This may have been one of the most out of the blue great months in the history of the team. They were limping along after injury after injury against the pitching staff – Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski gone for the season and Spencer Arrighetti gone for what is becoming months.
They had nothing from their best hitter – Yordan Alvarez – who in fact has not played for them since one game into May. They even lost their best hitter in 2025, Jeremy Pena for the last few games of the month (and apparently much more). But somehow, they had the best record, not only in the AL, but in the whole of the majors for the month of June.
How did they perform in May vs. the other teams in the American League?
Offense – June – Ranking in the AL
.253 BA (5th) / .316 OBP (T-8th) / .724 OPS (9th) / 112 runs (T-9th) / HRs 32 (T-6th)
Pitching – June – Ranking in the AL
2.83 ERA (1st) / 11 saves (1st) / 1.08 WHIP (1st) / 272 Ks (1st) / 69 walks (T-2nd best) / 30 HR (T-9th best)
Well as my old boss in Arkansas, Dave Saunders used to say, “It doesn’t take long to look at this horseshoe.” They rode a fantastic month of that new musical group Hader, Abreu and the Pen along with their opening act Hunter, Framber and the No-Name Boys to a 19-7 record and a 6-1/2 lead in the AL West. They really needed that pitching because their hitting was nothing to write home about.
Note – I did all the toting up here after the Astros last game of June. I realize other AL teams are playing Monday and may slightly change the numbers above – but I don’t want to hear about it.
Now on to the awards….
Here is a quick stat chart of the Astros’ pitchers in the month of June.
| Name | Gm | W | L | Svs | IP | ERA | WHIP | Ks/9 IP | BAA | OBPA | OPSA | BAbip | IR/ IS |
| Framber Valdez | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 1.74 | 1.290 | 10.2 | .216 | .211 | .604 | .309 | N/A |
| Hunter Brown | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 1.19 | 0.824 | 11.6 | .130 | .243 | .433 | .186 | N/A |
| Lance McCullers | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 14.1 | 7.53 | 1.535 | 8.8 | .232 | .348 | .866 | .237 | N/A |
| Ryan Gusto | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 25.1 | 5.33 | 1.382 | 19.3 | .295 | .324 | .801 | .370 | 0/0 |
| Colton Gordon | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 2.14 | 1.238 | 7.7 | .286 | .302 | .755 | .323 | N/A |
| Brandon Walter | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 24.2 | 4.01 | 1.095 | 9.1 | .257 | .279 | .754 | .296 | N/A |
| Josh Hader | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 13.2 | 1.98 | 0.512 | 14.5 | .128 | .163 | .546 | .136 | 1/0 |
| Bryan Abreu | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 1.29 | 0.857 | 16.7 | .149 | .245 | .479 | .300 | 6/0 |
| Bryan King | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2.70 | 1.300 | 10.8 | .282 | .326 | .736 | .370 | 3/0 |
| Steven Okert | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10.2 | 3.38 | .844 | 13.5 | .176 | .231 | .584 | .222 | 7/1 |
| Bennett Sousa | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12.1 | 0.73 | .405 | 11.7 | .053 | .122 | .227 | .091 | 1/0 |
| Kaleb Ort | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.1 | 4.91 | 1.500 | 9.8 | .240 | .367 | .807 | .313 | 4/2 |
| Shawn Dubin | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.2 | 1.86 | .931 | 5.6 | .206 | .270 | .682 | .192 | 2/1 |
| Jason Alexander | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3.00 | 1.000 | 6.0 | .143 | .280 | .470 | .176 | N/A |
| Nick Hernandez | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9.00 | 3.000 | 9.0 | .400 | .500 | 1.300 | .426 | 0/0 |
| Jordan Weems | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 0.0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0/0 |
Note – I added the IR (Inherited runners) / IS (Inherited runners who scored) stat for the relievers.
Starting Pitcher of the Month – Hunter Brown – He only had 1 win vs. Framber’s four, but not through any fault of his own. His numbers are insanely good across the board – especially that miniscule slash against .130 BA/ .243 OBP/ .433 OPS.
Runner-up – Framber Valdez – On probably any other team in the AL he would be the pitcher of the month as he was very good in June. What a one-two punch at the top of the rotation.
Last Month – Winner – Framber Valdez / Runner-up – Hunter Brown
Special Recognition – Colton Gordon – That 3-0 and 2.14 ERA was a big shot in the arm for a team needing someone (after Lance McCullers struggled) to grab that third spot in the rotation.
Relief Pitcher of the Month – T – Josh Hader/ Bryan Abreu – The two of them traded back and forth on the numbers and some might think Abreu’s ERA lead gives him the edge. But in 14 appearances – Hader had positive outcomes in 13 (4 wins and 9 saves) and so I will let them share.
Runner-up – Bennett Sousa – He did not have quite as tough a set of appearances from a leverage standpoint as the two guys ahead of him, but those numbers were fantastic for the month. If you wanted to flip him with the other two – I’d be OK with that.
Last Month – Winner – Josh Hader / Runner-up – Bryan Abreu
Special Recognition –. Shawn Dubin – Unfortunately, he joined so many others on the injured list, but before that he threw some meaningful innings and very well.
Here is a quick stat chart of the Astros’ position players in the month of June.
| Name | ABs | Runs | Dbls | HRs | RBIs | BBs | Ks | BA | OBP | OPS | BAbip |
| Isaac Paredes | 81 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 12 | 20 | .247 | .367 | .874 | .262 |
| Jose Altuve | 91 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 11 | 16 | .242 | .327 | .745 | .250 |
| Jeremy Pena | 97 | 18 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 21 | .361 | .404 | .919 | .446 |
| Christian Walker | 95 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 30 | .221 | .288 | .646 | .290 |
| Cam Smith | 89 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 6 | 24 | .303 | .354 | .849 | .377 |
| Yainer Diaz | 90 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 16 | .256 | .269 | .658 | .278 |
| Jake Meyers | 90 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 16 | .333 | .390 | .768 | .400 |
| Brendan Rodgers | 15 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .200 | .294 | .694 | .200 |
| Victor Caratini | 68 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 15 | .162 | .192 | .515 | .154 |
| Mauricio Dubon | 64 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 10 | .188 | .243 | .665 | .157 |
| Cooper Hummell | 26 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 11 | .231 | .375 | .837 | .308 |
| Jacob Melton | 29 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 12 | .241 | .290 | .601 | .412 |
| Luis Guillorme | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | .150 | .190 | .340 | .250 |
| Shay Whitcomb | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Taylor Trammell | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .000 | .250 | .250 | .000 |
| Cesar Salazar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .667 | .500 |
Positional Player of the Month – Jeremy Pena – Leading the team in runs scored, doubles, BA, OBP, OPS gives the Astros’ shortstop the title (again), which apparently doomed him to broken ribs.
Runner-up – Cam Smith – Jake Meyers had some better BA and OBP numbers, but Cam was extremely effective with the second most runs scored, tied for the top in homers and leading the team in RBIs.
Last Month – Winner – Jeremy Pena / Runner-up – Jake Meyers
Biggest Surprise (Positive) – Sousa was just tremendous in June giving the Astros a plethora of lefty arms.
Runner-up – Dubin was also amazingly effective in June for the best bullpen in the majors.
Last Month – Winner – Cam Smith / Runner-up – Shawn Dubin
Honorable Mention – We will give Jason Alexander an attaboy for that single start of 6 innings and a couple earned runs after not doing anything previously.
Biggest Disappointment – Lance McCullers Jr. – maybe I am psychotic to be disappointed by Lance, but he has done it to me.
Runner-up – Christian Walker – I thought he would be turning it around by now. I would be wrong.
Last Month – Winner – Tayler Scott / Runner-up – Ryan Gusto
There are some interesting and puzzling things that happened to the Astros in the month of June:
Jake Meyers moved up in the lineup, had 90 ABs and still managed to turn a .333 BA into only 4 RBIs , tenth most on the team.
If you were going to pick the guy to have the 2nd most saves on the team in June (2), you would likely have gone through 4 or 5 other relievers before you picked Bennett Sousa.
Victor Caratini while putting up a sucky slash line (.162 BA/ .192 OBP/ .515 OPS) still managed 9 RBIs in 68 ABs.
The starting pitcher with the best ERA (Hunter Brown – 1.19 ERA) and the worst ERA (Lance McCullers – 7.53 ERA), both had the same amount of wins (1). Which is why wins is a poor way to judge any pitcher.
Other than Jordan Weems (who struck out none in one inning) the reliever with the worst K/9 IP number was Dubin with 5.6 K/ 9 IP. That did not keep him from very effective numbers across the board.
As usual, it is your turn to comment. Any awards you disagree with? Any new ones you want to award?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
27 responses to “ ChipalattAwards for June”
Morning Dan, you were up early!
Looking over some stats, I noted that Framber has averaged just 93 pitches per start and Hunter 95. Our pitching experts are trying to give these guys as light a load as possible, even as both have not missed a start on the season. But most of the credit for keeping our two aces under 100 pitches in all but 5 starts combined has to go to our bullpen. Our pen has also continually picked up the pitching Calvary from AAA; Gordon, Gusto and Walter, typically earlier in games. So I’m giving the entire pen my own award of excellence for season to date.
In other notes, where would we be without Cam and Isaac? Replacing both Bregman and Tucker was going to be impossible. We’ve come pretty close though. As we enter July, Isaac has an .826 OPS. Alex had a .711 at this point last year. Cam, he’s our RISP guy, especially in high leverage situations. And he’s already becoming one of the top right fielders in MLB. Once he figures out what to do with that arm of his, he’ll be a Gold Glove man regularly.
Jake makes me scratch my head. How does the same guy produce a .583 OPS at home and a .952 on the road? He’s got just 4 RBI’s on the season at home. I’m expecting a big series from Jake in Colorado starting tonight.
That darn HBP that Jeremy took on Friday did not look especially painful, but I immediately thought the worst. That’s just the way things have been going. What a month he had though. I’m just hoping something closer to 5 weeks and not 10 weeks with this injury. Unfortunately, it’s hard to take at face value anything Dana or Joe have to say about any injury.
Unrelated to June awards, as much as Frenchie Dubon frustrates me at the plate, it’s good to have him on standby to take over shortstop for Jeremy. Is there a better back up at short in the game?
I’m almost ready to give up on the Jose Altuve experiment in left field. While Chas has become the forgotten man, if he’s ready to play sometime in July, I’d send him over to the Space Cowboys for a couple of weeks and if he looks good at the plate, he’d become my (almost) full time left fielder. He might just produce more than anyone else, even whatever lefty bat we might try. And his defense in left would give us a really solid outfield.
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Let’s see daveb
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Morning Dan,
Why did I think the header was “By Chip Bailey”? I was without coffee during my first look this morning. My bad. I wanted to make sure I responded to the monthly awards ceremony, as I do recognize the effort pt into it!
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Yeah – I am not sure whether Chip or I should be insulted you think we look alike LOL!!
I heard that IF Brice Matthews (.285 BA/ .403 OBP/ .895 OPS at AAA) will be in the Futures Game. He’s been playing mostly 2B and has a good walk rate and a bad K rate. He will be joined by pitcher Alimber Santa (I can hear “Boomer” Chris Berman having fun with that name) who is 2-1 with a 1.27 ERA at AA Corpus working out of the bullpen.
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Brice is killing the ball in his thin air parks. Not quite so much here in Houston. I’ve been following Alimber. He’s got to be a spec e cowboy soon. Don’t be insulted. At least I’m responsive.
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Yes, Dave, always concerned about trying to evaluate our minor leaguers when they spend a significant amount of games and at bats in wiffle ball parks.
If right now Brice Matthews or Miguel Ullola were the face of a package that brought back say Bryan Reynolds, I would be down. And thats given that I accept that Reynolds is 30 and could be entering a decline that makes that contract tough to swallow through 2030. But he doesn’t get paid like a star at 13M AAV. And he fixes LF, with a lefty bat.
I’m just saying Ullola walks WAY too many people and Matthews strikes out more than you like to see at AAA, and if, indeed, as we both suspect, that batting average and slight uptick in power is influenced by the air in Reno and Las Vegas and Albuquerque and Salt Lake and Sacramento, well, if he can fix something for us, so be it. Speaking of Sacramento, its probably going to make Wilson the runaway RoY. He is hitting .361 at home with a .527 SLG. His OPS in Sacramento is .937. He actually isn’t bad on the road (that happens when you are hard to strike out), but not .937 good.
I still wouldn’t be opposed to bringing Matthews up and sticking him at 2B, he can’t do worse than Rodgers did. I would have more confidence in trusting that Ullola can take that electric arm and learn to throw strikes, but so many never do.
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Steven, Brice has a home OPS is .615, on the road, 1.089. All of his 10 homers are roadies.
I always liked Reynolds. He might just be a somewhat discouraged guy looking at the possibility of playing out his career never having sniffed meaningful late season MLB. Change of scenery could work wonders.
On the flip side, he should have never taken that crappy 8 year deal.
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I wouldn’t trade Matthews for Reynolds. It’s the kind of trade you make if you want to enter a period of prolonged sadness. There are 5 more guaranteed years and then the last one that will surely get bought out on his contract. Even if you get a bounce back the remainder of this year he’s not going to get younger and should be on the decline. Matthews is a future MLBer. If Altuve isn’t moving back to 2B then he’s your guy in 2026.
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Geez Dan thats a lot of information. I think it boils down to one point. Offense can win a game, but pitching wins seasons.
My flowers – definitely Pena, who should make the all-star team, and Cam is having a good month powered by a real hot streak the last week plus. I’m going special shout out to Paredes, who, as Blummer pointed out, forced 30 pitches in 3 ABs to Taillon that may have had an impact on pitch 108 in the 5th inning that Altuve took yard for the decider of a 2-0 game. Great things happen when you can force pitchers to work.
I’m not ready to give up on Christian Walker. I will say in what has become a not small sample anymore in statcast it does, indeed, look like he is failing to catch up to velocity. He has never been a high average guy but he 30 points below career average and on pace to strike out roughly 170 times. Here we go again.
Colton Gordon maybe the biggest shot in the arm so far of them all. You knew Hunter was going to Hunter, Framber was going to Framber, who knew Colton could Colton. I’m always scared of lefties that don’t have electric arms, 80% of the batters they face have that breaking stuff coming right at them, but he gets by with focus on every pitch and not making mistakes. I don’t know if 91 and mediocre stuff is a long term formula for success, but if he can learn to live on the edges he could be a MOR guy for a long time. He even had a few corners taken away from him in his last start and managed to work around it.
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The pitching has been tremendous. The thing about the offense is we haven’t had too many games that were laughers and skewed the production numbers. There were four games we scored 10+ runs. Two were in the A’s MiLB park, one was against he Chicago MiLB team, and the last was against the Twins. You really have to credit the pitching and defense for winning a number of those close ones against really good teams. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the hitting be much more productive this month. Hopefully the pitching remains solid and the results stay the same.
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My two cents on Brice Matthews
Let’s compare Brice this year to Jeremy Pena’s last time at AAA
Pena – On this date in 2021 would have been 23 yrs – 282 days old
Matthews today is 23 yrs – 107 days old – about a half year younger.
In 2021 Pena played 30 games at AAA / Matthews 67 games so far
Pena – .287 BA / Matthews – .285 BA
Pena – .346 OBP/ Matthews – .403 OBP
Pena – .944 OPS / Matthews – .895 OPS
Pena – 26% K rate/ Matthews – 28.5% K rate
Pena – 4.5% walk rate / Matthews – 15.4% walk rate
Will Matthews put up Pena numbers? Heck, I don’t know, but I’m willing to find out.
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Well, Yordan has been “shut down”. More specialists to check in on his hand injury.
Can you say left-handed bat at the deadline?
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It will be even more costly at this point.
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Coors Field is a beautiful weird park. It’s just hard to figure out where balls are going in the outfield.
Time to insert Jose into a full time DH role for now. Play Guillorme against most of the righties. And Shay Whitcomb has to be given a shot to see if he can field the position while providing an offensive boost.
I don’t think either Hummel or Trammell are real options, either offensively or defensively, but we’ll see them in LA this weekend.
Yordan is going to see a hand specialist today. Shouldn’t the Astros statements say that he’ll be seeing “another” hand specialist today? Is it possible that he’s not already seen a hand specialist? Sadly, Yordan has bad hands. His job is tough with bad hands. Maybe it is genetics.
I hope Jeremy Peña is seeing a rib specialist today too.
Cam Smith keeps doing good things on the field. That was an excellent catch against the wall in a park he’s never seen before.
Steven, please proceed to get that Bryan Reynolds deal done. It’s not going to be easy. The Pirates will be offered quite a few options.
Colton Gordon might have cost himself a win last night. More indecision around first base with Walker waiting at the bag hoping for someone else to react to the play. We’ve seen too much of this stuff. Guys on the mound, guys that play second and Walker have got to be collectively more intuitive when working together.
I think Tony P. might be overrated in the send/hold department. He gets it wrong too often.
I hope the Astros can beat up on Gomber early and help give Hunter a relatively stress free seven inning outing.
Our rock solid club is up by 7 games.
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Thoughts
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And the Astros enter today’s games with a 7-game lead on the M’s, 8.5 on the Angels and 9.5 on the Rangers – we will ignore the A’s for the time being.
They are 2 games back of the Tigers for the best record in the AL and 3 games ahead of the Yanks, 4 on the Blue Jays and 4.5 on the Rays for the second best record in the AL.
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Between his hands and his knees – I keep getting a Yao Ming vibe on Yordan. Yao was cruising along and improving his game and then he ran into the chronic foot injuries if I remember correctly.
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Dan, we agree on a lot of things.
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Ironically- this is a new article in chron.com (Spit!!) today. Looks like Yao may have been eating an extra bit of BBQ lately.
Rockets legend Yao Ming dwarfs patrons at Texas barbecue joint
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Guillorme to the IL! Zack Short promoted to the Astros! Yordan to the 60-day IL!
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So you just made me do a double-take about Yordan, but per MLBTR he’s been on the 10 day IL long enough that his 60 day windows has been completed and will be eligible for reinstatement as soon as he is able to play. Hope is not yet lost…but our medical staff sure seems to be.
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They needed a 40-man spot for Short and this was the right move since Yordan can come back whenever.
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Our boys sure did not make it look easy, but they won again.
I’d like to see the Astros do something which might be novel. Take medical care and rehabilitation totally out of the hands of the GM. Have a medical spokesperson, an esteemed heath professional, of which we’ve got many in Houston, make all public comments about player health issues, from the initial injury, to diagnosis, to continuing care, to rehabilitation, to return to play. The GM would be a subordinate of the medical spokesperson. Spare no expense in finding the correct person, one that will use all resources available to help make the correct diagnosis and provide correct care. Take Dana Brown and Joe Espada completely out of the public dialogue until any player has been cleared to play by the club medical spokesperson and his/her care giving team.
I don’t know this, but if Dana Brown or any other current Astro employee, including medical staff already on the payroll is making care and rehabilitation decisions, it’s not working.
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Guillorme makes 15 on the IL at the same time. We now have a full 2 game, er, person lead. Best IL record in the league. That’s one lead I would happy to give up.
I can’t speak much about the Astros process. I just hope that the higher ups are re-evaluating it. If they say they are doing everything they can do, I’m not in the halls, I just have to assume its the bad luck of it all.
I often wonder if all these pitchers bring it on themselves. Luis Garcia got to us throwing 94, started throwing 97, looked good for about a year doing that, and now this. LMJ also got to us at 94, then started hitting 97, and we know that story. Urquidy came up throwing 93-94, started throwing 96-97, I see a pattern. I feel like pitchers are just chasing the number at this point. In the 90s there were a select few number of starters that sat above 95. Hitting a hundo on a gun in the 90s got you on ESPN that night. But these kids grew up watching RJ and Clemens and so on and so forth hitting mid to upper 90s consistently and winning because they could, now everyone wants to. Now, you can argue it’s working, offense is down across the league, but TJ’s are happening everywhere, just not in Houston. I wonder by the time he is done what is Spencer Strider’s total innings pitched mark. Or Hunters.
As for Yordan, we know he is a fragile piece of china. Many of us talked about that deal that was signed at the time and knew this was the deal of the decade IF he could stay on the field. People the size of Yordan, that’s a lot of infrastructure to keep working. That’s why I laughed a little at the comparison of Yao, a lot of infrastructure. And yes, Yao doesn’t look like he is missing many meals these days.
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Last night the Dodgers (or MLB? Both?) stopped the game for almost 6 minutes to celebrate Clayton Kershaw’s 3,000th strikeout. They were trailing the White Sox 4-2 when it happened. It’s one of those longevity milestones few are likely to reach as only 19 players did so before him. By comparison, Verlander became the 18th pitcher to hit the mark and received about a 30 second ovation from the Anaheim crowd before resuming the game. Max Scherzer was the next to do so and basically did the same thing – tipped his cap, tossed the ball into the dugout, and then resumed the game.
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A comment was lost in cyberspace yesterday. It was about the huge hits late in the games. Caratini’s slam and Altuve’s single last night.
Also, how the high elevation is detrimental to guys like Colton Gordon, who gives up numerous contact and then tries to work his way out of trouble. Lots of contact yields magnified results in the high altitude. Did the rarified air wear down Hunter brown last night? He looked gassed.
My last comment was about Dubon’s surprisingly good defense so far at SS.
Friday, the Astros move on from the team with MLB’s worst record to the team with MLB’s best record.
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Thoughts
I was losing my mind in the 9th inning last night as the Rockies hit 3 balls for singles that would be easy outs anywhere else in the baseball world. The outfields are so huge that the OFs can’t cover it all – especially late when they may be playing even a little further back.
Altuve passed Bagwell with that bunt single to third, but hit a classic Jose first pitch liner up the middle to give the Astros those tie breaking runs.
Hunter was not quite as sharp last night – I’m sure the thin air makes figuring out your breaking pitches a tough go. But he toughed it out and due to Altuve – got his first win in a while even though he pitched better in the four previous no decisions.
Cam Smith up to a slash of .285 BA/ .355 OBP/ .785 OPS. I think we will keep him.
Christian Walker oozes over the .220 mark to .223 BA. But man that -0.8 WAR – yuck. But of course Jose is still negative WAR too.
OP – yeah you have to admire Dubon who can hop around from position to position and kill it defensively. And the new guy Zach Short looked shaky on his first fielding try – helped out by Walker, but turned a tough DP in the ninth when they really needed it.
Let’s see – just as we drew it up in Spring Training – 3 innings of closeout bullpen by Okert, Ort and Sousa.
This is becoming one of my favorite Astro teams just due to resiliency.
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