Astros’ ChipalattAwards for August

The Astros had a 14-12 record in August, which at one time was 6-8, so the final number is not the end of the world. The Astros’ starting pitching along with losing Lance McCullers came down to more human numbers. The revamped bullpen was overall good. The hitting was a mix of the terrific and the terrible. So there was a lot to consider in giving out the Chippy Awards for the month of August.

Starting Pitcher of the Month. Framber Valdez. None of the regular pitchers was that outstanding in August and Valdez came in and gave them a terrific shot in the arm. He only had two starts, but his third 4+ inning appearance was start-ish in effect. He was 2-1 for the month with a sterling 1.26 ERA and 0.907 WHIP. His strong and poised performance gave the front office something to think about as they head to an off-season with two starters becoming free agents.

Runner-up. Dallas Keuchel. He was the anchor for the month with a solid 2-1 record and a 3.49 ERA with 1.241 WHIP in a team-leading 38.2 IP.

In July – It was Dallas Keuchel followed by Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander.

Everyday Player of the Month. Your Pick. This month you get to choose the Everyday Player(s) of the month and his (their) Runner(s)-Up. There were three outstanding performances for the month that all deserve some recognition.

  • Alex (The Stare) Bregman put up a terrific .327 BA / .427 OBP / .938 OPS slash while scoring 18 times, knocking out 9 doubles, 3 HRs and 15 RBIs and oh yes, he walked 16 times and struck out only 10 times.
  • Marwin Gonzalez reversed his season trend with a .303 BA / .361 OBP / .967 OPS while scoring 19 times with 6 doubles, 8 HRs and 20 RBIs, but he did strike out 28 times vs. only 8 walks.
  • Tyler White was great with a .325 BA / .385 OBP / 1.095 OPS, 14 runs scored, 4 doubles, 8 HRs and 23 RBIs and he walked 8 times against 17 Ks (in 15 less ABs than the other two guys)

In different ways, all three of these players brought a lot to the table and all deserve to be recognized for their performance.

In July – It was Alex Bregman with Tyler White as the runner-up.

Relief Pitcher of the Month. Ryan Pressly. Pressly has been nails since the deadline trade with the Twins brought him to a contender. He posted a glittery 0.79 ERA and matching 0.441 WHIP while striking out 12.7 batters / 9 IPs and walking no one in 11.1 IPs in August. He has been a solid contributor in the late innings for the Astros.

Runner-up. Hector Rondon. Rondon did not fall apart when the Astros brought in another closer in Roberto Osuna. Hector had 4 saves along with a 1.46 ERA, 1.135 WHIP in 12.1 IP in August. He has helped give the Astros some choices in the 8th and 9th innings.

In July – This award belonged to Collin McHugh with Tony Sipp and Joe Smith as the runners-up.

Biggest Surprise (Positive). Tyler White. He has shown small snippets of good hitting in his previous stays with the big club, but since getting regular plate time in late July, he has pulled the DH job away from Evan Gattis and given himself a potential long-term position with the club.

Runner-up. Framber Valdez. The way most of the Astros’ hitting farm hands have floundered after their first call-ups, it was natural to be wary of the insertion of Valdez into the McCullers slot into the rotation. The kid has not disappointed in his first taste of major league ball.

In July – It was Tony Kemp followed by Tony Sipp and Joe Smith.

Biggest Surprise (Negative). Carlos Correa. It might not be an exaggeration to say that Carlos was worse than any sub they might have used for him when he was injured. In August, he was even worse than he was when he came off the DL in 2017 with a .169 BA / .235 OBP / .460 OPS. It was not surprising that he would be a bit rusty coming back, but this performance makes one wonder if his back is healed or not.

Runner-up. Justin Verlander. This comes under the category “we’ve been spoiled”. JV has been unbelievably good through an unbeaten September 2017, as a leader of the playoff push to the championship and through 2/3 of the 2018 season. He proved he would actually bleed if cut in a very pedestrian August with a 2-2 record, a 5.29 ERA and allowing 9 HRs in 32.1 IP, while pursuing his 200th career win. Yes – he deserves a mulligan of a month once in a while.

In July – Ken Giles followed by Kyle Tucker

The surprising stats award. Will Harris. His 0-0 record, 2.38 ERA and 0.882 WHIP in August do not seem to match the eyeball impression test where he is thought to be bound to be banished from the post-season roster.

Runner-up. Martin Maldonado. It was obvious he was hitting better in August than when he first came over from the Angels, but his .269 BA / .867 OPS / 12 runs / 9 RBIs month seemed higher than what was seen during the month.

Honorable Mention. Jose Altuve. This also comes under the category of “we’ve been spoiled”, but would you have guessed he was slashing .295 BA/ .356 OBP / .795 OPS in August? Good for mortals, but not good enough for Mr. MVP.

The stat that might have shown an injury was coming award. Charlie Morton. Every month he was averaging 11 or more strikeouts per 9 innings pitched until August where he dipped to 8.5 K/ 9 IP

Do you agree with these awards?

Want to propose awards of your own?

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129 responses to “Astros’ ChipalattAwards for August”

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  3. Or, Duke Ellington “In My Solitude”.
    Really, Dan, what more to be said? Spot on with the awards, as usual.
    And, no doubt the entire Chippanation is confident, calm and serene that the Astros will soon pull away from those pesky A’s, wrap up the division with room to spare, get everything lined up for the playoffs, including hot streaks by Correa and Altuve. Who wants to disturb that dream?

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    • Make that a lot of anxiety.
      Cora says he’ll throw everything thing he has at the Astros this weekend.
      “We don’t owe Oakland anything but after all it is a pennant race”.

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  5. One thing that gives me pause is that over the past two months no positive offensive awards have gone to Altuve, Springer or Correa. The HEB guys have been a disappointment, especially since all of them seem to be the victims of poor approach as much as physical issues. For us to really progress those guys need to produce. Keeping Correa in the clean up spot is a huge mistake by Hinch. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised by him hitting sixth or seventh against the Red Sox this weekend.

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    • The plus side Dr Bill is this team has hung in there and is still on pace to win a 100 games and their division despite the struggles of three of their best hitters.
      The negative is that it is not clear that any of them will hit the stride they showed in 2017. Maybe they don’t have to – maybe with Bregman and White and Gonzalez hitting well the other three just have to be good not great

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    • I think Altuve is still having knee issues but is fighting to battle through them. I would not be surprised to hear of the “S” word on his knee after the season ends, ala McCann.

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  6. This is an important weekend for the team and for the psyche of the fans. If the team plays well and say goes 2-1 that would make us relax and accept that this club is very good. If they beat up on us and this could bring back feelings of last year and the Indians’ sweep.

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  7. hey dan, another interesting post. i think though that for additional awards i am going to have to nominate myself for the ‘home run derby paranoia award’. i was nervous before and immediately after the HR derby that bregman would ruin his swing for the second half. well now looks like i was a bit of a chicken little there. mr. bregman enter all the HR derbies you would like.

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  8. I’m taking the guy with the 1.095 OPS and the 23 RBI’s. Alex got the nod last month.

    Cora is out (obviously) to win every game, as he should be. And he will throw everything he’s got against the Astros. Everyone in Boston is still stung by their quick exit last October. And I’m sure JDM is looking forward to this weekend too. It’s time for our guys to show they were no fluke.

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    • If Cora is the sign stealing or pitch tipping guru we think he may be – I hope we have some anti-Cora ideas in line – like placing your nephew Tyler White in his line of vision with the pitcher….

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  9. Apparently Chipalatta is not the only ones recognizing how well Ryan Pressly is pitching out of the ‘pen
    https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/high-spin-ryan-pressly-dominant-for-astros/c-293621204?tid=277658066
    And I want to emphasize that I wrote the Awards post before reading that….

    A little look behind the curtain here. Every month I wait a few days into the next month and work on the Chipalattas. In the old days this would have been an insane task – but what I do is spend about an hour at baseballreference.com You bring up any player and click on “Splits” and then on “2018”. Under this are all sorts of splits whether it is vs. righty or on the road, runners in scoring position, etc. For these posts – I go to the section that shows stats by month – scribble key stats down on my notebook pad and move to the next player.

    Then I just do some eyeball comparisons and pick out the award winners. Then it is just simply writing it all up in a fun and concise way.

    In the old days it would have been almost impossible to do – so we are blessed with lots of stats and info at our finger tips these days.

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    • Heck, the only advanced stats I know come from Baseball Reference. I always check before arguing a point.

      This morning I was again comparing Altuve and Bregman.

      Altuve, at 23, posted a .678 OPS in his third season. The following year he took off and hit .341 with an .830 OPS.

      Bregman, at 24, has put up a .956 OPS to date in his third season. What is his ceiling going to be? No way he’s peaking at his age.

      Altuve posted his own .957 OPS last year. If both these guys get hitting at the same time, and I’m guessing they will, it will even wake up Carlos.

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    • dan thats a reason i feel lucky to be able to visit chipalatta. you put in the time and write interesting stuff. i am unlikely to spend the time to dig that deep for more than one player at a time and if i did try to, i might very well at some point say, hey look there’s something shiny over there. and abandon the whole project.

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  12. If you take out the hit in the last game where the ball ran into the bat, Altuve has looked totally lost at the plate in the last 3 weeks. Swing at balls and watch strikes. He better learn to discern the strike zone over the next 3-4 weeks.

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  13. VW, I think I’ve seen 3 of Price’s 5 SO’s with our hitters getting called out looking at strike 3 off a heater down the pipe

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  14. I don’t see any dirty uniforms. Can’t win if you don’t put the ball in play.
    It will be a long night for our guys, with the way Price is pitching.

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  31. It was ugly early, but I got the impression the game plan was to run up Price’s pitch count. A couple of guys forgot to swing altogether though. I think they noted that the Sox pen has a 3.91 ERA since the break. The Astros sure exploited it. If Altuve and Correa remember how to hit at some point, we’re going to be in really good shape. George is coming around even with an obviously bad left hand. Great win.

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    • George just trying to make contact with the ball and it’s producing results. The power stroke will return if he keeps up the routine.

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    • We need more than 3 games ahead of the A’s, for that to happen. PLUS Verlander would not want to miss a start. He’s just one of those pitchers who HATES DL.

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  34. Reading the Boston papers this morning, it’s clear that both the fan base and sportswriters are concerned with their bullpen. I’m pleased with their bullpen.i

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  35. Due to exhaustion had to leave before we went ahead. Watching for 45 minutes this morning, I know about the good Samaritan who got pistol whipped, the traffic accidents, and the measles, but not a word about WS champs Astros. If anyone has observations about the Kemp at bat, please share.

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    • The Astros are trailing 2-0 heading into the 7th but finally get a rally going. Yuli hits a double with one out scoring Bregman and moving White to 3rd. But Reddick pops up and so it’s 2-1 against us and 2 outs. Kemp comes up as a pinch hitter and works the count to 3-2.
      Then he nicely goes the other way with a pitch and lines a double past third base – scoring White and Yuli and giving us the lead.

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      • Third baseman was shifted toward second a bit and Tony fought off an inside pitch and hit it the opposite way. If it was hit straight I believe the 3rd baseman still gets it, but so much spin on the ball the path looked like a banana, then down into the LF corner. Great piece of hitting by our other little guy!

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  36. A couple bullpen notes
    – Like Zanuda, I don’t know why Hinch took out McHugh with one out after one hit. I know Pressly has been nails but he has also been pitching with a clean slate to open innings
    – I don’t know why Cora did not pull Kelly in the 8th. The Astros just kept lining his pitches for singles and he tossed in a wild pitch in the middle of it for one of the three scores.

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  37. I wonder if being off 10 days or so affects how long Morton can go today. I guess they can bring in James if needed.
    Or maybe the rest will allow Charlie to pitch better and longer?

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    • Better than keeping him at clean up and if he continues to fail this makes it easier to move him down even further. Not sure how you justify Correa ahead of White. My best case scenario would be for Correa to start making better choices and if and when that happens keep him hitting 5 or 6 so that there’s less pressure on him and the guys who are performing get more meaningful ABs.

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    • You’re right but it seems he gets a hit every time he’s up. But then again we have Bregman, our own hitting machine. Oh, BTW, my modesty is taking over as I had suggested the 4 man Bobsled on two for Tuesday…
      The Tennis serve(Ace), the hole in one (golf), Pull out a poker hand (Royal Flush), the slam dunk (basketball), the hail Mary for a TD (football), Archery/darts (bulls eye), boxing (the KO), Hockey (goal; he shoots, he scores!), Bowling (strike), 4 man bobsled, ski jump (no actual jumping, only simulated). Can we see more! Jake is a run saver!

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  48. A bunch of really excellent defensive plays today by our guys. Morton put in five tough innings. Almost everyone got a hit. Boston wanted this series. They did not get it. Most significant to me though is that we had a guy in our pen to start the 6th, throwing up to 100 and totally shutting down their big bats. The Red Sox simply do not have that kind of depth. Their fan base is getting queasy.

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  49. Josh James and Valdez are going to be in the conversation for the playoffs.
    Who do you folks think won’t make the cut? Here’s mine:
    Will Harris
    Devo…sorry kid.
    Sipp (maybe).

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    • The following pitchers are a lock to make the playoff roster:

      SP (4) Verlander, Keuchel, Cole, Morton

      RP (3) Pressly, Rondon, Osuna

      That leaves 4 spots if they stick to the same 11/14 mix as they did in 2017 (which I am pretty sure they will).

      Sipp, Devenski, Harris, Smith, McCullers, McHugh, Peacock, Valdez and James are all in a fight to fill these spots.

      Nine quality arms fighting for 4 playoff roster spots.

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      • Billy, I agree that Devo, Harris and Valdez are the odd men out. I think Sipp will make it because they carry a lefty and he is the only viable choice. Framber just doesn’t have the control yet to trust him in high leverage playoff games (IMO). McCullers is a lock if he is healthy.

        So you have Pressly, Rondon, Osuna, McCullers, Sipp and two openings for the rest to fight for. I just don’t see them going into the playoffs with a lefty in the pen. So there won’t be room for all of the trio you mentioned.

        I also think that James will be a lock if he continues to pitch like he has so far. It’s just too tempting to have a 100 MPH arm in the pen come playoffs.

        By the way, I would have no argument leaving Sipp off, but I just think they carry a lefty.

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  50. The really great news is that the Astros can select from any of their available pitching options and have both a great starting rotation and a great bullpen. Whatever they decide to do there will be some real quality arms that don’t make the cut. I like having problems like this!

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