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The Fat Lady sang: Now, It’s time to take inventory – The position players

The fans of the Astros knew this day would come, and this seemed like the season in which this would happen. The Astros will not win a playoff series for the eighth year in a row. They will not make it to at least the ALCS for the eighth year in a row. They will not make it to the World Series for the fifth time in eight years. They will not ride in a parade for the third time in eight years.

No, they have packed up their equipment and headed home after two disappointing losses in the Wild Card round to the younger, hotter, better Detroit Tigers.

Before I get too upset about this, I think of my father, who passed away in 2001. He had been a massive fan since we moved here in 1966, and he had never seen the team win a playoff series. In fact, they never won a series until the 2004 season. In all their history leading up to the 2015 season, the franchise had won three playoff series in 53 seasons – one in 2004 and two in 2005. This version of the Astros since 2015 (if we count the one-game Wild Card win over the Yanks that season) has won 15 playoff series in the last decade. We are spoiled, but those of us who lasted through the desert drought of those 53 seasons deserved a little spoiling.

I had a little back-and-forth texting Chip (of Chipalatta) Bailey last night and this morning about where to take this. Rather than leap into the solutions directly, it felt like the right time to take inventory. This is like after you are in a car accident. You need the insurance adjustor, along with your car repairman, to do a complete overview of the carcass of your car or, in this case, your team. What can be re-used? What needs to be replaced? Is there hidden damage that only appears when you get it up on the rack and look at everything closely? Is it totaled?

This is the first step in a series of discussions this off-season. Today, we take inventory of the offense.

The Infield

Can it be only three seasons ago that the Astros had the best infield in baseball? Back in 2021, Yuli Gurriel (who my brother points out has moved on in the playoffs with the Royals) was the AL Batting Champ and Gold Glove at first base. Jose Altuve had another big season with 117 runs scored, 31 HRs and 83 RBIs. Carlos Correa, in his contract year, finally decided to show up for more than 110 games for the first time since 2016 and was a big bat for the team. And even though Alex Bregman missed 70 games, he still scored 54 runs and knocked in 55 in the ones he started.

First Base

They say you don’t have a quarterback if you have 2 QBs that you can’t decide between. I don’t know what you have when you have 9 guys playing 1B in a season. If you take away Jose Abreu (gone with the wind) and three guys who played 1 game apiece at 1B, you still have 5 guys who started 8 or more games there – Jon Singleton (88), Zach Dezenzo (12), Yainer Diaz (11), Mauricio Dubon (9), and Victor Caratini (8).  

Key Questions: Do the Astros go out and pick up a 1B from somewhere else, continue some version of the current swap meet or let a young guy (Dezenzo?) have a shot at the full-time job next spring?

Second Base

The second baseman for the foreseeable future is Jose Altuve, who will get $33 MM for the next 3 seasons and $13 MM for the two seasons after that. He is one of the better offensive second basemen in the game, but there were some chinks in that armor in 2024. His .295 BA was good, but his .350 OBP dropped slightly, and his .439 SLG was a significant drop. His K rate rose for the third straight season and his walk rate dropped almost 40% over 2023.

He has never been a great fielding second baseman, and it seemed like half of his 2024 season was spent lying on the ground diving for ground balls he could not reach.

Key Question: Will the Astros give more games in the field to Dubon and DH Altuve more in 2025? (This would be counter to giving more DH at bats to Yordan Alvarez to keep that star healthy).

Shortstop

Jeremy Pena is who he is – a solid hitter, who never walks, has intermittent power, has brilliant defense mixed with spurts of poor defense and he is tremendously fast. His slash for 2024 (.266 BA/ .308 OBP/ .701 OPS) pretty much matches his career numbers (.261 BA/ .307 OBP/ .707 OPS). He will get his first big raise this season as he is arb eligible.

He will undoubtedly be the SS for 2025, but if someone like 2023 first rounder Brice Matthews continues to develop (he was great at A+, solid at AA and bad at AAA in 2024) they might consider Pena a trade chip at some point.

Key Question: Can Pena be more than he is? His walk rate (like so many others) went down this year and his power has kind of fizzled. Is there another gear for him?

Third Base

This one is simply complex or complexly simple. Alex Bregman is a free agent. It is not clear the Astros have anyone ready to step into his shoes in the organization, certainly, Shay Whitcomb and his four errors in one game looked a little unready. The free agent market for third basemen is bare, with Bregman being the best option out there by far. Do they dare trade some starting pitching depth for help?

Key Questions: How far will the team go to re-sign Bregman in both seasons, and what cost per season? And what is Plan B?

Catcher /Designated Hitter

We will look at these spots together as there are some potential overlaps in usage here.

Catcher

This is the best situation the Astros have had at catcher for a starter and a backup in their history. Yainer Diaz with that .299 BA and 84 RBIs is in another hitting category from any catcher in their history. Victor Caratini and his solid slash (.269 BA/ .336 OBP/ .744 OPS) with 30 RBIs in only 245 ABs was super solid too. They threw out close to the league average in runners – Caratini just under – Diaz just over. They seemed to do an excellent job with an ever-changing menagerie of pitchers this season – Thirty-two different pitchers, including twelve different starters.

Key Question: Will they get a more permanent solution at 1B or will Caratini and Diaz be part of the solution at 1B? Part of that may depend a bit on the next area.

Designated Hitter

Yordan Alvarez was the primary DH for the team, with 94 games started, and Yainer Diaz had 36 starts, with several other players chiming in at less than ten apiece. Rather interesting – the Astros as a team were first in the AL for the DH with a .280 BA and a .356 OBP and second with a .845 OPS, but all the way down at 10th with only 73 RBIs. It makes no sense.

Key Questions: How will the team distribute the DH’s at bats in 2025? Will they mostly feature Yordan to protect his knees?

Outfield

Probably the most disappointing section of the position players with Kyle Tucker’s injury, Chas McCormick collapsing and Jake Meyers continuing to underperform.

Right Field

Kyle Tucker was headed to where he would be one of the players trailing behind Aaron Judge in the MVP race. That long time off with the contusion (fracture??) derailed a terrific regular season. His 0 for 7 performance in the 2024 Wild Card brought forward grumblings about his recent post-season performance. Since the 2022 ALDS he has been sucking wind in the post-season. But I say go look at Craig Biggio and Jeff (back of the baseball card) Bagwell for other greats with failings in the extra games.

Key Question: Are the Astros going to try to extend Tucker this off-season or wait until he is out in the marketplace after the 2025 season and wave bye-bye?

Center Field

Jake Meyers started the overwhelming number of games for the Astros in CF (126) and it was less than meh. The 61 RBIs were not terrible, but that .219 BA/ .286 OBP was. He has a great glove, very little arm, and a bat that often creeps into the deep depths of bad.

Key Question – Do the Astros do what they did not do before 2024 and chase a centerfielder, or do they say it’s Pedro Leon’s time to shine? (Leon – .299 BA/.886 OPS/ 24 HR/ 90 RBIs/ 29 SBs)

Left Field

After his solid 2023 season, left field looked like it would be in good hands with Chas McCormick, supplemented by Yordan Alvarez. But between injury and awful performance, Chas gave this position up to the point they were sending him to the minors with Ben Gamel and Jason Heyward subbing in the outfield. There is no certainty that Gamel or Heyward re-sign with the Astros.

In the minors, a couple guys who were up down the stretch – Zack Dezenzo and Shay Whitcomb have a little experience in LF as does Cooper Hummel who was up earlier in the season. Pedro Leon mostly played elsewhere, but did play a bit in left field.

Usually there are quite a few corner OFs available late in the free agent market. The Astros could work that area and maybe get someone decent for not that much money.

Key Questions: Do they give Chas a mulligan on the 2024 season and hope he channels his good work from 2022 and 2023 into a much-improved 2025?

The Bench

The Astros bench was an ever-changing – ever-swirling list of whoever was not playing on a certain day. The first name that comes to mind is Mauricio Dubon, but Dubon started 107 games in the field and only 55 on the bench as they mixed and matched him into the lineup. You might think your back up catcher might be on the bench most days, but he started in 66 games between C, 1B and DH, so he was on the bench for only 96 games. Jon Singleton started 100 games between 1B and DH and started 62 games on the bench. Sometimes it was Chas or Jake, sometimes Shay or Zach. The truth is that the Astros took advantage of having a flexible roster to get everyone a fair amount of starts in the field.

Key Questions: How do the Astros see their bench usage changing in 2025? Is it an ever-morphing spot that changes by the day and inning, or does it become a little more regular?

There you have it. A little bit of inventory of everyday players to consider this off-season. What are your thoughts?

Next – An inventory of the pitching.

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39 responses to “The Fat Lady sang: Now, It’s time to take inventory – The position players”

  1. Wow, you spent a lot of time and effort taking inventory. I think I’ll leave that to somebody who gets paid to do it and simply quote the great Bill Murray.

    It just doesn’t matter.

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  2. They have 4 holes to fill and they need to fill them so that they can get Pena back into the #9 slot where he belongs.

    They need a 3rd baseman and they have him here and he needs to be the guy out of the four spots to fill who gets the money.

    They need a first baseman and that needs to be somebody who has power and can field that position. Both Dezenzo and Whitcomb are infielders who should be able to convert to 1B. They need those two to spend the winter at that position and then fight it out in ST to win that job. Caratini needs to be what he was hired for: backup catcher.

    They need to replace Chas McCormick. He didn’t hit and he didn’t walk. They need to find a player who can play defense and hit and walk.

    If they can find Chas’s replacement, along with the other two position filled properly, then they might be able to live with Meyers in CF until Melton is ready next season.

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  3. Taking inventory, I think we need a third baseman because Alex Bregman will leave. I just don’t think the Astros will pay what others will. And there are some indications Alex is beginning his decline. His BB/K ratio really took a hit this year. That said, if he goes, we won’t find a replacement close to what he provides, at least initially.

    Altuve is declining too, but at this point, more defensively than offensively. His OPS was over .900 in 2023 and under .800 in 2024. The larger issue is his lack of mobility and arm at second base. So he needs to DH as much as possible but so does Yordan Alvarez.

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  4. And that leads me to first base. The only way Diaz will get a break from behind the plate and still play most everyday is to play first base 25 or 30 times a season. Caratini actually looks better at first defensively. So he should play there too. I just don’t think there will be enough opportunities at DH for these two guys, especially if Altuve is used as the DH as he should be when Yordan is in left. But Yordan had a -1.6 dWAR in 2024. He’s not going to get any better out there. He’s a great hitter and a liability in the field. So Altuve and Yordan both present a defensive quandary. The best solution is to use them less on the field. So that leaves us with Jon Singleton at first base again unless the Astros can pull off a trade for a guy that plays good defense and will hit 20 homers. Zach Dezenzo might hit the homers, but I don’t see the defense.

    Jeremy Pena is consistent. He does the same thing every year. And as much as he frustrates us, Baseball Reference accumulated a 4.0 WAR for him in 2024. Shortstop is not one of the Astros big issues for 2025.

    Overall, except for short, we’re going to have a bad infield defense if Bregman is gone and first base does not get improved.

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  5. The DET first baseman made a terrible play on the Singleton FC yesterday, but they otherwise played really well on defense. The Astros, on the other hand, had poor contributions from Altuve, Caratini, and Diaz. If you like Fangraphs, their defensive rankings say that Meyers was the 11th best player in the league in saving runs in 2024. Bregman came in at 36, Pena was 77th, and Altuve was 92nd out of 107 players who hit their innings played requirements. You might say that 92nd isn’t so bad…but the numbers behind it basically said he was 6 runs worse than a replacement player.

    I think they need to make a serious run at bringing Bregman back. I don’t see an obvious 1B target this offseason and even started looking at outfielders this summer with the thought maybe one could come fill the void. I think Whitcomb/Dezenzo makes a lot of sense to spend the winter fielding at 1B unless something materializes that Brown can’t turn down.

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  6. We need outfield help. But I don’t think it’s time to move Chas. If he gives us what he gave us offensively from 2021 to 2023, I think that’s a realistic expectation. His lifetime OPS is still .747 even after an awful 2024. I think he should come back in February looking ripped and lighter. He should hang around with Pena this winter. As far as Jake goes, his career stats are consistent. He plays great defense, can’t hit, can’t throw and for all his speed stole just 11 bases in 513 PA’s. Jake had a wonderful opportunity in 2024 and produced as he always has. It’s not enough. This might surprise some people, but I’d trade Kyle Tucker this winter if we could make a couple of positions stronger. And I know it’s not time to talk about pitching yet, but I’d consider doing the same with Framber.

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  7. I think it’s time to go with a youth movement as much as you can. I would try to trade Chaz, and Meyers as they just can’t seem to become everyday good journeyman ball players. I’d (almost) prefer Heyward or Gamel as a 4th or 5th outfielder. He’s a decent fielder. As for 1st base lets get Dezenzo/Whitcimb there with Singleton as the backup if no other options available.

    Somebody please tell Altuve to stop trying to pull the ball and concentrate on getting quality pitches to hit to the opposite field and take more walks. He’s not a youngster anymore.

    Pena’s still going to be around for another year or two but he needs better plate discipline too.

    I’d like Bregman to stay around but no way do we do a 6/7 year deal at 30+ a year. That’s just stupid. We’ve seen too many good players get away from teams because someone above was keeping them from playing. Then they are stuck with an aging player who may not be able to hit above the Medoza line. Sometimes you just have to cut bait.

    As for utility, Dubon is about average but he’s probably going to cost between 5 and 6MM a year. Is he worth that? Are there any other options?

    I’ll wait for your pitching commentary Dan as that’s where I have some big issues.

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    • I’m too lazy to do real research tonight, but take a look at these predictions from back in August:
      https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/2435/valuing-top-2025-mlb-free-agents

      If we assume they’re in the ballpark, I think Dubon at that valuation is money well spent. The interesting one to me would be Goldschmidt. I think someone else offers him more than the $11M they predict, but maybe he wants to play somewhere closer to The Woodlands? A quick search reveals rumors that he’s signing with the Giants, the Cubs, the Brewers, or the Mariners. As soon as the Mets get eliminated they’ll probably be in the rumor mix as well. I think the five day negotiating period is going to be crucial. If Crane/Brown want and think they can bring back Bregman they need to get a good outline for a deal in place. If it looks like there is a gap between the two sides, I’d make a play for Goldschmidt. Landing him moves Dezenzo/Whitcomb back across the diamond with Dubon as your backup plan for 3B if neither can field and hit well enough to stick in the majors.

      I’d love to bring Heyward back. Hopefully they can find a way to make it happen.

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      • Devin, we need to get younger and more athletic, even if it hurts initially. Goldschmidt is 37. His stats, both offensively and defensively already indicate a sharp decline. I think some combination of the guys we already have in house would produce more offense and about the same defense that Goldschmidt would. I’d love to see first base improved, but younger and more athletic has to be a part of the formula going forward.

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    • As guys age they become pull hitters. Can’t read the pitches as well so they tend to start guessing pitches, staying ahead of the pitch if they guess right, and pulling the ball. If they don’t guess right they usually don’t put it in play or foul it off.

      Part of Altuve’s talent is his size – it actually plays to his benefit as a hitter because his bat has less travel space to get into the zone. It makes everything stay more compact. I say that because I think Altuve will mirror Biggio in many aspects, both became more defensive liabilities towards the end, both had to rely on guessing and both went further and further towards the pull. Biggio spent the last few years relying on the same Crawford boxes, but Altuve may stay higher than .250 at the end because of that compact swing path.

      Short answer – he will only become more pull “happy” as he gets older. And it won’t be by choice.

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  8. Our bench will be stronger if Dubon does not have to play as much. That means we’ve got to improve some of those positions we’re talking about. And we’re not going to get much for guys like Jake or Chas. So if we trade anyone, it’s got to be a guy or guys that other clubs need. That’s another quandary for Dana Brown.

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  10. Here’s an Alex Bregman stat to consider. In 2023 he walked more than he struck out. In 2024 he struck out twice as much as he walked. Does that mean a decline, or simply a different approach that did not work? His OBP was .315. For his career, it’s .366.

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    • I wouldn’t resign Bregman no matter the hole it creates. And I get it, it will be a huge hole.

      I expect his buddy Altuve to insist on it. Ball players are always in ball players corners. But ball players making decisions is what got us where we are today. Objective evaluators of what a guy is going to be capable of doing should always be more relevant than letting ball players make decisions about ball players, because ball players never realize what happens with aging. I’m telling you, Jeff Bagwell doesn’t realize at 37 he couldn’t really hit anymore even if he was healthy. Reggie Jackson probably thinks he can still hit a homer against a major league pitcher. These guys are terrible guys to get advice from on long term production because they think if they have done it before they will always be able to do it and you should pay them accordingly. Bregman is losing it. Will it be gone in 2025? Probably not, but if I give him the 6/180 some are predicting, not only will he not produce like a superstar making 30M in 2025, he will be an albatross by 2027 and a dead money contract by 2029. Let him kill the Yankees on the second half of that contract, even if he helps them a bit in the first half of it.

      But this is just one mans opinion, let’s see what the Astros do.

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      • Gosh Devin, I didn’t open that spotrac post until just now. 4 years at 12 million for Chas? 3 at 10 plus for Dubon? Pena, 8 years for a total of 191 million?

        If these guys are anywhere close to their computer models, it makes more and more and more sense to get younger quick and focus on guys that will be under club control for 5 or 6 years.

        But a bunch of those numbers are malarky to me.

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  11. Prayers for all our brothers and sisters who have lost everything (in too many cases their lives) to Hurricane Helene.

    Please do what you can to help. We can’t seem to get a loan from Ukraine to help, so we have to do it ourselves as Americans.

    https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

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  13. The Astros front office has always been coy, and cryptic. They have always played it close to the chest, and have one of the better poker faces out there. Dana’s post series interview where he stated they will have to play some young guys and be creative tells me Bregman is not going to be back, but I could easily be misreading the room, because they hard to figure out. But given 1B, 3B, and maybe even who and how much plays C depends on that domino falling first. This team is still paying Greinke, much less Abreu and Montero. So Dezenzo, Whitcomb, Melton, Leon and Salazar probably figure heavy into next season.

    I am going to assume Bregman will not be back.

    1B – I think the Astros go with another hodge podge season. No Alonzo, no Goldschmidt, its a heavy dose of Singleton (something similar to that 88 games this year), Diaz and Caratini. I think Dezenzo will be busy at the corner. Whitcomb may see some time as well but I don’t know if he is as polished a hitter as Dezenzo. WSWD (what Steve would do) – Diaz is my new starting 1B. Cheap, can play him 160 games, and lets him focus on hitting and not spending most of his time preparing as a catcher.

    2B – It’s Altuve. He might be down to 140-145 in my world, but he has to be out at 2B, defensive limitations and all.

    SS – Pena.

    3B – I’m going into the Spring with it being a competition. Dezenzo is probably the most ready of these young’uns, but Whitcomb can come to ST with a chance be the guy. They are both on the roster anyway, so you can probably ride the hot hand. I’ve always said young guys can be a bonus, not a plan, but I would never have signed some of these contracts that have forced them to use young guys as a plan.

    OF – Again, piecemealed. You hope to get 150+ from Tucker, after that LF and CF will probably be some mix of McCormick, Meyers, Leon, and Dubon. None of that excites you. They really need 2024 to just become a blip on the radar for Chas. WSWD – Call Toronto and beg for Joey back. Really, if the boss has told me accounting said we can’t spend anymore – we are screwed. We won’t get anymore offense from LF and CF than we are getting now, where they bat 8th and 9th, and considering I would love to reserve the 8th or 9th spot in the order for my SS and possibly C, ooofffff. This team needs Chas back.

    Catcher – The Astros management probably goes with Diaz and Caratini again with small smattering of Salazar at times. WSWD – This is where I spend a little money, finding a catcher to split time with Caratini is cheaper than finding a fix at 1B, 3B or the OF. Let Diaz solve 1B for a generation. Find a game master catcher that can hit at least a little, preferably from the right side of the plate. Keep Salazar as depth again at AAA and try and get Narvaez back on a minor league deal for more depth.

    This team is in a spot because of dead money. If it is able to spend money, it’s probably more apt to spend that on pitching, so the offense is probably going to be worse next year without Bregman and no viable replacement.

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    • I’m all over the map on whether I want to commit huge resources to older players who can’t match their previous performances or move into the full rebuild. Spotrac says our current roster looks like:
      Altuve – $32.5M
      Hader – $19M
      LMJ – $17.7M
      Yordan – $15.8M
      Pressly – $14M
      Javier – $10.4M
      Caratini – $6M
      Total: $115.5M

      Arbitrations: Abreu, Dubon, Garcia, Chas, Jake, Pena, Tucker, Urquidy, Framber

      That’s only 15 players, but can we expect anything out of Urquidy, Javier, or LMJ? Of course, that doesn’t even address the $43M we’ll pay Jose Abreu, Montero, and Greinke.

      So do they make one more run at it or start moving the tradeable assets?

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  14. I’ll be the odd man out. Don’t even try to fill holes (of which we have got too many) to fix this team in 2025. Instead, look at and plan for 2026 and beyond. Rise and fall on Dan Brown’s highly-touted drafting skills. Build out of his draftees a young, dynamic powerhouse of hungry young guys with both talent out the kazoo and a go-for-broke spirit – because that is what it takes to win championships now. Plan – and invest -now to be the 2027 version of the 2024 Detroit Tigers.

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  16. Haven’t seen anything about any special programs by the Astros (or MLB) to help Helene victims. Not a peep.

    No fundraisers by Oprah yet. Nor George Looney. Hollywood is amazingly quiet.

    Dolly Parton gave $1M. Elon Musk connected Starlink for free after the Feds illegally cancelled his contract in a fit of childish temper after he bought Twitter. Donald Trump showed up with God knows how many truckloads of food & water and $25M.

    Has the mayor of Houston had anything to say about it yet? How about Jim Crane?

    <crickets chirping>

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    • TOF – Taking a couple minutes to search around the net I saw an article about the Houston Texans donating $1 million to the effort – Governor Abbot had been sending resources to the area – I saw the Yankees had sent $1 million and while I have not found it announced yet – there is no doubt in my mind the Astros will do similar or more as they have in the past.

      There is no reason to be this nasty about this – none at all.

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      • “I saw the Yankees had sent $1 million….”

        So Crane lets Steinbrenner beat him to the punch on it, eh? That shouldn’t surprise anybody, I guess. Even if it’s true ( I haven’t seen any confirmation of it yet) it is not exactly a ringing exoneration of either the Astros or MLB. The delay of any comment/action from them speaks volumes. Shame on them.

        “…the Houston Texans donating $1 million….”

        Again – please explain how that is somehow relevant to the discussion re: the Astros and/or MLB. There’s a football team in Houston? Me and 1.1 billion Chynese don’t care.

        “Governor Abbot had been sending resources….”

        Yes, Governor Abbott is a good man who cares about our fellow Americans. I’m proud of him.

        But I am ashamed that the Astros and all of MLB are so slow in reaching out to help. Because I know why it’s happening.

        If this was about rainbows and unicorns or had a drag queen story hour involved, Crane and Co would be on it like a duck on a June bug. So would MLB.

        But this is predominantly white lower middle class MAGA/A1 American voters (they used to be called taxpayers) who are the victims. Hence unworthy of any assistance from the rich white corporate elitists.

        As far as my being “nasty”, you began the day by implicitly impugning both my intelligence and my integrity by doing the Magna Carta version of an endorsement of Samaritan’s Purse. When a quick thumbs up would have been quite sufficient.

        As if I would steer everybody here to a scammer website or wouldn’t know one when I see one. How did you think I would react to that, Dan? Or are you in the habit of not thinking about other people?

        All I know is the next time I see the NY Yankees are visiting MMP, I’ll be rooting for them to knock the cover off the ball.

        In this house, Astros fans are even lower than Yankees fans. Keep on trucking, y’all.

        Soon you’ll be caught up with Philadelphia.

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  17. I speak for myself only here. I live on a small island of 13,000 people in the Caribbean. It’s one of two islands that make up the smallest independent nation in the western hemisphere. 31 years ago I left the US for career reasons. We manage on our own here most of the time. There is no infantry on this 36 square mile island when a hurricane wipes us out. We climb the poles, we source food and building materials. We ship in the medicine. We put roofs back on houses. I’ve remained here, while still traveling back and forth to Houston regularly, more and more for health reasons. That’s the way life goes as we age. Of course I still love my homeland. But it so pains me to see and feel the fractured country America has become. The Middle East conflict expanding and the ever mounting loss of life; children, their mothers, their fathers. Ukraine. More of the same.

    And then we have our natural disasters. They won’t end. So many lost souls devoured in the rush of Helene simply won’t be found. America would be so much better at fixing its own problems if we were not so damn fractured. But I digress.

    It’s a small group of good souls here at Chipalatta. I know we care about our country and give what we can when help is needed. I know we care about each other, although I’m sure we think very differently on many subjects. The point is though that this is a place we can come and appreciate each other’s thoughts on baseball, mostly Astro baseball. I don’t think it’s selfish to have this little narrow forum that allows us to talk about baseball and not delve into the larger issues that life forces on us. And I’ll be here as long as Chipalatta remains a friendly place to talk baseball.

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  18. just letting everyone know I will keep going here – I do it because I love writing, love the Astros and love and appreciate my friends here who make this worthwhile.

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  19. Should be a lot of fun finding out how many MLB ballplayers, coaches, and owners (and of them, how many Astros) were regulars at the Diddly parties.

    I’m looking forward to that!

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    • Great point Dave. A 3 game set is so different. This puts Hinch behind schedule. The Astros needed to force pitches. Instead everyone got Altuve-itis. It’s on the hitters but it’s also on Espada and Cintron as they should have been preaching the approach constantly.

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