This should be the golden age of Astros’ blogdom. Between Chip, Brian, and Dan, we kept this blog going through the Dark Ages of Astros’ history. There were three 100-loss seasons. There was the whole cable TV debacle where for a while only 40% of fans could get to watch their team, and frankly, much of the time it felt like the other 60% got the better deal. There were the days of Carlos Pena, Jordan Schaefer, Phillip Humber, Lucas Harrell, and friends. There was the whole Brady Aiken debacle, which in the end gave this team Alex Bregman instead, so the debacle is a bit harsh in hindsight.
But lately, this has not been the golden age of Astros’ blogdom. The Astros beat the snot out of the Tigers in the last two games of their series and then sweep the Red Sox. So, we write happy things about the team. Then they get swept by the lowly Yankees (even though the Astros got swept, typing lowly Yankees feels good). So, we write dunning things about them. Then they annihilate the Rangers in an unprecedented onslaught, and tada all is happy again. The Padres tear the Astros a new one and we are down on them and then they come back and beat the Padres in the last two games of the series.
What is a blogger to do?
Well let’s talk out of both sides of our mouths….what is wonderful about the Astros and what infuriates us?
Wonderful – When we see a lineup like Sunday with three guys above .900 OPS (Yordan Alvarez, who just bumped above 1.000, Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley) and four more between .800 and .900 OPS (Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Chas McCormick and Yainer Diaz).
Infuriating – When Martin Maldonado and Mauricio Dubon or Jake Meyers sub in for Chas and Yainer and suddenly we have what looks like a much less potent lineup.
Wonderful – When the team is whacking around the opposition ala 16 homers and 50 hits in a three game series against the Rangers.
Infuriating – When the team heads to extra innings and can’t push across the winning runs as they’ve failed to do 8 of 9 times this year.
Wonderful – When Framber Valdez throws a no-hitter, J.P. France gives us a strong 6 innings, or Justin Verlander gives us another strong, long start.
Infuriating – When Framber or Cristian Javier or Hunter Brown melt down with a moment’s notice and throw away a game in a matter of a few batters.
Wonderful – When four or five bullpen pitchers channel last year’s playoffs and shut down the opposition for another great win.
Infuriating – When the bullpen comes in with a decent lead and immediately walks hitters.
Wonderful – When the smallest guy on the team, Altuve, launches four home runs in four consecutive innings over two games.
Infuriating – When one of the biggest guys, weight-wise, Maldonado, can’t hit his weight.
Wonderful – When players like Chas and Yainer are interviewed about their usage and give team-affirming positive responses to being abused.
Infuriating – When Dusty Baker is asked about the same situations and gives, non-logical, contradictory, or condescending answers while throwing the young men under the bus.
Wonderful – After finally getting some of their wounded back, the Astros have made up 6.5 games on the Rangers since August 15 and taken control of their destiny in the AL West.
Infuriating – They did this while only going 13-10 and losing a game and a half to the Mariners. If they could go on a run they could flatten these teams, but they are doing a lot of four steps forward, 3 steps back.
So, that gets some good and bad out of my system. How about you today? What is Wonderful, and what is Infuriating?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
42 responses to “The wonderful/infuriating Astros”
Wonderful – Seeing any of the pitchers throwing three strikes in a row to strike a batter out.
Infuriating – Seeing the same pitcher, as noted previously, throwing four balls in a row after throwing three strikes in a row, all during the same inning.
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I’ll second that!
Wonderful – Getting runners in scoring position with two outs and scoring 2 or more runs.
Infuriating – Getting two to three runners on base with no outs and not scoring any runs.
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Tonight we have our post season line up except that when Verlander pitches, we’ll likely see Chas on the bench. I don’t see Brantley sitting, unless maybe there’s a tough lefty on the hill. Maldy, with his home OPS of .508 plays while our superior option in every aspect of the game with a .961 OPS at home sits on the bench. And like I just said, that’s what we’ll see in the post season. To me, that remains far beyond infuriating.
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In other baseball related stuff, Dana Brown said that he thought it was “weird” when he read multiple articles claiming the Astros had talked/were talking to David Sterns about a job with the Astros. Per him, he had not heard a thing from anyone inside the Astro organization.
Terrible to see “The Martian”, rookie Jasson Dominguez of the Yankees go down with a torn UCL, likely sidelining him until sometime in 2024. A 20 year old centerfielder? What do MLB teams have their players doing in the gym? Or are players working out the wrong way, without supervision? I just don’t think this stuff happened with such great frequency 20, 30, 50 years ago. Baseball players should not look like Jeremy Pena.
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Oh, I don’t know, Dave. In the old days when I was a kid and dirt was new, most baseball teams didn’t have state-of-the-art training facilities. We’ve all heard the stories of ballplayers workouts consisting primarily of 12 ounce curls and Havana rolled cigars. Mickey Mantle was no choirboy but he did OK.
But that was when men were men, women were women, and there wasn’t anything in between…..
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But I agree it’s a shame the kid got hurt.
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It is a shame that the kid got hurt. He has a lot of energy and talent.
His face definitely looks 20. The rest of him looks 32. It’s hard to not think his workout regime, which has to be heavy to look like that at 20, did not at least impact his injury prone-ness. When I was 20 I was 145 pounds and looked like I was 12.
Another reason the Astros have struck gold with Tucker. Guy is built like a ball player, and ask the Angels, availability is the first 75% of the battle.
Speaking of Angels, hints are starting to come out of LA that Trout will quietly ask out after Ohtani is gone. I say, who the heck wants to take on that contract for a guy that has played only 56% of games since 2019 and less than 50% in the last 2 years? Do they think he is suddenly going to get younger and healthier? I understand rolling the dice but oof, 6 more years at 35M a year is heck of a roll.
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And more weird stuff! I have a blue icon and a green icon because I accidentally typed my email address incorrectly and did not notice until I was clicking POST COMMENT. Seems odd that I was able to post with a typo in my email address. But probably not as weird as two triples in the same inning.
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Congratulations to Framber (Psycho) Valdez for not throwing at anybody after giving up a doo doo bomb in the t2. That’s a little improvement at least……
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Hitting like the whiffleball team from a local retirement home tonight. They’re all 21st century schizoid men……
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MMP: where visiting pitchers all look like Walter Johnson.
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You can add tonight’s performance to the “infuriating” category.
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Brian McTaggart described the Astro loss as logic-defying. He apparently has not been watching the same team we have all year. Just another lethargic home loss. I’d just like to know why we have all these logical home losses. And I’m not buying the batters eye suggestion. Other teams seem to hit our pitchers pretty well in Houston.
Last night was not so bad though. The Angels were clinging to a tied game in the 9th, 3-3. Then they got 5 runs in two frames of “extra innings”. I’m pleased the M’s lost, but that man on second rule sure does take the integrity out of a hard fought baseball game.
Maybe the Jays and Astros will both awaken tonight. Wonder who’s playing for the Astros?
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I once had a well-bred dog who I thought was going to be my pride and joy. He was talented; but alas, he was schizophrenic. Some days he would be fantastic – performing with excellence and enthusiasm as he was bred to; but just about the time you thought he was the best dog in the world, and ready for the show, he would go into a funk and flat out disappear for a few days.
I am so thrilled to be reliving that experience with this year’s Astro team.
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Baseball is a funny sport.
It’s hard to be consistent as an offense when the lineup isn’t. I’m a baseball traditionalist. I want to see the best 9 out there everyday. I would be remarkably boring as a manager as I wouldn’t deviate from it except for the occasional off day, and they wouldn’t come that often. My expectation is they are all treated like Bregman and Pena and Tucker (and unfortunately Abreu), penciled in for 155 games.
What we get is a hodgepodge where I feel like Baker wants to have a competition to see how many different lineups he can create in a given month.
The Astros gave Abreu 58.5M dollars. They are going to play him. Me, I would too, but it would be like 4 days a week. Why Chas and his OPS can’t be completely left alone in CF as an everyday player but Abreu and his .650ish OPS can be, one of the great mysteries of life. Apparently, if Baker is mad about Chas and his weight bringing him banana pudding all the time is a funny way of showing it.
Maldy hit .258 in August with 3 dingers in 19 games. Unfortunately the real Maldy has shown back up for September. He is going to play, we can’t stop that train, so might as well hope you get a good September the rest of the way. I’ll take a .258 from him any day.
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Will our heroes [less Michael Brantley and Yainer Diaz] be able to break out of their ‘can’t hit the broad side of a barn at home vs. A’s pitching] funk tonight vs. JP Sears? Don’t count on it. In his last two outings [vs. the Angels and the Jays], he’s thrown 11 innings and given up only eight hits and one earned run. He walked four against the Jays, and that shortened his outing. But will our guys be patient and make him throw strikes? It’s not our strong suit!
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I wouldn’t bet any money on it.
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I’ve been very busy today but Chip shared that the Mets are hiring David Stearns
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It is the fifth inning. Infuriated.
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Gosh, our guys have played a really crappy game. Not just the lack of hitting or pitching either. Swinging at crap. No patience. Plays not made, bad base running, miscommunication. And I’m still thinking maybe a pinch hitter for Maldy in the 7th with Dubon hitting a double. And then I’m pretty much blown away that the manager goes to the bottom of the pen in the 8th instead of keeping the game close against the worst pen in MLB. I guess I just don’t understand.
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Pfffft. Thanks a lot, Dusty. /s
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Test
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topped watching after the 5th. As the Elton John song goes, ” I’ve seen that movie too”. One thing I’ve noticed and I might be repeating myself, our pitchers miss the plate big time and then they serve up one right in the middle and whamo! a double home run or whatever. That includes JV, Framber, Brown and whomever.
Have we got anybody in the minors who can come in and give the team a needed shot in the arm? John Granato and Lance Zerlein suggested Spencer Arrighetti but I don’t know enough about him but I would grade our starting rotation a “C” right now. The bullpen seems to be OK. Maybe we should do a Bull pen game but I doubt Dusty would do that. He stay the course even if it means we miss the playoffs.
We should be putting space between us and the M’s and Rangers but instead we’re losing ground. It’s just plain “infuriating” to watch.
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Man, these Jekyll/Hyde splits at home suck! The playoffs would be a disaster if they continue this trend at home.
If you visit MMP Dan, (you may not be that type of engineer), but you could check around the stadium and find some structural issues that would require MMP to be shut down the rest of the season for repairs. The Stros would have to play at a neutral site for home gms the rest of the way. It would suck for the fandom but them thriving on the road could be the remedy for them to win, lol.
A shame I’m joking in this vein but thus far the home cooking has been an abject failure this 2nd half.
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Well, today we should at least get our good line up, not the one for important games like Monday or Tuesday, or potential post season games, but our best line up, the one we save for special occasions only.
On the other hand, our veteran skipper might decide to shake things up a bit and put Big John or Jake out there, to keep them battle ready and to rest a couple of our tired fellas.
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I thought I was being facetious.
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If this is the “good” lineup, I dread to see what the bad one looks like. It’s almost as if DF Baker is actually trying to lose the division and WC spots. Hmmmm….
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Nothing should surprise us any longer.
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Oh, I’m not at all surprised, dave. That was the internal Dale Gribble I have perpetually whispering to me making me go “hmmmmm”.
Something else is going on here that nobody is talking about.
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The way our rotation guys have been looking, we may as well let Maldy pitch. The result will be the same ( a lopsided loss to a last place team) as if Hunter Brown starts, and at least if Maldy is pitching (a) he can’t be catching, (b)he won’t take up a place in the batting order, and (c) Yainer is guaranteed to get a game behind the dish.
Free Maldy!
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Not good news for the Rangers
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/09/max-scherzer-unlikely-to-return-this-year-due-to-teres-major-strain.html
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I knew the minute the Rangers acquired Scherzer that he would do IL time. It’s in the Rangers DNA, probably in the contract.
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Brown is looking spry out on the bump tonight. Perhaps he is delighted to have his personal catcher behind the dish.
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Oh, forgot to mention Brown’s personal C is also providing him run support to boot
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Just figures that Pressly (known in some circles as Larry Sinclair’s twin brother) blew the no hitter AND the shutout……
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In watching the game tonight, TK and Blummer noted that Pressley wanted to get in on the no hitter. If that’s true I consider that about as selfish as one can get. His hubris not only cost the team the No-No but a shutout as well. In fact it wasn’t looking good there for awhile. I’m glad we won the game with the “once every 5 games” catcher Diaz getting two hits and a n RBI. Yordan with a 3 run blast and Bregman and Tucker with long balls.
Kudos to Hunter Brown for a well pitched game and the BP doing the job for 3 more innings before the 9th. We need to keep winning to take the division. No time to slack off now.
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I’ve always been of the opinion that Pressly (even at his best) was very overrated. Tonight, he also proved that he’s also not a team player.
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That might be a bit presumptuous. Because of the recent stretch of wildly erratic play by the Astros, there have been very few save opportunities for Pressly. On the month, he had thrown just 2 innings before last night. It was obvious he was rusty and needed the work. He had one bad outing in August. I hope that was his night in September. If Baker had sent anyone else out there, people would have been cursing in the other direction. It looked to me that Pressly was apologizing to Diaz as they met after the last pitch. Pressly works his ass off for this team when he’s needed.
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That’s probably the case. I was just going on what the announcers said, right or wrong. Don’t deny that he needed to get some work in but he definitely was not good last night.
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Needed a big win and the team came through.
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In other news, the Astros are now 26 and 12 when our back up catcher starts behind the plate. Ignore it though. Too small a sample size, right?
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While I’m far away from you I whispered a little prayer for Hunter and he delivered something that every Astros fan needs! We came up short on the combined no-no; sometimes it just turns out that way.
I love Hunter Brown (I love Hunter Brown)
Such a fine pitch array (Such a fine pitch array)
Try to draw a walk (Try to draw a walk)
Or put the ball in play (Or put the ball in play)
You’d be safe and warm (You’d be safe and warm)
In your dugout today (In your dugout today)
California beatin’ (California beatin’)
On such a summer’s day
Got you in a lurch
You whiffed along the way
Well, he caught you at the knees (Caught you at the knees)
And you portend doomsday (You portend doomsday)
You know he threw like Preacher Roe (Threw like Preacher Roe)
You’re overmatched like Pete Gray (Overmatched like Pete Gray)
California beatin’ (California beatin’)
On such a summer’s day
I love Hunter Brown (I love Hunter Brown)
Such a fine pitch array (Such a fine pitch array)
Try to draw a walk (Try to draw a walk)
Or put the ball in play (Or put the ball in play)
If I didn’t know better (if I didn’t know better)
He’s a seasoned veteran I’d say (Seasoned veteran I’d say)
California beatin’ (California beatin’)
On such a summer’s day
On such a summer’s day (California dreamin’)
On such a summer’s day
On such a summer’s day
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