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ChipalattAwards for May

Looking at the Astros’ performance in May, it is pretty obvious that their 17-10 performance was driven by mostly strong pitching performances with a few (too few?) good performances on the hitting side.

Well, we will look at the individual stats for the month and hand out those much coveted Chipalatta Awards.

Here is a quick chart of the Astros’ pitchers in the month of May.

Name Gm W L Svs IP ERA WHIP HR Ks/9 IP BAA OBPA OPSA IR/ IS
Framber Valdez 5 3 1 0 33 2.28 0.909 2 10.9 .200 .242 .538 N/A
Cristian Javier 5 4 0 0 30 2.40 0.833 4 9.6 .157 .225 .519 N/A
Hunter Brown 6 2 2 0 32 4.78 1.406 4 11.8 .280 .336 .768 N/A
Brandon Bielak 6 2 2 0 31 3.19 1.452 6 8.1 .275 .341 .833 1/0
J.P. France 5 1 1 0 27 4.00 1.296 6 8.7 .252 .308 .784 N/A
Ryan Pressly 11 0 0 7 11 2.45 1.091 1 12.3 .262 .279 .612 0/0
Hector Neris 12 1 0 1 10.2 0.00 1.031 0 11.8 .171 .275 .475 4/2
Rafael Montero 10 1 3 0 9.2 12.10 2.172 2 8.4 .366 .438 1.072 0/0
Phil Maton 12 0 0 0 13.2 0.66 0.732 0 9.2 .170 .220 .412 3/0
Ryne Stanek 11 1 0 0 10.1 2.61 1.256 0 9.6 .189 .302 .519 1/1
Bryan Abreu 11 2 1 0 11 4.09 1.091 2 16.4 .214 .298 .679 0/0
Seth Martinez 9 0 0 0 10.1 1.74 1.065 0 10.5 .194 .310 .560 6/0
Matt Gage 3 0 0 0 4 4.50 1.750 1 11.3 .313 .389 .951 5/1
Parker Mushinski 3 0 0 0 3.1 5.40 2.100 0 10.8 .333 .500 .967 2/2

Note – I added the IR (Inherited runners) / IS (Inherited runners who scored) stat for the relievers.

Starting Pitcher of the Month. Cristian Javier – Only trailing Framber Valdez (who has to be 1b in this list) in ERA. That .157 batting average against is what was so impressive for him last season and is shaping up again in 2023.

  • Runner-up. Framber Valdez – Running just a tad behind Javier, and if you wanted to move him to the top spot in May, that would be OK. That 2.28 ERA shows how effective he was this month.
  • Last Month. Hunter Brown – Starting Pitcher of the Month / Framber Valdez – Runner-up

Relief Pitcher of the Month.  (Tie) Hector Neris and Phil Maton – Yes, Neris had that 0.00 ERA, but Maton did not allow any inherited runners to score vs. the 2 Neris let in during the month. That slash against Maton of .170 BA/ .220 OBP/ .412 OPS was the best on the staff.

  • Runner-up.  With the tie, we will skip the runner-up this time.
  • Last Month – Bryan Abreu and Phil Maton – tied for Relief Pitcher of the Month

Special Recognition Award. We will let Brandon Bielak and J.P. France share in this award this month. After the losses of Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy the starting staff could have imploded, but both of these pitchers pitched solidly and kept the team in the game almost every time out.

The Under the Radar Award. After a rough April, Seth Martinez was back looking like his 2022 self in May with his 1.74 ERA and not allowing any of the 6 runners he inherited to score.

Name ABs Runs Dbls HRs RBIs BBs Ks BA OBP OPS BABIP
Martin Maldonado 59 6 2 2 4 6 25 .254 .333 .723 .406
Jose Abreu 89 8 3 1 9 12 24 .180 .286 .535 .273
Mauricio Dubon 73 12 4 1 5 5 15 .274 .321 .690 .333
Jeremy Pena 95 8 6 2 10 6 20 .263 .317 .728 .311
Alex Bregman 107 17 3 4 17 7 11 .271` .319 .749 .269
Corey Julks 64 7 3 1 8 3 18 .234 .269 .597 .311
Chas McCormick 46 2 3 2 5 3 14 .152 .204 .552 .167
Kyle Tucker 93 10 7 2 13 7 14 .247 .294 .681 .266
Yordan Alvarez 95 21 7 8 21 15 22 .284 .395 1.005 .288
Jake Meyers 69 12 4 3 10 7 21 .232 .329 .778 .289
David Hensley 21 4 0 1 1 2 9 .095 .174 .412 .091
Yainer Diaz 34 4 1 2 3 0 6 .235 .229 .670 .222
Jose Altuve 34 7 3 2 6 6 10 .324 .425 1.013 .409

Positional Player of the Month. Yordan Alvarez – That 21 runs scored and 21 RBIs easily led the club and his 8 HRs were double anyone else on the club.

  • Runner-up. Alex Bregman –  After another rotten April, he was second on the team behind Yordan with 17 runs, 4 HRs and 17 RBIs in May.
  • Last Month – Yordan Alvarez – Positional Player of the Month / Kyle Tucker – Runner-up

Special Recognition – Jose Altuve – Pretty amazing that the only hitter with a batting average above .285 for the month was the guy we were expecting to come back rusty. Jose has been a real spark – since he came back on May 19th, the team is 7-2 in games he has played and 1-2 in games he has not.

Biggest Surprise (Positive). Phil Maton – There is really nothing in his background that would tell you he would be this good this long, but he has been the best arm out of the bullpen since the beginning of the season.

  • Runner-up.  – Martin Maldonado?? His May was fueled by an unsustainable .406 BAbip (AL average is .294) but still – a .254 BA/ .333 OBP/ .723 OPS is a quantum leap for Maldy.
  • Last Month – Biggest Surprise (Positive) was Mauricio Dubon / Corey Julks – Runner-up

Biggest Disappointment. Jose Abreu – Hopefully, he won’t retire this award and he has shown better contact the last week, but he has been consistently bad this year. I mean backup catcher bad for a corner infielder.

  • Runner-up. Rafael Montero – The two biggest signings of the off-season are the two biggest disappointments in May. A small sample, obviously, but the league was hitting against him better than some combination of Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge and Mike Trout.
  • Last Month – Biggest Disappointment was Jose Abreu / Alex Bregman – Runner-up

Some Comments on May

  • Interesting comparison with Hunter Brown’s 4.78 ERA and Brandon Bielak’s 3.19 ERA, when their other stats are so similar, with Brown doing better in that usually important OPS against number (.768 vs. .833 for Bielak). One of the differences watching the two guys is that though Bielak sure puts a lot of traffic on the bases, he just seems to not let things bother him, while Brown seems a little less mature. But heck, he’s so young. He needs to work his way through it and grow up a bit.
  • Bryan Abreu’s strikeout rate of 16.4 K/ 9 IP is very strong. His 4.09 ERA – not so much.
  • In the many months of doing this, it is hard to remember when the team had no one hitting .300 for the month. Yes, Altuve did, but that is for playing in only about 1/3 of the games.
  • With Bryan Abreu scuffling a bit and Rafael Montero scuffling a lot, it was good to see Ryne Stanek, back close to his normal self for the month.
  • Jeremy Pena’s power was down in May (6 HR down to 2 HR), but his BA was up, and his Ks down (a bit).
  • Weird to look at the OF performances (outside of Yordan’s part-time numbers) and realize that among Kyle Tucker, Jake Meyers, Corey Julks, and Chas McCormick, Meyers and his .329 OBP and .778 OPS were easily the best of that group. The Astros need Tucker to return to being his normal self in June.

As usual, it is your turn to comment. Any awards you disagree with? Any new ones you want to award?

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27 responses to “ChipalattAwards for May”

  1. Plenty to chew on. Right now though, I’m really hoping for a good start from Blanco. Martinez threw 43 pitches last night. He won’t be available. We sure don’t need to go deep into the pen tonight.

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  2. Just tuning in. Saw Julks hit. It’s impossible for me to rationalize that a guy with a 1.014 OPS against lefties on a team that is so damn challenged offensively is watching from the bench. How many guys do we have with a 4 digit OPS against anyone?

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    • The umpiring was all in all pretty good save for that call that was a critical inning. Even TK and Blummer said it was a gift. Blanco was OK but almost every inning was a hit and a walk. Good thing I’m not on blood pressure medicine. I’d have to take a double dose.

      Enough runs scored to win but it sure would be nice to score 5 or 6 consistently or at least a majority of the time.

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  4. Well that was a good game by the good guys – Blanco survived, the bullpen was solid and there was just enough offense to get them through.
    Now a rested Framber faces Ohtani tomorrow night – tough matchup.

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  6. Blanco’s start was rough. I don’t know exactly how many times he hit the box inside the box or how many times he just threw wasted pitches. It was a lot in the first two frames. Then he settled down into a really solid 3+ after that, hitting his spots. He was really fortunate that the Angels didn’t take advantage and left us in that game early but he responded big time after.

    My broken record moment – I thought Yainer played a big part in calming him down. You could see him talking him up between innings, I thought his mound visits were well timed, I thought he got him a few calls on some good frames. He hit the ball well, he even almost beat out a ground ball to the SS that Maldy would have been jogging lazily down the line on. Have to commend Dusty on his loyalty because I would be switching their roles.

    Last night was a microcosm of these teams fates in the last few years. The Angels have two of the best 3 or 4 baseball players on the planet batting back to back. They both had multiple opportunities to get to a 29 year old first time starter who was pitching like his hair was on fire early and they failed. Ohtani struck out on a pitch a player of his caliber in that situation should not be offering at, and then our offense finally gets to Detmer who had pitched really well into the 5th. It’s tough luck loss for the Angels that define their last few years, so maybe not so much luck, but a bad feature in how that team is built. Meanwhile the Astros had to feel like early this game could get away from them but then acted like Champions, stayed with it, consistent, in themselves, got the outs they needed then the offense wins it.

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    • Steven, I can’t help it either.

      A couple f Diaz stats. He’s hitting .271 with a .760 OPS against righties. He’s hitting .118 with a .229 OPS against lefties.

      He’s hitting .304/.346/.478/.825 at home.

      What does all that mean? Not much, but if the guy ever gets regular at bats, he’ll start approaching his higher numbers. You know he’s not going to go 2 for 18 against left-handers all year.

      And you’re right, while Dusty does not seem able to give the guy any love, he got Blanco through 5 plus, and then somehow got zeros from Neris and Montero before Pressly finished the game.

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  7. I’ve seen the Astros linked to chasing Chris Sale by commenters on other sites. So, of course as most of us could have predicted he got pulled out of last night’s game and is being sent for an MRI.

    I think if Jose Urquidy comes back and Lance looks like he is coming back and no one else goes down (a lot of ifs) they may not bring in another starter at the deadline.

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    • Oh and raise your hand if this sounds familiar, but Carlos Correa, who is “slashing” .207 BA/ .299 OBP/ .671 OPS with the Twins came out of yesterday’s game with a flare up of his plantar fasciitis.
      Let’s see he is making $33MM and Jeremy Pena, who is making 2.3% of that at $754K is slashing .254/.306/.742

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      • We were doing this last year at this time also – and by the end of the year it was apparent that Correa was the better player.

        In a vacuum I would rather have Carlos. The last two months are not always what the next two will be. He is also a better defender, can work a count a better, and just has more baseball talent. But it’s not a vacuum and salaries are a real thing. Pena is obviously dollar for dollar 100 times the bargain. I love JP’s moxy, his confidence, how loose he is, I like his arm. I don’t like his ability to tell a ball from a strike. I do like that he bats second in front of Yordan because pitchers are more keen to throw him strikes, especially if Altuve is already on and that helps because he can hit anything in the strike zone really well. He is hitting .341 batting second after hitting .290 batting second last year!

        Correa has swung at pitches out of the strike zone 26% of the time for his career. Pena is at 36%. They both make the plays they are supposed to but they both also have negative UZR/150 ratings for their careers. Pena’s is worse though.

        Carlos is better. But he isn’t a 33.3M a year player like he thinks he is. And if this foot problem continues to cost him games and this lesser Correa is now the real Correa, the Twins are the kind of franchise that will be set back by something like this for years. We are very fortunate he turned down that 160M offer.

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    • Dan, almost two months to deadline! Lot’s to happen. Seems like 1-5 in the line up is pretty settled, but certainly not 6-9. And I think we’ll need more pitching from somewhere. I just don’t want to lose my favorite minor leaguer, big Joey Loperfido!

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  8. Injuries!!!

    Forrest Whitely is expected to be out three to four months after suffering a right lat strain during his last minor-league start.

    Drew Gilbert, currently tabbed as the organization’s No. 1 prospect by MLB.com, has left elbow discomfort and as a result has been limited to designated hitter duties.

    Will Wagner had surgery to remove the right hook of hamate in his right hand and is out six to eight weeks.

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    • Sarge, that’s a real concern with Gilbert, our #1 prospect. If he’s in the outfield, he needs to throw. And maybe it explains why Wagner disappeared for weeks earlier in the season. Whitley becomes a longer and longer shot all the time.

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  9. Am going to the Astros game today (Sat 3rd June, 15:05 start, against the Angels) if anyone will be there, say hello to!

    I’ll be wearing my Astros top so should be easy to spot.

    😉

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  11. Suddenly the A’s and M’s are 8.5 out. The Rangers keep scoring runs in bunches but have not been able to shake the Astros.

    Sure would be nice to sweep the series. We’re going to need quality innings out of France and Martinez.

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  12. So it seems Grae Kessinger is on his way up. That’s great. The Astros have essentially been playing with a 25 man roster while also under utilizing Diaz. I couple of guys across the way were lamenting his GDP to end the game. I prefer to note that he provided the only run in the game with his homer, both extra base hits and the GDP ball was 104.9. Gosh, find a spot on the field for the guy!

    And Kessinger is a reliable defender, who is hitting .284, with a .400 OBP (34 walks and 43 K’s) and an .843 OPS. He might prove to be a better guy at the plate than Frenchie.

    I just hope this is not happening because Altuve might be injured again.

    It’s a shame we could not pull out that game last night but again, our manager did nothing in the 7th to finesse that run in from third. Pinch hit for Maldy? Have Julks run for Diaz?

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  13. I have to shut yesterday’s loss from my mind and look at the entire series. The Astros won 3 games out of 4 with one of the wins coming behind the very first start in the career of reliever Ronel Blanco. The Astros beat Ohtani.
    Houston s going to have to face the fact that they are no longer by themselves in the AL West and that Bochy’s club is a force.
    The Rangers made all the big moves and it appears they are now in the driver’s seat. the Astros need to realize that 2022 is gone and they are in a new fight with an enemy who doesn’t look back in fear.

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    • Yep, I admit, a bit selfish wanting the sweep after winning the first 3! Gosh, France did an excellent job.

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  14. I was surprised that Diaz was even playing when Maldy was catching. Maybe Dusty actually read the comments in the Memorial Day Thoughts? Maybe this will be the impetus to get Jose Abreu to fix whatever is wrong with his bat.

    They all came out to Corpus
    On the Gulf of Mexico shoreline
    To rate prospects with a hit tool
    They didn’t have much time
    Frank Sinatra and Blues Brothers
    Were crooning on the PA sounds
    But some field scout with a radar gun
    Earned his pay when Diaz he found

    Smoke that ball Yainer, fire it in the sky
    Smoke that ball Yainer

    He turned up at Palm Beach park
    Hits cried with a colossal sound
    Dusty and Dana were there to check him out
    They let the kid hang around
    When it all was over
    They had to find another space
    His time was running out
    Korey Lee would lose this race

    Smoke that ball Yainer, fire it in the sky
    Smoke that ball Yainer

    He ended up at Minute Maid
    It was sold out and loud in there
    We heard the Rolling Stones songs playing just outside
    Massaging our musical ears
    With a few red hots and a few cold drinks
    We made our bodies schlep
    No matter what we get out of him
    I know, I know we’ll never forget

    Smoke that ball Yainer, fire it in the sky
    Smoke that ball Yainer

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    • Thanks again AstroNut – I had heard that the group Deep Purple picked that name because one of the group’s grandmas loved that old song from the 1930’s. I’m guessing she did not like their music quite that much.

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