Tuesday night was a frustrating team loss with one exception. The exception was Hunter Brown, who has seemingly turned things around. After an assist from brain-dead base running by Julio Rodriguez (think Jose Altuve 2.0), that limited the M’s to one run in the first, he hit his stride and finished with six innings of one-run, nine-K ball that looked a lot like what Justin Verlander would put up in his prime.
The non-exception contributions to the loss?
- The offense was limited to a fly ball scoop to left field by Alex Bregman that cleared the fence and brought home the team’s only two runs. Jeremy Pena was robbed on a potential homer in the second inning. Bregman stranded Yordan Alvarez at third base with one out in the 6th after Yordan singled, stole second and quickly popped up and took third on a bad throw by the catcher. Kyle Tucker, Pena, Jake Meyers, Yainer Diaz, Jon Singleton and it goes without saying, Jose Abreu, all had 0-fers for the night. Their offense in the last three innings of the game consisted of one Tucker walk.
- The coaching…along with playing Jose Abreu against a right-hander, Luis Castillo, who he had little chance of hitting, the lineup did not include the high-hitting and clutch-hitting Mauricio Dubon. It also chose to use the better fielding Jon Singleton at DH with the diminishing skills of Abreu at first. Manager Joe Espada then removed Hunter Brown after 87 pitches when he had retired 12 in a row and looked pretty unhittable. If he had let him try the seventh inning, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader could have possibly steered the team to a win.
- The bullpen…well Abreu pitched well, but Ryan Pressly had his fourth blown save of the season, which has resulted in three losses. We will talk a bit more about Mr. Pressly in a minute.
- The fielding…perhaps Jon Singleton would have snagged the hard shot down the first base line that Jose Abreu slowed down in the eighth inning, but did not stop. Singleton would have had to grab it backhanded, but he certainly has been better than Abreu. Then Bregman made a throwing error to prolong the agony in a three-run rally that turned a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 deficit.
All facets of the team contributed to this loss, and now the Astros are facing a must-win in tonight’s game or tomorrow’s game. Winning both puts them back to 3-1/2 back, winning one to 5-1/2 back, but a sweep by the M’s undoes a lot of the good over the last few weeks and puts them 7-1/2 games back.
Now to Pressly. His 5.31 ERA in 2024 sticks out when compared to 3.58 last year or 3.31 for his career. His 1.672 WHIP (hits plus walks per inning) really sticks out vs. 1.071 last year and 1.162 for his career. This is basically driven by a hit rate of 12 hits allowed per 9 innings. This is compared to 7.4 hits per 9 IP last year and 7.8 for his career.
When you look a little deeper, it is not obvious what is behind all this. The slash numbers against him are robust (bad) .318 BA/ .362 OBP/ .856 OPS as compared to a good slash against .220 BA/.265 OBP/ .623 OPS for last year. The average exit velocity against him is down a bit this year 91.3 vs. 90.4 mph. Probably his worse numbers revolve around a much higher line drive % allowed this season, 32.2% vs. 19.8% last year (his career number is 23.9%), and maybe some bad luck. BAbip (batting average for balls in play) usually runs a bit below .300, it was .297 last year and is running at .288 so far this year. Last season, Pressly allowed a fairly normal .272 BAbip. This year, it is (what I hope) an unsustainable .439 BAbip.
Any way you look at it, Bryan Abreu, Josh Hader, and Pressly all started the 2024 season poorly, but Abreu and Hader have turned it around, while Pressly has continued to struggle. Is this just a small sample and bad luck wrapped together or a harbinger of age? We shall see.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
55 responses to “What the heck is going on with Ryan Pressly and other stuff?”
I think the Bregman homer went out at 94.6. His hitting stats are scary, especially when you look at all those blue lines on Baseball Savant. Defensively, he’s been excellent. That was a rare hesitation compounded by a bad throwing blunder. And Abreu is not going to bail many guys out by keeping the ball in front of him.
Tucker has been carrying the team. Now he’s hit his own rough spot. Yainer is a mess. It will come, but too late? Jake was hitting .220 with a .278 OBP and a .718 OPS on April 30. He’s had a great month, but it’s too early to anoint him. Singleton has given us his best. It’s just not enough for a first baseman on a contending team, especially when there is a bigger problem at the other corner. I’ll also add that Pena is not a clean up hitter. He should be hitting 2nd where he has a history of success.
The line up has not included Dubon nor has it included the rookie left-handed hitter that was sent down. That might have been helpful against four Seattle right-handers. We were 8-4 in Loperfido starts. Maybe nothing more than a coincidence, but I’ve never seen such a bungled promotion/demotion.
I won’t second guess Espada on pulling Brown. I would have done the same thing and set my pen up the same way. Maybe not today though.
Pressly has lost his ownership of the bullpen and with it a bunch of his confidence. He said all the right things when we were shocked by the Hader deal, but I think he was shocked and is now shell shocked. He’ll likely finally correct too, but again, too late?
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Getting second opinions makes me think the first opinion is surgery.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-injuries-and-roster-moves
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Yes, no doubt.
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I’ve had this argument with people in other places that think Pressly is showing bad because he was demoted. They don’t understand people who nosedive into the analytics realize he was showing bad and that’s why he was demoted.
He just isn’t quite the same guy – and when you give major league hitters an inch, they take a mile. Jose Abreu can still come dominate by town’s softball league. Watching him bat in 2016 probably doesn’t look terribly different than today. The difference is in the small things we can’t discern. We can’t really measure read time (though we are getting there). But if he loses a tenth of a second in the big leagues, the same is true. He will give an inch, and major league pitchers are going to take a mile.
The best ones adjust. Craig Biggio, by 38, had certainly lost that read time. What did he do? He started sitting fastball. He just guessed fastball every pitch. His batting average suffered but it let him keep his exit velocity. He started becoming nothing but a pull hitter taking advantage of the crawford boxes. The walks disappeared. Now, he was a smart enough and savvy enough hitter that he had an idea of what the pitcher wanted to do, so he still K’d pretty much in line with his normal rate, but overall, his cheating fastball on most pitches is what let him adjust, play until 41, and get 3000 hits.
In the post steroids era we need to be prepared for more guys to be washed at 35, 36, more like it used to be in the pre-steroids era. They can’t use insane bat speed anymore to make up for lost time. And most of them are not as savvy as Biggio and can’t make the adjustments.
As for Pressly, it’s probably found in velocity and spin rate. They aren’t quite the same, they are probably still good, but not quite the same. And that inch, if he keeps trying to do the same thing thinking he is the same pitcher he was at 28, will continue to be taken advantage of. The best thing that can happen for the Astros is that he doesn’t find his way to that vested inning mark, though it’s not a high number.
In the end, father time wins all. If I was running a franchise, I’m not signing guys to contracts that in year 1 of that contract is their age 36 season. It’s not 2001 anymore.
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Steven, I really want to have a huge argument about this, but unfortunately you’re right. At least regarding Abreu, he’s going to need to win at bats using wily veteran tactics and not rely solely on physical gifts that diminish each year. I read an article/post/whatever over the weekend highlighting that there are almost no starting hitters over age 35 in baseball anymore. There are a handful of contracts in the 9 figure range with multiple years on the wrong side of that line – Freeman, Betts, Ohtani, Judge, Trout, Machado, Lindor, Harper, Stanton, Seager, Devers, Turner, Semien, Bogarts, and ALTUVE. That’s a lot of money teams are going to eat or live with later on.
There’s another factor to consider and that’s the ever increasing average velocity. Now, pitchers are trying to throw harder than in the past and that’s undeniable. There is an emphasis on training for velocity and more guys are throwing closer to their limit than in the past. However, take the numbers with a grain of salt as the tools used to measure velocity are a little different than in the past. In college we had two types of guns – one tried to measure speed out of the hand and the other in flight. There was a delta of 5-7 mph between the two. MLB relies mostly on statcast measurements for their broadcasts which utilizes a number of high speed cameras in the stadiums. I’m reading estimates of 3-4 mph higher from those statcast measurements than the guns used in the 80’s/90’s Regardless, we’re seeing an increase of around .3 mph each year across the statcast era..which is significant and coupled with guys like Abreu losing anything on reaction time can only hamper their ability to compete.
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Really good points. I didn’t even think about the fact that pitcher velocities are also impacting older players losing those milliseconds.
Some good knowledge on those guns. I’m going to go out and read up on that some more and get myself more educated.
My youngest is 14 now, he just finished his baseball season a week ago. You are right, even at his age his coaches are trying to pull velocity out of these kids. He has been learning to pitch from me; his coaches seem to be set on teaching him how to throw – I’m trying to focus on teaching him how to pitch. I’m in my 50s but all through high school, college and even in Korea playing for bottom tier guys they still worked on teaching me how to pitch, not throw. We are a different generation. Now its all velocity velocity velocity.
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Speaking of 41, I’ve been wondering lately if Abreu might be a few years older than advertised.
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It’s been a rumor for awhile now.
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I think, when it comes to Pressly, the Astros have a decision to make. I think a team like Baltimore would definitely, right now, take a chance on him. If we are willing to trade him for Kimbrel and a lower level, decent prospect (lottery ticket) that doesn’t have to be on the 40 man, we can save potentially 18M. We can either use Kimbrel sparingly or just release him and eat that money knowing its overall savings.
Really, the franchise has to be at a decision point. If Javier really is lost for the year, that might be it. JV is great, but he has to be more than that like 2021 to carry. Framber is too Jekyll and Hyde. Brown and Arrighetti could be important parts of the team one day, but it’s not today. They are the classic examples of a team being forced to play guys and not guys forcing them to play them. Garcia and McCullers are not coming until it will be far too late.
Either you start the soft reset now, where Tucker and Framber still bring you great returns due to the extra year, or you sit and hope that the glimmers you have seen from Brown and Arrighetti are real, and they can find consistency, and help you climb back into a division that is winnable. Granted, we just helped Seattle’s head start tremendously (and probably get swept today), but 7.5 isn’t unsurmountable given that they were 6 games back from Texas in late June last year. It’s just, you have to ask yourself if the pitching staff is capable of giving you runs of consecutive quality starts multiple times. We are 26th in ERA. If we don’t see a chance to improve that number it won’t matter if Bregman starts hitting or we find a solution at 1B.
Let’s see what you got Dana. Or committee. Whoever is deciding this.
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We shouldn’t overlook Daveb’s point – the Astros (Crane/Brown/braintrust) chose to send down Loperfido and reinstated Jose Abreu before the Seattle series where we would be seeing four RHP. What possible explanation is there for pulling the trigger and not waiting until we return home to face Minnesota? If the thinking was the outfield was too crowded with Chas returning (but not playing?) a few days prior I can understand it…but we just saw Dubon play 1B in the 8th inning last night so even if they were unwilling to put Loperfido there or he left his 1B mitt in Sugarland it still boggles the mind.
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My guess is they didn’t want the boo birds to eat.
I wouldn’t either. I wouldn’t boo a professional trying to his best, he is a good dude and a good teammate by every account, he just doesn’t have it anymore. I wouldn’t have sent him to the minors, I would just deal in reality and have released him. Being the professional he is I would have tried to help him, his agent, and the franchise put the best possible spin on it, say nothing but nice and complimentary things, have a bobblehead night, give out Abreu t-shirts, whatever, but its time for the franchise to move on.
Unfortunately when you put 40,000 people in the same spot 5,000 of them are bound to show little to no class and boo him.
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Steven, yeah, I’m pretty sure the reintroduction of Jose Abreu was indeed planned for the road series intentionally. Probably the wrong series though, but the brain trust is not getting much right these days. Ultimately though, a few of our normally very polite Houston fan base will begin to voice their disapproval with the present Astro situation. Thing is, while they might end up booing Abreu or maybe even Bregman, the fans are fed up with the lack of cohesive management throughout the organization. They’re not pissed at Abreu. They, like me, are mad at the guys that put Abreu out on the field and then back out on the field. Bagwell and the boys are not going to come out to throw the first pitch or sing Take me out to the Ballgame. There is no opportunity to boo them in real time. But they sure have been getting booed on X.
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No doubt Father Time is catching up to Pressly. But I do think he can change the way he pitches and be successful going forward. But good closers are a different species. Maybe he’s not yet able to grasp the fact that he might not be a closer any longer. And like I said earlier, I do believe the Hader acquisition and subsequent change in job description certainly have added to his wows over the first couple of months of the season.
I’m close to resigning myself to a reset of the club. I was pro reset over the winter. My real concern though is who does the reset? Or will Crane even allow a reset? He’s said many times that we’ll never be sellers.
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Thoughts after last night’s lost
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Well Dan, does that mean Verlander might look around and start considering where he’ll have a better chance at reaching those 300 wins?
I agree that Dubon certainly should have had a bat in his hand at some point last night.
The Astros are already limping. And we can surmise too, that we’ve lost two starting pitchers in the past week, even if the club does not want to tell us.
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You folks are on fire with your comments today
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Dan, I think you may be right about Pressly. What I’ve seen is an inability to locate his fastball. One source says he has topped out at 95.9MPH on four-seem velocity this year, but I know we’ve seen games reporting it at 96 with frequency. It would seem reasonable to me he can comfortable throw it in the lower 90s but pushing it up a little more is causing the location problems.
The Oakland gun could be 100% accurate. It’s more an issue of the tools measuring performance are not consistent with what we used to use. Something else we should consider is how a guy like Tom Seaver with that really long stride or Randy Johnson who released the ball halfway to home plate may throw a ball moving slower than another pitcher but covering less distance. Jamie Moyer used to use this to his advantage by striding a shorter distance on his changeups. Anyhow, I’m off track on the discussion, but the point is we’re seeing more pitchers try to maximize velocity over everything else these days but we don’t know exactly how much harder they are throwing than in previous decades because the measurement tools in use are different. To add to that, I suspect J.R. and Nolan could have fit right in.
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I can’t imagine what it was like to face a 6′-8″ J.R. Richard – striding so close to you before release and then bringing it at 98 mph (and like 93 on his slider). And especially when he was early on in his career when nobody including himself knew where that pitch was going.
Pressly may be trying to make up for less spin by forcing his pitches a bit. We don’t know the machinations behind things, but yes, Father Time is undefeated.
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Sugarland was down 6-0 after 3 innings last night in Vegas. They won 20-7
The Hooks scored early and their bullpen saved the day in a 7-4 win in Midland.
Noone was a star in a 12-3 loss by Asheville and Fayetteville lost to a an Augusta team with a 19-26 record. The final was 9-4.
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MLB.com was featuring all team’s hottest pitching prospect – including ours
Astros: Jake Bloss, RHP (No. 11)
After graduating in three years from Lafayette, Bloss transferred to Georgetown and became the 2023 Big East Conference pitcher of the year and the highest pick in Hoyas history (third round). He has continued to thrive with a 92-97 mph fastball with carry and a solid upper-70s curveball, getting promoted to Double-A this month and logging a 1.27 ERA, .123 opponent average and a 22/6 K/BB ratio in 21 1/3 innings.
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Not to be a Debbie Downer but if we can’t get to at least .500 by the time we reach midseason I think it’ll be time to raise the white flag. Given that scenario to reach 92 wins we have to play .625, 87 wins is .567, and 82 wins is .506. I would suspect that Seattle will finish somewhere around 85 – 90 wins and that just about eliminates us from any playoff possibility.
I was listening to Sports Map Hou last night and it seems as everybody is befuddled about what is going on with management. They mentioned as to why bring Loperfido who was batting .300 gets to sit on the bench along with a couple others while we run out the geriatric lineup (my words). Then we reactivate Abreu and send Loperfido back down. It’s beyond ridiculous! If the season is a write off it would be time to bring up the youth movement and discard the old guard.
My preference would be to unload the following via trade or release: Abreu, Bregman, Pressley. I would try to extend Tucker but if not, you can trade him in his final year. I would look at the trade market for Chaz or Jake since we seem to have a few promising outfielders in the minors. With all the talk about 1st base and the possibility of Loperfido playing first, could we look at Yordan at the first base position? Less chance of injury for him there.
I’d look to sign Dubon for 3 years as our Swiss army knife. He’s 30 but I think he’s good for at least 3 more years. As for pitching one only knows. Framber (Mr. Jekyll or Hyde) and Urquidy are approaching free agency so more decisions to be made. Can’t do anything about McCullars as he’s a sunk cost.
I guess we wouldn’t even be having this discussion save for Crane and “The Committee” (the guys who brought you the contracts of Abreu, Montero, and Hader) who I and others are think are directly responsible for this fiasco.
And Nobody seems to know what the roll of Dana Brown is and is Joe Espada just doing what he’s told or is he really the manager. How about a little fire there, Joe? I’d have probably already been thrown out of at least 3 or 4 games this year from the terrible umpiring we’ve seen but Joe just seems to take it all in stride or am I missing something here?
Ok, time to get off the soapbox.
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The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Manfred sent a memo out to all managers discouraging them from arguing balls and strikes. I think they’re happily gathering the data that will allow them to change to the same robo-ump system they are testing in the minors and don’t want to encourage better jobs by the humans currently in place for fear it will hurt their position.
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“If the season is a write off it would be time to bring up the youth movement and discard the old guard.”
I’m thinking that some moves may be made on or around ASG break. bregman is costing himself a lot of money with his case of yips. he hit the ball well today. lets hope its a trend and not a fluke.
fine performance by heinz a in keeping his ba over .100. at least he didn’t pull any buckners today.
“How about a little fire there, Joe?”
it’s possible he’s just not that kind of guy. tells me that maybe just maybe he’s not in the right line of work. and some of his recent pitching moves have raised my bushy eyebrows more than once. but he’s still the fng so i’ll cut a little more slack for a while longer.
pardon the spelling errors and lack of capitals. this little bluetooth keyboard is difficult to use the shift key. laptop keyboard took some damage from the storm. have yet to take it to the geek shop to see about it.
even if it’s not worth fixing, i’ll end up with a new one from the insurance claim. this one may end up in the bedroom running the tv in there while the new one lives out here.
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Will Arrighetti, like Brown/Franco, run out of steam by the end of the season? Like the latter two mentioned, the rigors of the season will wear him down. Zanuda, I am not optimistic of a playoff run this season.
I have seen vids of Garcia working his way back. We even hear Blum & company discuss Garcia’s preparation. I’ve heard nothing about McCullers. Like he does not even exist. Maybe something in passing. At least he’ll be prepared for his acting career after the Astros. I do not anticipate him ever pitching again.
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What an excellent effort by Arrighetti. Four quality starts by our rotation, fairly though, it must be noted the M’s are not a powerhouse at the plate. In the end, their superior pitching shut down our own bats enough to win 3 of 4. I’m pretty sure the Mariner’s are satisfied with the series outcome. I’m not.
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I stayed up rather late (for me) last night. The darn roosters still got me up early, on schedule. I wanted to watch a few innings of the Space Cowboys game, as Loperfido was in the line up at first base. Outside of a gem in the first inning, leaving the bag after holding a runner, getting into the hole and making a play on a hard hit one hop liner and then tossing to the pitcher covering, what I saw was uneventful. He looked like a first baseman, if somewhat mechanical. But there is no way our present duo at first get to that ball. Unfortunately, Lops added three more K’s to his tally as the Cowboys won 10-9.
Lauer pitched last night. He looked terrible. Almost like he did not want to be there. I don’t see him coming up anytime soon.
Anyone been following the stats of Jesus Bastidas? He’s the 145 pound, 5’8″ guy that came from the Yankee organization over the winter. I don’t even recollect reading about the transaction. He’s got 13 homers and 50 RBI’s now. .302 BA, .392 OBP, .606 SLG and a .998 OPS. I keep waiting for the guy to stop hitting. He plays mostly SS and 2B, and a little third. He might end up being more fun to have around than Kessinger.
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There is a certain rumbling from all over. If you look at a sportsmap Houston article, or a facebook post on Astros Nation, or good ole Chipalatta, you see a pattern from fans that want to see something different.
I don’t want resets. I want to sit in front of my TV and watch a team that I think has a chance to win every night regardless if they are playing the Yankees or the A’s.
I think Jim Crane thinks the same. I don’t think he cares to go back to even being a kinda .500 franchise that wins some years and doesn’t. Houston is fickle. They show up for winners. I remember going to watch Roy O pitch the year before he was traded, it was a very casual experience. No big crowds, I was sitting behind the 3rd base dugout, had some friendly conversations with fellow Stros fans, didn’t have to wait in line a long time for my sodas and dog and some popcorn, just casual strolls through souvenir shops.
The last time I went to MMP was last July (I do live 3 states over btw). It was a mad house, and that was just some non descript Wednesday night. It was Yordan bobblehead night, I am looking at him as I type this. But it was, frankly, for a getting older guy that just doesn’t care for that environment anymore, uncomfortably crowded. The lines just for the bathrooms were there, much less food/drinks. Just walking through courseways was shoulder to shoulder. Walking to my seats down at field level was annoyingly crowded and slow. No empty seats around me. Shoulder to shoulder everywhere.
The money he makes night and night out, I don’t think he is ready to go back to casual Wednesdays. And I’m not ready to go back to not watching every night, which is where I was from 2008-2015ish. The Astros are making the right move trying to stay the course and not sell out the season. Individually I don’t think they are making all the right decisions, for example it’s probably not selling out your season to release Abreu and bring back Loperfido and let him have some starts at 1B, but I do get annoyed every time I see somewhere out there on the internet he was hitting over .300 for goodness sakes! He was over .300 because of a .571 BABIP. He was on his way to .235, because no one keeps a .571 BABIP. Not Aaron Judge, not Juan Soto, not Shohei Ohtani, no one. He isn’t all of a sudden special. It is what they call small sample. Those 17 Ks in 43 PAs, much more concerning than being delighted that some hard hit balls found their way through. BUT he is definitely an upgrade over Abreu, who fans would probably breath a sigh of relief the day he is let go. Even if he goes a little south in BA, he has more power, he hits a harder ball, he runs the bases better, and he can’t be worse defensively.
But sell, nah dawg. Let’s play this thing out. I’m skeptical of this rotation, and the rotation is the key. But I would prefer to watch them try. What you would get in a trade for Bregman right now will just be some minor leaguer you never heard of, and probably will never of again. Play it out.
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As for Spencer. Great game. I’ll give him one thing, he has the desire to be good. He is really excited to be here and get this chance, you can see it between every inning. He threw some pitches right down the gullet that the Mariners just did not hit. That Mariners offense was the matchup he needed to get some wind under him. I’m excited for him. If he can keep stringing together some 0’s in that inning log and not the crooked numbers get out of control he might actually get that ERA down some and put some W’s up.
Him and Hunter don’t have to be great. Just play .500, and don’t get zapped in the 2nd inning for 7 runs. Keep us in games, and eventually Yordan and Bregman will do what they do, and Altuve will get hot again, and the world will be OK. Can we win the division, IDK, that Mariners rotation is not giving an inch to anyone, you are going to have to take it.
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Thoughts
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Reset? I’m still on the fence Steven. Your soft reset is similar to my “on the fence” reset.
Bregman needs to stay for now because as you note, even wealthy teams don’t want to pay his salary and provide anything of real value in return, especially pitching. An exception would be a contending team that loses a third baseman to a season ending injury. And history reports that Bregman will ultimately come out of his slumber.
Trade Chas or Jake for an arm. Are we going to get anything in return? Likely not much unless it’s a guy the Astros have identified as a sleeper. But like you, I’m willing to see what Dana’s got, but not the committee.
Hope Abreu goes 3 for his next 40 and boots some baseballs. I hate to say this, but yeah, I want him to fail, because he is a dark cloud hanging over the club. Does that qualify as a reset? If so, yeah, bring Lops back and see what he does and does not do. He’s a better athlete all over the field. I think we agree here too.
Trade Framber. We simply can’t do that at this point, unless we get a whole bunch of innings back in return. And that is just not going to happen now. If we get our butts kicked over the next two months, then maybe at the deadline. But we’ll probably hang around in our weak division even if we have to hope other teams beat the M’s, because we can’t or simply don’t. So I defer to July 31 on this one.
Tucker. It saddens me to have come to the conclusion that we won’t sign Tucker to a new deal. So if we can get a haul and it’s July 31 and we’ve fallen out of contention, then yes.
Pressly. He has value and a change of scenery might invigorate him. But we don’t have a ready replacement, so for me, not now.
Who did I miss?
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I don’t know if you ever watch Game of Thrones. One of my favorite lines comes from a shady little character and it starts with “I often play a game, I pretend…..”
Sometimes in my head I play a little game. I pretend salaries don’t exist. That contracts don’t exist. I pretend that baseball doesn’t have rules about team control, options, etc. I ask myself, who is the best starting 9 this franchise could put forth from any level? The best rotation and BP it can from any level? What if you were on a sandlot just picking guys?
If people played that out in their heads, they might surprise themselves. Generally most guys would be safe. Of course Altuve, Tucker, Alvarez are safe. Probably so is Pena, and probably, yes even through slumps, Diaz.
If I was trying to put my best 9 out there everyday, Abreu has no business here. And if I was Dana, I would walk into Cranes office and just say, look boss, lets play a little game…….
My other comment for the day before I get back to the rest of my day – Espada is over thinking this thing. Put your best 9 out there. Being Baker’s understudy doesn’t mean act like Baker. Putting Tucker at DH yesterday “because he was 0 for his last 12 and I wanted to give him a break from the field today” is over thinking it. Guys go 0 for 12, even the stars. When the star struggles a few games, its on other people to pick that up. Not try and get cutesy. If you are going to give a guy a day, give him a day. Don’t half day it. Tucker probably doesn’t need a day. He needs to just get back in the box, and field his position.
Guys need days off, especially Altuve and Bregman, and probably Yordan. Dubon is super for that. Dubon should be getting a day a week in CF, 2B, LF, and 3B. Diaz and Caratini should split, not 50/50, but split a little more catching duties, and no more DH time for Diaz. Quit trying to be creative. Quit treating LF like a merry go round and give Chas his job back, at least 5 days a week. He is a good enough hitter that he is going to start hitting again, but he can’t if you sit him for 3 days. I just get the feeling that the inconsistency in the lineup, spots in the order, whether they are even going to be in the lineup today, it’s affecting them all. Write your card in ink damnit.
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That’s a good post Steven. Often I think back to my salad days playing slow pitch with the same batch of guys we mostly kept together for 10, 15 years. Everyone knew where they were playing, where they were hitting. We’d tuck our Budweisers just outside the back corner of the dugout. The umps left us alone. We never leaned on them too hard. We were smart on the bases and almost never made a mental error. We pulled hamstrings into our mid 30’s together. It was such a carefree, simple satisfying moment in time in the midst of more and more family and career responsibilities. And I wish the Astros could be that way too. It should not be all that difficult to be consistent. And last, I agree, Joe should give the guys a break. Dubon should spend more time in the infield than the outfield. Pena looks like he needs a day off. I’m with you.
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I choose this to comment on today. It was noted by a Sugarland Space Cowboy press release that, early this morning, the LV Aviators were down 10-9 and that they had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of 9th inning. The LV batter hit a hard grounder to the right side that looked like game winner until 1B Joey Loperfido made what was described as a “great play” on it to save the win for Sugarland.
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1oldpro, wish had seen that play too. So Joey Lops saved multiple runs and it sounds like the game too, last night while playing first base. Why do we have to keep hearing these vague reports from people like Chandler Rome and others that the Rookie is not ready to play the position at the big league level. Joe Espada evades. Dana Brown evades. A month ago, both were suggesting the Rookie might help at first too. Bagwell is the answer. He’s not prepared to play our best 9.
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I realize that it’s sacrilege to say this here. But here goes.
Screw Jeff Bagwell.
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There’s something we will never hear regarding Heinz Abreu.
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Javier and Urquidy are both seeking second opinions from other doctors. I think we know what that means.
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I wish Press would throw more fastballs. He still regularly hits 95. They don’t always have to be strikes. Looks like people can guess off speed low and away and sit on it.
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Don’t worry, guys. Bregman will soon be full of himself and be back to being the arrogant prick we all know and love.
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Sugar Land had put Loperfido’s play on X with a tag “now that’s how you play first base!”. It was taken down about 30 mins later. Let the tin foil hats out fellas.
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I never ever put mine away!
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Today is June 1. While still relatively early in a 162 game season, I do believe, as the team is presently constructed, the Astros will not be playing post season baseball in 2024. Why?
I was going to wait a couple of weeks before giving in, but the disappearing Loperfido X video finished the season for me. But the way, his excellent run saving backhanded play in the first inning of Thursday nights game can still be found on X. Sadly, somehow, our organization has regressed into a devious group, one that withholds information, one that obviously works to control what gets shared with its fan base, using guys like McTaggart and Rome as puppets. Our club wandered away from principles that guide any good business. They are not trustworthy.
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I agree with every word. Except that McTaggart being a company man toadie propagandist.
He is but that is nothing I didnt already know.
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Thoughts after Friday’s game:
Oh well, hopefully a better effort today
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The way things are going, this “team” (for lack of a better word) is going to be lucky to not finish DFL in the west. And there will not be any wild card fom the weak sister west this year.
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Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time”. The Stros have experienced enough of that adage the past season up to now.
Dave, check/check 1-10. I’d add one more. Mental fortitude, prep to play this game. I do not sense a tm vibe to prevail. Maybe all the above has taxed the ball players. It is difficult to watch this tm score in one inning, 8 x’s the past 9 games. Even when they get decent P, they hardly score. It’s not like the opportunities are not there. Last night Chas XO three consecutive times on the same P. The magic elixir they need will have to come from within for now.
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The season has had many ups and downs… unfortunately too many downs.
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Finally!!! I have been unable to post for a few weeks now because I could not log in.
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Finally! Where has that been all season?
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Another one to keep our eye on.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/jake-bloss-making-strong-impression-in-astros-system?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
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I just hope they don’t rush Jake Bloss along too fast. He’s been excellent, but has pitched just 17 innings in Ashville and 26 in Corpus so far this year and are already talking about Sugar Land.
On another note, Will Wagner just keeps getting on base. I don’t know where he might fit on the Astros at any point, but he probably has the best eye in the organization. He’s walked 37 times and struck out 20. He’s hitting .300 now. His OBP is .419. It’s no fluke either. Lifetime in the minors it’s .396. Maybe he’s a utility guy when Dubon gets too expensive. We won’t get the same defensive though.
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Who is televising Stros game today? I can’t find it
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It’s on Roku, no wonder.
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As a recovered Twins fan, Letroy Hawkins is anethema. If you are concerned when Ryan Pressly takes tha ball, you have never expeienced this clown. Plus he’s dumb as a stump.
My little sister still calls him LaToilet. Yeah, it runs in the family….. 😉
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Well heck. Hunter gave another competitive six innings. Pressly gave up the lead run again. And we just don’t have enough guys hitting the ball. 8 and 25 against teams with a winning record. That’s bad.
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