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ChipalattAwards for May

The Astros’ month of May was one of stopping the bleeding after finishing April at 10-19. The 15-14 record in May did slow the bleeding but losing 3-of-4 to the Mariners at the end of the month put the brakes on their turnaround. It was a month where a few folks fell off the deep end, while others put up strong numbers.

As usual, this is about individual awards for the month.

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

Name Gm W L Svs IP ERA WHIP HR Ks/9 IP BAA OBPA OPSA BAbip IR/ IS
Framber Valdez 5 2 3 0 30.1 5.34 1.385 5 6.5 .280 .331 .780 .301 N/A
Cristian Javier 3 1 1 0 11.1 8.74 2.029 3 7.1 .319 .418 .993 .343 N/A
Hunter Brown 4 1 1 0 26.1 3.42 1.139 4 9.9 .206 .294 .665 .250 0/0
J.P. France Out
Ronel Blanco 5 2 1 0 26.1 3.42 1.177 5 9.2 .211 ,290 .700 .234 N/A
Justin Verlander 6 2 2 0 36.2 3.68 1.146 7 8.1 .226 .291 .693 .245 N/A
Spencer Arrighetti 6 3 2 0 33 4.36 1.424 3 9.8 .250 .338 .725 .326 N/A
Josh Hader 11 2 1 5 13.1 1.35 0.750 2 14.9 .130 .200 .461 .182 1/0
Brandon Bielak 5 1 0 0 9.2 3.72 1.552 1 3.7 .293 .370 .857 .306 3/3
Ryan Pressly 10 0 1 0 9.2 3.72 1.448 1 11.2 .300 .333 .833 .407 0/0
Rafael Montero 9 0 0 0 9 2.00 1.222 2 7.0 .235 .316 .786 .240 0/0
Bryan Abreu 13 0 0 0 13 2.08 0.923 1 15.2 .200 .280 .591 .364 4/3
Seth Martinez 11 1 0 1 16 1.69 1.125 1 2.3 .189 .300 .627 .188 3/1
Tayler Scott 13 1 1 0 15.1 1.17 0.978 0 8.8 .151 .258 .409 .205 3/1
Parker Mushinski 5 0 0 0 5.1 1.69 0.750 0 0 .158 .238 .501 .158 0/0
Shawn Dubin 5 0 1 1 7 5.14 1.714 0 6.4 .269 .406 .829 .333 0/0

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

  • Starting Pitcher of the Month. Justin Verlander – his ERA was not quite as good as the other best starters offset by one poor start where he gave up 7 runs. But he had the most starts and sucked up the most innings and gave the Astros a good chance in 5 of his 6 starts.
  • Runner-up. (Tied) Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown – They both pitched exactly 26.1 innings, had exactly a 3.42 ERA, and were very close on their slash stats. Blanco did this despite his 10-game suspension, and Brown did this despite moving to the bullpen for one outing.
  • Last Month. Winner – Ronel Blanco / Runner-up – Cristian Javier

 

  • Relief Pitcher of the Month. Josh Hader – After a poor start to the season, Hader looked like the pitcher the Astros gave the $95 million contract.
  • Runner-up.   Tayler Scott – He had continued excellence whenever he was used and undoubtedly begged the question, will he take Ryan Pressly’s job?
  • Last Month – Winner – Seth Martinez / Runner-Up Tayler Scott

 

Here is a quick stat chart of the Astros’ position players in the month of Mapril.

Name ABs Runs Dbls HRs RBIs BBs Ks BA OBP OPS BAbip
Jose Abreu 10 0 0 0 1 0 5 .200 .200 .400 .400
Jose Altuve 118 12 2 2 11 3 28 .237 .268 .573 .296
Mauricio Dubon 59 9 4 1 7 2 4 .356 .375 .850 .357
Jeremy Pena 115 17 4 2 10 3 20 .275 .304 .690 .318
Alex Bregman 113 13 5 6 16 9 17 .221 .276 .719 .209
Chas McCormick 16 0 0 0 0 0 5 .063 .063 .125 .091
Kyle Tucker 97 19 4 11 19 23 21 .217 ,364 .962 .152
Yordan Alvarez 106 10 8 2 5 11 19 .283 .361 .776 .350
Yainer Diaz 85 5 5 0 10 1 15 .200 .214 .472 .236
Jake Meyers 85 11 3 3 14 9 16 .329 .406 .924 .379
Jon Singleton 89 15 1 4 11 15 28 .214 .324 .683 .259
Victor Caratini 39 4 2 1 6 1 5 .205 .238 .571 .206
Joey Loperfido 34 3 1 1 3 3 15 .353 .405 .876 .611
Trey Cabbage 12 2 0 0 2 0 3 .167 .167 .333 .222

 

  • Positional Player of the Month. Kyle Tucker – It is crazy to think that a guy who batted .217 is the player of the month, but look at what damage he did with the hits he had – most runs scored, most home runs, and most RBIs, and it wasn’t close.
  • Runner-up. Jake Meyers – This could easily go to Mauricio Dubon if they gave him more ABs, but we honor Meyers for a great stretch of hitting, that I think we all doubted he had in him.
  • Last Month. Winner – Kyle Tucker / Runner-up – Jose Altuve

 

Special Recognition. (Tie) Spencer Arrighetti and Joey Loperfido – Loperfido hit well in his first call-up despite getting sporadic playing time. (We must point out that that .611 BAbip is an insane number). It means he got a hit 61% of the time when he put a ball in play. That will come way down next time he is up, but still a good showing by the young man. When things were looking their darkest Arrighetti (along with Hunter Brown) stepped up and gave solid starts for the team.

  • Biggest Surprise (Positive). (Tie) Seth Martinez and Tayler Swift (sorry too much Swiftie in the news) Tayler Scott. With all the relievers leaving this year and with slow starts from the back end of the bullpen, these two guys have stepped up time and again.
  • Runner-up. Arrighetti – He looked a little overwhelmed at first, but he has been good since.
  • Last Month. Winner – Blanco / Runner-up Seth Martinez

 

  • Biggest Disappointment. Framber Valdez – I would give this to the bad month of Cristian Javier, but his injury gives him a bye. Framber, in May, had five starts and two of them stunk. They need him to get back to the quality start king like he did in his first start of June.
  • Runner-up. Jose Altuve – Yainer Diaz was worse, but the expectations for Altuve are high and he is not playing up to them.
  • Last Month. Winner – Jose Abreu / Runner-up – Alex Bregman

Some Comments on May

There are some interesting and puzzling things that happened to the Astros in May of 2024:

  • That three walks vs. 28 Ks for Jose Altuve must be his worst for a month since his first couple of seasons. It matches the eye test, which has had him swinging at everything in and out of the zone.
  • It’s pretty amazing that Seth Martinez could have this successful a month of May only striking out 2.3 batters per 9 innings pitched.
  • Yordan had 2 homers the whole month of May, then got two homers in the first game of June.
  • It was not enough ABs (16) to really give Chas McCormick a disappointing rating, but maybe I should have.
  • It is hard to believe that the Yainer Diaz we saw last year has gone 39 games without a HR and has a .480 OPS in his last 27 games. At this point, the guy going out there looks like a shell of 2023.
  • Cristian Javier pitched in 3 games in May with a 2.029 WHIP and a slash against of .319 BA/ .418 OBP/ .993 OPS. Yeah, I think he was hurt.

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

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46 responses to “ChipalattAwards for May”

    • Definitely, they have been .500 over the last 160 games. The only reason people haven’t stuck a fork in them is because of the playoff format where.500 makes you a contender for a spot. The difference now is they are 7.5 back of the team that came into town and took the series from them. It’s time to fire the owner, that’s the only way to turn this around.

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  5. I’m sorry we’ve lost my Pulitzer Prize winning post this morning. Dan, do you guys have a virtual closet somewhere you keep all failed transmissions? Or maybe Sarge sabotaged the system. I especially enjoyed the Mora rant. Meanwhile, decades later, our Joe Espada is telling us Pressly pitched well yesterday. He’s taken the positivity too far. When he keeps BSing the customers, it chips away at his credibility. Anyways, maybe I can remember what I wrote earlier and send it along later.

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    • “Joe Espada is telling us Pressly pitched well yesterday.”

      That was the precise moment when I turned him off. I consider it very insulting to the listener when the speaker intentionally tells such an obviously blatant untruth. It’s the ultimate form of disrespect.

      And as far as Jose Espada is concerned, he can kiss my hind end. I’ll be damned if I’ll listen to it from some dumbass so-called baseball player from some bug infested shithole south of the river. F___ him!

      I will no longer support him or suspend judgement on his inexperience and poor judgement. He’s another DEI hire who isn’t worth half of what his assistant gets paid. I hope he is gone by 2025.

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  7. I’m sorry folks – no idea why some posts get sent into the stratosphere – it even happened to me last week.

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  8. Have you all looked at the standings? In the AL there are 7 teams above .500. In the NL there are 5. Given interleague play it’s hard to really compare until the last week(s) of the season, but 12/30 teams are over .500 is surprising given we have a handful of teams who are fighting to see who can lose 100 games quickest. So while lethargic efforts, managers hung out to dry in press conferences, and attempts to hide Loperfido keep going on I want to remind everyone that we’re one real hot streak away from getting back into it. I don’t say that to lift everyone’s spirits and make them optimistic we’ll make the playoffs…I mean it in the sense we’re probably going to have to resign ourselves to staying the course and hoping Abreu can throw together enough good games to balance out the bad. I may have posted the other week, but 1B is dreadful this year with terrible performances from a lot of clubs.

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    • The same people who acquired Abreu and Singleton are the ones who are keeping them. Layering mistakes is an all-too common trait.

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    • Somehow we’ve been able to find some of those teams and go 8 and 25 against them. I guess it’s kind of like a bad BABip when things are going bad.

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  9. Thoughts on Sunday’s game

    • The Astros score the 14th out of 15th worse in the AL from the 8th inning on – which meets the eye test
    • Pressly walked the first guy – helped out by a marginal ball three that could have been a strike three and then center cut the ball hit for the double
    • A bunch of ofers led by guys who had been hot like Pena, Meyers and Dubon
    • Pinch hit Altuve who has not been hitting and Singleton who (as Steven has pointed out) is awful as a pinch hitter
    • If Brown can give us 6 solid innings every time – we will take it

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  10. As long as the Houston baseball club keeps rolling out these just barely good enough to be mediocre baseball playes, and as long as the team manager keeps treating fans like we’e all as blind and as dumb as he is, I really don’t care what the Astros do.

    The owner is appaently an idiot who likes to surround himself by other idiots. Way too common these days. But he’s rich so he can do that while the rest of us can’t afford it. Somebody has to make the world go around despite the overpaid, overeducated idiots who think they run things.

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  14. Blanco, Verlander, Brown, Arighetti look good to me. Hint, hint. Help! Offense! Can they swap Abreu/Pressly a bit? Pressly can’t continue coughing up leads.

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    • We need Meyers to keep hitting. Is that a reasonable expectation given his history? Let us hope he has figured it out. How does Chas swing & miss so many P? He did that last yr but with very good averages. Is King Tuts mini slump over? Yordan’s # are inching upwards. Is Bregman awake finally? Hit like that with RISP (the tm for that matter). How can they get early season Diaz back? 

      Lastly, on the offensive soapbox, it would be nice to see Dubon/Tuv (slotted 9th & leadoff), walk sometimes with the Dynamic Duo due behind them.

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  16. This is going to be a long night for the offense if they keep chasing those sweepers, over half of which are balls.

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    • They can get to Gibson with a little patience. Work the count and he will give them a P to hit. Better not miss though.

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  18. That pinch hitting Abreu for Singleton was absolutely the dumbest baseball decision I’ve seen in this decade. Thank God the guys won it anyway.

    But that has to be one notch carved in the baseball tombstone of a hopefully short Espada management.

    What a maroon……

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  19. The Astros finally won a game they were not supposed to win.

    Yainer has 4 homers. Last year he hit his 4th on June 14. Maybe he’ll start now.

    I don’t think Chas looks that far off.

    Are these guys going to tease us again in June, or are they going to get us to .500?

    If It does not happen now, I’d sure like to see a different roster this summer, one with 2025 in mind.

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  20. Thoughts

    • Monday night’s game felt like so many we’ve experienced this year – Ok but not good pitching, Astros in an early hole, Astros come back close to the other team and then lose. But this time they did not lose. Does it mean anything? We can only hope.
    • Seeing Tucker go down and stay down was a bit bone chilling. This guy never shows emotion or pain. I was thinking about Joe Morgan breaking a knee cap when he was hit by a batting practice line drive. But they were talking to him after the game and I am sure we will see him by at least tomorrow
    • Bullpen was nails again on a night when Verlander was not.
    • JV just had no good control last night – left too many balls in the good hitting zone
    • I guess Bregman is back and Yordan is back – which means Tucker does not have to carry the offense by himself
    • Altuve’s opposite field double seemed like the first hard hit ball to the other field we have seen from him for a while. Hope he s coming out of his funk.
    • It was forever (April 11th?) since Yainer hit one and that came at a critical point.
    • I’m going to call Meyers – Jake the Rake

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  22. JV was up and down. It’s not 2022 anymore.

    Yainer’s dinger was huge. He has spent the better part of a month, probably slightly more, being Maldy. I would say 1 homer isn’t going to get you off a slump but sometimes a game winner can do it wonders for your confidence.

    I don’t know why Espada is convinced we needed to see those 3 pitches to Abreu to think he is done, we knew it already. I don’t know if Singleton would have done anything either, but I doubt it would have 3 straight pitches. He would probably not have expanded the zone that way. After delete-gate and now pinch hitting him in a game deciding point, I wonder why the Astros are working overtime to convince us he is actually still a major league player. By basically giving them a free out they put a lot more pressure on Diaz.

    The bullpen was nails. When all is said and done, divisions are won on pitching. Offense doesn’t have to be fantastic, they were generally terrible the whole game, just timely. But you can’t be timely if the pitching gives the game away first.

    I’m almost done watching day to day. The season just feels lost. But every time I think I am done the reel me back in with a game like yesterday. Like TK and Blummer pointed out, the game just felt different. It just had a 2022 vibe. Let’s see where that goes.

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    • I don’t hate the move. Romero doesn’t really walk people and is a pitcher Singleton isn’t likely to hit. Ignoring Abreu’s salary, I’d prefer to see him used in situations where he has an advantage over Singleton (or another 1B). Since Dubon already entered for Tucker it’s not like we had too many choices.

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      • C’mon Dave. Heinz has a huge advantage over all the other Astros in applying for disability & old age benefits.

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    • I’d keep watching even if the club does not come alive in June, as long as significant roster changes got made for the remainder of the year, focusing on 2025. Do I think that would happen? Probably not.

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  23. Steven,

    Agree with your comments. I stayed with the game until the end and thought that I was with Sherman and Peabody in the “Wayback Machine” that took us to 2022. Obviously, someone needs to realize that Abreu is a lost cause. Time to cut bait. He looked at two good pitches and then swung at one that was low and inside. I don’t know who the idiot is that wants to keep playing him but they need to have their head examined.

    A game last night that fits the category of “All wells that end well”. Sorry Shakespeare.

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  24. Unusual lineup tonight with Tucker out

    Altuve 2B

    Bregman 3B

    Alvarez LF

    Meyers!!!! CF

    Pena SS

    Diaz DH

    Caratini C

    Abreu 1B

    Dubon RF

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    • Jake should be left alone and given a chance to get comfortable in one line up spot. His OPS was .920 on May 19. It’s still a solid .818, but he sure does not need the burden of clean up. Pena is also battling. I might have put him back in the familiar 2 hole and left Bregman at 4 where he seems to suddenly be doing exactly what we need from him there. Yeah, I’m trying to remind myself that Joe has had an especially tough job early, with so much beyond his control, but I also think he’s overthinking some things.

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    • I feel bad for those guys, but they are well protected financially and have access to the best healthcare in America. They can take care of their families.

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  26. TK is talking about Pressly’s walk in song. And I start hearing…..

    “Lord, I hope this day is good…..”

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  27. Another short start, some runs, some defense and a big homer from Yainer. Boy, those three run dingers sure help, especially when they come from a guy that’s been in hibernation.

    But what we do about having only 5 starters? Anyone know of a viable option? Don’t say Lauer. Don’t say Nick Hernandez. Not Blubaugh or Hanley or Gordon yet. And I hope they don’t starting thinking about AA guys.

    We’re 3-1 in June. My goal remains 17-7. Do we have the depth?

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