,

Astros 2024: 21st century schizoid men

Apologies to the pioneers of Progressive rock music (King Crimson), but the title of a track on their debut album seemed like a perfect lead-in to today’s post.

As the Astros struggle to move back towards .500 or at least respectability, we are left asking ourselves – which of these schizophrenic players is the real deal?

  • Is it – The Justin Verlander who gave up an Astro career-worst seven runs in a start last week….
  • Or is it – The Justin Verlander who flirted with a no-hitter on Sunday and looked 2022 dominating.
  • Is it – The Yordan Alvarez who has a Bregman-esque slash in losses (.212 BA/ .290 OBP/ .542 OPS)….
  • Or is it – The Yordan Alvarez who has a Bunyan-esque slash in wins (.328 BA/ .391 OBP/ 1.145 OPS)
  • Is it – The Cristian Javier who was 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in his first 4 starts before his neck injury….
  • Or is it – The Cristian Javier who had a 47.30 ERA in his 1.1 innings since returning from the IL
  • Is it – The Jose Abreu who is batting .500 with a 3-1 count (yes it is only 4 ABs)….
  • Or is it – The Jose Abreu who is batting .072 the rest of the time
  • Is it – The Hunter Brown who is 0-4 with an 8.89 ERA in his starts….
  • Or is it – The Hunter Brown who is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA in his lone relief appearance
  • Is it – The Yainer Diaz who slashed .333 BA/.381 OBP/ .931 OPS with 3 homers in his first 13 games….
  • Or is it – The Yainer Diaz who has slashed .247 BA/ .273 OBP/ .595 with 0 homers in the 25 games since
  • Is it – The Josh Hader who was 0-2 with 1 save and a 9.39 ERA in his first 9 games….
  • Or is it – The Josh Hader who is 1-1 with 4 saves and a 1.93 in his last 8 appearances
  • Is it – The Alex Bregman who is slashing .120 BA/ .120 OBP/ .240 OPS with an 0-2 count…
  • Or is it – The Alex Bregman who is slashing .333 BA/ .625 OBP/ .958 OPS with 3 ball counts
  • Is it – The Bryan Abreu who was 0-1 with a 9.35 ERA in his first 6 games ……
  • Or is it – The Bryan Abreu who is 1-0 with 6 holds and a 1.35 ERA in his last 12 appearances
  • Is it – The Jose Altuve who was slashing .345 BA/ .414 OBP/ 1.010 OPS in March/April….
  • Or is it – The Jose Altuve who is slashing .238 BA/ >273 OBP/ .511 OPS in May

This could go on all day and night, but it is time to tune into Monday night’s game…..

←
→

122 responses to “Astros 2024: 21st century schizoid men”

Newer Comments »

  1. An Astros starting pitcher has made it through the first inning without giving up a run. That’s some improvement at least…..

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. Julia is getting fired up now! I think the Bregman homer did it. It’s fun listening to her. She’s doing a pretty good job of it.

    Like

    Reply

    • For those not watching – Julia Morales is doing play by play and Todd Kalas is the field reporter today. And as TOF says – Julia is doing a solid job of it and of course Todd is having no problems either. It is fun to have them mixing it up – they are a very good trio and we are lucky to have them.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  3. That was another fun game to watch. I wonder if Bregman has been hearing any of the trade talk/rumors about him?

    He sure put it all to rest tonight! Fantastic game! Let’s kick it into overdrive and step on the gas!

    Like

    Reply

  4. The real schizophrenic guy in the room remains Alex Bregman. Who knows what he’ll do tonight and next week and next month. He did not get his OPS over .800 until August 27th last year. He actually had a good start in 2022, but then struggled. It took until August 13 to get back over .800. In 2021, he had a pretty good year, never battled as he has in recent years, but ended up with somewhat of a pedestrian (for him) OPS of .777.

    I sure hope he continues to hit the ball. He’s far more valuable a resource to the Astros when he’s producing. If our guys make a run, he’ll likely be in the middle of it. If the team continues in its own schizo ways then heck yes, send him off in July whether he’s hitting or not for whatever someone is willing to give us. Because next year, I’d rather see some other club deal with his erratic nature.

    In the meantime, we had a lot of hard hit balls again last night. They’re not all dropping in yet, but home feels kind of homey all of a sudden. Got to give Arrighetti a lot of credit too. It’s so much easier to hit when leading a game.

    Like

    Reply

  5. It wasn’t a quality start but it was a good enough one to get the win. Wonderful things happen when you don’t give up 7 runs in 3 innings.

    Like

    Reply

    • Steven, I don’t know what the average IP per start is this year in MLB, but in 2023 it was 5.1. If our back of the rotation guys give us five and keep us in the game, we’ll be alright.

      Like

      Reply

      • I would be more interested in the average IP per game for wins, not all games. Stinkers bring down the overall average. My goal is W’s. I want to know what the average is in W’s so I have a metric to count success against.

        Like

    • Looking it up both bands were formed in 1968 and both had their debut album in 1969 – Yes’s album did come out first in 1969 – I think King Crimson’s first album In the Court of the Crimson King was more influential than Yes’ Yes – but I’ll grant you your point.

      Like

      Reply

    • I would also like to say that I said they were pioneers which means they were early on – not necessarily the first progressive rock group.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Hate to say I told you so but… Bregman looks like he is thinking about baseball again now that the Kentucky Derby is over. As much as he ticks me off we need him .

    Like

    Reply

  10. Thoughts

    • Arrighetti pitched good enough for the second start in a row.
    • Bizarre that Bregman has more homers in his last game than he had in his first 37 or that he has 3 of his 10 extra base hits in that one game.
    • Pena just continues to sting the ball – even when they don’t fall in
    • Caratini did a nice Machete imitation last night and knocked in a couple runs on top of it
    • Bryan Abreu continues to stack up the good appearances – Pressly scares the heck out of me right now

    Like

    Reply

  11. I was only half-joking when I said in the last post that Meyers should be a pitcher.  He might not throw as hard as he once did, but we need guys who can throw quality strikes, and Arrighetti did that for the most part last night.

    Jake is producing offensively as well as could be expected.  So far, his .780 OPS is higher than Dubon, Caratini, Singleton, Yainer, Chas, and of course, Bregman.  And his stolen base led to an important insurance run in the 7th.

    Like

    Reply

    • Meyers is doing great. As much of the credit goes to Espada on that, he has mixed him in and put him in matchups that work for him. If he plays every day he gets exposed and he doesn’t have a .780 OPS so thumbs up to both of them.

      Like

      Reply

      • I’d be okay with trading Jake or Chas if a deal comes up. I just wish Jake played the outfield rather than CF only. He might be smarter than I’ve been thinking all along.

        Like

  14. Per the Astros website, he’ll be playing in San Antonio tonight and tomorrow with the Hooks. He might be back this weekend.

    Like

    Reply

  15. Disappointed to see Loperfido sitting again. His numbers against left-handed pitching in the minors are excellent.

    Like

    Reply

    • He’s doing pretty well coming off the bench as a hitter/runner in critical situations lately, too. I hope we have many more chances to see Joey play. Maybe tonight.

      Like

      Reply

  17. The boys need to catch fire and do some serious winning for the rest of this month. This part of the schedule is going to be critical to the AL West standings until after the All Star break.

    Gotta knuckle down and play good baseball. They know how.

    Like

    Reply

    • I sure hope the umps are wrong. But if he’s guilty, he’s been doing it all year. It’s rare to have a 30 year old guy with 14 career starts suddenly turn into a Cy Young contender.

      Like

      Reply

  19. That was a game we would not have won a couple of weeks ago. We need a nice 94 pitch CG from Framber tomorrow night.

    Like

    Reply

  22. A nail biter but the good guys came through. Kudos to Hader for keeping us in the game. Pressley seems to have lost it. Maybe we could trade him for a young flame thrower or two no matter where we are in the standings. All that aside we seem to be getting our act together. Let’s hope it continues.

    Like

    Reply

  24. Such a subjective rule. Totally depends on the umps and how they want to enforce. Rosin is allowed on the throwing hand. Rosin is not allowed on the non throwing hand/arm or the glove. But the illegal substance is right there on the mound for all to use. As soon as a guy tucks his glove under his sweaty arm to rub up a ball, both hands have rosin on them. Sweat only makes it easier to transfer the rosin from the hand/arm to the glove. How does a pitcher make sure to get and keep rosin on his pitching hand only?

    But Blanco has the know the rule. His boss has to make sure he knows the rule. And now all the Astros pitchers will have men in blue sniffing around them as never before, even as the other pitchers in the league are doing the same thing. Watch them check Framber today.

    My guess is that Blanco has come to rely on rosin more than he has in the past to help grip the ball and snap off that high spin rate, making the change up so effective. He might have gotten sloppy with it. I wonder what he’ll do come summer when he’s really sweating out there. Especially since there is no equitable and definitive way to enforce the present rule. And MLB does not like having the Astros with a 30 year old suddenly dominating the league.

    Like

    Reply

    • “My guess is that Blanco has come to rely on rosin more than he has in the past to help grip the ball and snap off that high spin rate…”

      I suspect you’re right. It’s unfortunate he did it stupidly and got caught.

      But I’m of the school that says if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying hard enough. So there’s that…. 😉

      Like

      Reply

  25. I guess in my mind the change-up would not require as much spin as other pitches, but I may be just be ignorant on the subject. Reading McT’s article….

    https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/ronel-blanco-ejected-from-start-due-to-issue-with-glove

    …Surprised this is the stickiest this ump has come across. And surprised that Ronel does not know the rule that it can’t be on the non-throwing hand.

    Well this comes at a terrible time with the Astros playing a gazillion games in a row if he indeed gets a 10 game suspension. Hunter among others will need to step up.

    Like

    Reply

    • Yeah, I’m not buying that “I didn’t know it was illegal” bidness. It’s your job to know, kid.

      That would be like me saying I didn’t know it was illegal for me to pull a trailer with no running lights after somebody rear ends me. Doesn’t make it any less illegal. Just makes me look ignorant.

      Man up and take the punishment that’s coming. Unless you want to be laughed at for all eternity like Phil Neikro trying to pretend he didn’t know the emery board was in his back pocket.

      Like

      Reply

    • Dan, just read a brief post by Clack, the resident analytics professor across the way. Indeed, your premise that the change up requires less spin is backed up by his points. I’m glad to be wrong here, because that makes me feel better about Blanco suddenly being so successful as a middle aged baseball player. Unless he’s gotten caught in some really devious scheme, I think he’ll come back in 10 days or so and still be the effective guy we’ve come to count on and will continue his great story.

      Like

      Reply

  26. On Pressly – I think everything has to be taken with a grain of salt when it’s small sample. That said, lets taste that salt. Hitters are hitting .333 against him so far. They are slugging .507. He has a 48.9% hard hit against percentage. His exit velocity against is 92.0. His line drive rate is 34.0%.

    These are all career worsts. Is his BABIP against going to stay .467? No way. And when it comes down, some of those counting stats will too. But exit velocities and hard hit percentages are not counting stats they are predictors of counting stats, and if they continue to elevate, as they have for the past 2 years, he is going to continue to have innings that make you wince.

    But last night I don’t think I was too concerned. If the offense puts up one run and the expectation is perfection even from a member of the “big 3” than we are set up for disappointment.

    Last night was the kind of game you need to win more of though. It was pitching pitching pitching and then the offense scratching out the win. That is the hallmark of a winning team, not 9-2 blowouts. Those happen, on both sides of them, but scratching out those low scoring games is what will determine our season.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  27. This Blanco issue is a head scratcher from the standpoint of who throws the innings we need thrown. For tonight, is there anyone else available besides Dubin and maybe Abreu for the third day in a row, since he only went 8 pitches last night? Hunter might be a one inning emergency option, but he threw 85 pitches on Sunday. I’d hate to see that. Taylor Scott might have to go down to AAA for a long arm, especially since Javier has still got to be considered a question mark tomorrow even though he’s now listed as the starter tomorrow. The TBD starter has now been moved to Friday night. Message tonight is runs in bunches for the Astros early.

    Like

    Reply

    • The only thing I’m sort of pissed about is that he seemingly was ignorant of the rules. And although people seem to want to pile on Joe, unfairly I think most of the time, if a player does not know the rules, that should be on the manager.

      Like

      Reply

      • I would be a lot more likely to doubt Blanco’s veracity before I started attacking Espada.

        He knew, Dave. He knew.

        Like

    • I think this reflects more poorly on the organization than it does on Blanco. The team needs to make sure all the players know the rules. Especially in the cases where players use interpreters the team needs to make sure it is crystal clear that the players understand. Having offered that complaint, Blanco had higher spin rates prior to this year so I’m not concerned he’ll fall off a cliff, but control was previously an issue and if he is cautious about using the tools available to him because of this suspension we could see a real regression in performance there.

      Like

      Reply

  30. Did y’all catch young Mason Miller making the Astros look bad for 2 innings last night?

    We aren’t the only ones – he’s struck out 38 in 18.1 innings so far

    Like

    Reply

  31. Dan, just let me know when you get tired of this theme I keep harping on.

    We all know Mauricio Dubon has a been an excellent acquisition by the Astros. He’s won a Gold Glove for his infield play. And as a streaky hitter, he’s created a spark at times when we’ve really needed one.

    I’m really pleased to see Joey Loperfido back in center field tonight. I’m happy whenever he gets a shot somewhere on the field.

    Going back to the beginning of his professional baseball career in 2013, Frenchie has played 18 innings at first base. 18 error free innings. He never played the position in the minors.

    As far back as I can go with Loperfido is his freshman year at Duke. He started 63 games at first that season. I could not find any defensive stats on him for this period.

    And in just over 2 seasons of minor league ball, he got 56 starts at first, over 486.2 innings. He made four errors. I’ve seen him play the position in Corpus. I’ve watched a dozen or more games when he played first on line. He knows how to play the position.

    I just want to see him get a shot over there. I don’t understand the hesitation. A lot of people will be surprised.

    Like

    Reply

    • Loperfido was an All-ACC first baseman for more than just offensive output. Keeping him in the OF says to me one of 4 things. 1) they don’t want to upset the vets. Believe it or not the players like Jose Abreu and don’t like to see him struggle. 2) Espada has recognized that for Chas and Jake to be successful you have to hide them at times 3) Espada really doesn’t know Loperfido has a first baseman’s mitt 4) they want to protect him by subbing out late in games.

      I think it’s a combination of all of those, but the last one is the big reason. They have more guys on the bench who can go in and play OF than they do 1B. He has struck out 12 of 33 PA thus far and fanned in a number of late inning ABs.

      Like

      Reply

  32. Dave – I lived through how many months (4 or 5?) of why is Dusty playing Maldonado so much and Yainer so little… this harp about Loperfido not getting to play first base is quite fresh yet.

    Like

    Reply

    • One thought. Abreu will be back and they don’t want the fan base to see a real viable solution at first.

      Like

      Reply

      • Sadly, that very well may be true. I’m looking forward to seeing him play 1b tonight. Get 3-4 hits.

        Been pretty happy about Singleton’s recent improvement there as well.

        Heinz Abreu doesn’t hurt us when he’s in Florida. I vote to keep him there. For what that’s worth……

        Like

    • Loperfido is an OFer who plays 1B. He even said himself in an interview that he played 1B at Duke because the OF positions were set and they were just trying to get his bat in the lineup.

      I’m not saying he can’t become an everyday 1B. But Singleton and Abreu have been playing the position since they were in little league.

      I’m not trying to discount the idea I’m just trying to tell you what I think the Astros are thinking. Plus, I’m telling you, Brown’s mancrush is not Abreu, I think he genuinely likes Jon Singleton. I think he sees Singleton as someone that can give him a plus WAR overall for 1M. But I do think when Chas is back Loperfido will see some games over there.

      Singleton is at a fragile moment. While I think he has had pretty good ab’s, putting a ball on the track in game 2 that I thought was gone, a few liners right at people, he is down to .213. He probably will play tonight, he might play Friday night, but if we see two 0fers, the experiment might see an adjustment. And if an adjustment comes, he might be the next DFA. Like, he can go from winning a starting gig for the rest of this year, all the way to being out of baseball again.

      I would be surprised if we see Abreu back. Could happen. We also could, 2 months from now, hear some that he and the Astros have “mutually agreed” to part ways.

      Like

      Reply

      • Totally agree, his best position is CF. He runs like Jake, can track things down, has more arm. He’ll steal bases. Bottom line is that if he hits, Joe will have to find a place for him. He keeps striking out, but those K’s are no worse than a pop up, especially when (and it’s a very small sample) he’s hitting .324 with a .378 OBP and a 139 OPS+.

        Seems like he’s adapting to MLB pretty well.

        Like

  33. Framber could not have done much better tonight. And I was pleased to see him and Yainer sharing some love as he came off the mound in the 7th.

    Like

    Reply

    • What impressed me a lot was after they called tha balk on him in the 7th, He was about to go off like a cheap Chinese bottle rocket.

      But he reined in his temper, knuckled down, and went back to work. And he got the job done!

      Glad to see that positive behavior receive some reinforcement with good results.

      Like

      Reply

  34. A greatly appreciated 2 innings save from Seth Martinez! Just what the doctor ordered for a beat up pitching staff/bullpen.

    How about this Rodriguez guy they got for Julks? Is he likely to help the team this year?

    Like

    Reply

    • No. He hasn’t even thrown a pitch at A ball yet. He has a long road, if he ever gets here. But getting him is a lottery ticket that we can get instead of watching someone just claim Julks for free. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a similar deal for Bielak before Friday.

      Like

      Reply

  36. Moving on, do we get the early season version of Javier tonight? Last Saturday’s version certainly won’t work for us right now. Once again, we pretty much need 6 good innings from him. I won’t ask for 7.

    Typically, winning 3 of 4 in any series should be considered an excellent outcome. But today, we want that sweep and with a relatively low impact burden on the pitching staff. Asking too much? How about the offensive producing a laugher off a young, talented right-hander?

    Like

    Reply

  37. It is wonderful to turn off the TV late and go to the box scores and see that the Astros won.

    It wasn’t like that until a couple of weeks ago.

    Like

    Reply

  39. Someone explain why we traded Bielak for cash? Did we get enough money to actually matter? I didn’t think we had the pitching to spare? Does this mean the front office likes the current progress of McCullers and Garcia? I’m having trouble making sense of getting rid of any pitching for cash.

    Like

    Reply

    • Well they DFA’d him last week thinking Javier was ready to roll and that Urquidy was close and maybe they think Seth and Tayler have sopped up the multi inning spots

      it did seem like an odd move considering he was a decent if unspectacular sub starter in his time here

      Like

      Reply

    • Was surprising to me because Dubin still has an option left, but I guess they like Dubin so much more that they were OK with losing Bielak.

      To be honest I am bigger fan of Bielak than I am of having him so I am happy for him. I heard the A’s GM talk about this move yesterday on MLB Network and they plan on putting him in the rotation. The guy gave us some big starts that, when you do the math, we needed every one of last year. I hope he becomes a plus pitcher for the A’s – its perfect because it’s not like they can challenge us and he gets his chance.

      The real question is what surprise happens next week when Urquidy is activated. Does Arrighetti return to AAA? That’s the move I would make. Keep Arrighetti starting at AAA so he is stretched out. They might be a slightly better team if they keep Arrighetti and send down Dubin, but that might not be what’s necessarily best for Spencer if he is going to become a major league starting pitcher long term.

      Like

      Reply

  40. Here’s hoping Javier has a strong outing and we can pull off a sweep. That would be a huge morale boost for everybody!

    Like

    Reply

  41. About time somebody hit one in the gap with the bases juiced. Estes is off. Crush those mistakes he keeps throwing down the heart of the plate and quit looking at’em!

    Like

    Reply

  42. Pretty impressive outings from both Javier and Dubin, following up the Framber/Martinez effort on Wednesday. Just a few weeks ago, the outcome would have been quite different. Really essential work by all four guys. Now we’ve got a fully rested pen entering the weekend.

    When our guys both hit and pitch to their historic levels, it’s a pretty good team.

    Like

    Reply

  43. Hope you folks are ok without me for a few days – I’m on a much needed mini vacation and I probably won’t post again until Sunday/Monday – but the team seems to be doing great without me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  44. Amazing things happen when you put some good starts from pitchers in a row. 19-25 still isn’t great, but only 5 games out is a gap that close in a few weeks, especially if they continue playing .600+ ball for 2 more weeks. Luckily no one is going Dodgers the AL West.

    Like

    Reply

  45. We’re going to mash up the blog in your absence. Have fun.

    By the way, in spite of his struggles at the plate so far, Yainer has managed 21 RBI’s, second most on the club behind Tucker’s 29. Our catcher will hit.

    Like

    Reply

  47. Physically I do not see anything wrong with our current lineup other than they need to get out of their own heads. Improved P is really going to help spark some fire in this tm I believe.

    Like

    Reply
Newer Comments »

Leave a reply to 1oldpro Cancel reply