Before we jump into the predictions part of this post, let’s look back in anger, or at least look back in dislike, at last season.
Astros 2025
- 87-75
- Second place in the AL West and missed the playoffs by one game for the first time since 2016
Offense
- 4.23 Runs/gm (8th in AL), .250 BA (5th), .315 (7th), .714 OPS (T-7th), 182 HRs (T-9th), 471 Walks (3rd least), 1301 Ks (3rd least)
Starting Pitching
- 3.97 ERA (8th in AL), 862.2 IP (6th), 1.23 WHIP (6th), 118 HRs (7th least), 284 Walks (6th most), 857 Ks (2nd most), .238 BA (3rd best)
Relief Pitching
- 3.70 ERA (5th in AL), 579.1 IP (12th), 1.22 WHIP (T-1st), 81 HRs (T-3rd worst), 224 Walks (6th least), 647 Ks (1st), .224 BA (1st best)
What did this tell us? The Astros ‘ middle-of-the-road offense, combined with a terribly injured starting rotation that ended up middle-of-the-road, supplemented by a better-than-average bullpen, ended up above average in W-L.
2026 Predictions
I put on my Johnny Carson / Carnac the Magnificent turban, started getting a headache, set the turban aside, and just took a swing at the 2026 season.
- How will the Astros fare in 2026? The Astros will finish 90-72, second in the AL, and in the playoffs, where they will win the Wild Card round and lose in the divisional round.
- Will Hunter Brown win more than the 12 he deposited in 2025? Yes, he will get better support and win 16 games in 2026.
- How will #2 Tatsuya Imai and #3 Mike Burrows (my ratings) finish vs. the top two starters in 2025? The #2 pitcher in 2025 was Framber Valdez (13-11, 3.66 ERA). The #3 was….who? Ryan Gusto (7-4, 4.92 ERA)? Jason Alexander (4-2, 3.66 ERA)? Colton Gordon (6-4, 5.34 ERA)? My gut feeling is that Imai and Burrows staying healthy will end up around 20 – 22 wins and a better season than what they are replacing.
- How will #4 Cristian Javier and #5 Lance McCullers Jr. fare vs. 2025 versions of themselves? I believe they will outperform Javier (2-4, 4.62 ERA) and LMJ (2-5, 6.51 ERA) or they will be somewhere else or at home watching A.J. Blubaugh, Ryan Weiss or Spencer Arrighetti.
- Will Yordan Alvarez bounce back in a healthy way from 2025? Yes. He will play in 140 games and hit .290 with 40 home runs and 97 RBIs.
- Will Cristian Walker bounce back from his worst season hitting in the majors? No. He will hit like he did last season and continue to disappoint fans with his high K rate and low BA.
- What can they expect from the left side of the infield this season? Jeremy Pena and Carlos Correa will be a very solid SS/3B except when Carlos gets injured and is replaced for 40 games by Isaac Paredes, who will be as good or better.
- What about icon Jose Altuve? He will have a solid season and deposit 160 hits towards the 3000 he is dying to reach.
- Give us some sauce on the outfield? Yordan will play less than 40 games in left field. Jake Meyers will field like a sonuvagun, but will fall short of his very good BA/OBP numbers from 2025. Joey Loperfido and Brice Matthews will break out as they rotate with the other outfielders and Cam Smith will trend back towards the first half of 2025.
- What about the closer? Bryan Abreu will struggle for the first month and then will hit his stride in May….when Josh Hader returns from the IL and Abreu gets to slide back into his set-up role.
- What about the leverage/setup spots? With both Hader and Bennett Sousa out, the leverage spots are weaker with Abreu the closer and Sousa on IL. Steven Okert gets found out a bit and falters. Bryan King continues the good work he did in 2025. Two of Roddery Munoz, Christian Roa and Kai-Weng Teng will step up to take some of the pressure off the others.
- And those long spots? Right now that is Blubaugh and Weiss with perhaps some of the others stepping up for 1+ innings along the way. The hope is that the rotation performs well and that if they need boosting Spencer Arrighetti comes back to assist. Under worse conditions, Blubaugh and/or Weiss may need to move to the rotation due to injury or lack of performance above them. The prediction is that Blubaugh will be critical and Weiss will be more problematic.
- And what about the rest of the division? The division will look like this:
- Seattle 93-69
- Astros 90-72
- Athletics – 82-80
- Rangers – 80-82
- Angels – 70-92
I have only one request. Please, don’t look back at this post. Ever.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
50 responses to “Predictions. Astros 2026”
I predict that Meyers will lose the starting cf position to one of our higher ceiling youngsters and Parades will soon take over 1lb.
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I predict that Weiss will take the starting rotation slot from Lance and Alverez will mostly stay healthy and the Stros will beat the Mariners by a game or two and meet Toronto in the AL championship game. I also predict the coming summer will be hot.
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Larry – you could be right on all those predictions. I believe Meyers could be gone or just a #4 OF by the end of the season.
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I had planned to watch Opening Day this evening. What’s more American? I guess Netflix. That I do not have. I do have the full season MLB.com package though. Does not count tonight. Takes me back to our discussion about the pending lockout. By 2028 I might forget MLB. As our friend 1oldpro would say, that’s dookie.
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When I look back, I don’t see how our guys won 87 games last year. And had Framber not gone into a major league funk and mailed in his post All Star break, we would have bumped the M’s out of the post season. Instead they came into Houston very much alive and proceeded to humiliate us while Framber munched peanuts.
I think we’re a better team overall today though. My one real concern is that Hader does not come back which demoralizes an already struggling bullpen. And for that, there might not be a solution until it’s too late.
So right now, it’s 87 wins again for me.
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You are right in that you look at the numbers and they should have been barely above 81 wins for the season. I think on most days they had above average pitching offset by the few days that pitchers like Gordon and McCullers started. Their bullpen held the line for a lot of those wins.
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We had two great starting pitchers and a bullpen that was great for the first 100 games of the season. Excepting Jose Altuve our outfield defense was tremendous for most of the year. Espada got really solid contributions for a lot of the year from Dubon, but again over that last third he and our other subs were exposed. I’m firmly in the camp that certain guys had career years in 2025 and won’t repeat them which will help the Astros narrow the gap with Seattle. I think if Yordan can stay healthy and Altuve/Walker/Diaz can just improve their output a little we’ve got a good chance to win some games.
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1 – Yordan and better pitching depth gives them 89-90 wins
2 – Wins for a pitcher don’t matter so who knows, look at Skenes and Skubal
3 – Imai and Burrows as long as they are healthy should be better than Framber was. Remember Framber had a horrible second half
4 – Relying on Christian and Lance is a long shot, my guess is they get replaced by one of the long reliever guys and a free agent at the deadline. Also, I predict the Astros for the most part will go with a 6 man rotation
5 – Just by playing a full season without injury Yordan will bounce back. The question will be will he hkit 40 HRs
6 -Walker will not be good but not as bad as Abreu, Isaac will replace him at some time
7 – Jeremy will be great like last season and given 3B is less stress than SS, Carlos will have a very good season
8 – Jose will not be good he’s definitely declined expecting 160 is too much. More like 135.
9 – The OF will be one of the worst in MLB, they will have to get at least one FA to bolster it
10 – Brian will shine while Josh is out, my prediction is Josh will not have a good season (even number year) and Brian gets more saves than we thought he would. After the season he gets his bag on another team.
11 – Losing Sousa is probably the biggest blow the team got during ST. He was good. But relievers are always volatile. The group will not be as good as it was last season.
12 – Sure who knows
13 – Seattle will be the best team in the AL, Astros will win the WC round and upset in the Divisional and lose to the Mariners in the ALC
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Welcome back William – haven’t heard from you in a while. Good takes and your predictions have as much chance of happening as anybody at this point.
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One of my favorites, Chas McCormick, is now an Iowa Cub. He’s not on the MLB Cubs 40 man roster either. What happened to Chas? He had OPS+ stats of 107, 111, 130 over his first three seasons. A good outfielder and baserunner. He averaged almost 17 homers a year. Then it all went south. He put up an OPS+ of 64 and a 59 in what should been prime years for him. Sure he had injuries but most everyone has to deal with that stuff. He’ll be 31 in a few weeks, on the outside looking in. Somehow I think we’re missing a story.
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Don’t know what happened to Chas -maybe he stopped hitting it the other way which is where he had a lot of hits and a lot of power?
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My brother texted me last night of his plans to attend all three events today, with the golf and hoops compliments of his employer. That’s a day I would have relished a few years ago. Before Uber, we used good old fashioned yellow taxi’s.
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I went back and looked at the 2025 predictions – we were pretty universal in the 90-91 win range. Might have gotten it if a combination of the Paredes injury and Framber meltdown don’t happen.
I’m going Seattle – 91, Houston – 85, A’s – 82, Texas – 80, LAA – 65.
The offense takes another step back.
Yainer – shines at times, finishes with better counting stats, but still will not surpass 30 BBs and frustrate us with periods of non-contribution that turn him into a negative to the lineup as he is defensively average at best and can’t walk.
Walker – Is worse than last year, but not worse enough to get released like Abreu. .235-.240, 20-25 HR, 80-85 RBI.
Altuve – ratios continue to worsen, but some of that bat to ball still plays to keep him around .260. Defensively he will be worst player in MLB.
Pena – all star season. He means it. Dude is in.
Correa – I think the traditionals get better, maybe up above 15 HR, 80 RBI, but the days of that guy being superstar are over. That’s unfortunate because he gets paid like one.
I think Nick Allen actually gets a little comfortable in this role as a super sub and is better. He will probably hit like a defense first, minimum wage guy but I think he may get his average up a little but probably won’t see enough ABs to matter. I think Nick Allen is more capable than his lifetime numbers say he is.
Paredes will still be traded at some point this year, probably just before the break but it won’t surprise me if it comes sooner.
The law firm of Loperfido, Meyers and Smith will be in the bottom half of outfields. I think Cam will avoid the level of slump he found last year but by the end of the year – .270/15/70.
Hunter Brown stays in the Cy talk most of the year but stays a pretty consistent 5-6 IP guy, and leaves too many games in the hands of a less capable bullpen when the offense doesn’t have him leave enough games with a lead.
Burrows and Imai end up around 150 IP and both are good, but I’m betting Burrows peters a little down the stretch as his career high in IP is 1567 and they will be asking almost 2500 from him this year.
Javier and McCullers are what they are. You are not sure going in if you are getting 5 that day. hey will at times look great. They will at times look done. McCullers may pitch well enough to continue his career or he may get released. It’s a pretty razor thin margin.
Bullpens are volatile. When you think they are going good, they don’t, when you think its a mangled mass of humanity down there King, Okert, and Sousa stabilize it. I’ll take the mangled mass of humanity and about 4-5 games too many blown.
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Lots of reasonable points Steven. I think you missed a decimal point or two on Burrows innings pitched.
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Sorry Dan, I meant “pitches thrown.” Brain was going faster than my fingers.
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Today is a triple highlight sports day in Houston.
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Dan, my comment on today’s tri-fecta appear above.
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Your brother will have quite a day today. I am probably not that guy anymore – I like settling in on the TV and picking and choosing and I won’t get home from work until the Astros are most of the way through today – can listen to the second hour on the radio as I drive.
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Lineup is out. So is Pena. Apparently putting one on the train tracks wasn’t enough to Joe to prove he is ready to go.
Which makes me think – Is Espada going to use every excuse he can find to shoehorn Paredes into the lineup everyday? I can see him walking through the clubhouse, and someone coughs because some water went down the wrong tube, “man, I think you need a day or two off now.”
They should just be honest with Walker, tell him right now Isaac gives us a better chance to win, you will still play a lot because we can move him around and play Yordan in LF a little, but Isaac should be getting 80 games at 1B.
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As Steven said the lineup is out and :
Altuve 2B
Alvarez DH
Paredes 3B
Correa SS
Loperfido LF
Smith RF
Walker 1B
Diaz C
Meyers CF
With Brown on the mound
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Mr. Carnac, I see this as a make-or-break, all-or-nothing season.It will be the determining factor to see how the bets that Crane/Brown made will manifest.Correa, Altuve, not trading/releasing Walker, letting Framber walk, picking up a few MOR starters, holding onto Paredes (for now), not diving deeper into free agency (e.g. left-handed bat).When will we know? That’s the operative question? By my observation, you should begin to get a glimpse by mid-May, though it won’t be definitive.
Key questions…
• How much is Paredes playing?
• What does Cam Smith’s progression look like? Moving forward, failing miserably?
• Are Imai and Burrows contributing?
• Where is Arrighetti?
• Is Walker hitting above .250 by end of May? If so, things may be trending up.
I expect Houston to win 89 games, win the AL West.
Crane will bite the bullet at the deadline and add a key piece.
Paredes, Smith and Pena trend up and begin to solidify as the center of the organization in the future.
That’s all I got. For now.
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Good input, Chip. On your Walker question I want to remind everyone what Michael Lewis wrote in Moneyball is that getting on base was the market inefficiency to target because getting on base means you are not making an out. Since Walker tried his hardest not to walk last year (40 in 640 PA, only 124 PA reaching 3 ball counts) he’s going to need either either hit much higher than .250 or figure out another way to not make outs.
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Chip – I sure would love to build the future around Paredes, Smith and Pena. Maybe throw Matthews and Loperfido in there. Not sure what the “base” of the pitching staff is long term. Hunter will be here through 2028 and then I am sure he will be elsewhere (unless this team changes its past methods of not extending the expensive boys. If Imai is good he will leave us after this season. Burrows could be here through 2031.
Devin – we really need Walker to be better than last season. But the biggest thing we need is for him to stop this three season progression in K% (19.2 – 24.1 – 27.7).
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I pray that Blubaugh’s arm holds up.
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I was not impressed with today’s performance
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Good morning.
Tough opener, but based on what we’ve seen all spring, nothing really surprising.
Soriano owns the Astros. That’s why he got the nod.
Seems the Astro players prefer a closed roof. That’s a shame for the fans on a beautiful afternoon. It’s too bad the roof is not high enough to stay out of play, at least for Yordan Alvarez. And with the ground rule determined by where the ball lands rather than where it is hit initially, that seems a folly.
Carlos Correa certainly had a gettable pitch with the bases loaded and two outs.
Yainer walked when it was a bit late.
I thought Blubaugh got an excellent four outs. I was surprised to see him come out for another inning. He might be done until Monday.
Our ace was not at his best in the opener, but he kept the other guys off the board.
Seems to me the West might be more competitive in 2026.
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It makes sense that the Astros struggle against high velo guys that don’t throw strikes. They are built to struggle against guys like that. Have been for a few years now.
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Not to take too much from one game –
Blubaugh should not have been sent out in the 7th. He was hitting 97-99, and soon as the 7th started and I saw him on the mound I told my wife this is a mistake, about 4 pitches later we are now down. Not on Blubaugh, its on Espada. Its game 1. You can’t tell me guys are used up down there. He should not be trying to get an extra 3 outs out of anyone. When the first pitch was 95 after he had been sitting 97 and hitting 99 I knew the inning was not going to be a positive one.
Next, I have no idea why Yainer was hitting in the 7th inning. Walker leads off with a double, and you send a guy that everyone in the world knew was scuffling in against a leverage reliever, and the result was predictable. Getting that runner to 3rd with one out was what the 8th spot in the order should have been used for. Instead of pinch running for Walker with Allen, he should have pinch hit Allen there for Yainer and had him bunt. You give Meyers a chance to put something in play, which he did, and maybe a 1-1 score changes the complexion. Now, what Meyers put in play probably doesn’t score Walker, but we don’t know what pitch sequencing changes with a runner on 3rd and 1 out. He probably doesn’t see the same pitches. After Altuve is the last out in the inning, Allen stays in but goes to 2nd, Vazquez comes in to catch, and you get Altuve’s glove out of the game in a close one.
King was another not great call, but by that point we are down 2-0 and he promptly comes in and makes it 3-0.
The game I think is a microcosm of what we can expect to see. Our ace took 102 pitches to get 14 outs, and he turned the game over to a middle reliever that got left in too long, and it cost us the game. Our hitters could not do the same to Soriano, who was not throwing strikes early. Even Paredes spent his first at bat striking out on two pitches so far out of the zone that I only expect Diaz or Altuve to be chasing those. They made it easy on Soriano who was probably easily 40% of the time out of the zone, yet finished 6 in just 88 pitches and got it to his leverage guys. This is it. This is Astros baseball. All the talk in the offseason about changing the complexion of the team, and they are still just chasing birds up there.
I’ve never really believed you can change who hitters are in terms of chase and bat to ball. You can slightly improve them, but you can’t change them. Yainer Diaz looks confused. He has all ST. I’m wondering how much they tinkered with him and set him down a path to the darkside. He drew a walk in the 9th, but I don’t want to put much on that because like Altuve’s walk, both on 4 pitches, none of the pitches were close. It’s not like either one was laying off edge pitches the way we saw Isaac do later (obviously not that first atrocious at bat).
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But let me be glass half full guy for a second.
We do have the better team. We may win the next three by a combined 20-5 or something. It’s just the problems we saw in this game, they are at times going to harm us all year. And they will be especially damning in a short playoff series. There are guys though on this team that did not look good in game 1 but are fully capable of going on benders and giving you an incredible week that help you win series.
But they have to fix some of the decision making issues, and they have to have better at bats against the top pitchers others teams have. Even if you get an out, make it a quality out. Don’t chase birds with your bat. Stay in the square.
I think Blubaugh should become a 1 inning leverage reliever. Send him out there with the message every game, 20 pitches kid, let it rip. We saw pitches 27, 28, 29, etc. fall down in velocity. Pitch 28 was a curve ball to Trout that he put right in the middle of the plate, Trout just waited one more right down the middle fastball to make him pay. It wasn’t just the lost in velocity on pitch 27+, it was the locations. But I think they have something if they can harnass that energy, the confidence he pitched with, and the early velocity to a 1, 1.1 inning guy.
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100% agree on pinch hitting for Yainer, although I was planning on bringing Brice in. I really want to see him involved, as long as he’s in that dugout.
And yes, we’re not going to change Yainer. Maybe help convince him to lay off stuff way outside, but he’s always going to specialize at striking out. I just want to see him put up a .750 plus OPS. If we leave him alone, I think we get that.
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I think a lot of fans are just washed into the idea that guys will just be better. I don’t understand that thinking. Are they telling me that Christian Walker just stopped trying? That he wasn’t “all in” in 2025? Maybe they think external factors like change in environment, moving, they think that affected him. And maybe the 2026 Christian Walker will look a lot more like 2024.
I think anyone that thinks that is just wishful thinking. It’s fine as a fan. It’s reckless as a manager or general manager. I’m not saying he won’t be better. I’m saying its a hope, not a plan. I promise you Christian Walker is a professional, in every sense of the word. So was Jose Abreu. Abreu had won an MVP. Guy was literally a great teammate, professional hitter, and he didn’t just stop trying. He just got old. His falloff wasn’t the usual slow, it was more dramatic. But he was trying. Walker’s fall off is more like the usual slow decline, the same way Altuve is on, but it’s silly to just hope they are all of a sudden going to get better in 2026 than they were in 2025. I believe Christian Walker “tried hard” in 2025. It just is what it is.
And for the offense to be built around needing comebacks from aging players like Altuve, Correa, Walker; and that Jake Meyers would find a hard bat or Yainer Diaz would start telling the difference between a ball and a strike, its reckless. And for an owner to tell me he is all in, but only all in, in a sense where we can’t pass the cap but as long as I stay under it I’m all in, with these issues in your lineup, well you aren’t all in. Your half in. So call yourself half in. Don’t gaslight me. The Yankees, they are all in. The Dodgers are all in. You are half in Mr. Crane. That’s fine, most of baseball is half in, just don’t lie to me.
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One disagreement, Steven. I believe most professional players are stubborn because no one gets to the majors unless they were the best along the way. Walker is never going to be a high-OBP guy because he’s convinced his value is from slugging the ball. He may not be the power hitter that he thinks he is, anymore, but he can still make adjustments. He swung through a lot of sliders over the middle of the plate last year trying to pull them. Imagine if he decided to start hitting those up the middle or to right field? He would get on base more and the pitchers would start changing their approach to him. The problem is we have guys like him and Altuve doubling down and trying even harder to pull the ball for no good reason. The hope (of some of us) was that changing our hitting coaches might put another voice in their ears that could get them to make some adjustments.
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The good news is that the Mariners lost to Cleveland. The bad news is the Astros were uncompetitive yesterday. We don’t know what Espada’s gameplan was yesterday. I doubt he had a gameplan. What people need to understand about pitching is that there are three important things and they go in this order: location, movement, and velocity. A mid-thigh, inner-half fastball to Mike Trout is going to see the train tracks very often. Peraza looks like the worst hitter on both teams, but he jammed himself on a belt-high curve and the result was the ball dropped in for a broken bat, RBI single. If that pitch is lower he breaks his bat and the ball goes right to Correa on the ground. If the pitch to Trout was lower…or much higher would be my preference…he either fouls it off or does nothing. I agree with Steven that Blubaugh’s command faltered because he was done and shouldn’t have been in the ballgame. King has no excuse other than perhaps he agreed with my take on Peraza and got lazy.
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First, terribly disappointed my Coogs are out but they lost to a team similar to the other team that is tough on them – Arizona – big team that plays good basic ball and due to their size can get off shots and plays tough D. Illinois was better.
Astro Thoughts
Groundhog Day – Hunter Brown pitches like a bulldog to keep it to no runs – and they give him no offense – like a majority of his starts last season
Ballpark Blues – They keep the roof on and Yordan hits a moon shot that would have been gone with an open roof. Then Walker hits one that we are told would have been gone in 40 of the 30 mlb ballparks (ok – I missed the exact amount)
A Good Sign? Walker turned around a high velocity fastball which he did not do last year
Joey boy – Loperfido kept a hot spring going with a couple shots
Blubaugh – Like Steven said above – he came in and shut them down – had a good second inning and gave a homer up to Trout who Hunter walked 3 times
Hope a better hitting team is in there someplace
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Also I was waiting for them to pinch hit Peña but nooooooo
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And I kept waiting for them to pinch hit Peña. But noooooo
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That’s an interesting point. Why play the guy in a meaningless exhibition, put him on the roster, have him in the line up tonight, but NOT let him pinch hit yesterday? Sometimes I think maybe Joe lacks the ability to adjust his rigid planning on the fly.
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Admittedly, I’m a bit annoyed tonight. The Astros are on Apple Friday Night Baseball, thus I’m blacked out by MLB.com from watching my home team. The MLB full season package has not been very full so far.
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You’re not missing anything. Unless you enjoy watching an anemic offense and a pitcher with a less than ideal debut.
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Hmmm… looks like Mr. Burrows is not the answer to be the number two man in the rotation… Thus far, 1.2 innings pitched, 4 earned runs given up.
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Good morning!
I was watching Duke finally assert themselves against a very competitive St. Johns club last night. Excellent game, so I really really did not miss getting shut out from watching the Astros by my Apple TV blackout.
I’m certainly not worried about Burrows at this point, as long as he stays healthy. He will serve up some dingers. Hopefully some adjustments will get made and we’ll get a better start from him next time out.
It just aggravates me that we can’t generate offense. But looking up and down the line up, we’ve got three older declining guys, we’ve got three unproven young bats, an offensively erratic catcher, an All Star at short and an elite DH. It’ll be feast and famine. And frustrating.
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Runners on the corners, two outs, he lets Diaz bat again representing the tying run. Yainer probably has a better chance at running into one than anyone else he had available, but he could have sent Loperfido out there in that spot. Diaz, predictably, was struck out on a low and away slider.
The difference between Burrows and Brown was evident. Burrows threw more strikes, but the things he left in the zone were so much more hittable. The pitch that Lowe hit out of the yard was a dime drop in the Crawfords, not a blast. He caught a 94 fastball, outside half. If the pitch was a little more off the plate, its a lazy fly ball. If it’s 97, Lowe likely fouls it off. That’s why people chase velocity. That one swing effectively ended the game.
I’m also not sure why Espada sent him out in the 6th. Burrows threw just over 1500 pitches last year, a lifetime high for him. He was at 81 pitches after 5, but 3 runs down. Weiss should have opened the 6th, not put 11 more pitches on a guy that you probably don’t want crossing 2200 in a losing effort.
I will flat out put the first loss on Espada. The second belongs to Burrows, but Espada did not help his 2026 season along, and also had a chance to use some guys in the 7th and 8th to try and climb out of the hole. So far, I am highly unimpressed with Espada’s 2026 season.
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We are piling on early! Steven, thank you for joining us this weekend. My biggest gripe tonight is that Jose Altuve seems totally unprepared for the season, almost lackadaisical. Is he disenchanted? Tapping his hat for a challenge on a pitch that was an obvious strike? He’s swinging at stuff literally above his 5’6″ height. You’d think a veteran would be ready. He needs to set an example for the young guys around him. He might be the most over paid guy in the league the way it looks right now.
I don’t know what this team is going to do tomorrow or next week. But between Dana and Joe, both already on thin ice, it does not look like they’ve got a well prepared group of baseball players taking the field right now.
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The Astros are out of challenges. Altuve had a strike call against him that was an obvious ball literally 4 inches below the zone, that made the count 3-2 instead of a BB. He then struck out on a pitch 4 inches inside and low. It would have loaded the bases with one out. As things have turned out, the offense has awakened. Great to see. Can the pen hold a lead tonight?
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I’m going to be civil and try not to take shots insulting the intelligence of players, coaches, etc., at this point…but it’s apparent to me that for whatever reason we’ve continued our decade long policy of not being ready for the start of the regular season. On the topic of challenges, I wouldn’t challenge any pitch unless it was called strike three and there were runners on base. If you’ve watched any of the basketball action this month you’ll realize that every player is convinced the other team knocked the ball out of play and wants to challenge when the replay consistently shows they are wrong. Our ABS attempts are not changing that trend.
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Good morning!
It was not pretty, but an 11-9 final gets the Astros on the board. Devin, I hope I’ve been civil. I don’t think any of us here aim to insult the intelligence of anyone related to the Astros. But Chipalatta is an Astro blog after all and questioning, including criticizing club and player decisions is the norm, and something I think we do politely here. We’re also pretty good at recognizing excellence. And we’ve seen a lot of it.
But back to your premise of not being ready for the regular season. I agree completely. And I’ll use Jose Altuve as an example. He has no idea where the strike zone is right now. Did he focus on that this spring? Was he really working at getting dialed in? It did not look like it. It does not look like it now. I sure hope his malaise is not a hangover from his disappointment of being kept off the Venezuela team in the WBC. After a bad night at the plate, he managed to get himself picked off of third base on the same play Yordan got caught off first. Yordan ended up on second, but Altuve ended up out. Jose is not a high IQ baseball player. We’ve had this discussion, politely, many times. He’s also my favorite all time Astro and may still end up in the Hall of Fame, whether he reaches 3000 hits or not. I hope Joe Espada is not thinking about those 3000 hits when he makes out the line up.
I’d also like to know why Joe sent Abreu out to the mound with a 5 run lead last night. It likely precludes him from pitching today. There might be a good reason for it. Abreu had a hard time finding the zone in Sugar Land earlier this week. Maybe Joe wanted to get him some low pressure game work. But it’s pretty apparent that Bryan is another guy not yet ready to do his job. He has no idea where the fastball is going.
Today we get to see Imai. He could be a real boost. If his is, he’ll play a huge role in how things go for this club. This is Dana’s big acquisition. It might determine his employment status in the coming months. But more immediately, there is nothing terrible with being at .500 after four games.
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Dave, I can’t remember a single thing you’ve said this year that the players/manager/coaches should honestly be upset about. It’s like you’ve passed on the crankiness mantle to the rest of us. But back to ABS – the Braves ran out of challenges after only 14 pitches last night. I wonder whether teams are presenting data to the players about which umpires actually miss calls with frequency.
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There are lots of comments and things to comment on.
Here’s one trend I’m liking.
Small sample to be sure, but Paredes and Smith are playing every day. Good, bad or indifferent, hopefully this is a commitment to the future that Espada, Brown and Crane are tied to.
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Here’s a stat that concerns me. Bryan Abreu averaged 93.2 on the 14 fastballs he threw today.
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I don’t think that Abreu should be the closer based on his last two performances. I think we need to reshuffle the deck with our bullpen. 5 for 16 with RISP 31% is OK but improvement is needed. Glad we got 3 in the 8th because we sure needed them. And that 8 run inning in yesterdays contest was also needed. For the series the starting pitching gets a D. Only reason they don’t get an F is Hunters performance in game 1. The bullpen gets a D+. A couple of good performances but over all not good. The offense was almost non existent in 1 and 2. but came on strong in 3 & 4. I’ll give them a C+. Yes there’s a lot of room for improvement. The next series will tell us more.
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