Astros 2025 – Who’d have thunk it?

First, apologies to every English or grammar teacher I ever had for the title of this post. On the other hand, maybe this is my way of paying you back for all those tedious essays where we had to follow the exact rules for making references and all that other rot. IBID to you.

I was just staring at some of the numbers relative to this team and it gets just so interesting.

Who’d have thunk it that….

About at the 1/3 pole the Astros position player leaders in WAR would be.

Note – the WAR quoted in this article are from baseball-reference. There are other versions of it and your mileage may vary.

Note – a reminder that WAR takes into account fielding. And….a 0.0 WAR would designate that the person was performing the exact same as a replacement player from the minors. A negative number? Well, that would be performing worse than a scrub from the minors.

  • Bryan King, the 2025 heir apparent to Tayler Scott, would have a higher WAR (0.9) than starters Ronel Blanco (0.5), Hayden Wesneski (0.2) and Spencer Arrighetti (0.1) ….combined?
  • Newbie (to the Astros) Isaac Paredes would be leading the team in OBP (0.377), OPS (.867), runs scored (29), HRs (11) and RBIs (31)?
  • Bryan Abreu would have pitched healthy this far into the season and would have 0 saves, while someone named Steven Okert would have 1?
  • The only player the Astros would have in the top 10 in the AL in BA, OBP, OPS, runs, or HRs would be….Jake Meyers and his .300 BA (9th in the AL)?
  • The Astros bullpen, which is Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu and a bunch of no names would be leading the American League in ERA (2.75) by almost half a run?
  • Ryan Gusto with a below average 4.58 ERA would have a 3-2 winning record, while Framber Valdez with a 3.39 ERA, including a 2.68 ERA over his last 7 starts would be a .500 pitcher at 4-4?
  • The Astros who used 10 starting pitchers through all of 2023 and 12 through all of 2024, would already have 10 different pitchers starting games before the end of May?
  • The Astros with the second thru fourth most starts in the outfield would be Cam Smith (40), Jose Altuve (29) and Zach Dezenzo (23)? (Float back to the beginning of Spring Training and answer this truthfully).
  • Victor Caratini (.271 BA/ .355 OBP/ .771 OPS) would be the superior hitting catcher over Yainer Diaz (.229 BA/ .266 OBP/ .626 OPS) at this point in the season?

Your turn. Is there anything that catches your eye when you look at the Astros’ stats?

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19 responses to “Astros 2025 – Who’d have thunk it?”

  1. “Who’d have thunk it?” is a proper baseball term, originated in 1969 by that guy Karl Ehrhardt, the Mets fan that had a whole slew of catalogued signs sitting at his feet on the third base side of Shea Stadium that he’d whip out when the situation warranted. So Dan, there is precedence. Miracle Astros!

    Our home grown guy, Jeremy Pena has always been a reliable 4 WAR player, mostly for his defense. But if this new found growth at the plate is the real deal, our shortstop is going to make a lot of money in 2028. Isaac will do the same. Forgetting Bregman’s great start in 2025 for a moment, Paredes has become a real stabilizing factor, so far immune from the traditional slow start provided by our former third baseman. Isaac sure seems home in Houston, at least close to real home for him. It would be a solid idea for Dana Brown to finagle extensions for these two guys. And it might be too late.

    Cam won’t have to go down to AAA to figure things out. He’s doing that now. It will take time, but he’ll start launching the ball as he further refines the strike zone. He had a 413 foot fly out last night followed by a cheap double to the wall in left center that he did not get all of. And he’s done being a third baseman. He’s too good in right.

    Jose Altuve has made me look bad after my whining about the chance he’d hit the wall at 35. Although he’s going to be a continuing challenge to hide in the field, I love to watch him hit when he’s hitting. Walker is finding it too. Is Yordan now getting extra rest because we can live without him for the moment? He does remain our biggest concern. Yainer is still fighting it. He looks kind of in a haze sometimes. But heck, if all these guys hit at once, it will be fun to watch. I have not mentioned Jake, because he traditionally hits in May and then stops. And gosh, it’s easy to ignore today, but we need a couple of lefty bats.

    As for the pitching, it’s going to remain a roller coaster ride. We won’t run away with the West. We need four inning guys to turn into five inning guys. We need strikes and strike outs. I still like Gusto. He needs the confidence that neither Hunter nor Spencer had early last year. It’ll come. Gordon and Walter? I don’t know. We also need a moratorium or further injuries to the pitching staff.

    But today, our Astros are somehow relevant. I love fleet of foot, athletic ballplayers running around the field. Our future is beginning to unfold. And the vibe is good down there in the dugout. Let’s see what all these rookie pitchers do. That’s the biggest question right now.

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  2. Good stuff Daveb

    • On the radio they were saying that ironically in the two big scoring games on the homestand – 11-1 yesterday and 9-2 against the Mariners, all the starters had a hit in those games, except Paredes (who has been carrying us otherwise).
    • Cam launches one 413 ft for an out – Pena launches one 330 ft and gets a cheapie into the Crawford Boxes.
    • Walker lines out at 108 mph, but then gets another HR at 106 mph. He’s making better and better contact.
    • Altuve goes from hitting .238 to .272 in the space of 5 games.
    • Hunter Brown came back strong after his hiccup in Tampa’s tiny breezeway of a stadium.
    • Good to get 2 shutout innings out of Whitley even in a runaway win.
    • Nice to see the upward arc of BAs and OPS’s for the team after how bad they were not that long ago. Hopefully we will stir in the “big guy” soon and see where he can carry us.
    • I hope the Astros don’t get a nose bleed as they are 4 games over .500 for the first time this year.

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    • That means only Framber and Hunter are remaining from the Opening Day rotation.

      That means that 10 pitchers have started games for the Astros in 2025. Only 12 pitchers started games for Houston in ALL of 2024, and 10 in 2023.

      Does that make the trade deadline even more important? Or will the Astros depend on McCullers and one of the other IL players coming back to fill the void(s)?

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      • My gut feeling is that they will float along with Hunter and Framber supplemented by McCullers, Gusto, Gordon, and Walters. They will hope that this carries them to the point that Arrighetti returns.

        But if they have more injuries or the “other” pitchers turn to total pumpkins they will have to think seriously about a trade for a solid “third” guy. Kikuchi 2.0

        I just don’t think you can rely on Garcia, Javier, or France …. I mean that would be nice but maybe asking too much.

        Like you texted to me – this is a good time for the bats to wake up.

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  4. Really surprised, last night, when Espada pinch hit for Altuve in the eighth with Altuve looking to get that elusive fifth hit game. I put that on a level of a pitcher throwing a no hitter in the eighth and being lifted to begin the ninth with a lead.

    I shake my head…

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    • Sarge, Jose looked pretty happy in the dugout chatting with Yordan as Zach stepped into the on deck circle. I think he had a say in the matter. My guess is that Jose really did not feel the need to hang around in an 11-1 route. Just another reason why I like him so much.

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  6. Well, scrap the deadline deal comment. Houston’s biggest “acquisition” may have come from the IL…the 900-day IL, at that. Can we just call McCullers the Rip Van Winkle of the ’25 season?

    I didn’t see the game, but 6 innings, 102 pitches with a QS and 12 Ks looks pretty good in the boxscore!

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  8. Thoughts

    • Zach D put a charge in that one yesterday and it sure came at a key time to tie the game in the 8th.
    • Should the Astros make Caratini the starter while he is hitting so well and Diaz is slumping? They put Dezenzo in the DH spot instead of Diaz and it worked out for them. Plus, Victor got a good start out of McCullers.
    • Checking in on the game yesterday – Lance made it thru the first two innings in 23 pitches which helped him get through six innings. Usually when he is striking that many guys out (12), he is throwing too many pitches to go that deep.
    • Fun to see Hader free throwing – they have trouble catching up with either that slider or that high fastball.
    • I flashed back to Bagwell when Walker got hit on the hand. That was his Achilles heel it seemed. I hope Walker just has a bruise (not a Kyle Tucker shin bruise) and not something broken.
    • The Astros figured out how to score 5 runs with no hits from Altuve, Paredes, Walker, Meyers and Rodgers. Well, they have to always figure out how to score without Rodgers. I really, really don’t understand why they did not let him walk away when they had a chance a few weeks ago. That batting line from Shay Whitcomb at AAA is surely attractive right now for a guy who has played all positions except CF and C this year (.264 BA/.351 OBP/ .925 OPS with 34 runs/ 16 HR/ 35 RBI)

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  9. Yeah, I don’t get that 2 million for Rodgers. We could have put lefty Guillorme and his lifetime .261 BA and .349 OBP against righties on the roster instead. We might do it at some point regardless.

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  10. Dan, how do the hitting coaches and Espada help fix Diaz? This is the same guy who batted .300 last season. He’s swinging like it’s an auto reflex nearly every time the ball barrels to the plate. Both his offense and defense are suffering.

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    • Andre

      I think if Yainer took a page out of Pena’s book it would help. Stop swinging at low outside crap – make them throw strikes and then do something about it.

      He looks like he is thinking too much and swings like he is thinking too little.

      I don’t know what he needs to do – I just know he is the second-best hitting catcher (maybe third best?) on the roster and that is by a bunch…..currently.

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  11. And the X-rays on Walkers hand was negative – so good news there. I would guess based on what he has done before that Joe will sit him one day.

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  13. Well, the good news is that Seattle gave up 7 in the 10th to the beer makers last night. And that was plenty for a 9-3 Manfred win.

    Ryan Gusto looked much more confident during his first couple of outings. I’m not sure if he’s really got a major league breaking ball at this point. But he has to fill the strike zone, especially against a guy leading off that can run like the wind but has never hit a homer.

    First base is a tough place to play and we sure missed Christian Walker over there least night. I love Victor, but it might have been a different game if those two tough plays were made.

    We gave the Rays a four inning head start before we got our own heads in the game.

    Our pen has spoiled me to the point that when we tied it up 3-3, I figured the boys out there would hold on until we got a big hit from someone.

    I don’t like to lose the first game of a four game series to a pretty good team but this one is best to simply forget about and move on. And we have one of our stoppers going tonight.

    I hate to say this but the feel good video of Yordan hitting off a tee before the game yesterday looked pretty feeble. Joe said “he’s real close”, but Yordan, apparently following club protocol, is not allowed to talk about his own hand.

    Have an excellent Friday everyone.

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