On the plus side, the Astros had their fifth consecutive winning month in August. On the minus side, they were barely above .500 at 14-13, which seemed to match the eyeball test of a team idling in neutral.
In general, they were barely better than the opposition. They did outscore the opposition 122-100 for the month, but that rode the back of a couple huge blowouts. It was a blah month that needs to be followed by a much better September.
But of even greater importance to the Chipalattites is….. who will get the coveted ChipalattAwards for August?
Here is a quick chart of the Astros’ pitchers in July….
| Name | W | L | Saves | Innings | ERA | WHIP | BAA | OBPA | OPSA |
| Zack Greinke | 1 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 3.72 | 1.103 | .252 | .274 | .679 |
| Luis Garcia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 32.1 | 3.34 | 1.175 | .244 | .295 | .715 |
| Lance McCullers Jr./td> | 2 | 2 | 0 | 34.2 | 3.12 | 1.356 | .239 | .329 | .695 |
| Framber Valdez | 2 | 2 | 0 | 33.1 | 2.70 | 1.050 | .205 | .281 | .552 |
| Jake Odorizzi | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 4.88 | 1.542 | .281 | .355 | .907 |
| Ryan Pressly | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0.90 | 0.900 | .194 | .237 | .542 |
| Kendall Graveman | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 4.91 | 1.091 | .238 | .333 | .690 |
| Ryne Stanek | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11.2 | 3.09 | 0.943 | .167 | .255 | .517 |
| Jimi Garcia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8.2 | 3.12 | 1.038 | .212 | .257 | .500 |
| Brooks Raley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1.29 | 0.714 | .167 | .231 | .564 |
| Cristian Javier | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 3.24 | 1.440 | .226 | .333 | .785 |
| Blake Taylor | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2.57 | 1.286 | .241 | .290 | .670 |
| Phil Maton | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12.1 | 5.84 | 1.622 | .280 | .362 | .782 |
| Bryan Abreu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 94.50 | 9.000 | .714 | .778 | 2.063 |
| Rafael Montero | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0.00 | 0.833 | .158 | .238 | .449 |
Starting Pitcher of the Month. Framber Valdez. He was only .500 for the month, but he could have easily won a couple more of those starts with more help from his friends. That .205 BA/ .282 OBP/ .552 OPS slash line against was just excellent.
Runner-up. Luis Garcia. This could have been Lance McCullers, but we will give it to the king of the rocking three-step who has pitched himself into the Rookie of the Year conversation. He has been a very consistent and cool customer for a youngster.
Last Month. Starting Pitcher of the Month – Zack Greinke / Lance McCullers Jr.
Relief Pitcher of the Month. Ryan Pressly. He’s not perfect. No relievers are. But he has been terrific and dependable. That 0.90 ERA and 0.900 WHIP for the month are sterling numbers.
Runner-up. Not too much standing out here – we will give it to the unfortunately injured Rafael Montero, who had the best numbers on the staff in his 6 appearances.
Last Month – Relief Pitcher of the Month – Pressly / Runner-up – Ryne Stanek
Special Recognition Award.Brooks Raley. This is my nominee for not matching the eye test as Raley showed very well in the month, especially his 11 Ks vs. 1 walk. But what about those inherited runners he lets score? Only one this month.
| Name | ABs | Runs | Dbls | HRs | RBIs | BBs | Ks | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Martin Maldonado | 59 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 18 | .153 | .311 | .616 |
| Yuli Gurriel | 71 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | .282 | .370 | .793 |
| Jose Altuve | 110 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 14 | .245 | .303 | .621 |
| Carlos Correa | 109 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 14 | 18 | .298 | .385 | .875 |
| Alex Bregman | 17 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | .353 | .476 | .888 |
| Michael Brantley | 95 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 11 | .263 | .330 | .668 |
| Jake Meyers | 76 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 2 | 24 | .316 | .338 | .838 |
| Kyle Tucker | 54 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 12 | .333 | .403 | .940 |
| Yordan Alvarez | 102 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 22 | 6 | 17 | .294 | .339 | .977 |
| Chas McCormick | 60 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 21 | .333 | .379 | .845 |
| Aledmys Diaz | 102 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 26 | .265 | .306 | .649 |
| Jason Castro | 32 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 12 | .156 | .206 | .581 |
| Taylor Jones | 45 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 12 | .333 | .326 | .948 |
Positional Player of the Month.Yordan Alvarez. He led the team with 8 doubles, 9 HRs, 22 RBIs and a .977 OPS and was a critical figure in many of their wins.
Runner-up. Jake Meyers. He nudged out Carlos Correa due to the unique situation of being added to the roster of a contender after the trade of Myles Straw and not blinking as he received a lot of playing time with Michael Brantley and Kyle Tucker missed time. He never acted overmatched and had outstanding run and RBI numbers, considering he was hitting the 8th spot in the order.
Last Month – Positional Player of the Month – Jose Altuve / Runner-up – Kyle Tucker
Special Recognition Award (Part 2). Taylor Jones has the best Offensive month of his young career. On top of 11 RBIs, he had two big outfield assists in minimal playing time in the OF.
Biggest Surprise (Positive). Raley. I know those numbers surprised the heck out of me.
Runner-up.Jones. He went from overmatched to solid in one month.
Last Month – Biggest Surprise – Brandon Bielak / Runner-up – None
Biggest Disappointment. Jose Altuve. He is much too good a hitter to be so ineffective. With this lineup, he left many ducks on the pond to only have 3 RBIs for the month.
Runner-up. Kendall Graveman. After his excellent stats with the Mariners, he has struggled with the Astros. Yes, the grand slam tilts his numbers, but he has been putting many runners on in his appearances and flirting with disaster.
Last Month – Most Disappointing – Carlos Correa / Runners-up– Yordan Alvarez
Bad Stat – Pitching – Bryan Abreu – Small sample size, but a 94.50 ERA is tough to beat.
Bad Stat – Hitting – Astro prospects and walking. With his 5 walks in 60 ABs, Chas McCormick looks absolutely patient next to Jake Meyers and his 2 walks in 76 ABs and Taylor Jones and his 0 walks in 45 ABs. They were both hitting over .300, so there can be some allowance for the youngsters, but they need to do better going forward.
As usual, it is your turn to comment. Any you want to award? Any awards you disagree with?
CHIPALATTA 
Wow! The lack of walks by the rookies is something I had not noticed.
Thanks for the info.
This also backs up my contention that Altuve looks very unsteady.
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This is one of the reasons that I enjoy doing these monthly updates, old pro because you can glom onto trends that your brain may not pick up watching every day. Things that caught my eye….
– The lack of walks by the rookies, but also the way the whole team is K’ing a lot more than walking.
– Maldy is hitting a lot worse than even I thought, but he at least is walking with a decent OBP
– Diaz really has slumped hard because earlier in the month he was excellent
– Brantley has fallen off this month too, looks to me like he is working through his injury
– Raley surprised the heck out of me
– Stanek and Taylor and jimi G were solid this month
– Maton and Odorizzi show why wins is not an important stat when judging a pitcher
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One of the things I would be careful about, Dan, is giving a pitcher too much credit if he is only used in non-critical situations. Raley does tick that box for me in the past month, when I doubt he was used much when the game was on the line.
Pitching under pressure and excelling at it is one thing. Pitching in games when your team is way ahead or way behind is completely different.
I will be open to your findings on Raley’s majority of pressure innings or not.
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Yeah it’s a good point – I would say only two of the outings were in close games.
I would also say it’s at least a step up in that he had been pitching poorly in low leverage situations….
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Astros 6
Padres 3
Took *8* pitchers…Graveman is BROKEN.
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10 strikes out of 26 pitches is horrible.
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Brooks Raley tells us why ERA is a BS stat.
Jose remains a mess. He’s a selfish, bad hitter today. I’d put Bregman up there, if only to send a message.
Chas needs to play. Is Siri here to hit pinch hit home runs?
Tucker gets my nod. Alvarez is meeting expectations. Kyle put up an exceptional .403 OBP in limited time.
Graveman is looking more and more like a bad trade. When he’s on, great stuff. But is he a bit brain dead?
Boy, another active hurricane season. We watch everything coming off the African coast. And sometimes we duck as they pass by in your direction. The good news is that September 11 is the peak, as hopefully things start slowing down at that point.
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So last night Raley strikes out the first guy,walks the second guy where one ball was a marginal call and another ball was in the strike zone. And then gives up a bunt single. Gets replaced and the run comes in on a dribbler in the perfect spot. So yeah ERA is not a good stat
Graveman spirals after a brutal ball call by the same ump but that was on Graveman – he lost composure
Satisfying win – huge home run by Correa to break the 22 inning ice, bigger one by Tucker to win it.
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Thoughts
– We have some bullpen issues, but the A’s…. last night they blew a 6 run lead in the 8th – one guy on with 2 outs and a single, HBP, two walks and a grand slam homer by Yuli’s little brother ties it up. Canha hits a 2 run homer to give the A’s back the lead in the 9th and two guys get on (including Springer on a double) and the A’s old SS Semien walks it off with a homer.
– My son pointed out that the M’s are 13-5 in extra inning games, which my other sports nut son pointed out is why they are way out performing their win expectations run wise. M’s won another one last night in 10 innings to pull within one of the A’s and 6.5 of the Astros
– I’m not sure there is anyone cooler I want up late than Tucker. He doesn’t always get a big hit, but he seems to always get wood on the ball late. As soon as he connected that ball was gone.
– Again, Correa did a big thing last night. Going scoreless that long is as much psychological than physical. Man did he put an exclamation point on that home run. It was a bomb.
– Good to see Urquidy back and pitching well. We need all arms on deck for the end of this season.
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For you folks who like Siri…and he scores a late run in an important game for the club in his first chance at the majors.
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https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/jose-siri-joins-astros-after-8-years-in-minors
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Oakland scored 5 runs in the ninth off Toronto, and still lost by 2.
They get an award from me.
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We might have lost Yordan for the rest of the year😢
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Well Javier is well on to his award for September.
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Javier – 2 homeruns
James- ANOTHER 2 run homerun
Padres 10
Astros 2
Top of the 9th
GOOD LORD! Well, we know 2 guys who WON’T sniff the playoffs.
At least the rest of their BETTER relives get a day off.
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Hey Dan, missing from your Pitchers list is Pedro Baez. Here are his stats:
W L Saves Innings ERA WHIP BAA OBPA OPSA
0 0 0 4.1 2.08 0.692 .143 .200 .557
Yes, Graveman struggled in his last few outings, but I still would rather have him, Yimi, Maton & Montero instead of Joe Smith, Pruitt, Scrubb & Garza Jr.
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Thanks for pointing that out AstroNut. I will dock myself a days pay which equals Mr. Baez’s wins, losses and saves.
Just missed him wandering through the stats – he did pitch well and then….
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Our Astros are not a very good team right now. Seems like we’ve got too many guys going in the wrong direction, rather than gearing up for the stretch run. Maybe we’re just late bloomers.
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If you take August and so far in September, this is a .500 club. That is what I continue to see. Not a bad club, but not one that you expect to win it all running away. Can they get hot? YES. Do they need to get hot? YES.
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If Oakland continues at .544 winning percentage, they will finish with less than 90 wins. Houston would need 10 wins out of 27 to back into the flag. But Houston really needs a cushion vs. Mariners, Angels, Rangers, and D’backs going into the final week of the season vs Oakland and Tampa Bay.
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Sounds like Yordan suffered a knee contusion – no broken bones – s0 I suspect he will not be patrolling the outfield today in the NL park – but may be back soon.
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Not sure when it happened but on the double, he stumbled landing at second base. So if it holds true to form for 2021, he is out for the rest of the season and two months in 2022.
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Yeah the double was the night before I think when he hit the pinch hit double and went in to second awkwardly. Last night he fouled the ball right on to his knee. Don’t know if this is a combo injury from the two or not. Hope he is back right away – you haven’t heard anything on the prognosis have you?
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Dusty said he “thinks” Yordan will be able to pinch hit today, but doubts he will he’s listed day to day. Probably will be back in the coming home stand.
By the way Oakland lost 8 to 0 today!! The Blue Jays ARE gonna be very good next year…Astros beware! Score is 3-1 top of the 3rd…Padres are teeing off on Garcia….plus he’s wasting pitches with walks.
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