do they need to move Chris Devenski out of his dominating role as a 2 or 3 inning reliever and make him one of the starters?
  • Do they need to get DK and/or LMJ back to make it to the playoffs?
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115 responses to “Astros are better offensively, but are they good enough?”

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  1. I think getting McCullers and Keuchel back this year is a pipe dream…..one or both may have season ending ingurys. Please…no to inserting Peacock in the rotation, my heart can’t take that. We haven’t even talked about Brady Rodgers, and if he could get a start or two! The debacle in arlington…..was hard to watch, he deserves a do over. I think the hitting will continue to be where it’s been lately. This team has the best outfield in MLB, and quite possibly the best middle infield. Gurriel still doesn’t have his feet under him yet……I think it’s just a matter of time when we see him hitting the ball out of the park! The next 8 games are must wins, and they know it. I kinda like where they are right now, they control their own destiny, just like they did in the last few games of last year. I don’t think they have any quit in them….so neither should we! Becky⚾
    Hinch said Devenski is staying in the bullpen the rest of the season, he’s worth his weight in gold coming out of the pen to rescue the starting pitchers.

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  2. 1. I think these five could get the Astros to the playoffs because they have 17 pitchers on their staff, not counting LMJ and Dallas. Now, once they get in the playoffs, I don’t have a clue how they’re going to win anything unless they just change everything and throw the guys with the best stuff.
    2. They are going to have to score, whether they get decent pitching or not, so they might as well score a lot, and everyone matters, because they would have lost Tuesday night, were it not for Marwin Gonzalez.
    3. If Chris Devenski is the most dominant and dependable guy on their staff, they are eventually going to have to start him in a critical game.
    4. I think they can make it to the playoffs without DK or LMJ if they keep at least 17 pitchers on the team and score 5 runs a game. I would rather see them bring up one or two more pitchers and put DK or LMJ on the DL, if they don’t think those guys will be back. Hell, put Valbuena on the DL and add Martes to the 40-man and bring him up here to help us out. Martes has to be added to the 40-man anyway, right?
    We’re 3 games out of the #1 spot and 2 games out of the 2nd wild card spot and only Detroit in front of us by a game. We have a shot. Bring up a couple more of our fire balling youngsters to help get us to the playoffs. Lets get 19 arms and if our starters only go 4 good innings, so what.

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    • By the way – why do I feel like that if we gave Giles a 10 run 9th inning lead he would give up 9 runs and having the winning run at bat before squeezing out of it.

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  3. Becky – I totally agree that this team does not quit. They could have folded in Arlington after losing the first two and watching that lead fade away, but they didn’t. They could have folded when they sunk to one game over .500 but they have climbed back to 10 over. Tough kids inside.
    Old pro – I was thinking the same thing about the number of arms available in September. Of course it only works if they pitch well. In the playoffs they probably will have one starter in the bullpen and lots of prayer services. Hope they get there to find out.

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  4. This Astros team reminds me a little of Rocky Balboa. It leaves itself open far too much, and takes a lot of monster hits as a result that make us wince. It frequently appears overmatched, outclassed, undertrained, and outcoached. But it is not afraid to get in the ring, stand toe-to-toe, and trade blow for blow, with anyone. and when these Rocky Balboans of ours manage to land a punch, that one punch often turns into a flurry – and results in bruised ribs for the Apollo Creed teams of the MLB and painful gashes in the heads of the Ivan Drago teams. So far, however, we are unlike Rocky in that we have not been able to come up with a plan to come back from a drubbing and beat that obnoxious, arrogant Clubber Lane team from upstate.

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  5. 1. Yes…but we may burn out the bullpen getting there
    2. The key will be to score early in games to take the pressure off a bit. I think the offense can score. Also, I think Springer and Correa both have a streak or two in them before the end of the year.
    3. No, don’t move Devenski. That move should have been made in July. Instead, keep using him to shorten the games. KC was dominant when they could take a lead into the 7th inning the last two years because of their bullpen. Well, our starters can’t get into the seventh, but handing the ball off and letting Devenski pitch the 6th and 7th inning of (most) playoff games sounds like a plan to me!
    4. No, but I’m really only considering Keuchel as a possibility here. LMJ has had too much time off. A rejuvenated DK could give them a clutch performance or two at the end of the year. Also, we need someone to start the WC game if we can get there. Are you really going to run out Doug Fister? That’s shades of Pete Munro right there.

    DanP – I think the key, if they make the playoffs, is that Hinch needs to remember he has a 25 man roster and brought all those pitchers for a reason. Does Harris look tired? Well, you probably shouldn’t run him out there for a second inning when you have plenty of fresh arms.

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  6. 1. leave Devo where he is we need a long clutch guy since most of are SP can only make it 5 innings
    2. OP is right we need at least 5 runs a game to have a chance
    3. LMJ and DK I don’t see till 2017
    4 Give Rodgers or Paulino a shot at a start.
    5. I see them just missing out on WC#2 , but fighting hard and making us all proud with a MASH unit as SP.

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  7. My concern is that right now we don’t have any reliable starting pitchers. We get hit-or-miss from everyone – and unfortunately the ‘hit’ side of that is still usually only good for 4.5 to 6.0 innings. That means we have a tandem situation in the MLB like we have complained about for years in the MiLB. To make that work – especially against the teams we are having to face this month – we need a minimum of 3 – and probably 4 long-inning [i.e. ‘tandem’] guys. We presently have two – Devenski and Feliz. If our starters don’t suddenly turn ‘nails’ for us, the only chance we have at the playoffs is to have Rodgers and Paulino – or Martes if they decide to call him up – to the point where they can for us something comparable to what Devenski and Feliz have been doing.

    For that reason, unless Paulino comes out and throws 7 inning of shut-out, less than 3-hit, 0 walk ball tomorrow against the Indians, I don’t think we can give either Paulino or Rodgers any more starts in 2016. While I do not really like Brad Peacock as our fifth starter – I tend to like him even less as our third of fourth long-reliever/tandem guy.

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    • Then I see only two options here:
      1. I owe Luhnow an apology…his tandem system in the minors was prophetic and all setup to prepare for this moment…
      2. Our best shot is to pick out the top 9 pitchers not named Sipp and have them go one inning each in any postseason games we play (if we make it there).

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  8. Out of curiosity I looked to see how Scott Feldman was doing for Toronto. Scott has two wins and one loss in 11 appearances out of the bullpen. His ERA is 6.92 and his WHIP is 1.769. In 13 innings he has given up 20 hits and 10 earned runs.

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  9. God only created *one* Devenski……Hinch has to use him in critical situations.
    Strom needs to take every single pitcher in for a come to Jesus talk. No farting around on the mound……you have the stuff or you wouldn’t be standing on that pitching mound! I love the idea of tandem pitching!! Bring up Martes, Hauchild and anybody else that can give us an inning or two!
    YOU ADRIAN!!!

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  12. More than ever, it is how the Astros play today that determines where they end up.
    It’s not what they did in the past, but how they play today.
    Baseball is a game of who is the better team today.
    We can look at the race any way we want to, but baseball defies logic.
    Example: The Twins are the worst team in the AL. The Rangers are the best team in the AL. They have played each other seven times this season and the Twins are 5-2 in that series.
    What this race comes down to is whether or not the Astros play out of their minds and forget whether they are supposed to win against the team and the pitcher they are facing today. Go out and use every means possible to win today and act as if it’s game 7 of a playoff series. If players are hurt, put them on the DL and find the best healthy player on the 40-man and bring them up and throw them out there and tell them to give you 100% on every pitch or play or at-bat until you think they are spent and bring the next guy in.
    Playoff baseball. Going all in. Give me every ounce you have today, don’t say a word to me when I jerk you off the mound and I’ll use the rested guys tomorrow.
    Every guy on the Astros wants to do everything they can to win. Use anyone in every situation that you can think of to win that game on this particular at bat.
    Nobody thinks we’re actually going to do this, so take chances as long as it doesn’t pertain to a player’s health. That is the beauty of expanded rosters. You have good players in the minors that you have bragged about all year? Let’s see them.

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  13. Garrett Stubbs. Is this High A and AA hitting performance just luck? BABIP says it may not be just luck. Both of his above-career stints in the two completely different environment show no favoritism by lady luck or thin air.
    Stubbs hit better in the humidity at sea level in Corpus than he did in Lancaster and he had four homers there vs six in a much longer stay in Lancaster.
    His BA in CC was .325, in a pitchers league, with a BABIP of .330. That kind of stat really does project well. Because of his smallish stature, I think AAA is a huge step for him. Let’s watch him closely, especially to see how he does against the better teams in the playoffs, starting tonight.

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      • Yes. Very similar in size. Very fast for a catcher, though, not as fast as Biggio. Stubbs as some power and has a great eye at the plate, with more BBs than Ks in his minor league career. In almost 600 minor league at bats, Biggio had 79 BBs and 72 Ks. Seems to have a better arm than Biggio. Hard to tell about Biggio’s defense in the minors because of the lack of available stats.
        Stubbs is two years older than Biggio was in the minors, so there is that. Stubbs bats from the left side as opposed to Biggio, so he gets an advantage out of the box when running the bases and he has an advantage in facing more righties than lefties. Biggio’s one weak spot was low breaking balls moving away from him from RH pitchers.
        I don’t see Stubbs as a Hall of Fame player, but name me one guy who saw Biggio as a Hall of Fame player when he was called up.
        All I want Stubbs to be is a decent hitting major league catcher for seven years for the Astros. Anything more than that is delicious cream gravy.

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  14. The O’s are playing early against the Rays at Tampa Bay. In the top of the 4th, the O’s are leading 5-3. Drew Smyly isn’t fooling anybody. The enemy of our enemy is our friend – so pray for the Rays!!!!

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  15. Correa out of the lineup. Sent back to Houston for team doctors to check on shoulder inflammation. Bregman at SS, Gurriel at 3B, Marisnick in CF, Rasmus in LF, Gattis hitting cleanup and DH.

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  17. Rays hung on to win Mr. Bill! Ya’ll need to let me know how Bregman looks at short tonight. Not happy with the news on Correa’s, shoulder however. Dang….how much more good news can we take in one week.

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  19. Hmmm – Correa had 3 K’s last night – very unlike him. The good news is we do have someone like Bregman to plug in at SS – but this team needs all the bats possible in the lineup.

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  23. I am going to be a “Positive Polly”, as opposed to a “Negative Nelly”.

    I love the position we are in right now. I think we are in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot.

    I am not worried about Correa being out for a few games. Sure, we will miss his bat, but we are set up for this. Slide Bregman in at SS, Gurriell in at 3B and Marwin in at 1B. Correa needed the rest anyway.

    I have conceded the fact that Devenski is most valuable (at the moment) in the bullpen role. We simply can not shut him down for the 3-4 games it would take to get him ready for a start. He is without question the best pitcher on this staff. He mixed in the slider for a K and the curve for his final out last night. Both were very sharp, late breaking pitches with a lot of bite. He has the arsenal to move to starter in 2017 and I think he is taking the opportunity to showcase it. He dispelled the notion that he is a 2 pitch pitcher. With only 1 IP last night I would suspect that he is available tonight.

    I want to see Paulino start and I want to see Martes get a look. I don’t care if its in relief or starting. These guys have the stuff to get through the order at least once. We should be cycling young arms up to the big club as fast as we can burn them.

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  24. Out of necessity, we’re going to find out quite a bit about the minor league pitching talent in this organization over the next couple of weeks. We might use 20 arms this month, including guys like White and Reed in garbage time. If we’re getting blown out one night, a couple of guys will get left out there and get beaten up in order to save the others. Peacock gave us 11 outs and only one run last night. That’s the kind of work we need out of a dozen guys. As noted by OP, Hinch does not have to worry about tomorrow. His job is almost easier right now. If he needs ten guys to get a win today, then he’ll use them and then deal with tomorrow when he gets back to the clubhouse. Every guy will be called on to get important outs at some point.

    As Steven reminds us continually, it’s all about the pitching. But the bats have to stay alive too.

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  26. Chapman???? You have to be kidding. His 4.9 ERA and 5 BB/ 9 will probably not play well. Whomever chose to bring him up is an idiot and should not be making decisions on the ML level.

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  27. Honestly, the fact that Chapman holds a 40 spot and gets a sniff of of a ML game tells me that either AJ or JL (or both) are total idiots.

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    • This is simple – he helps prove the FO was correct in giving Sipp the contract because Sipp is obviously the best lefty in the organization by comparison.

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    • Like I said earlier, every arm with the club right now will be called on to get important outs. We might finally get rid of Chapman over the next couple of weeks. Damn shame we’ve got no serviceable lefties in the entire system ready to make a positive impact now.

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  32. Small ball??? NOPE! The guys get to face another tough pitcher tomorrow, Trevor Bauer is just as tough as the two they just faced. Paulino will be tested tomorrow…I just hope he can through the first inning, without killing anyone. Maybe Hinch had so little faith in Sipp…..he thought he’d take a chance on Chapman, both of them suck. And any chance Mr. Fister thought he would be getting a multi million dollar deal over the winter…..got flushed down the toilet.
    Gurriel got his first of many homeruns to come tonight….good for him!

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  33. Once Hinch made the move to bring Chapman in to pitch to a LH batter, Francona knew he had won the chess match. Mills is sitting there with the stats in his hand that tells him Chapman cannot get RH batters out, so Francona puts in the pitch hitter. Chapman makes it even worse by not finding any of the plate and the batter is sitting fastball on 2-0, which is what RH batters have feasted on in Chapman’s entire career. Two run double and game, set match. If Hinch brings in one of his good relievers and gets the out, the Astros are one run behind and then Gurriel’s home run means something.
    When Hinch decided to concede that game by not getting Fister out of there when he was getting hit hard but we were still ahead he sent the message to everybody that this game was not important enough to do everything he could to win it. Then he sent Chapman out there to verify the deal.

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      • That is what I am saying. The Indians were hitting Fister hard from the outset. Shots to Gurriel, line drive right at Colby, long fly ball outs to center and plenty of line drive singles.
        This is the third game in a row his pitches have looked like balloons coming to the plate and he stayed around in all three long enough to lose the game.
        There is no sense conceding all of his starts by the fifth inning, when they could be starting someone else like Devenski.

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  34. I’m not blaming Hinch. Luhnow brought Chapman up. Luhnow never found any real left handed help for the pen. No contending team should have to to go to work with such a glaring weakness in the pen. I suppose Hinch could have pulled Chapman when the count got to 2-0, but I’m not convinced Hinch has full control over who he uses when.

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      • You’ll blindly support Luhnow, even when what you say does not have any merit. Let’s face it, Luhnow brought up Chapman, right? Are you going to say that Hinch brought him up? I hope not. So Luhnow brings up Chapman and says , “here’s another lefthander for you to use”. What is Hinch supposed to do? He uses the guy and hopes. The manager has not been given the tools he needs to work with! And that has been apparent for many months. And it’s been apparent for many months that our system did not have any left handed help for the ML pen. Luhnow ignored that need, just as he ignored the need for help in the pen last September. Putting it on Hinch is barking up the wrong tree.

        It’s likely that our pitching woes will spell the end for us this month. But Hinch is going to have to keep putting the guys he’s been given out there to get those outs. Blame him or blame the talent supplier. We got through September last year with an exhausted pen. This year, our pen has got holes in it. And it will be exhausted again too.

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      • Yes, Dave, you’re correct. It’s always Luhnow’s fault. He is to blame for Sipp’s major regression and the injuries to LMJ and Keuchel. It’s his fault McHugh is a shell of himself and Fister has regressed as expected. It’s also Luhnow’s fault this team is on pace to have a better record than last year despite all his mistakes.

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      • Yes, Dave, you’re correct. It’s always Luhnow’s fault. He is to blame for Sipp’s major regression and the injuries to LMJ and Keuchel. It’s his fault McHugh is a shell of himself and Fister has regressed as expected. It’s also Luhnow’s fault this team is on pace to have a better record than last year despite all his mistakes.

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      • I knew Luhnow was to blame for these silly wordpress shenanigans. Thanks for confirming it.

        Tim, I think what daveb says has merit here. There weren’t a ton of LOOGY options available last winter and we saw that relievers cost roughly twice what a sane GM would normally surrender in trade or dollars, but if the organization can take a guy like Devenski and put him in the long reliever role when we have obvious holes in our starting lineup, they should be smart enough to find a lefty in the minors who can help us NOW. Look at KC. The last two years they took some of their top prospects (LHP starters) and put them into the major league pen when they needed help.

        Are you saying that Chapman is the best option we have in system?

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      • There are 2 problems with Dave’s argument. He is laying the blame on last night’s defeat on Luhnow because Hinch didn’t have a LOOGY. What is the purpose of a LOOGY? Is Guyer a LH or RH hitter? Whose fault is it that the Astros didn’t recognize the Indians had one of the best hitters against LHPs on the bench? Even if you want to argue that Chapman is not a LOOGY last night’s game provided ZERO evidence to support that claim because GUYER IS A RH HITTER. In fact, one can argue that Francona was so sure Chapman would get a LH hitter out that he decided to use his best PH against LHPs in the 5th inning. Do you not see how flawed this argument is?

        Thank you.

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      • Yeah, Tim, I would put last night’s decisions (right or wrong) on Hinch. I’m not sure if Hinch intended Chapman to face multiple hitters or viewed it as a LOOGY opportunity like many of us did. He may have been surprised to see Francona thought the 5th inning was the right time to leverage his pinch hitter and wasn’t ready to burn Chapman (without throwing a pitch).

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  35. If we can’t get better deeper starts it won’t matter how many arms are in the pen. If you have to put out 4 or 5 relievers or more every night somebody will have a bad night somebody will be exposed.

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  36. The Front Office
    – Everyone here was saying going into the trade deadline we needed left handed relief help, another bat and possibly another starting pitcher.
    – The front office signing of Gurriel and bringing up Bregman has helped a lot with the hitting woes.
    – The inability to develop lefty relievers, or trade for them has been a consistent problem. Sipp, who was very effective the last two years is only here because he fell in our laps with us having first call on waiver wire folks.
    – I am not blaming the front office for the starting pitching woes. I did not want them to trade for another starter and further cut into the minor leagues. No way of knowing Keuchel would go down.
    – The team has improved since 2013 by mostly addition by subtraction – having less at bats and less innings pitched by poor performers. With the current situation that is turning around on the pitching side as more and more innings are being scooped up by poor performers both starting and in the pen. I don’t think they can score enough runs to overcome this.

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  37. Tim, if we have a lack of left handed relievers, whose fault it it, if not the GM? His job is to anticipate need, find resources, adjust when a solution is no longer a solution. You’ll make your points and I’ll continue to insist that the guy responsible for the procuring of resources has blown it two years in a row with his failure to provide a pen without gaps in it. And the lefty gap is a huge one.

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  39. Amen sandy, I have been saying that for a year and a half we need some baseball people in the FO, please. I turned on the game in the 6th, I fell of my chair when I saw Chapman, I had no idea he had been called up. what ever idiot has kept him even in Fresno for 2016 should be fired and the we bring him up to the big show in a playoff fight for our lives, UN real.

    I’m shocked the FO has resigned Conger. We have a lot of good kids and we have a lot of mediocre re treads. Don’t worry though we do have one of the top GM’s in baseball, don’t want to be irrational here.

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    • Wait, what!? Did Houston really bring back Framin’ Hank? I wouldn’t actually be bothered by this unless they intend to play him over Castro/Gattis/Stassi. He likely knows the pitchers and organizational philosophy well enough that he could step in and at least give us Eric Kratz level contributions the last few weeks if needed though.

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      • Where is this? Can’t find it online at all.

        He won’t get played over Castro or Gattis but for damn sure will get played over Stassi, just like last year when Castro was out and they had Conger play just about every game (and almost cost us a playoff spot ).

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  40. To be fair, Luhnow has made his share of mistakes, but his veteran players really let him down this year. I don’t have a clue how this team is 9 games over .500
    Their #1 starter was the Cy young winner and he has pitched like a #4 this season.
    Their #2 starter won 19 games last year and has been like a poor #5 this season.
    Their #3 has been injured most of the year and held down on pitch counts when he did pitch.
    Their #4 had a good first half, but has been real bad in the second half.
    Their #5 starter has pitched like a #5 starter.
    They have had three different closers and not because of injuries.
    They have gotten nothing from Sipp.
    They haven’t been able to trust Neshek with a definite late inning role.
    Fields proved a bust
    Feldman ended up a long reliever who pitched well enough to be worth something at the trade deadline.
    All the teams who have had pitching problems like these are 20 games under .500. How are the Astros hanging in there?
    I am quick to blame Hinch for a loss, but this guy had actually done a good job keeping them above water. Not to mention Gomez letting him down, Rasmus not performing as hoped, having no first baseman, Gattis being hurt and then morphing back into a catcher, Valbuena being bad and then good and then gone, and Castro showing up about once a week for a hit. Add in trying to break in 9 or 10 rookies and the Astros could have easily been one of those teams 20 games under .500.
    But they aren’t.
    Considering all their pitching problems, maybe Hinch is winning despite Strom.
    Considering all their hitting problems, maybe Hinch is winning despite Hudgens.
    Considering all their baserunning mistakes in the first half of the season, maybe Hinch is winning despite Pettis.
    As usual, we are lining up and saying how good we are going to be in the future.
    But maybe AJ Hinch is one of the big reasons we didn’t have to throw in the towel at the end of May, like fifteen other teams did.

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    • Maybe Rocky landed a few lucky punches, and maybe Apollo and Clubber and Ivan Drago stumbled at just the wrong time – and maybe as a result blind old Mick looked like a whole lot better boxing coach than he really was.

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      • Maybe Hinch is doing a hell of a job, inspite of some of some his coaches and what resources he has been alotted by Crane and Uncle Jeffy.

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    • Well dang, oldpro. That’s some good perspective right there. How do we stack up defensively? Our bullpen has really limited runs allowed. We had some hiccups, but they’ve really saved our bacon.

      Also, Altuve better be getting some MVP consideration. I’m not saying he should win, but he’s been a rock the entire season long.

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    • Sometimes the difference between being 75-68 or 68-75 is just getting it done in 7 other games and I sometimes find it hard to figure it out. When I played sometimes we just won or lost in spots because we felt like we were going to win or lose. This sport is finicky, and sometimes hard to figure out, which is what makes it so much fun for the fans.

      You don’t get this in football or basketball, where the better team just flat out wins at a much higher percentage. This sport is one that continually evolves in how its interpreted. It’s always got that new GM trying to use the most sophisticated systems just to get a 2 game improvement. The minutia in this sport in my opinion far exceeds that of the other big 2 sports. Don’t get me wrong, a good college football game is one of the most exciting events you can ever attend (GIG’EM) but 162 baseball game season is a year long exercise of the mind that I can’t live without.

      It’s just too bad the casual fan sees our favorite game as boring, sluggish and slow.

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    • That was bad , but then our pitching (Brady) puts then in a position to add more on a tough play for Bregman to make. Just not in the cards today.

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    • I would like to point out that the umpire who missed the call and threw AJ Hinch out of the game was Jim Joyce. Yes, the ump that completely blew the call at 1B on the Galarraga perfect game a few years ago that was a big impetus for replay. I know there was a lot of bad pitching after that, but who knows how that changes things.
      I wonder if Mr. Joyce will cry after being shown how he blew this one, like he did back then.

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      • I did not see it, but my son said there was a foul tip with the bases loaded that was called a wild pitch and led to 2 runs. It is not reviewable, though I think the ump could ask for help.

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  44. It was quite a bit more than a foul tip. It got a lot of bat. But no foul tip is reviewable. None of the Astros even went after the ball, assuming the home plate ump would just put a new one in play, it being foul and a dead ball. In the meantime, the runners trotted around the bases, I guess because Joyce never put his hands up. They were running as if they knew they’d be sent back. And at one point, the umps called time, which ultimately sent the third run scoring back to second base, after lengthy discussion, Hinch getting tossed and a review of the rules with New York. I think what’s worst about the whole episode is that there is no way all four umps missed the call. The other three guys obviously decided to take the old fashioned approach and not contradict their comrade behind the plate.

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    • The one place Brady has made it hard for the Astros to send him is back to the mound – at least this year in any game that matters. The next time Brady sees the mound in an Astro uni should be in the late innings of the first ST game of 2017. He’s better than he has shown, but we can’t let him self-destruct any more in the midst of wild card race. I like Brady, and hate it for him – and the team – that his debut has been so totally disastrous. But it is what it is. There have been zero moments. He is just not ready to pitch at this level

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  47. Worst call by an umpiring crew I have ever seen in 60 years of watching baseball on television.
    That also a terrible, crushing error by Bregman. It wasn’t the physical error so much as it was the mental error of not fielding that ball with his glove instead of his bare hand.

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    • Op, correct on both accounts. Bregman certainly made it worse. And losing Reed at second didn’t help either. Got to play clean games this time of year. But those damn umps could have saved themselves a whole lot of trouble by correcting the initial bad call. They took the game out of the hands of the two teams on the field.

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      • It’s amazing the Astros are still even in contention for a playoff spot. They are missing their top 2 starting pitchers and 2 of their top 4 hitters (Correa and VB). Most teams would have collapsed by now. It’s going to take a miracle to make the playoffs this year, but I love what this team has going into 2017, assuming no major injuries to guys like Correa, LMJ and Keuchel.

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  49. I hated the call and along with OP, I have also never seen a poorer job by an entire umpiring crew. First Armando Galarraga’s perfect game and now an important game for the Astros in a playoff chase. I hope Joyce balls his eyes out like he did after being exposed as incompetent on the Galarraga call. Joyce should be out of the game for gross incompetence. The rest of the crew should be penalized for not having the gonads to tell him he was wrong.

    I’ll forgive Bregman for the error because he continues to rake and drove in 3 today. He is a tremendous athlete and will mature in the field in the same way he has matured in the box.

    Nice to see Yulie continuing to hit and finding his power stroke. He is playing (so far) much better than I expected him to.

    Watching Rogers, I do not see major league stuff. I am not suggesting he can’t succeed down the line but I don’t see him as being near ready at the moment. He looks intimidated.

    I must give props to Chapman. While I personally feel that he has no business being on a major league roster, he certainly gave the team 3 strong innings and looked very good doing it.

    If you told me going into Cleveland that we would be leaving with a split I would have been happy.

    We just faced one of the best rotations in the majors (game 1 excepted) and scored runs by the truckload. We are scoring enough to beat any team in the league. We just need to see decent (not exceptional, just average to below average) pitfching and we will be fine. I think right now that I have more trust in Fiers than anyone else on the staff, and that is a sad statement to make.

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    • That is sad, but I also agree Fiers is the one guy I have the most confidence in right now. Let’s hope Musgrove reverts back to the guy we say when first called up.

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    • We should be happy with a split. It’s just tough winning the first two and overcoming so many obstacles along the way and then not getting one of the last two.

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  50. Not using Devenski today ws very smart…..because I think Hinch is gonna have to use him for Mugroves start. I listened to the debacle today, and I “think” the powers that be in New York said the ball hit the bat, but since Joyce had already thrown Hinch out….they left it as is. And yes, every Ump in this game was guilty by not over turning the call. I found out something interesting today, the balls used in the majors are not the same ones that are used in the minor leagues. The balls that the majors play with are much more slick, and the balls used in the minors are not as slick.
    Paulino was having a tough time with his grip, and so was Brady Rogers. Did you see them trying to make the balls more rough? The radio guys were talking about it, and Steve Sparks explained it. They use the more rough balls in spring training as well. So…..maybe it was hard for those two guys to get a good grip on their pitches. I’m not saying that was an excuse for not getting their pitches over, but it certainly is plausible .

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    • Interesting Becky. I had never heard that in my life. It seems really dumb, like minor leaguers using aluminum bats and then learning to use wooden when they get called up or something silly like that.

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    • The balls are both made by Rawlings, but not the same factory. The seams on milb may be slightly higher allowing better grip. The real difference, however, is that prior to the games the milb batboys rub them up with red dirt to take some of the shine off. College pitchers learn how to do this properly their first day of practice. MLB balls aren’t, if I recall, are handled by the umpires prior to the game.

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