Sometimes, late at night, after I eat something that gives me a little heartburn, I have these “dreams.” I call them dreams because if I called them what they appear to be (a visit from the future), folks may call those nice young men in their clean white coats to my home.
Late last March, which is less than three months ago but feels like three years, I had one of these dreams. A spirit in the shape of a late Astro (or Colt .45) came to visit me, and this time, it was Roman Mejias. God bless him, who was the Colt .45’s first All Star in 1962 and who passed away in 2023 at the age of 97.
“Dan, I am Roman Mejias. You probably don’t remember me.”
“We did not move to Houston until after the Colt .45’s became the Astros, but I was familiar with your name and that you were an expansion season hero. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Your one season with the Colt .45’s when you were turning 37 was by far your best. Why was that?”
“Mostly due to opportunity, I’d say.”
“Opportunity did not seem to help our previous first baseman. Anyways what can I help you with, sir?”
“Well, I just came back from mid-June of this season and wanted to pass along some information.”
“Cool, shoot.”
“Well, first of all we will have a starting pitcher who will be contending for an All Star spot and possibly a Cy Young award. He will have one complete game no-hitter and came out after 7 innings of another game having given up no hits.”
“Hey, I knew Justin Verlander still had it in him.”
“Uh no.”
“O.K. Framber is putting it all together.”
“You were closer with Verlander.”
“Well, Cristian Javier was part of two no-hitters in 2022.”
“He’s out after elbow surgery.”
“Hunter Brown finally matched his potential.”
“He’s been pitching very well lately, but not that very well.”
“Oh, I was not thinking straight – Josh Hader must be on a roll.”
“He’s tied for 24th in the majors in saves and his ERA is a hair under 4.”
“OK – I give up. Who is it?”
“Ronel Blanco.”
“He made the team? Isn’t he like 40 years old and has pitched mostly in relief and mostly in the minors?”
“He’s actually 30, but that is the guy.”
I paused for a moment of incredulousness and went onward, “OK, any other unexpected news I should know?”
“Chas McCormick has played in 37 games, but has the same amount of home runs (1) as someone named Trey Cabbage.”
“Really, go on.”
“If you want to win a big trifecta, bet that the top three ERAs on the team on June 17th are Tayler Scott (1.82), Seth Martinez (2.17) and Ronel Blanco (2.43).”
“What the heck is a Tayler Scott?”
“He’s from that hotbed of baseball, South Africa…..You can also make money of you bet that the team would let Jose Abreu have 112 ABs with a microscopic slash (.124 BA/ .167 OBP/ .361 OPS) before they finally parted ways with him.”
“Oh, wow.”
“By the way that “great” baseball team of yours that you thought might win 95 games this year? Mid-June they are 11th out of 15 teams in the AL. AL? Really? Well, back in my day we were fighting it out with 9 other NL teams for one spot in the postseason – the World Series. None of this division or wild card crap. Oh well, things certainly change.”
“That they do. Anything else?”
“And surprisingly, Lance McCullers is still not very close to returning….oh, wait a minute that is on my non-surprise list.”
“For sure. Well, thank you for the information, Mr. Mejias. I also, thank you for your service to the 1962 Astros, who you led in hits (162) runs (82), HRs (24), RBIs (76), SBs (12) and BA (.286).”
“Man, the Internet is a cool thing. Most folks back then might know your BA or your HRs, and these days, you can look up everything or anything in a moment.
Anyways, Good luck kid, I think this year’s team is going to need it.”
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
60 responses to “Astros 2024: A little retroactive time travel”
Excellent!
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I looked this morning at the standings and the Astros were 12th in the AL. I was flabbergasted at that so I recounted and was correct.
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Here is a little shout out to our friends at the crawfish boxes who linked to us today
Astros Crawfish Boil: June 18, 2024 – The Crawfish Boxes
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Well done, Dan. In most years when you look at the unexpected contribution from Blanco you’d think the team must be reaping the benefits and at least a handful of wins above expectations, but yeah, there have been a lot of performances that dragged us down. The pitching doesn’t surprise me as the extra WBC and post-season innings were going to catch up to us at some point. The performances of Chas, Abreu, and to a lesser extent Bregman really do surprise me. I wasn’t expecting any of them to be All Stars, but I certainly expected better than we’ve seen.
I have two fears. First, we aren’t going to string together enough wins to climb the standings with the roster we currently have and Brown does not have a surplus of prospects to move to change that. Second, we’re going to let the reinforcement(s) hang out in Sugarland until it’s late August and there isn’t enough time to help catch the Mariners. Then again, maybe Manfred will make Seattle turn the lights on inside their stadium and other teams will start beating them to close the gap. No, certainly not that…anything that helps Houston will surely be off the table.
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daveb – thanks for the compliment
OP – Well the Astros are tied for 11th in the AL. If you want to feel better they are only 2 games out of 8th spot (which is still second half out of 15 teams). Chip sent me a tongue in cheek text this morning praising the Astros for being in 2nd place in the division. It is ironic that we thought that the easier route to the playoffs was winning the division, but with the M’s on a roll (we started the roll when we let them beat us 3 out of 4) – the Wild Card is 7 games away as compared to 9 games back of the Ms.
Devin – Not sure what Brown can do – does he have any salary flexibility to bring anyone in to help? We could use a 1B and a couple starting pitchers (it would seem).
Folks have pointed out that JD Davis was just released. He would likely help with offense, but has always been a bad fielder and runner. His contract is $2.5 MM – so if you picked him up off waivers (if he makes it to us) – you would probably owe him about $1.5 MM. Or if he made it thru waivers the A’s would pick up everything above the mlb minimum, which the Astros would pay.
Any interest?
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Dan, thanks for the wonderfully thoughtful blog post. I’m sure everyone here appreciates it. I know I do.
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You and all my friends out there are very welcome – I do like to do fun things like this occasionally.
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JV to the IL
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-injuries-and-roster-moves
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Well, I am not enamored with Dana Brown here. The big club has 4 starters now, yes FOUR, and Brown brings up another reliever. That means he wants two maybe three bullpen games over the next couple of weeks. Looking at the Space Cowboys I see no one I want as a starter at the big league level. Now, looking at the Hooks, Jake Bloss has eight starts and has pitched to a 1.81 ERA. Over two seasons of pro ball, he has 18 starts and a 2.01 ERA. Why not give him a cup of coffee as they did Roy Oswalt. They might catch lightning in a bottle!
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Sarge, I would not put it past the Astros to rush Jake Bloss up. But he’s only pitched 80 something minor league innings. Roy had about 340 before his call to the Astros. I’d hate to see any minor leaguers get rushed up at this point. We’ve already had enough devastating injuries for 2024. Time to focus on 2025. Dana Brown has to find arms some other way, guys that can throw 5 innings even if they have to get beat up.
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We certainly could have used Brandon Bielak as a starter. Trading him for cash was a head-scratcher.
If you are a believer in conspiracy theories, then maybe the Astros are actually tanking without being obvious about it.
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If there is anything positive about Verlander’s injury, he might not reach 140 innings this year, allowing the Astros to let him go.
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The Say Hey Kid passed away
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/mlb-legend-willie-mays-dead
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The Say Hey Kid may have been watching the Astros game and died of boredom
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Golf and baseball have something in common. In golf, if you don’t get the ball to the hole in won’t go in. In baseball if you don’t score runs you won’t win the game. Different city, different team, same result.
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These Astro gms are often difficult to watch Dan & Zanuda. By the 3rd inning I had my headphones on listening to iTunes. Valdez walks proved costly and once again the offense was ineffective despite outhitting the lowly Sox 7-2. Both their runs were scored on FC, geez.
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My only question is how long we’ll have to listen to Dana telling us that we’re buyers, we’ll never be sellers?
There is no shame in being a mediocre team. It happens to everyone. And we have had a disastrous series of injuries.
We’ve also witnessed the aging of multiple ballplayers.
We still have an inexplicable first base problem.
We’ve had guys just simply have bad years to date.
We’ve got a shortstop whose best might be what we’re seeing today.
We’ve got multiple outfielders not hitting enough to be outfielders.
Our shiny new catcher has struggled, defensively as much as offensively.
Our starting pitching problem has moved beyond the critical phase.
It is our reality. There is no quick fix. There is no apparent sense of urgency from our leadership, at whatever level.
There is still a bit of fire. I’ve never seen Jose Altuve so furious in his entire career as I saw him last night.
I remain fascinated by the dynamics of this clubs roster; what it will look like over the next 43 days,
For me, all I want to do is see some new guys play baseball. Whether via trade or from AAA, I don’t care. Just bring in some new stimulation!
The only other thing that comes to my mind is that the Astro organization really should decide what to do about Kyle Tucker in these next 43 days. He’s the anchor of this club or the bridge to new beginnings. But if we’re not sellers or buyer in his case, he’s essentially a one year rental in 2025. And that would be a loss either way.
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Worst loss of the season, so far. Shut out by a rookie on the team with MLB’s worst record.
Banks, Mantle, Aaron and now Mays. All we have now are the memories.
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The same day that Carlos Correa is named the AL Player of the week – the Astros release his brother JC.
Coincidence? I think not.
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Why?
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Oh, I’m being a little bit cranky old guy (I guess I’m sharing the mantle with tired old fan). I’m thinking they might want to distract from a former player succeeding by putting out some bad family news the same day. But it might be a coincidence.
Right now I am in a bad mood about my favorite team. I am a bit spoiled obviously – they have been fantastic since 2015 really (2016 they missed the playoffs but still had a winning record and 2020 is a mulligan of a year). But I don’t like to watch a snoozefest like last night.
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“Sharing the mantle” with TOF! That’s great. Take a deep breath Dan. Our team sure is a mess though. I really wish we could time travel back to James Click being given a big raise and a guarantee of a traditional GM role following the World Series win in 2022. We’d be different club today.
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Dave, it just dawned in me, perhaps the HOF fellow, in the front office, suggested moving away from Click. The timing is about right. Mr. Bagwell needs to move back to sitting behind the screen around homeplate.
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Sarge, I’m sure that special advisor, allegedly getting twice the salary of Click, had plenty to do with his departure. That was his first big move!
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Sharing is caring. Plenty of room in the curmudgeon club! 🙂
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what a FUBAR we have here. It’s such a shame because it didn’t have to be. Definitely hubris in play here but I think we all know whose picture is under the word in the dictionary.
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Another thought. Wouldn’t be nice if some investigative reporter would do an article on “what happened to the Astros management” to bring about this disaster to the “Disastros”
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Well it sure won’t be Chandler Rome or Brian McTaggart. He’s just a hired hand. It’s very rare to find a real sports journalist these days. If you’re not a club mouth piece, you get exiled. I had hopes when Rome hooked up with The Athletic, but nothing he has to say is enlightening. I miss Richard Justice. He was a pest, one not afraid to offend Drayton McLain or anyone else. And he did respond to comments from his readers honestly whether they liked what he had to say or not.
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McLane
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Dave7, Brown’s bold proclamation of being buyers at the trade deadline is exactly that, a bold proclamation. It gives relevance to the FO belief that this tm is still in contention, despite evidence to the contrary. On last night’s broadcast both Blum & TK agreed not to use that dreaded word (Sellers). While agreeing the tm is in dire straights, it ain’t over, yet they noted. Altuve’s blowup signaled he was not defeated nor should his teammates be. Hope to hell they grasped that message. I do not disagree with a darn thing you wrote above, but rather endorse it. My only question is, will Crane reverse course in righteousness by ceding his desire to team build, allow his managers to manage and give up his pipe dream of being Jerry Jones 2.0.
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Please tell me about Altuve’s blowup. I missed it.
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Ditto. I didn’t see it either. Spill it, man…..
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Altuve was livid after the HP ump called him out on a 3rd strike call 3” or so above the zone. Returning to the field after that inning was over Tuv was still barking, visibly upset, so much so Espada exited the dugout to confront the ump and possibly prevent Altuve from being thrown out the gm. Espada got tossed instead. This same ump called a ball on a Valdez P that clearly was in the zone in the same area. I have never seen Altuve react in that manner in any game
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Oh, I see I had the game running in the background and didn’t see what caused Espada to get tossed. Thanks for splaining to me!
That is completely out of character for Tuve. Normally a fun loving, happy-go-lucky (sometimes literally) lovable little Speedy Gonzalez cartoon character kinda guy. It says a lot!
I don’t blame him one bit for being pissed, though. I’d be worried about him if he weren’t.
He’s out there almost every game (they miss him terribly when he’s not) giving his best effort to score runs and makes amazing plays at 2b. I don’t see many other 2024 Astros playing that way. Possibly Tucker and/or Pena.
Certainly none of the pitchers. Maybe JV. But JV is playing for JV – not Houston. Make no mistake about that.
No, I don’t blame Tuve for being a bit hot under the collar about it.
I am, too. And I’m just watching! 🙂
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OP, there is a vid on YouTube about JA’s 3rd strike call. I was unable to copy link here. You might find it, not hard to find
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I’ll bet Jomboy has it. When I get a working computer again, I’ll look for it
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That’s odd. I’ve had no trouble copying links here and I’m sure no wizard.
Unless you’re talking about Uriah Heep. Demons and Wizards is some classic tunes. I wore that album out!
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What a great album. I saw them in a club in 72 and I was about 10 feet from the stage. What a great time that was.
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Looks like I’ll be getting a replacement laptop for Old Yeller. The meat department at HEB easily met my insurance deductible thanks to the Mensa members (NOT) in The Swamp.
The old keyboard can be replaced but not repaired. Didn’t think they could repair it.
Turns out the engineers at Samsung (or wherever the design was done before Samsung “invented” it) quite literally started with the keyboard and its interface with the motherboard and built the rest of the laptop around it.
Thats not the way we did it when I worked for Xplore Technologies. But we’re all Americans. So there’s that….. 😉
Nevertheless, the bottom line is a 12 year old laptop is too obsolete to be worth spending the money on. It would still be an obsolete computer.
But unlike Heinz Abreu, Old Yeller is not going away forever. (I just love saying that) Yeller is gonna retire to my bedroom and run the TV in there.
My new Dell (screw Hewlitt-Packard – spit) will take command of the big screen in the front room and all business moving forward.
Now, since I don’t have any TV to waste my time with, I’ve got a shipload of fresh meat (ribeyes, chops, roasts, and ground chuck) to get in the freezer.
Jake from State Farm isn’t buying the steaks. But he is buying that new laptop. So it’s been a good rainy day.
Hope y’all (including our lovable losers) have a good evening. See ya in the funny pages! Right after I check the box scores.
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It’s just as well about your laptop. Consider that around this time, next year, Windows 10 will become unsupported so getting a new laptop with Windows 11 is a great trade off.
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Sorry, May have copied link wrong. Will check to see if correct
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Back to back innings we shoot ourselves in the foot in the batters box and on the bases.
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Got video to work finally
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Thank you, sir. I should’ve been paying more attention.
There’s something I don’t remember ever seeing DFB do.
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That’s great, can we start having movie nights here when Astro baseball is simply not palatable?
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So why did Salazar come into the game for VC?
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Not that I have any problem with Salazar coming in. He seems (on gameday) to be having a pretty good game.
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Victor injured himself on that slide at home plate
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😦
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Finally figured out how to watch the last 2-1/2 innings on this too smart for me phone.
Though Josh Hader is starting to remind me a lot of LeTroy Hawkins. They both induce acute anxiety attacks. That 2nd out in the b9 was too close for comfort!
Good game from Good Hunter. He’s really putting it together and it’s fun to watch.
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It is pretty amazing that Hunter Brown has been able to change his game so much so quickly. But now that he’s using a different series of pitch sequences and pitches, he’s also touching 98, even 99 with his FB. He gave us 162 innings last year, including a good start against the Rangers in the post season. But, most of his work after the All Star break was flat out bad. No one had a fix for him last year. For one thing, he was gassed. But today he’s one real bright spot on this much maligned Astro squad. Let’s remain cautious with his innings though, especially if we’re going to be playing guys like Cooper Hummel as we plod our way through the summer.
Frenchie Dubon has had six starts at first base in his professional life. Never played the position in minor league ball. Watching him maneuver over there really does illustrate just how bad Jon Singleton is at first base. He needs to go. Between Dubon, Cabbage, Loperfido, Caratini, and Diaz in a pinch we’ve got enough help at first. Use it.
Putting aside a run at the post season in 2024, we really have a wonderful opportunity to play guys in roles that might not be considered during a pennant race. Do it.
Alex Bregman hit a grounder deep in the hole behind second base last night. He was out easy at first base. Tired Old Fan might have beat that ball out. How slow is Bregman going to be at the end of his next contract? Offensively he’s good at Chase, Whiff and K per Baseball Savant. Every other offensive stat for Alex is poor. Never thought I’d see a .303 OBP from him. Trade him.
Today is the first day of summer! I wish for blossoms of hope from the land of sugar to bloom on our Astro roster. Gosh, I should start a line of greeting cards!
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I forgot about Will Wagner. He’s a keeper.
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Hey, I can still beat out 4-5 fps in a pinch! Maybe not for 90 feet, though….. 😉
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Someone mentioned Jake Bloss earlier this week. Well, Jake is starting against the O’s tomorrow night. He’s got 80 career minor league innings under his belt. I have to wonder if Dana Brown is trying to save his job.
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Buyers or Sellers? Eh, kind of sellers. I’m not ready to throw in the towel on 2025. Trade Bregman. Keep as much as you can to win in 2025. This is a winnable division every year.
Let’s be honest. Brown probably had the intent of sitting with Tucker’s agent when he said it. And Bregman’s. At this point, the money has been spent. Unless Crane is all of a sudden Cohen I can’t see any of Tucker, Bregman or Valdez back. I doubt Valdez or Bregman will even be smart contracts for the future. They should treat Tucker like the Nats did Soto. Give him an offer that makes him feel like you want him, that the fanbase understands is legit, but if he doesn’t take it, move him. And do it this year so the haul is worth it.
To be honest, it’s always about the pitching. I don’t see a route for the current Astros roster to put a championship caliber rotation out in 2025 unless everything starts going their way. I think they are finding out a little of what happens when you put an extra month of baseball on young pitchers year after year after year.
I’ve heard people all over the place talk about Bloss. So I went and looked this kid up. I’m not too excited. An Oriole lineup that is arguably the most disciplined lineup in baseball 1-9 is a tough way to be introduced to the majors.
If Steve was king for a day, I would trade Meyers while he is on top, I would move Bregman for the best offer, and I would start a month long Tucker-stakes that has every team trying to top their own last best offer. Three of your top 10, with one of them being a top 10 in baseball, is my starting point. I might even move Pena if the return is a pitcher that has team control for 3 years and will win. Would you trade Pena, Meyers and Leon for Crochet? Then move Framber to a contender, for a bevy of lottery tickets, and give Brown, Arrighetti, and Bloss the rest of the year to see if one (or more) of them is a 2025 answer. We still have to see what happens to Ronel at inning 150 too.
Then I would release Singleton, call up Loperfido, and make him my CF’er. AH, you thought I was going to say 1b! No, I’m moving Yainer to 1B permanently, no more splitting your prep time between hitting and the other teams hitters, focus all on the pitchers you will face that day. Go with Chas/Loperfido/Alvarez OF, with Leon getting time out there 3/4 times a week. Let’s see if he can bring those terrible K/BB ratios to the majors and still be able to succeed.
I don’t see a world where we catch the Mariners. Pitching wins, and their’s is way better, the records are no accident. Start setting up for 2025. If you get hot in July and climb back over .500 and the Mariners scuffle a little, you can always pivot back and pick up a player or two.
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Semantics. I’ve got no problem with your approach Steven. We’re pretty much on the same page. And I would have started last winter. Let’s get a third baseman in the Tucker deal. And I would not rule out Will Wagner helping at first. I’m not ready to pull Diaz out from behind the plate yet. So go for it. I’ll give you King for the Month.
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I get that. You get a guy that is a plus offensive player at a position that is hard to find a plus offensive player, you want to keep it. Part of me does too. I won’t be disappointed if he is the catcher 3 years from now.
I just think he is a special offensive talent. We haven’t seen it this year. Could that be because he is focusing so much of his pre-game on the other teams lineup and working with the pitcher? For all the years that Maldy looked terrible on both sides because he was old, no one ever said that he wasn’t committed to game prep. Maldy didn’t care about his hitting. Yainer does, but he has to live with that standard set by Maldy because he has Maldy’s staff. I think it’s very possible that his offensive slide has a lot to do with how little he is aware of what a pitcher is going to try to do to him as a hitter.
Roughly 33 years ago the Astros made that choice. They took a plus defender that was a plus offensive player from behind the plate and put him at 2B. It worked out. This isn’t about Yainer and catching, he does fine. He could even become a gold glover back there. But he will always be limited to 125 games, maybe a few more to DH in, when he could be a stalwart 1B for 155-160 games and it could make him blossom into a .300/25/100 guy (or dare I sound greedy and think he could be even better than that).
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How about the job that Salazar did last night at the catcher’s spot. And he went 2 for 2 with two RBI’s. Maybe some realignment is sorely needed with the team. We need to get younger and more competitive.
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This tm can darn sure use that pop right now Z. Five consecutive innings with runners on base, at least twice with two on and no outs, and they died on the bases. I mean, did not move a runner over. Whatever the hell the game plan is at the plate needs to be adjusted because the original is not working.
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