Astros 2024: Quick post-hurricane thoughts

This is a throw-down post today. The hurricane has been a big life disaster, and we are currently hosting my poor brother and his wife, who, like many folks, still have no power at their house.

So, what do I want to say today?

  1. Injuries
    1. Part of me is doubting that Lance McCullers Jr. will pitch this season after the recent “pullback” on his rehab. The other part of me doubts that he will ever pitch again for the Astros, which would be awful for the young man and the team.
    1. I saw Kyle Tucker go down live on TV and I am not sure I’ve ever seen anyone quite as stricken with a foul ball off their leg. But c’mon – did they really, really not see even a hairline break? Have they sent him back in for any re-tests? He is reportedly (if we believe anything Joe Espada reports) close to returning to doing baseball “stuff”. What has our training staff been treating him with? Ice packs and Tylenol?
    1. The injury report shows Justin Verlander coming back “after the All-Star break”. But he has not done anything but play catch since being put on the IL. Not thrown off a mound yet. What the heck is going on?
    1. Luis Garcia was throwing an inning or two in rehab starts, but after his July 4 start, he played catch yesterday and is throwing a bullpen session today. That sounds like backwards progress to me. I guess we will see.
    1. My belief is that Jake Bloss will return and start for the Astros between now and the All-Star Break. The best guess is Thursday against the Marlins and for the sake of the young man, I hope he does not re-injure himself.
  2. It is probably not a mystery that I am doubting how the team is handling and reporting etc. injuries. I would rather they tell us even less than letting out tidbits that rarely come true. Why are so many players, especially pitchers going down with injuries? Why is the reporting so sporadic and questionable? You get the feeling that no one has a great handle on any of this.
  3. But with all that is happening on the injury side, the team is still on an overall roll – somehow. 35-20 since May 8 and winning 14 of their last 18 is strong. It is a combination of better offense, especially spurts by Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, and Yainer Diaz, overall decent starting pitching, and just enough relief pitching to keep the boat afloat. Even with the All-Star Break coming up, can the pitching staff survive this over-usage?
  4. Is Joe Espada a better manager than he was two months ago? I mean if he was stupid when they were 12-24, is he brilliant when they are 35-20 since?  We know the answer and the answer is that A.J. Hinch was 89-123 when managing the Arizona D’Backs, 481-329 when managing the Houston Astros and 264-314 when managing the Detroit Tigers. Or Casey Stengel winning 10 pennants and 7 WS titles in 12 years with the Yankees and then winning 30% of his games with the Mets. It is about the players, players, players. If you don’t have good ones who are healthy and performing, you are going nowhere. Managers may cost you a few games along the way and whether we admit it, they may affect a few games positively, but they are not going to save a team that is just no good.
  5. If Alex Bregman cost himself millions with his first 51 games of .206 BA/ .273 OBP/ 589 OPS with 14 runs/4 HRs/ 21 RBIs has he made himself back millions with his last 36 games of .318 BA/.373 OBP/.913 OPS with 28 runs / 7 HRs/ 23 RBIs? OK, he starts slowly. I get it. Well, we don’t have to put him in the middle when he sucks do we? The only thing more maddening than his slow starts is the management’s handling of him when he is starting slow. (OK go back to item 4) and take off a few points from Joe Espada).

That’s it for today. What is ringing your bell this week?

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58 responses to “Astros 2024: Quick post-hurricane thoughts”

  1. I feel fortunate to be at my brothers house, cool and comfortable. I can overlook the lack of internet and cable. So many Houstonian’s remain hot and miserable, unable to even bathe. I come from a place that does not rely on remarkable infrastructure, but a category 1 hurricane is not a paralyzing event. I hope this particular event is the one that finally convinces the powers to be to make changes, changes the 4th largest city in the US should have made decades ago. I’m kind an outsider looking in at this point.

    As for the Astro organization, I’m really concerned about the pitching staff. I do not think our arms are being protected. And I do not have confidence that this organization is willing to be candid about the health of its player resources. We’re not the model operation we used to be.

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  3. OK daveb, I’ll bite. What structural changes can they make in a place that has about 6.7 million souls in the metro area (I think that is like 78 counties) with insane summer temps and humidity? Send half of them to St Kitts and Neves? Take away all their air conditioning and kill off most of them?

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    • Dan, we just took a trip up to New England. Driving through the cities it was apparent that a lot of infrastructure is hanging on by a thread. This is going to be a major problem and really soon. Houston should be thinking about what needs to be replaced and how to do it intelligently. It will never be cheaper to do so than right now. I’d work on plans to modularize the power grid and strategically bury power lines. That’s difficult in a city where the water table is so close to the surface, but some gains are better than none.

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    • I don’t know Dan, I’m not a expert. But what are the most vulnerable areas? If transmission towers are going down, I’m sure they can be built to a higher spec. You’re an engineer, right? What about old fashioned solutions that we use on Nevis, like clearing tree limbs from power lines before the hurricane season gears up? What about burying more lines? Again, that’s being done where I live with newer developments. I know the technology exists to build a more robust grid in Houston or any vulnerable city in the US. We put a man on the moon back in 1969. Has CenterPoint been putting revenues back into infrastructure? My guess is that at some point soon, we’ll find out that officials have been aware of vulnerabilities for years and ignored them for profits. Last night I marveled at the pristine setting of Minute Maid, cool and comfortable, dollar dogs being dolled out by the thousands, beer ice cold, all while more than half of Houston sat in the dark, with refrigerators of spoiled food, sweating through the night.
      but, to change the subject a nice 110 exit velocity dinger by Joey Lops! Go Astros!

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  5. No, I certainly do not think Espada is improving as manager. I see no evidence that he is able (or willing) to learn from experience.

    Same lineup day after day after day regardless of how well (or how badly) each player is performing. Call the same pitchers in the same order in the same inning regardless of who is batting or on base. Righty/lefty splits rule everything – metrics mean nothing.

    Just like his mentor, DFB, his hubris has blinded him to the existence of any possibility of a mistake or wrong move by the great Joe Espada. That’s why I call him Mini Me.

    I don’t think the pitching staff is going to last a whole season like this without major long term damage being done and careers ruined. The curse of Dusty will not be denied.

    At this level, almost every team has talented players who are capable of playing at championship level. It’s how you use that talent together as a team (how you manage that talent if you will) how you treat them in order to bring out their best is what makes the difference between a championship team and an also ran.

    I don’t solely blame Espada for the poor showing in 2024. No more than I credited Hinch when they won the Series. Paraphrasing your statement; managers don’t win World Series. But they can lose you one. Hinch did that, too, IMO.

    I blame everybody from the coaching staff to the owner himself. They’re the disease. Espada (like DFB before him) is just a symptom. Whatever the cure is, I fear it won’t be coming soon.

    I’m concerned about Yordan’s knee. He looked like he was hurting last night and he didn’t do well at all. I hope it was just a bad night and he hits the cover off the ball tonight.

    But I fear he may be playing hurt because Tucker is out and he knows how much the team is depending on him now. He seems like that kinda guy.

    Anyway, hope everybody gets back online soon. Glad you’re all doing OK. We got good news from Houston Methodist today, too! The worst has passed and she is going to be OK.

    Congrats to all for setting a new personal best record for consecutive days alive! Enjoy a trophy day!

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  6. I don’t blame LMJ for being injured. I think he gave everything he had to the Astros and perhaps he gave too much for his own good.

    I believe Bregman has been terrific for the Astros in his career. I don’t think he will be able to contribute near as much for his next team. I wish he and his family health and happiness. He is a worker!

    I think Espada wishes he had a lot more of his players healthy and a real good first baseman. Maybe we wouldn’t be talking about him as much.

    Houston was a great place to live, but like every city which got too big too fast, they elected people to run their city who were only interested in helping themselves and taking it from the taxpayers and giving it to the takers. Eventually, the crap crept to the outside of the loop and kept moving farther and farther out until they drove the taxpayers to other places. As for the flooding: too much rain, too much concrete , too few hills and valleys, too much graft and too little planning.

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    • Same thing happened in Austin. That’s why I left there. Ayn Rand called them the “looters”. But who is John Galt anyway?

      Take heart. People are waking up and seeing it more and more every day. We are blessed to be alive now to see it happening if you think about it. That’s how I see it anyway.

      But I never read that these times were gonna be easy.

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  7. Tonight we get the lineup I wanted last night. Don’t let me down now, Joey. I wonder which Framber will show up.

    Altuve 2B
    Bregman 3B
    Alvarez, Y DH
    Diaz, Y C
    Peña SS
    Singleton 1B
    Meyers CF
    Dubón LF
    Loperfido, J RF

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  8. Another nice play from Big Jon. I’m liking him more every game lately. Considering what we could be seeing if…..

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  9. MEMO TO GARY PETTIS: Yordan sliding into home on that freshly bruised knee is definitely a STUPID idea! What are you thinking? Were you thinking….?

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    • I had assumed Yordan ran through a stop sign. Absolutely no reason to send Alvarez home in that situation with nobody out.

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      • My brother and I were watching the game and were wondering about the reasoning behind sending Yordan. Yordan was on second base – Altuve was on third and Diaz hit a flare to right field.

        I think Pettis saw that it was lightly hit to right field, had spin on it so it would check up and was not hit at the right fielder, he had to move to his left quite a ways and come in on it and then turn to throw – so Pettis probably made an early determination to send Yordan

        Problems were:

        a) Yordan did not get a great jump and took a little while to get rolling

        b) The RF did have to go a long way to get the ball, but when he got to it, it was not a long throw – almost deep second base and he threw a dart home.

        I understood why Pettis thought it was a good idea, but he probably should have held Yordan when he was not that quick getting to third.

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      • “I understood why Pettis thought it was a good idea…”

        Then please explain it to the rest of us. With nobody out, it sure looked like a dumb idea from here.

        And if it keeps Alvarez out of the lineup for even one game, I will consider it a confirmed stupid move.

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  14. Fantastic outing from Good Framber! I’m so glad he showed up today and left his evil twin wherever one leaves evil twins….!

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  16. Ort good! 🙂

    Complete team win tonight. Exactly what we need more of going into AS break! Keep it rolling, guys!

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  19. Good morning, I read somewhere last night that Singleton has a .900 OPS since Abreu left town. That’s unsubstantiated, but if accurate, all the talk by those looking for a first base bat should be ignored.

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    • I think it’s .802 since the day Abreu was released. I saw that on SportsMap. It was over .900 for the road trip.

      Either way, I think he can be a cautionary tale of looking at career stats that were formed mostly at 23 and think that is what someone is at 31. I think the guys at SportsMap said it best yesterday – dude isn’t ever going to be an all star but if you can get .240 with a .330 OBP and a .780 (or heck, maybe .800+) OPS for practically free when you already have sunk cost, you probably take it.

      I did feel last night was one of those nights, he basically had little impact going 1 for 4 with a single. Funny part was after I said he can’t get that extra base, he scores from 1st on the double by Meyers, which was funny because there wasn’t 2 outs, so he had to hold up a little. And he still scored. He was a freight train coming around 3rd and the smile on his face after the slide told me he surprised even himself.

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  20. Injuries, especially to pitchers, are becoming a regular part of the game. We have a full rotation on the IL, maybe more than other teams, but all of them are dealing with some. This is certainly the most time I’ve seen anyone miss from fouling a ball off their leg, but we knew it didn’t look good when it happened. How the Astros are reporting injury news is point of contention for almost everyone with a voice from ESPN Houston radio to SportsMap to Locked on Astros podcast, so you aren’t alone in that frustration.

    Certainly some individual games can be won on the back of the offense, but strings are usually from starting pitching. Most of this is owned by Brown and Blanco. Framber has had a few bad starts, but continues to pitch well 2/3rds of the time. Arrighetti is probably a little under appreciated for some of what he has done – you just don’t know what he is going to do, he might go 6 or 7 solid, or he might give up 7 runs in 3 innings and crash the party, but given how good Brown and Blanco have been when you get good Spencer and good Framber with them, you get a streak. To be fair to Spencer, to be on target right now he would be AAA and not forced to here getting got by major league lineups.

    In the end, managers are only as good as the 5 names they pencil in as the starting pitchers.

    Bregman has certainly salvaged this season, and done his part to win a lot of these games – 2 homeruns in the last 4 days that turned out without either, they likely lose the game. Hats off, because I thought he was so much in his own head about his contract that he wouldn’t get hot. In the end, the Astros are the kind of franchise that has to be CERTAIN of it’s big contracts. Bregman is just too big of a chance to take. Those cold starts are getting longer every year, and worse. If the Astros gave him a 7 year deal and he was bad by year 3 they are going to feel it, much like they are feeling not being able to solve 1B with a more certain solution like Belt – because Abreu’s contract is making them pinch the penny. Meanwhile teams like the Dodgers, Yankees or Mets are teams that can absorb bad contracts and just pay the next guy. The Yankees are likely going to replace Rizzo with another expensive replacement, because they can. It wouldn’t surprise me if Breggy is back, they all have good relationships, but I don’t know that it would be what’s best for business.

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    • Yeah Daveb – I’m not sure what is happening this time around – but I have my suspicions.
    • I am guessing Centerpoint got slightly surprised by this storm – I mean Friday it was headed to the valley – then to Corpus – then right up the pipe here in Houston. I think that maybe on Saturday they started scrambling to line up everyone and found that a lot of people both here in Houston and wherever they are borrowing people from (Louisiana?) were taking a long July 4th weekend. There just were not very many trucks around until late yesterday. My brother, who was a telephone lineman for many years and worked tons of these storms said driving down highway 6 that he could look up and see lots of breakers flipped – they would just need to have enough manpower out to quickly flip them to power up a lot of areas but there weren’t any trucks. Anyways – I am sure there will be a post mortem after this and that Centerpoint is likely spending as much time covering things up as fixing them. (I know I sound cynical, but I spent 7 years working for a utility in the 80’s).
    • Steven – you were right before that Jon Singleton needed more consistent ABs (though he still can’t hit lefties). He has been OK – but more importantly he does not need to be an All Star, just needs to be better than Abreu (not a high bar) and he has been about 2-3 times that. He looked hilarious after sliding across home plate – like “Sure glad I don’t have to run one more foot.”
    • TOF – I really like the klaatu reference – last night I was texting with my sons about not knowing who Ort was and I sent them a meme of Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still
    • Lots of good points OP – I believe that LMJ is not a slacker – just unfortunate health wise
    • Yeah Sarge, I was talking with my brother during Meyers AB with the sound off and all of a sudden he’s walking back to the dugout – took us a minute to figure out that he “timed out”.
    • Devin – the US government keeps taking more money on the pretext of shoring up the infrastructure of this country and all I think they are shoring up is the bureaucracy
    • AstroNut – I know they don’t want to give out too much info on the injury list – but any other club has to know they are desperate with the quantity of injuries to the pitching staff

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    • Dan, I always look at all the tracking models. The Euro models are sometimes more accurate than the US versions. And a couple of the Beryl models had the storm tracking closer to Houston as early as last Friday.

      Good win last night. While Yainer isn’t giving us the big OPS so far, he sure keeps managing RBI base hits in the 4th slot.

      First base really is not an issue right now. I’ve always been a proponent of getting rid of both Abreu and Singleton, but at this point, he should simply be left alone. Like everyone else, we need pitching and Dana Brown needs to make something happen. He should have already.

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    • The poor guy has probably heard that reference about a million times by now. I should be more sensitive, I guess….

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  22. No surprise that Alvarez is not in the lineup tonight.

    And I put ALL the blame on Gary Pettis for that bone head move sending him on that cheap single last night. All of it!

    So how many runs will the team NOT get because of Pettis’ stupidity? No way of knowing.

    We are surrounded by idiots wearing Astros uniforms!

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  23. “Hip tightness” my hairy white hind end! They’re lying again.

    You can tell because their lips are moving.

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  24. Awfully late publishing the SP for tonight’s game. I smell more stupid deception games from Mini Me and his staff of mumbling morons.

    Wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that Bloss really isn’t ready to go after all. What a tangled web we weave…..

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    • An hour to first pitch and still no SP announced. Though another fake article by the propaganda machine has been published.

      I smell a rat. The Resident hasn’t even started his big boy press conference yet…… 🙂

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  26. So that’s not the best way to start, kid. Hope he’s not playing hurt, too.

    All this palace intrigue is becoming very tiresome. I usually find that, by the end of the movie, I’m hoping that the guy pulling the lever on the guillotine is the last one left alive. Kinda like a Tarantino movie in my mind…..

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  27. Oh, what a shame it is. Yordan could’ve feasted heartily on this Munoz’ cheese…..

    Thanks again, Gary.

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    • TK is like “BTW, there’s been catcher’s interference and a double in the ancillary ball game…..”

      Leave those corporate zombie DEI hires in a cubicle ranch with no windows where they belong! We’re trying to watch a baseball game!

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  30. Well, if Yordan has to sit one out, when we’re playing the Bad News Bears is as good a time as any. Clank!

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  31. It was a decent start by Bloss. The control issues were concerning. But that could’ve been mitigated by a catcher who wasn’t using a cast iron mitt.

    So far, Dubin is not looking very good at all.

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  33. Could Joe Espada possibly be doing something smart for a change? I always want to believe in redemption. Especially in baseball……

    Dubin wasn’t fooling anybody!

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  34. We sure are missing Caratini right now. Salazar is a considerable step down behind the dish. Weak throw on that steal. Can’t catch a cold today.

    What’s the latest word from Bagdhad Bob about his return?

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  35. Whew! Abreu once again does his impersonisation of LeTroy Hawkins. Raised my pulse rate unnecessarily before getting out of trouble. I wish he would stop that.

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  36. Another dumb PH DFB move from Mini Me. Because the RH McCormick looks so good striking out on 3 pitches, we now have a slower outfielder with a weaker bat in the game. Nice move, dumbass……….

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  37. A win is a win is a win. We’ll take as many as we can get. Good to see Pressly & Hader do their jobs without needing any additional afib medications to forestall the BIG one.

    But TBH, if we hadn’t been playing against the Bad News Bears, that would’ve probably been an L. Miami beat themselves tonight.

    Espada is still a moron and Generalissimo Franco is still dead. Now a word from Miss Emily Lehtella about violins on TV….

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  39. Thoughts

    • The Astros did what they needed to do – which was sweep an inferior team. And they did it without totally wearing out their bullpen in the process.
    • Jake misses some but he has been some rockets lately – that one to centerfield was a laser
    • Bloss did a decent job. The kid has not thrown an inning of AAA ball and still looks like he belongs. Yeah his control was off a bit, but at least it was low and out of the strike zone (way out of the strike zone).
    • Salazar as TOF was saying was not doing a very good job behind the plate, though the type of wild pitches Bloss was throwing are hard to corral with the high bounding short hops
    • The Astros have no Yordan and an evening with no hits from Altuve and Bregman and score 6 runs. I’ll take it.
    • Yes, I know that Gary Pettis should not have sent Yordan the other night, but if a guy gets hurt sliding into home plate on a normal play like that – I think he was already hurt. Do we need to bubble wrap our DH?
    • Singleton continues to do good things against righty pitchers. And he’s making some good plays in the field.

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  41. I’m sitting here in the lobby at Methodist, using my MAC for the first time in 5 days. Excellent WiFi. It’s even a bit chilly in here.

    Our Astros have won 16 of 20. I don’t know how they’ve done it. I think we’ve used 29 pitches at last count. We’ve had rookies come and go, infielders, outfielders, catchers and even a highly paid veteran. It’s a motley crew.

    TiredOldFan, you are genuinely deserving of the Chipalatta Chief Cynic designation. You’re a bit of a loyalist too. Just keep the BP meds handy, because we will lose three in a row again at some point.

    All I want is 2 of 3 this weekend. Then we can look ahead to what the Astros might end up looking like on July 31. I’m sure Dan will provide us with some thought provoking assignment in the coming days.

    It’s a lot of fun being relevant again. I just hope it’s sustainable!

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