,

ChipalattAwards for August 2024

Pitching. Pitching. Pitching. The Astros went 18-10 in August. Despite playing three more games than in April, when they were 10-15, the Astros scored fewer runs in August (119 runs) than in April (121) in a month when they floundered. And this was due to a historically great month of pitching.

In August, the Astros’ pitching led the majors with a brilliant 2.51 ERA (half a run better than any other team), 1.01 WHIP, .185 BAA, .259 OBPA, and .568 OPSA. That .185 BAA is genuinely historical. The only month that bettered that was the Guardindians with a .174 BAA in May of 1968. As a reminder, the 1968 season was such a dominant season for pitching that over the off-season, the league lowered the pitching mound from 15” to 10” and raised the bottom of the strike zone from the knees to above the knees.

But, as usual, this post is about individual awards for the month.

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

Name

Gm

W

L

Svs

IP

ERA

WHIP

BAA

OBPA

OPSA

IR/ IS

Framber Valdez

5

3

1

0

34

1.59

0.647

.118

.190

.372

N/A

Hunter Brown

5

2

0

0

31

2.45

0.871

.160

.231

.429

N/A

Ronel Blanco

5

0

1

0

24.1

4.07

1.480

.258

.333

.766

N/A

Spencer Arrighetti

5

3

2

0

32.1

1.95

0.897

.168

.236

.554

N/A

Yusei Kikuchi

6

3

0

0

35

2.57

0.943

.178

.237

.532

N/A

Justin Verlander

2

0

2

0

10

5.40

1.300

.275

.310

.735

N/A

Josh Hader

13

3

1

8

13.1

0.68

0.600

.071

.188

.354

0/0

Ryan Pressly

7

1

0

1

7

5.14

1.714

.300

.382

.816

0/0

Bryan Abreu

14

1

1

0

13.1

6.08

1.200

.236

.276

.640

4/2

Seth Martinez

1

0

0

0

1

9.00

1.000

.250

.250

1.250

0/0

Tayler Scott

11

0

0

0

10.1

4.35

1.548

.243

.356

.977

10/5

Bryan King

10

0

0

0

9.1

0.96

0.750

.133

.257

.390

5/0

Shawn Dubin

5

0

0

0

7

0.00

1.286

.130

.310

.484

0/0

Kaleb Ort

7

1

1

0

8.2

1.04

0.694

.133

.188

.454

2/1

Caleb Ferguson

10

0

1

0

11.1

3.18

1.412

.256

.333

.705

5/1

Hector Neris

3

1

0

0

2.2

3.38

0.375

.111

.111

.556

3/0

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

Starting Pitcher of the Month. Framber Valdez. Framber gave up six earned runs on the month, and 3 of them occurred after he left the game against Baltimore, and Tayler Scott gave up a game-winning base-cleaning double. Look at that insane slash against .118 BAA/.190 OBPA/.372 OPSA. A great month.

  • Runner-up. Tie – Hunter Brown, Spencer Arrighetti, Yusei Kikuchi  – Their stats were slightly different, but these three were all very good for the month and were a massive part of a dominant pitching staff in August.   
  • Last Month. Winner – Framber Valdez / Runner-up – Hunter Brown

Relief Pitcher of the Month. Josh Hader – In his 13 appearances, he had 8 saves and 3 wins, and his only loss is just a loss in this modern world of artificial extra innings. A .071 batting average against – just wow.

  • Runner-up.  – Bryan King – Shawn Dubin had a better ERA, but King had twice the appearances and allowed none of his five inherited runners to score.
  • Last Month. Winner – Tayler Scott / Runner-Up – Ryan Pressly/Bryan Abreu

Special Recognition. Both Shawn Dubin, and his 0.00 ERA and Kaleb Ort and his 1.04 ERA threw meaningful excellent innings for the team.

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

Name

ABs

Runs

Dbls

HRs

RBIs

BA

OBP

OPS

Jose Altuve

106

8

3

4

10

.255

.336

.732

Mauricio Dubon

78

4

3

0

7

.205

.250

.494

Jeremy Pena

105

6

5

5

15

.267

.301

.777

Alex Bregman

89

14

6

7

10

.303

.340

.947

Chas McCormick

41

4

0

1

3

.098

.156

.326

Kyle Tucker

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

Yordan Alvarez

89

16

4

8

16

.382

.481

1.178

Yainer Diaz

112

14

2

6

15

.304

.333

.815

Jake Meyers

95

8

3

1

12

.211

.274

.568

Jon Singleton

44

4

1

3

7

.250

.333

.811

Victor Caratini

58

7

1

1

3

.276

.373

.718

Zach Dezenzo

48

4

2

1

4

.208

.255

.567

Trey Cabbage

6

0

0

0

0

.000

.143

.143

Shay Whitcomb

28

1

3

0

4

.250

.364

.721

Ben Gamel

36

7

2

1

3

.364

.417

.932

Jason Heyward

6

0

1

0

2

.167

.167

.500

Positional Player of the Month. Although the best of it was on the road, Yordan Alvarez was excellent. That .381 BA/.481 OBP/ 1.178 OPS slash was elite.

  • Runner-up. Tie – Yainer Diaz and Alex Bregman – Bregman’s battle with a sore elbow, slowed him down or he might have taken this runnerup spot by himself. Both Diaz and Bregman did a great job of filling the hole that Kyle Tucker’s absence has opened.
  • Last Month. Winner – Yainer Diaz / Runner-up – Yordan Alvarez.
  • Special Recognition. Jake Meyers somehow put up 12 RBIs despite a .211 BA

Biggest Surprise. Yusei Kikuchi – Kikuchi’s past performance was of a pitcher who struck out a lot of hitters, but who almost always had an ERA over 4. His ERA with Toronto was 4.75 when the trade occurred and he put up a very solid 2.75 ERA in August with an emphasis on his slider, which was upgraded with a new grip.

  • Runner Up. Ben Gamel – He did not make the “Runnerup” spot for Position Players because he only had 36 ABs with the Astros. His performance thus far with the Astros has been excellent and has given a boost to a team missing their All-Star RF.
  • Last Month. Winner – Jake Meyers

Biggest Disappointment. Bryan Abreu – This was probably not a surprise as the young man was overused the first half of the season. But he came back to earth in August.

  • Runner-up. Ryan Pressly – He probably pitched worse than Abreu, but we will let him slide to second due to the back injury he was trying to pitch through.
  • Last Month. “Winner” – Rafael Montero/ Runner-up – Josh Hader

Some Comments on August

Some interesting and puzzling things happened to the Astros in August of 2024:

  • Ronel Blanco carried the rotation for most of the season but fell off in August as the former reliever extended his season beyond 140 innings. Justin Verlander struggled a bit on his return from the IL. Hopefully, moving to a 6-man rotation will help Blanco and Verlander settle in as September rolls around.
  • The Astros’ lineup was a tale of two cities. The top of the lineup, especially Yordan, Bregman, and Diaz, rolled, and the back side, featuring Chas McCormick, Mauricio Dubon, Meyers, Trey Cabbage, and Zach Dezenzo, struggled. But the pitching carried the up-and-down offense.
  • Some of the best relievers in June/July – Abreu, Pressly, and Tayler Scott were the worst in August. The team needed the strong months of Hader, Ort, King and others.
  • The numbers make one wonder who will likely be in a playoff rotation. That will be the theme of the next post.

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

 

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27 responses to “ChipalattAwards for August 2024”

  3. Well heck, haven’t we had a hard time with the contusion diagnosis all along? I just can’t quite understand why the club has to operate in such a way that creates a loss of credibility for the organization. And it’s not isolated.

    In the meantime, the Astros continue to win, carried by that remarkable starting pitching. Abreu had been pretty good until the Baltimore implosion. I just hope he gets regular rest and gets his head back to where it was. We need him and we need him healthy.

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    • The only thing I can think of is they missed the fracture at first. Then when they figured out it was a fracture and would take longer to heal they were trying to trade for an OF and did not want to give their trade partners the idea they were desperate. As it turned out they picked up Gamel and Heyward for nothing.

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  4. Good morning!

    We almost got five innings from Verlander yesterday. Might have been a different game if the pop up did not drop in. In his ML career he had never walked the bases loaded to start a game prior to yesterday. That did not help. Of larger concern is that a couple of those early fastballs came in at 91. We need him to finish up his spring training pretty soon. It’s good we have the luxury of a 6 game lead right now. But no doubt, we need outs from him weekly, especially with Blanco looking gassed.

    The Oakland A’s are 30-22 since the beginning of July. It’s a pretty good young team coming together. They won’t be pushovers when we play them.

    The M’s just don’t seem to have enough left on their own tanks. And their pen keeps failing them. That’s okay with me.

    I don’t like the dynamics of the Tucker injury. Regardless of the intent, Dana Brown lied to the media. And it seems over and over. It seems Tucker was tired of the folly, and made the decision to come clean. I’m sure nobody in the organization told Kyle it was time to come clean.

    Yainer Diaz keeps getting base hits with runners on base. He might be the glue.

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  5. Thoughts

    • The M’s are 2-4 in their last 6 games. Four one run losses including two walk offs and blew leads in all 4 losses.
    • Does Verlander have another gear – is he just trying to get adjusted or is this near the end for him?
    • Like Dave says – Diaz is that glue for this team. With Tucker out they had to have somebody protect Yordan in the lineup and Yainer is leading the team in RBIs.
    • Though he had traffic and threw 28 pitches – it was good to see Whitley strike out the side and not give up a run.
    • Speaking of Whitley – Bagwell was on the TV broadcast yesterday and said that Whitley used to have a good changeup and did not know if he was using it anymore. On the radio this morning they were jumping on that – this guy is helping make decisions for your team but does not know whether Whitley has been throwing a changeup recently? I mean the Space Cowboys only play a half hour from MMP and there is video and other info available to the front office…..
    • This Tucker situation is just so weird. They had to be sending him back for additional tests when he was not healing. When did they know it was a fracture? Were they trying to not let their opponents know he would be out this long so they would not use it against them in trade talks? Were they trying to cover for the medical staff? I mean I think the common man suspected something was amiss very early on – after a week let’s say – this did not seem like a bruise keeping him out. What is wrong with them?
    • Verlander should not have had the first walk in the first inning if the home plate ump, who was tremendously inconsistent (and wrong) had called a couple of balls correctly. Might have changed the whole inning. He gave up the bloop hit that sealed his fate later on. JV struggled to get out of innings – way too many pitches. And it took him a while to get his velocity up.
    • Chas had the ground rule double, did not strike out for once and scored one of the 3 runs. But he will probably head back to AAA after Meyers comes back…..or will he?
    • Now do we believe anything they say medically about Bregman? I don’t.

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  6. I hope Chas goes back down and spends a couple of weeks in Sugar Land. It can’t hurt him.

    No, I don’t believe what they tell us about Bregman. Initially, he could hit just fine, but could not throw. Now he can’t hit by can throw. I don’t believe what they told us about Verlander. Obviously there was no reason to believe what they told us about Tucker. I hope we get all three guys back to being able to contribute, but somehow we’ve managed without them. I’m not going to write us off.

    Verlander did get screwed early, but he’s definitely not ready. Hopefully that will come over the next couple of weeks. Even if we can get 4 solid innings or 75 or so pitches out of him, that’s a plus. I don’t think he needs to give us 107 pitches.

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  7. By the way – this off day in the middle of the series is just weird. I know it limits them to playing 18 consecutive days, but don’t you think they would have rather played the two extra days in a row and had the off day as a travel day?

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    • Dan, it was incredibly vital for MLB to have the game scheduled on Labor Day in the afternoon so it could draw 24k fans in Cincinnati.

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  8. Verlander is 41 and is not what we need now. His velocity is down on his fastball and his other pitches are not close enough to the zone to be called strikes or create swings. Better to use a 5 man rotation without him than have him hurt the team.

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  9. Looking down the list starting with 2015, I can hardly believe it all happened. Following the Astros since April of 1962, this kind of success never seemed possible. All the decades with so little postseason winning makes the last ten years feel so amazing.

    I am very thankful to have lived long enough for this dream to come true. Thank you to the Astros and to all of you guys and gals who shared these wonderful times with me and my family.

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    • You know 1oldpro, life does not always turn out the way we thought it might. It does not necessarily get easier. Baseball is a wonderful diversion though, for all its imperfections, much like life. Thank you and all for being around as we’ve witnessed and appreciated this remarkable decade of a rollercoaster ride together!

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  10. As if we don’t get enough deception, disrespect, and outright LIES from our government overlords and the compliant corporate media sycophants they hire? We should accept it from a f______ baseball team? About something as inconsequential as a damned kid’s game?

    For this guy, the answer is a deafening F___ NO! I don’t give a rat’s azz whether the Houston Astros win, lose, or all perish in a fiery plane crash. Couldn’t care less for any of them.

    Getting pretty doggone tired of rooting for a bunch of communist infiltrators who don’t even respect the fans enough to learn English whilst they pocket millions of those hated American dollars anyway. Screw em all!

    Good luck to y’all. I’m out!

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      • Dan,

        This is certainly not any kind of attack on anybody here or the forum itself. Not at all. I hope no one takes it that way.

        But it is aimed straight at the Houston Astros baseball team and the organization (for lack of a better word for it) behind all this nonsense. I have nothing but contempt for them.

        I do not now, never have, and probably never will like it very much when someone insults my intelligence by telling me obvious lies. And for no good reason, too. Damn sick of it.

        That’s not what I call “whacked out”. Just not wasting any more precious time on bread and circuses. Y’all can have my share.

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      • TOF – I understand where you are coming from, but I guess that I am saying it is just kid’s games and this coach speak / lying silliness should not keep you away from a sport you obviously love so much.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I love my country a lot more. And with 60 days left in the race, I’ll be plenty busy registering new Trump voters.
        And if you vote in Texas, you may see me watching those who are counting ballots on Nov 5th. I’ll be there.
        If he doesn’t win, next baseball season may not even happen.
        Priorities.

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  16. AmazingjobbyArrighetti.Haderdeservesanod.Wouldbegoodtofindapenarmforthosetiedgamesinthe9thandleaveJoshtosaveand10thinningsituations.M’sarefolding.

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  18. To continue my previous thought

    The M’s are 2-5 in their last 7 games. Five one run losses including three walk offs and blew leads in all 5 losses. On the radio they said they had lost 10 walk offs total this year.

    They are a lot closer to the Rangers than the Astros right now.

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