After many struggles and injuries along the way, the Astros offense is becoming one of the best in baseball, reminding folks of their championship team. In 2017, they led all of baseball in almost everything. They were first in the majors with 5.53 runs/game, .282 BA, .346 OBP, .478 SLG and .823 OPS. They were first with 1581 hits, 346 doubles and a “shameful” second in HRs with 238, while striking out 1087 times, the least in the majors.
In 2019, they have been working their way to the top, while having to overcome the following:
- Thirty-five games missed by Jose Altuve with a knee injury, who was also hitting a very un-Altuve .243 BA when he went down
- Twenty-seven games missed by George Springer with a hamstring pull when he was in the midst of an MVP start to the season
- Fifty games missed by Carlos Correa with a rib injury, while he was in the midst of an All-Star worthy season
- Forty-seven games missed by Aledmys Diaz who was playing very well in his super-sub role when he went down with a hamstring pull
- Having to play Tyler White for 71 games where he put up a paltry 3 HRs and 21 RBIs
- Having to play Max Stassi 31 games where he only accounted for 1 HR and 3 RBIs
- And of course the 16 games Jack Mayfield (.143 BA / .472 OPS) and the 9 games Garrett Stubbs (.160 BA / .422 OPS) played in did not help the overall offensive stats.
But now all the wounded are back and importantly, Yordan Alvarez (17 HRs and 51 RBIs in 46 games with a .355 BA / 1.164 OPS) has come up and been a revelation. When you are being mentioned in the same breath as super rookies like Albert Pujols (.329 BA/ 1.014 OPS – 37 HR and 130 RBIs in 161 games) and Ted Williams (.327 BA / 1.045 OPS – 31 HRs and 145 RBIs in 149 games) that is some achievement.
The Astros are not quite the juggernaut (yet) over the whole season as they were in 2017, but consider the following:
- They are 1st in the majors with .275 BA/ .350 OBP/ .839 OPS
- They are 2nd in the majors in slugging with .489 SLG and third in HRs (198) and 4th (but rising) 5.53 runs/game
- In the 27 games since they were shutout by the Rangers on July 11th, they have averaged 7.22 runs per game
- In that time they have not scored less than 2 runs in any game
- The AL average in hitting is .254 BA / .323 OBP / .762 OPS
- The Astros have 9 players hitting over that .254 BA mark and 6 hitting over .290 BA
- They have 8 players getting on base above that .323 OBP mark and 6 over .360 OBP
- They have 10 players over the .762 OPS mark with 6 over .870 OPS
- The Astros could easily have 11 players with 10 or more HRs and 7 with 20 or more HRs by the end of the season
- They could also have 7 players with 70 or more RBIs by the end of the season
The bottom line is that with Alvarez, Altuve, Springer, Michael Brantley, Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel and Correa the Astros have a core of 7 players that every team would envy. Add to this solid support from Josh Reddick and Jake Marisnick with occasional knocks by Robinson Chirinos and Martin Maldonado and this is a team that seems to be flipping the lineup and bringing up the tough hitters every inning.
Will this offense do what the 2017 version did and lead the Astros to another World Series championship? There is a lot of road to cover before that happens, but they seem to have built an offense where anything is possible.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
96 responses to “Astros’ offense a repeat of 2017?”
And that’s the ball game
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Wow both Presley and Osuna are vert suspect right now, Hope that changes as we wont win a lot in the playoffs giving up 13
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We really caught a bad case of BBD [bad baseball disease] in Baltimore. Is there a doctor in the house? Penicillin, anyone?
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Just when everything was going our way, a whole lot has gone south. No need to check the standings everyday because home field advantage is not the biggest priority right now. We’ve got to go back to focusing on getting people healthy and rested and playing well. Suddenly, we’re not excelling in any single area. I hope our guys didn’t think it was going to be easy. Everyone wants to beat the stacked Astros, starting with the A’s tomorrow night.
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Well, so much for Pressly as closer.
These last few days have been painful.
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All of us know exactly what’s ahead the next 4 games, and now that our ENTIRE bullpen is spent these guys will have to wear at least 2, maybe 3 games. Cole and Miley really put the bullpen in a tough spot the last two days.
I don’t have an answer and I doubt any of you do either, but they sure picked a bad time to fall apart. And….we don’t have any help in AAA.
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No comments today? Well, it looks ugly right now, but a split pretty much finishes off the A’s. Even one of four and we’re still 7.5 up, although as my brother noted this morning, a split creates exponentially more good vibes. I know I’m a bit of a knucklehead, but even late in the afternoon on Sunday, I was envisioning going into Oakland with our winning streak intact, meeting up with a demoralized A’s squad. Today, they will be cranking the tunes in the clubhouse.
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I think they are waiting for Dan P to get off his A$$ and write something new to comment on. I’ll write something during lunch for publish later today.
Saw where Cy Sneed was called up for today’s game with Biagini sent down (just because he burned 3 innings and is unavailable).
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Hope they sent him down with puppies.
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Sanchez has a shot to be the hero today, but based on his body of work, who knows what to expect?
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I haven’t watched since Sunday. I just can’t handle stupid.
Monday, The Crawfish Boxes had to redo their game thread rules because it was so bad on their site during Sunday’s game. I am not alone in my disgust with the way this entire team is playing.
Chicago played with the Astros shifting game. When the Astros shifted the White Sox lined hits to the opposite field and the Astros pitchers gave plenty of meat in the zone to help ChiSox accomplish their plan. Baltimore started doing that on Sunday and Chicago’s scouting and analytics picked up on it and they beat the Astros at their shifting game.
Who would have thought Astros could lose two games in the same series by having their pitchers make identical errors, steering each game away from the Astros?
I’ve had a rough time finding things to do in 107 degree heat. Thank goodness the gym has AC.
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1OP, I have no real problem with us getting beaten by the shift. We’ve long won the shift game. But now it’s time for us to adjust to the adjustments being made against us. If the left side of the infield is wide open, why give a lefty bat anything on the outside corner? It’s an invitation. Those 6 unearned runs really pissed me off too. I think I’ve mentioned that too often already. But damn, as Miley said, that’s just stupid. Double stupid to allow a game to get away from him the same way his teammate did the day prior. And really, the worst transgressions belong to the two guys we need to show us the way in the pen. A grooved walk off homer on Sunday with 2 strikes and 2 outs, after putting the tying run on first. And yesterday a grooved 0-2 pitch with two outs that should have been nowhere near the zone. Are we really a team full of low IQ baseball players?
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Just to be clear, the Gym has AC which in this case means Air Conditioning.
To borrow from Samuel Clemens, “Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes away..”
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Roster resource has merged with Fangraphs. One of the big advantages of this is that when you go to roster resource on the fangraphs site to view the same stuff we’re used to seeing on RR, you can now link onto a players name and it allows you to see that player’s fangraphs stats in a new thingy(tab?)
A couple of years ago I mentioned a signing of Lorenzo Quintana to a contract. I don’t have a clue about how the Astros regard his abilities behind the plate. But I still believe he is a player to keep an eye on for 2020.
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Hopefully, the case of BBD [bad baseball disease] we caught in Baltimore has run its course. But since the Astros have ‘gone dark’ [late starts in Oakland], I will just have to read about it in the morning box scores. NO WAY I AM LOSING EVEN ONE MOMENT OF SLEEP TO FOLLOW THIS TEAM IN ITS PRESENT STATE OF KEYSTONE COPS INEPTITUDE!
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