Astros’ 2025 and Atlas Shrugged

It is a pretty good assumption that if you have not read Ayn Rand’s extremely heavy and long tome, Atlas Shrugged, by now, you are not likely going to read it in the future. However, to be fair, here is a spoiler alert and if you don’t want to have a certain plot line ruined, you may want to just skip down a way in today’s post.

One of the key story lines among many in Atlas Shrugged is that of the disappearing industrialists. It seems that every time a particular king of industry becomes critical to the economic survival of the country – they disappear. If the head of the biggest coal consortium is the top dog due to the importance of coal to the heating of houses and powering of the railroads, he suddenly and mysteriously disappears, and his company soon folds without his leadership.

The loss of each of these industrial moguls is followed by a lot of hand wringing by the authorities, but they are helpless to stop it as the economic fate of the nation spirals out of control.

Fast forward in the real world to 2025 and the not so real world of major league baseball. The Astros have had their own Atlas Shrugged moments throughout the year:

  • Lacking power and someone to drive in key runs, what happens? The Astros lose their very best hitter, DH Yordan Alvarez, to hand soreness that later includes a broken bone and does not include any type of quick recovery.
  • The team struggles in the hitting department but they ride the back of solid starting pitching for what success they have. Suddenly, Hayden Wesneski and Ronel Blanco head off to the surgeon and what was once a strength becomes a question mark.
  • SS Jeremy Pena and CF Jake Meyers have career seasons. Jeremy Pena and Jake Meyers both get hurt and Meyers shows no signs of a near-term return.
  • 3B Isaac Paredes has done a wonderful job of filling in for long gone free agent Alex Bregman. He then pulls up lame in a game with a hamstring injury and he may or may not return this season.
  • The Astros depend on unexpected depth in almost every area and suddenly they are faced with a ballooning injured list that tops out at 19.
  • They are heartened by the return of the long-injured Lance McCullers Jr. but he performs poorly and then suddenly he is injured again.
  • One of their very best substitute pitchers is lefty Brandon Walter and as soon as they are comfortable with him in the rotation he goes on the IL with an elbow injury.
  • The Astros bullpen has been an overall strength, but lately more and more of the load has fallen on All-Star Josh Hader. Well, oops, Josh’s shoulder comes up hurting and you guessed it, he has gone on the IL.

Somehow, the Astros have survived all this, but finally their lead has evaporated in the AL West. Can they make a stand and turn things around down the stretch? Or will it all collapse on them as it did in a certain dystopian novel?

We shall see.

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25 responses to “Astros’ 2025 and Atlas Shrugged”

  1. The fact that the Astros have been able to weather an injury tsunami and remain competitive is a miracle in and of itself. Alas the inability to add some competent P at the trade deadline might come back to haunt them down the stretch. The P returnees may or may not help, and Valdez’s last two starts have bombed out to make me temper my optimism until he rights his ship. I get why Valdez was retained after the deadline but I honestly wished DB would have been allowed to pick up additional talent by trading him rather than allow him to walk for free. Does anyone think Crane will fork over perhaps $200 mil plus for Valdez this offseason after picking up Correa’s salary? For the love of me I do not see that happening.

    Until this P staff finds it’s way and prove able to hold lineups down like they did the first half, the Astro lineup is going to have to bring it moving forward. It did just enough winning earlier and now need to do more. We have no idea when Alvarez or Meyers will return or how effective they will be when they do. This lineup has demonstrated the ability to put men on base but boy have they struggled to bring those ducks home with a timely hit or two. At this juncture I am not sure what to expect down the line. I’m hopeful though.

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  2. This may be a wild hair. But Lance is doing a rehab start in a couple days, right? He could be ready to return…

    I remember Lance McCullers Jr. closing out a critical win in 2017 (a long time ago, yeah, I know). Could he be a viable replacement (temporarily) for Hader, depending on how long he’s out?

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    • Chip, it’s a frightening thought, but it’s already crossed my mind. What if Lance, blister and all (of course I’m dubious) has been hidden away somewhere (kind of like Zach Dezenzo) re-learning how to throw a fast ball that dives and that curveball vintage 2017. He comes to the rescue and gives us 12 saves down the stretch, then his arm falls off and Josh Hader comes off the injured list and takes us into the post season. Unfortunately, based on pre-blister performance, I don’t know if Lance can give us anything of value and based on this seasons injury, I’m not counting on Hader.

      Reading Andre above, I’m more inclined to feel that we just don’t have enough P. We have guys that will be getting better, but we need them to be stretch run primed, not coming off of 12 to 24 months of idleness. The M’s look solid right now. They’ve got a pretty healthy roster and an excellent pitching staff.

      We know the M’s won’t win 9 of 10 the rest of the way, but we do need a stumble from the Mariners, and we absolutely need to start hitting like crazy, with or without Yordan. I’m not selling yet, but it’s going to be an uphill battle, even as we start the day deadlocked.

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  4. Andre – it really felt at the deadline that the Astros needed to pick up a solid #3 starter to eat some innings and to give the rotation a third leg of the milking stool down the stretch. I still agree with DB in not shipping the moon for Dylan Cease, but like Chip put out there, I sure would have ponied up a solid prospect like the Tigers did.

    Chip – I always thought Lance might be better off out of the bullpen. But he has been awful sporadic since coming back – can he get thru 3 outs? Maybe he could if he knows that is all he needs to do.

    daveb – Funny, but for one of Lance’s previous rehab appearances they stated (as I remember) that he had pitched X amount of innings at an undisclosed location. So…..maybe……

    Astro Nut – That’s a funny one that I’m praying is not true. But I understand the cynicism

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  5. This upcoming stretch could end the season. 7 against Baltimore, 3 @Detroit, 3 against Colorado, 4 against the Angels puts us into September. If the Astros don’t win a sizeable amount of those games they’re going to be hoping even a wild card is an option. The Mariners just came off a 9-1 homestand. They are currently a half game better than us at home and a half game worse on the road. I really didn’t expect the home records to be so close, but maybe they’re trying to help their hitters and keeping the lights on this year. Our last six games are against OAK and the Angels…which is great on paper, but I think we just got swept at home by the A’s. The Mariners end with 3 against Colorado and 3 against the Dodgers. Hopefully the latter is in a tight race with SD and has to help us out.

    I think the expected return of Javier coupled with the loss of Paredes determined that we wouldn’t acquire a starter. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that a few bats will catch fire and carry the team.

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    • That is a bit depressing to think about Devin – but this team has surprised us over and over. I can’t give up on them until the last death rattles. (of them not me)

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  6. I’d say Lance could be a viable replacement for McCormick, not Neris. McCormick the RP not McCormick the CF. Mind you Lance might also be a good CF, we never know.

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  7. Doesn’t look like Hader will be back soon. He’s seeking a second opinion and Espada says this will take “longer than the two weeks” on the IL.

    Great news, not. Can you say Ryan Pressly?

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  8. Bottom of the fifth in today’s (8/13) game, Astros see 4 (FOUR) pitches and their half inning is over. Even Kalas said they gave Hunter a 1 1/2 minute rest period.

    The 3 Ps live here. They need a Brainiac for game strategy.

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  11. Thoughts

    • Let’s face it – 95% of the time a player seeks a second opinion is because the first opinion is surgery (locally) and they end up going to the big kahuna in the country and that guy will confirm the surgery. I think 90% chance Hader is gone for the season and beyond.
    • The guys did what they do – they ignored the disaster that just happened to them and played an excellent game. A resilient bunch and they were rewarded when the Orioles (who blew a 2 run lead in the top of the 9th) walked it off in the bottom of the 9th.
    • Hunter allowed some traffic (6 hits/ 3 walks) but only the 1 run and the team absolutely needed those 6.2 innings from him.
    • Loved Pena working the count and hitting a low liner into the Crawford Boxes to lead off the game.
    • Diaz is continuing to warm up – nice liner for the RBI in the first and a big blow for a homer in the 6th. Between he and Walker they seem to trade off games with big hits.
    • Abreu put a couple guys on (though the first was a seeing eye single), but then bore down and saved the game. They need him to grab that role and hope others (Souza, King, Okert, Dubin) will bridge to him.
    • In the next 17 games, the Astros play 14 against very beatable teams – Baltimore -7, Colorado – 3, LAA – 4.
    • Meanwhile of the M’s 16 games upcoming – they play 12 (Mets – 3, Phils – 3, Padres – 3, Cleveland – 3) against likely playoff teams.
    • The Astros need to bow up and take advantage.

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  12. Hader is likely done. It had to be a shock to the clubhouse. It had to be a shock to most of the fans, but at this point, I’m resigned to simply wonder what will happen next. It’s the season of 2025.

    But we’ll also be entering the weekend in first place. That’s given. I thought we’d be a couple of games down by now, but not out. Instead we’re still in first place. We’re right in it.

    There is no way of knowing which of the rehabbers will pitch well. I’m encouraged by both Arrighetti and Javier. And chances are that some of those rehab guys will continue to get better and those that don’t won’t be on the 26 man roster for long. But we’ll have more arms. We might see tandem starts, we might see more opener’s. It’s certainly going to be interesting. I don’t mind if we lose 14-1 every now and then with wins on both sides of those blow outs. And I still keep thinking our bats will at some point give us a few blow outs of our own.

    Heck, I would not mind being tied for first on September 1. That’s just a couple of weeks away with a pretty manageable schedule. And although it’s far from guaranteed, just maybe Yordan will show up and hit the ball. We’re not done yet.

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    • daveb – We just don’t know what we will be seeing in the next 6 weeks as you say. This is kind of like the end of the movie Titanic (another spoiler alert) – how long can Kate Winslet (the Astros) cling to that piece of furniture (their lead) in the near freezing waters (while losing practically every critical part to the team).

      Note – don’t get me into talking about how quickly they gave up trying to have Leo share that floating device – but if I’m picking between Kate and Leo – its Kate every day.

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      • That could be it! And it doesn’t hurt that today is an off day for a round of golf and a 5 zip O’s lead in the 6th……and now a rain delay.

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  13. Oh and by the way – this is the first time that 9 year MLB veteran Josh Hader has been on the IL.

    Maybe all the kudos we give the pitching coaches for getting performances out of folks should be tempered by what this may all be costing in terms of elbows and shoulders going under the knife.

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    • Certainly something to be considered. But is there a maximum safe spin rate? If there is, it’s not going to be made public knowledge. With Hader, the high leverage 36 pitches he threw last Friday night in NY comes to mind first. As he used to throw 100 plus and rarely goes past 96-97 these days, it probably was not caused by throwing too hard.

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  14. Abreu and Sousa were the only relievers used on Wednesday. With the offday today the bullpen will be rested for Friday.

    Hoping some things work out with the returning starting pitching that will add more good arms to the bullpen for September and October and November.

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  15. Good morning! It’s Friday, almost always a good day.

    Hurricane Erin will become a fish storm after missing my neck of the woods.

    The Astros lead the division by a 1.5 games. We’ve got Framber, Costanza and Reptil this weekend. It would be great to start out with a vintage Framber effort. I do wonder when the Alexander bubble might burst. And maybe the most important start of the three happens on Sunday with Javier on the mound. If he can further build on his August 11 first outing back, then that would be really encouraging.

    Let’s win without a save tonight!

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