Astros “youth” on display

Looking hard at the current version of the Astros, not all the moves of the Dana Brown front office have been towards a youth movement. Picking up 34 year old Christian Walker, picking up and promoting aging bounce around pitchers like 33 year old Steven Okert, 33 year old Kaleb Ort and 32 year old Jason Alexander have certainly been picking from the other side of the 30 year old boundary.

We can argue that some of these pitchers, especially journeymen like Okert and Ort may have more mileage on their luggage than on their arms, at least at the MLB level.

But Brown knows that the best way to build a long term sustainable roster is to fill it with youngsters with plenty of years of control or even more grizzled  vets who have plenty of years of control after spending most of their time wandering the minors.

He emphasized that idea of control when he completed what looks like a brilliant trade of Kyle Tucker for Cam Smith, Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski. The talk was not about getting three players for one, but about getting 17 years of control in a trade for one year of control.

The Astros have been flashing a combination of rookies performing well, along with non-rookies that nobody wanted, but who have lots of control, performing well.

The Rookies

  • The high flyer here is Cam Smith, who looked like a rookie with a handful of minor league games under his belt…for about a month. In his last 32 games he has put up an impressive slash of .315 BA/ .361 OBP/ .821 OPS, and his game Tuesday seemed to show that his power is coming as he went 4 for 5 with 2 HRs and 1 double.
  • In a small cup of coffee before his trip to the injured list, Jacob Melton flashed an outstanding glove and a so-so bat tied to blazing speed. He will be one to follow closely upon his return.
  • Ryan Gusto….after watching his MLB debut rain delayed from the last regular season game in 2024 to a swing man this year, he has done a decent job as a 5th/6th starter and long reliever. After moving back from the bullpen to the starting rotation he has an above average 3.86 ERA in his last 5 starts. That has been a nice shot in the arm for a deeply injured rotation.
  • Colton Gordon – the lefty’s overall stats are pretty mediocre with a 4.70 ERA and a 1.337 WHIP, but he’s gone at least 5 innings in his last 5 starts and only gave up more than 3 runs once in that set. He’s kept them in each game he’s pitched and they are 5-1 in his starts.
  • Brandon Walter – Walter’s MLB stats coming into 2025 were 6.26 ERA in 23 IP with Boston back in 2023. Bit so far he has a tidy 1.53 ERA in three starts for Houston. That is much more than they could expect.

Non-rookies

These are the guys who are not rookies and not necessarily young. But with minimal MLB experience before helping out the team this year.

  • Bryan King – King is no longer rookie eligible, but he came into 2025 with only 26.1 MLB innings under his belt. He has taken advantage of his opportunity and is often the 7th inning guy.
  • Bennett Sousa – He had a 7.06 ERA in 32 MLB games coming into 2025, before stringing together a 1.69 ERA in 21 appearances. He has been solid whenever used.
  • Shawn Dubin – Dubin had a 4.64 ERA in 34 games in 2023-2024, before ripping off an excellent 1.35 ERA in 17 appearances this season. He has been given more and more responsibility as the season has moved along.
  • Jason Alexander – Costanza 2.0 had a 6+ ERA in 83.2 innings in his career before spot starting 6 innings of 2 ER for the Astros this week.

This does not even take into account the “youngsters” the Astros have in Yainer Diaz (26 years old), Isaac Paredes (26 years old) and Jeremy Pena (27 year sold). Dana Brown’s legacy will be how he balances keeping a competitive team on the field while also keeping them affordable. Youth, especially rookies helps

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21 responses to “Astros “youth” on display”

  1. Anybody out there today?

    The Astros almost won despite a combination of bad fielding and bad hitting yesterday.

    Do we get mad at Caratini for striking out with the bases loaded or praise him for hitting the tying 3 run homer?

    Not happy that we used Abreu and probably burned up Hader in a loss

    The team had plenty of hits and runs in this series to win all four games – but crammed them mostly into the middle two games

    Hope they can take at least two from the Angels.

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  3. Sarge, I think Joe did a heck of a job maneuvering his way through that ballgame last night, especially considering his offense’s ineptness on both Thursday and Friday nights, forcing extra innings.

    The same can’t be said for John Libka. He was consistently terrible behind the plate last night, and worse, his decisions did not come close to balancing out. And late in the game, he added a high strike to his repertoire, followed by an inside (way inside) strike to righty hitters. I’ve never heard the Astro broadcast guys condemn a game called by an ump quite so demonstrably.

    In the end though, another unlikely win. I don’t know what today’s game plan is though. But I think Brandon Walter needs to give us six innings (can he really keep getting guys out?) and I’ll need a nap. We need to win another game in Anaheim.

    Next week we start to find out how resilient this club really is with the Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers, Guardians and Rangers all before the break.

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  4. Couple of things I forgot to mention. Steven, first, Brice went 4-4 in his home park last night.

    Sousa was remarkable in the 10th. Anytime a pitcher keeps the Manfred guy from scoring he’s done more than should be asked for. And Bennet made it look easy.

    Abreu really had to battle again. But I think he had a six strike strikeout in the 8th. He kept his composure.

    And Hunter got screwed early and often. When you dot guys up several times and don’t get the call, it’s got to take some of the adrenaline away, at least the good juice. I’ll bet he was exhausted after those 87 pitches last night.

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  5. Thoughts

    • Normally, I say you just want umps to be consistent. But that was a performance by the home plate ump worthy of Angel Hernandez. I went to one of those ump scorecard sites but they had not posted yesterday’s numbers, but this had to be very bad and frankly very much against the Astros.
    • What bad offense last night (though Kikuchi has been very good lately). You get runs with homers from your first two hitters of the game and then you only score one more run in the 10th with the second base head start because of a wild pitch.
    • Heroic bullpen stuff last night. Hader going two innings (OK – he did not make it thru the 2nd inning Thursday but he had to go in twice) two days in a row. And Abreu holding on and Sousa pitching like he thinks he’s Hader. King did give up the tying run, but was after getting out of a jam the inning before.
    • Why did that Angel go ballistic after getting hit on the hands by Brown on a pitch he not only did not avoid, but was starting to swing at. It wasn’t at his head and Hunter had no reason to want to put him on in this situation.
    • Pena, Paredes and Meyers were the only one’s hitting yesterday.

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    • Dan, that bases clearing kerfluffle really ticked me off. MLB needs to fine guys like Neto for starting those. That pitch wasn’t very far off the plate. Given the nonsense with the Dodgers players crying about being HBP in situations where clearly the pitcher was not intentionally doing it even though they’d been throwing at Padres hitters all series I’d say Manfred needs to get out to California and clean up that nonsense.

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  6. Because of financial limits and MLB blackout policies, I have access to almost zero Astros games. But! I discovered that within a half hour of the end of every game, there is a 10-15 minute video of every game’s at bats by both teams on You Tube. This has been a great revelation to me and I now get to look at the games condensed into a reasonable time that shows everything I need to follow my team’s wins and losses. It helps me a lot!

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  7. Wife canceled sports package on Direct. No more Astro games live. Have to watch archive gms with MLB subscription after 2 hrs or listen live on radio

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  9. I hope none of us were thinking that Brandon Walter was going to be the next coming of Cy Young. And we sure do need some hitters in the line up.

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  10. Thoughts

    I didn’t watch a second of last night’s game as my attention was on the Middle East. I didn’t miss anything.

    The biggest concern with having to rely on Gusto, Gordon, Walter and Alexander is that even with good early performances they may at some time get figured out. Or they can move back to the norm with a performance last night.

    It is amazing the Astros are where they are with an offense sputtering like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

    If the Astros can keep things afloat to the All Star break through this upcoming tough stretch they’re in good shape for the traditional second half of the season. But that might be a big if…

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  11. Here we go again. Astros sign Jon Singleton to a minors contract. He was released by the Mets recently and hit only .213 with 12 HR and 42 RBI in 55 games for AAA Syracuse.

    What could they possibly have in mind for him?

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  12. I suspect Singleton will be back on the ML roster pretty quick. I don’t like going backwards, but he’s a left-handed PH and perhaps a DH for now. I don’t see him taking time from Walker though. Christian still shows peripheral stats that give reason for optimism.

    I’m also guessing that Melton and Dezenzo and Chas are out for a while. There also does not seem to be any confidence in Whitcomb defensively.

    I’m wondering if Jose Altuve’s decline is sinking in with him. We’re usually the last to recognize our own weaknesses. He just seems discombobulated. Or even lacking in confidence. Of course I’ve said that now and tomorrow he’ll go out and tear up AC Park for a week.

    In the meantime the Astros won again yesterday, not with pitching, but by outhitting the other guys. Dubon has become our secret power source for the time being. Whatever it takes. Can they amaze me into the All Star break?

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  13. Ride the Dooby wave? It’s been quite a road trip for the super sub, even getting that rare game at SS. Great streaks can happen when you just don’t strike out.

    I loved that Joe sent Gusto out for the 6th. I would probably hate the move if Gusto had given up 3 baserunners. But the 1-2-3 has got to do wonders for his confidence going forward.

    Interesting on Singleton. On one hand, .213 BA at AAA this year. On another, .353 OBP. For me, I don’t think I’ve held it a secret that I love guys that take walks. But I also love guys that don’t strike out. So lets call it a love/hate relationship with Jon. My biggest issue at this point in his career is he has shown he is past the growth stage. If only he made enough solid contact to push his SLG into the lower .400s. While the Astros could use another guy to go out and push pitch counts and occasionally work that “tough” walk, the last thing they need is a pinch hitter who has a career of being the worst pinch hitter in the league and when he plays regularly hits a lot of routine pop ups. I do think we see him back in Houston, maybe before the end of the week, because quite frankly he is a better option sitting down on the end of the bench than a 3rd catcher. It’s just he has proven what happens when he doesn’t play, and they don’t have a spot to play him.

    Which takes me to Jose. Yet ANOTHER base running snafu. Turning a catchable ball into a double. We have lived with years of mistakes and questionable baseball instincts because no one, possibly in baseball history (or maybe second to Ichiro), could get the barrel of the bat to a spot, even out of the zone, better. I just don’t understand, with Yordan out, he is not an almost full time DH right now. He has been so bad defensively that he has a negative WAR despite being on pace to hit .269 with 25 HR. Statcast, DRS and fielding bible all have him as the worst LFer in baseball and he isn’t even near the number of innings some of his competitors are at.

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    • Another thought on Singleton being back in the fold. Yordan is not swinging a bat yet. Maybe Dana has no expectations of when Yordan might.

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      • If Jon can repeat the .234/.321 he had last year it won’t be the worst at bats. I just wish he made better quality contact.

        Christian Walker in 75 games has a .218 BA, .283 OBP, and .365 SLG. Last year in 119 games Jon Singleton had a .234 BA, .321 OBP, and .386 SLG. On the face of it, Singleton was better last year than Walker has been this year.

        Here is the thing about Walker. His career average exit velocity is 90.0 on the dot, this year he is 90.7. His hard hit percentage for his career 45.3, this year 46.3%. Line drive rate, 22.6, this year 24.9%. Pull percentage 29.6%, this year 28.4%. He isn’t far off from being the same hitter. I think we have just seen weird results.

        The one thing he is doing is striking out more. He has more at bats like his 3rd at bat yesterday than he has had in previous years, where he watched strike one in the lower half but center of the zone, then swung at two pitches out of the zone to strike out. But he also games like a few days where he went 0-4 with 3 line drives over 100 MPH exit velocitys right at people.

        I don’t know that he can “fix” his season. But I think he can have a second half where he hits .250+ for the half and provides more at bats like the 2 out double yesterday that added what ended up being a necessary run. But he seems past being able to make a run that will make his overall numbers make fans feel like it was a well spent 20M. And of course the spectre of Jose Abreu sits on him.

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      • I’m just looking for him to coax the OPS up to .700 and then go from there. I still think we’ll be repaid for our patience with him having a solid second half, or at least a solid post All Star break.

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  14. The past 2 gms Altuve has taken 4 walks. Granted, Soriano was not trying to give him anything to hit in that AB Saturday. Stevie Wonder could have walked given the P Soriano was throwing Tuv. In one of the blowouts against the A’s I observed Tuv spoil 4 consecutive balls with the bases loaded with no outs chasing a hit. If he walks a run scores. 4 hitters came to the plate with the bases loaded and all the Stros could muster was one run that inning. We’ve seen that replay a lot.

    Last season a broadcaster noted Altuve, one of the best bad ball hitters in the game, was swinging and missing those P at a 71-72% clip. In 2023 he was missing at a 62% clip. Don’t know what it is this yr. He’s declined. Maybe lost some bat speed. With some patience and plate discipline, I’m certain Tuv could coax better P to hit. And he can still hit we know.

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