It is a tradition as old as baseball. There always seems to be at least one pitcher on the staff, who just does not get the run support and/or bullpen support it takes to have a top notch winning percentage. One of the classic examples here in Houston was 1987 Nolan Ryan, who led the NL with a 2.76 ERA, while compiling a ghastly 8-16 record.
This season, so far, the victim for the Astros is Framber Valdez, who is second in the AL with a 2.27 ERA, while only going 6-5 in 14 starts. Shane McClanahan of the Rays leads the league with a 2.18 ERA, but he has been rewarded with a 10-1 record.
So, what has this season looked like for the Astros ace?
In wins…..
- April 10th – Framber gives up 2 ERs in 7 IPs in an 8-2 win over the Pirates
- April 22nd – He gives up 3 ERs in 7 IPs in a 6-3 win over the Braves
- May 9th – He gives up 1 run in 8 IPs in a 3-1 win over the Angels
- May 21st – He throws a 9 inning complete game shutout over the A’s – 2-0
- May 27th – He gives up 1 run in 6 IPs against the A’s (again) in a 2-1 win
- June 2nd – He throws 7 shutout innings against the Angels in a 6-0 win
For those keeping track – Framber has a pristine 1.43 ERA in his wins.
In losses….
- April 4th – Framber gives up 3 runs (2 earned) in 7 IP, in a 6-3 loss to Detroit – leaving the game while trailing 3-2
- April 16th – He gives up 5 runs (1 earned) in 6 IP in a 9-1 loss to the Rangers. (Note he was losing 2-0 when he left the game, but was charged for 3 more runs when Hector Neris gave up a 2 out Grand Slam).
- April 28th – He gives up 3 runs in 7 IP in a 3-1 loss to the Phils.
- May 3rd – He gives up 2 runs in 6 IP in a 4-2 loss to the Giants leaving while trailing 2-0.
- June 8th – He gives up 3 runs in 5 IP in a 3-2 loss to the Bluejays
So, in his losses he has a 3.19 ERA, which would by itself rank as 11th in the AL if taken separately.
Note – the Astros were scoring 1.6 runs/ game in his losses.
In no-decisions…..
- March 30th – Framber gives up 0 runs in 5 shoutout innings in a 3-2 loss to the White Sox
- May 15th – He allows 4 runs in 4 innings in a 6-4 win against the Cubs
- June 14th – His last start he gave up only 1 run in 7 innings while the team blows the lead to the Nats, but ends up winning 5-4
The team has not scored that well behind Framber all year long in either his wins or losses, but especially his losses. He should be sitting there with a McClanahan record. And if he did, the team would be ahead of the Rangers right now instead of trailing them.
If the Astros are to catch the Rangers the rest of the season, this is an area that needs to flip around. We shall see.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
37 responses to “Framber Valdez Sues for Non-Support (Well He Could)”
Framber could tell Dusty he wants a catcher that can hit.
At least the club is 8-6 overall in his starts. Could be worse.
He’s already thrown 91 innings in 14 starts.
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It has been the same story all season. The Astros don’t hit. The bullpen leaks a lot. There is no help coming from the farm.
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Great job by France once again. I think at this point, the guy disappointing me the most is Alex Bregman. This prototypical third base specimen, 6’4″ 220 pound kid Dezenzo, is he for real? Can he be ready next spring? Loperfido keeps hitting. Does he need to go to Sugarland? Can he help in August? Chas has now got the 3rd best OPS on the team by a pretty wide margin. Can he play until he slumps? Diaz hit one to the wall in center and just missed with his moon shot in the ninth. Can he play tonight? By the way, he has not caught since the 7th. Can Altuve go back to leadoff where he belongs and take Pena up there with him? I looked over a lot of catcher stats on baseball reference yesterday. There are lot’s of stats. It’s fact. Diaz is better than Maldy from most all angles. In fact, Diaz is better than most MLB catchers.
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Well, Chas gets to sit. And Julks is our newest lead off guy!
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Chas reward for a 2 hit night is a spot on the bench to cool off. If I were HC I would not play musical chairs with Chas/Julks/Meyers. Chas would not be looking over his shoulder. Until his bat turns to steel and ice I’d keep running Dubon in the lineup. Diaz supplants Maldy and relieves Abreu at 1B. There is nothing a coach can do about Father Time or Maldy/Abreu swinging at terrible pitches. Lastly, Altuve and Peña return to the top of the lineup.
When Alvarez returns and if Brantley is effective when he does, perhaps Valdez (the SP’s as a whole) might delay their lawsuits.
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Dana Brown, you have a series of difficult decisions to make. Your career depends on you pulling for or five rabbits out of a hat. Good luck.
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Glad I didn’t have to watch this game. Face it, this is not a good team.
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Crane needs to have Montero DFAed and eat the contract.
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Mini-move
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/06/astros-acquire-joel-kuhnel.html
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Lineup today
Dubon 2B
Bregman 3B
Tucker RF
Abreu 1B
Diaz DH
Chas CF
Peña SS
Julks LF
Maldy C
Yes, Altuve finally has a big 4 hit, 2 doubles, 1HRs game and sits
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The 2023 Astros have been a train wreck waiting to happen all year; as of today, they are a train wreck in process.
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They better stay in the race somehow. Otherwise, I feel if they are out of it coming out of the all star break, they might have a new interim manager. Joe Espada anyone???
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Our manager lamented his concern post game yesterday that we’ve got quite a few young guys that are inexperienced making too many mistakes. This fan sees a lethargic group of veterans making the most glaring mistakes and year long, underperforming offensively.
sargeh, I don’t think we’ll see Dusty Baker going home before the end of the season. But it becomes more and more apparent that he is our disconnect. He’s the guy that continually plays a 36 year old veteran that should be, at best, our back up catcher. We’ve got a much more adept young guy with better skills in all facets of the game. Had he been catching yesterday, our best veteran hitter could have rested while DH’ing. That might have been enough to win the game.
I could not help but to appreciate that young enthusiastic bunch of 20 somethings in the other dugout. We used to be like that. I hope Dana Brown gets his plan working soon.
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Good morning Dan,
Unfortunately, I only use an apple Mac or an iPhone these days. And I find myself rushing as I type a post, while at the same time trying to keep it abbreviated. Twice this morning I had a modest three paragraph attempt disappear, I presume because it was too long. My old laptop, dead and buried, worked much better for interacting on Chipalatta. Heck though, it sure is frustrating to continually lose my award winning journalism. Is there anything that can be dome to fix this obvious issue?
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Hey daveb – I’ve sent you a side message to what I think is your email from moons ago.
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An interesting move – especially with the way Dubin has been pitching (not very well). Like they say, Bielak has turned back into a pumpkin, so that part makes sense.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/06/astros-promote-shawn-dubin-option-brandon-bielak.html
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And a shout out to our friends at crawfish boxes, who are linking to us today.
https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2023/6/19/23765541/astros-crawfish-boil-june-19-2023
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I sometimes like to read some of our old posts and especially the comments – this one is a comment from me back in Spring Training (March 2)
Dan P
MARCH 2, 2023 @ 11:49 AM
“While running some errands this morning – I got to hear an exclusive interview with GM Dana Brown and 610 AM’s Adam Spolane.
Spolane I thought did a good job of pushing further in certain areas. Things I took away from it…
– Brown said Yordan is pain free right now – but also said he has not swung a bat yet
– He said McCullers is feeling good right now – expects him back not that far after the start of the season
– He said Brantley is going to be close – if he’s not ready for the start of the season, it will be soon after
– He again said that they are pursuing extensions on Bregman, Altuve, Tucker, Framber. Spolane pushed him on this – asking whether Jim Crane is willing to go to the 8-10 years it might take to extend some of these guys. He said they are looking at that, that they think they can get some of these done as a compromise. He also stated that he himself is not comfortable with 10 year deals.”
So here we are 3-1/2 months down the way from that post
– Yordan is dealing with his second injury – this one will keep him out at least 3 more weeks (and we hope he will come back and never turn back)
– McCullers is not feeling good right now after having season ending surgery
– Brantley is no longer going to be starting shortly after the season begins – maybe shortly after the All-Star break??
– None of the players mentioned here have signed an extension (Javier’s extension was signed back in early Feb). And we still don’t know how far the team will stretch year-wise to sign one of those players and whether they are interested in all of them the same way they were
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Tonight’s lineup might be the most sensible I’ve seen in weeks. Let’s face it, we’re going to be stuck with Maldy catching until injury or the last game of the season. We have to hope Abreu gets on a sustained roll. But overall, I’d probably put Pena batting second, because he always hits there and he’d stretch out the lineup a bit.
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Nothing goes well for this team. Train wreck.
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When it rains, it pours. And we ain’t talking about Morton Salt.
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Scherzer is avg 10-11 pitches per inning. His go to pitch has been the slider to the outside part of the plate, the majority of which are balls Astro hitters chase for SO’s to bail him out. If I can call those pitches before Max throws them, why can’t our guys know they are coming to take a walk and force him to throw something else? Or at least try.
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For five straight games, it has been like watching the 2012 Astros.
What ever can be done wrong, they are doing it.
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Looking at Twitter comments and even a few of those from across the way, there are some real cold hearted Astro “fans”. Sure the team is stuck in the middle of a sustained slump, maybe even one we’ll not solve in 2023, but those win only fans should just switch back to whatever they were doing before they jumped on the bandwagon. Flat out nasty comments.
I’m looking ahead to an infusion of youth, maybe late this year, but certainly in 2024. Maldy gave up another passed ball, his 5th. And a throwing error. The guy has to be exhausted catching so much. It’s sad because he does not want to let go of his role and Dusty does not want to hand the job over to inexperience. So when does Diaz get his experience catching guys like Javier and Framber and become reacquainted with Brown?
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I’ve got the answer to your question.
Not until Brown tells Dusty it’s my way or the highway.
Diaz will continue to be the DH (since we have nobody better to put in that position). He might catch one out of 7 games but you’ll probably see Salazar in that spot. I’m hoping not but this team has become a .500 team if that much. Altuve looked ridiculous on his 1st AB which set the tone for the whole night.
What “infusion of youth ” do we have available as if I understand it there is nobody tearing the cover off the ball in the minors? I mentioned in a post awhile back that we were hurt big time by the loss of our 1st two draft choices in ’20 and ’21. I stand by that assessment.
One thing that I don’t understand is how a lot of pundits being down on Dubon. I admit that I sure was wrong about him but here’s a guy that while he doesn’t hit for power and has a low OPS, he has a decent OBP. But he’d have to replace Altuve, Pena, or an outfielder so don’t look for that to happen.
As for the lineup, I predict we’ll see a different one again tonight as Dusty’s musical chairs line ups continues. Maybe there’s a silver lining in the Astros cloud but we have to beware not to get struck by lighting looking for it.
And yes, I’ve been spoiled by our team of the last 7 years so I’m a little flustered.
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Z, I think that means Dana Brown will have to wait and see if he gets a green light from Crane at any point.
We’re better than a .500 club if we get healthy and people start doing their jobs. But we need our manager to take creative advice from others. His way is not working.
I think Dubon will be an excellent utility man if we get to the point of being able to use him that way.
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Dubon’s OBP is currently 6 points under the league average. It just looks great surrounded by worse. His career BABIP coming into the season was .282. This year it’s .323. Some of that is the 7 lbs of muscle he found in the offseason. His line drive rates are up. His hard-hit percentage is about the same. His ground ball rate is up – fly ball percentage down – good signs for a guy that is trying to use a slight uptick in exit velocity (oh so slight) and his legs to find holes and increase his average. The question is fair – is the BABIP sustainable or will there be at least a little regression back towards the norm?
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Joey Loperfido remains my highlight of the minor league system in 2023. The guy is 6’3″ and goes 220 and steals 14 of 15. He’s got 10 homers with a .296 BA, .416 OBP and a .959 OPS. I’m thinking first base, but he regularly plays center and second. The kid from Duke is an athlete.
So how does Dana Brown correct the Jose Abreu station? Would anyone pay 5 million of his salary for the next two and a half years? If he got replaced by a young hungry rookie at 750K , then it’s a net cost savings. That’s one of my thoughts for 2024.
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Daveb (Uncleknuckle) – first thinking about you with a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic – hopefully it stays away from you and from lots of other folks in the Caribbean and never strengthens that much with shear winds out there.
Second – I would say to these “fans” – were you around in 2011 – 2014? Were you like most of us – a fan since the 60’s or 70’s? Were you supportive of the rebuild or did you just show up in 2017 and are now a spoiled brat of a fan?
Yes – would love to have someone like Loperfido out there – but right now I think you would have to pay almost all of Abreu’s salary to get a bucket of balls for him.
Just taking a quick look back in 2022 the Astros had a 3-8 stretch, in 2021 a 2-9 stretch, in 2019 a 2-9 stretch. It happens. Its important that they turn it around and not lose contact with the pack while they are waiting for Yordan to return (and possibly Brantley).
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Dan, if at the end of this season, Abreu has not refound his former game, I’d go the bucket of balls route over the winter. We can replace what he’s providing.
All good here, Storm will pass well south and likely weaken before reaching the Windward islands. We all need some rain though., so let’s hope we get wet!
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Bonnie Tyler, that famous Astro fan, writes:
Turn around …
Every now and then you get a little bit sloppy and your bats seem to turn into mush;
Turn around …
Every now and then your starters’ stuff isn’t working and the bullpen lets the other team crush;
Turn around ….
Every now and then the fan base grumbles but the F.O. swears it’s under control;
Turn around …
Every now and then we don’t believe it and we want to go and crawl in a hole;
Turn around, Good guys!
Every now and then you blow a start!
Turn around, Good guys!
Every now and then you fall apart!
And you need a win tonight!
You need to play like we remember!
Back when you showed great skill and might,
and kept smokin’ through September.
You really need to make this right – cause you’re doin’ it wrong!
When Uncle Mike and Yordan make it back to the team,
will you still be in position for an October dream?
Do what you have to do before you come out to the park
so when you cross the white lines you can still leave your mark!
We really need you TONIGHT!
The winning streak can start tonight …
Once upon a time you were flyin’ so high;
now you’re only falling apart.
Nothing left to say:
we need less bat-flips and more heart.
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Mr. Bill – A wonderful fitting parody of a wonderful song by the late great Jim Steinman, who also penned a number of big hits for the late great Meatloaf and the late great Air Supply (well the latter did not die, just their careers did), among others.
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Dan, is there anything you don’t know anything about?
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This team needs to find ways to put pressure on pitchers. Routinely writing in the names of guys with sub .300 OBP’s daily is not going to solve this. Brantley and Alvarez is a cavalry on the way, but when? After we are 10+ games back?
Every night, 6 or 7 guys are in the lineup with below-average OBPs. Some of them are way below. We have wasted some darn good pitching performances. It’s not just Framber’s or CJ’s, France threw 6 1/3rd the other night, gave up 2, and knew he couldn’t win.
And Maldonado airmailing the ball into CF, the passed balls, but Baker talking about needing the veteran’s presence. I haven’t seen a presence hit a home run or throw a runner out at second yet. Presence doesn’t win. Performance does. He has a catcher that is at 65% caught-stealing rate in a league that is running more. He is a far better hitter, so much more that he is using him at DH. It’s great that Baker is finally trusting him and writing him in every day (and not batting 8th). But we are struggling because we continuously employ the two worst hitters in baseball night in and night out – and we surrond them with Julks, Meyers, Pena, Dubon, McCormick – all guys with below league average OBPs. They hit, but when they don’t get a hit, they don’t help any other way. That is too much pressure on Tucker, Altuve, and Bregman to carry it or lose.
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Steven, we’ve already talked about putting pressure on pitchers. We don’t have enough good bats to be so darn aggressive. We’ve got to make those pitchers throw strikes, work walks and build pitch counts. Somebody decided to change our approach at some point. We used to pride ourselves at not swinging at bad pitches. I could guess who decided to change that approach, but have no certifiable proof!
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We have guys with an OPS+ of 85, 92 and 111.
Yeah, as we battle to right the ship, the outfielder easily out hitting the other two sits.
And of course I’m all in on Diaz, but he’s not our clean up hitter.
Need to get to Verlander early and often!
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Listened to Baker being interviewed, live, this afternoon on 790, with Matt Thomas. Baker’s words explained why the team is a train wreck now.
Thomas: Why the poor play against the Reds?
Baker: Well, we don’t know them and they took it to us.
Me: What??!! Doesn’t the team have advance scouts to tell Baker what the opposing team’s strengths and weaknesses are??
Thomas: Max Scherzer pitched well against the club last night. What happened?
Baker: Well, he is a unknown to us and to me. We didn’t know how he pitches.
Me: WHAT??!! Scherzer pitched for the Washington Nationals from 2015 – 2020. Guess who was the manager of that team from 2016 – 2017… BAKER! And he didn’t know what Scherzer throws or how he pitches?
Thomas: Coach, beat the Mets up tonight!
Baker: Well, we don’t want to beat them up. We just want to score one more run than they do.
Me: Shaking my head.
Thomas: Finally, people ask why Diaz isn’t catching full time. Can you tell us why?
Baker: Well, it depends on who we are playing and the circumstances. I can’t say why he isn’t catching all time.
Me: All of this explains what is happening to the team now.
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