Before we start on baseball, it is time for my old man griping. It doesn’t do any good other than allow me to release some internal anger and donate it to you.
Back in the day – the day being a few years ago – I would have a Friday off, which coincided with the Masters golf tournament. It was a lovely, relaxing experience to watch the pros wander around what I believe is the most beautiful course around.
However, this is not back in the day. This is today, and today, if I want to watch any type of live golfing this morning, I need to stream, and I am not going to pay to stream to watch the Masters. Now I can scroll over to the Golf Channel and watch a mix of yesterday’s highlights, golfers warming up on the driving range or the practice greens, and talking heads yapping endlessly. But I’m not.
And to be totally truthful, after a morning free of the Masters, they popped up on ESPN at 2 PM. So, I am only partially upset now.
The other thing bugging me is that more and more I end up doing other people’s work. I’m not talking about the office where we swap around work all the time, and I get paid for my contribution.
No, I went to CVS today to pick up medication, which has become much more of a hobby than I would have believed ten years ago. Normally, I walk up to the counter and tell them my last name and then have them check to see what meds they have for my wife, my son, and me. Yes, I have to tell them names and dates of birth, but that is done quickly with little effort.
But, noooooo. Today I walk up to the counter, and they point to a screen pointing my way. I cannot quickly tell them my information and then pay them for the meds. I have to “touch the screen” and then go through menus and type out slowly (because it is a screen, not a keyboard), first my full name and then wander through a number of screens to pick out my birth month and my birth day to find out they had nothing for me. The screen then freezes for about 20 seconds until it moves on, so I can check the next Peschong, my wife, having to punch in everything from scratch, and then finally for my son.
Now this could be faster for the people who work there, since they can do other things while I am performing their job, but no, they are standing there staring at me – because they suspect I will not be able to do their job. Plus, I have already been griping to them about this new setup.
I like my pharmacy. I like the people there. I don’t like working there.
Time for the Astros.
Is it all over?
Well, of course, with almost 150 games to go and only a 1.5 game deficit to make up, it is nowhere near over in mathematical or real terms. Yet there are reasons to wonder.
- The key to winning this year would have seemed to rest on the backs of an iffy pitching staff. Hunter Brown seemed to be a sure thing and now he is out with a shoulder problem that will keep him from throwing for a “few” weeks (3? 4? 5 or more?) and then a ramp back up IF….he is healed up when he comes back. There was a hope that Cristian Javier might return to his 2022 self. Instead, he seems to be returning to his 2024 injured self with his own shoulder situation. And this happens at the point when the team is supposedly turning to a 6-man rotation.
- And the strain from having less experienced starters and shorter lasting pitchers has shifted to the bullpen where it seems like everyone tossed out there is being asked to pitch one inning too long – an inning where catastrophe seems to occur. And the bigger story in the bullpen has been closer Josh Hader working his way (slowly) back to health and the inability of set-up man Bryan Abreu to take on that role.
- The Astros have already lost a game where they scored 7 runs and 10 runs respectively. In 2025, They were 33-1 when scoring 7 runs or more.
- The loss of Jake Meyers to a back injury would not seem to affect their offense much, but he is a decent bat at the end of the lineup and of course covers a ton of space for the team.
- There is no reason to give up on the team, yet. But it almost feels like when a guy is dating a new woman after a breakup and realizes that the same things that turned him off the first woman exists with the new one. 2026 feels too much like 2025.
Is It Too Early?
Well, of course it is.
- Last year, after 13 games, the Astros were also 6-7, but 2.5 games back. They would slide down to 4 games out after 35 games, but would come back to grab a 7-game lead in the AL West in July and drop down to lose the division by 3 games and miss the playoffs by a tiebreaker. So, there are a lot of good and bad things yet to happen.
- The Astros staff has been able to make lemonade from lemon peels on the pitching side of the club, over and over. The hope is that they can cobble together a decent pitching staff to carry them through the 2026 season. If not, this may be a very long and unsatisfying season.
- Also, the Astros’ pitching struggled the most in Sacramento and Colorado, the two toughest places to park, especially for pitchers without that much experience.
- The early returns on the Astros’ offense are positive, even with a couple of poor outings thrown in here and there. They are getting a ton of players on base, whether by hit or walk, and they are making the opponents’ pitch count climb like the stock market on a day when peace seems close.
Anyways – your turn to comment. Where are you with this team at this very early part of the season?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
41 responses to “Is it all over? Or is it too early?”
Dan, it’s not too early to panic, but too early to throw in the towel.
The pitching keeps me up at night, the bats give me hope.
Honestly, there is not one area of the pitching (starters, bullpen, closer) that causes me to believe there’s a contender here. Espada is playing a game of musical chairs with the pitching staff, and right now, he’s losing.
But we all know that this team can hit…solid veterans who’ve done it before (Alvarez, Altuve, Correa, even Pena), and promising young guns (Paredes, Smith) can make it happen if they can last a full season.
My over/under is Memorial Day. By then we’ll know if Brown’s shoulder is a real comeback or a longer story than anyone’s admitting, whether the bullpen found a closer, and if the AL West is separating or staying bunched. More than 5 back with no pitching path and we may be in seller territory. Within 3? Maybe Dana can make a move.
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You nailed it Chip – can’t argue with anything you wrote.
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We don’t have enough quality pitching. And I don’t think we’re going to. I also don’t think anyone has enough bats to overcome too much bad pitching.
I’ll be delighted to be wrong come September.
I just wonder if Dana goes home early.
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I think you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and Dana can’t perform miracles but I don’t think he’s done a very good job recruiting pitching this year. Maybe he was restricted on what he had to work with but his signings have so far been unimpressive to say the least. A lot of the blame could be directed at Crane who obviously approved some of these high dollar contracts for aging veterans. YIE but the last two series had the smell of defeat unlike Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now who coined the phrase, “Smells like victory”.
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And the last thing this pitching staff needed was to have their starter not get out of the first inning.
The team made an immediate rally to tie it 3-3 and the relievers have shown well, but how can they piece things together to get through this game with their pitching and tomorrow and the day after and.. you get the idea.
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Wow, this is a difficult situation from a pitching standpoint. Seems there are zero guys we can count on right now to give us a start. If Lance is going to step up, the time is now.
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We could use a Lance start like his first one but his second one would at least be better than the Javier and Imai starts.
With Imai’s short start would they consider bringing him back early next time around?
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Yikes, what if Imai is damaged goods and we have to pay him 54 million?
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This morning I write to you guys from rustic Alexandra Hospital on the tiny island of Nevis
I’ve got a pretty mean case of pneumonia that we’ll try to fix here but next step could be a Med Jet flight back to the mainland.
I was thinking about the Astros a bit earlier. They are having a really tough time of it. There is no choice but to keep on going out and battling. What else can we do?
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Get better daveb – praying for you this morning!
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Praying for you dave. Keep us updated.
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Is it time to dust off the ol’ tombstone?
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I’m pretty sure Z was talking about the tombstone for the Astros and not daveb
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Yes, the Astros. Sorry if my comment was misunderstood.
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Prayers for you daveb. Get well soon.
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I would agree.
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Dan, I went to bed when the score was 7-2…I wrongly assumed this one would be in “W” column. GULP! Those are the games you have to win.
It’s amazing to look at the calendar and see “April 12″…the season is not even off the ground, but the AL West is shaping up horribly…
Houston is last in a division that doesn’t have one team over .500.
So, as Jim Carrey’s character might say: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”
“Yes, Chip, there’s a chance.”
But not if some things don’t change.
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Peña being examined for tightness in the back of the knee.Imai being sent back to Houston to be examined for arm fatigue.
Dan P being examined for Astros injury fatigue
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At this rate, we’re headed for a #1 draft pick. Or a high one at least. I’m glad I enjoyed 2015-2023. It appears the Golden Age of Astros baseball is over.
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Jeff, it may not be that bad, but you may be closer in your prediction that my 89-90 wins.
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I wish I had some confidence, but I don’t. The pitching staff is an absolute dumpster fire, and I see very little chance of it improving. I’ve been a fan since 1976. I think this could possibly be the worst staff we’ve ever had or at least the worst I remember. I just don’t see how the offense can carry this team when the pitchers we have to send to the mound are this bad. And don’t even get me started how bad we are at challenging pitches. I’m not sure Joe Torre, Sparky Anderson, or Tommy Lasorda could get much of what we currently have to work with, but I’m not exactly overwhelmed with the leadership in the dugout.
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To believe they have a chance this season, you would have to believe almost the entire staff and bullpen would somehow find the strike zone again. I don’t so, if they were smart they would rebuild their minor league.
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Baseball is, always has been, and always will be predicated on pitching. You can win games with offense, but you can’t win championships with it. They should have never traded for Correa. They should not have signed Walker. Maybe at the time they did those two things they thought they had settled pitching staffs. A good rule of thumb is always GM like your pitching is not settled even when you think it is.
I’m really speechless on how they just can’t throw strikes. A franchise that claims the window is always open just wouldn’t spend on the pitching they needed to win because Crane doesn’t want to give money to MLB. Instead of investing 10-15M on the bullpen they give us Roa and Munoz and Weiss and Murray and Blubaugh and Teng, it just goes on and on.
I still believe at some point Hunter is back, Imai starts throwing strikes, and Burrows has a few good starts. But these three decided to go bad at the same time to open, while Javier and McCullers are thrust on us because of contracts. LMJ has at times been better than a 5.87 ERA suggests; some inherited runners he left on scored, and he has been within a batter or at times a pitch of deciding north or south and he went south. But he needs to figure out north or the Astros are going to need to move on. You can’t let sticking with a guy because of how much you are paying lose you the division. Javier, I feel watching him pitch, is gone. The injury hasn’t just sapped a little velocity, it’s sapped spin and his fastballs ability to defy gravity. He has also lost the top of the zone with ABS as hitters are more unwilling to climb with him.
Matter of fact its time for those eggheads in the back to come off urging Astros pitchers to live up at the top of the zone. ABS redefining the zone has taken an inch off the top of the zone on average and its killing them. One part of the Astros infamous “car wash” pitchers went through was learning the art of the high strike, that might be gone.
We’ve bounced back from worse starts. Do we still remember the 7-19 record on April 26th, 2024? For context they were 5-11 on April 12th, worse than we are now. And they still won the division. And they had just been swept by the Royals, and counting the loss to Texas on April 12th, we woke up the morning of the 13th with them having given up 36 runs in the last 3 games. They were even worse down the stretch the rest of April, getting swept two more times. Am I ready to throw in the towel? No. But I do concede, this pitching staff, isn’t that pitching staff. And that very well could be our undoing. Unless some miracle happens and Hunter Brown is toeing a rubber on May 1st, I don’t know who is going to grab the reigns and become a real leader and workhorse to turn this thing around.
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Steven – great comment
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Of course, Framber after two great starts – gave up 8 runs in his last start. (He did go 5 innings which might make him our ace)……
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I don’t understand why we say “toe the rubber.” It’s not your toe on the rubber. I always pitched from the edge, but it was always the heel. It should be “heel the rubber.” But that doesn’t sound as cool I guess.
I’ve just noticed the inordinate amount of pitches that our guys have thrown at the top of the zone, just above it. I think baseball is about to have a reckoning with the low strike coming back in vogue. Honestly, with ABS I’m beginning to think inside edge of the plate at the top of the zone is the best pitch but it takes really good command to execute. Even just 2 inches inside can lead to someone that likes to jump out over the plate for coverage to get hit. Regardless, ABS moved the zone to the waist from just below the letters. That is doom for the high strike, because the high strike is now in the goldilocks zone for hitting.
ABS has also kind of expanded the zone on the outside. I think a lot of these umpires were used to calling those pitches that a millimeter of the ball in the box balls in the past. Hitters are going to become more aggressive out there as we get further along. I think it bodes well for hitters like Cam that have great plate coverage and long swings. It will probably hurt other guys like Isaac that kind of plants in a place he is looking for the ball in. We’ve already seen increases in Isaac’s chase rates and hard hit percentages as he adjusts to it. He is going after pitches a little further down or a little further outside than he would have last year.
Our hitters have definitely benefited more than our pitchers. It should be the other way around but I think the Astros pitching gurus mentality on pitching feeds into the ABS weakness.
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Steven, the toe-the-rubber phrase would be a great subject for Larry Dierker’s Baseball Library. Apparently, it goes back to a 1901 edition of the Baseball Almanac.
While I can’t find a reference for it, I’m wondering if an old rule required the pitcher’s toe to actually be in contact with the rubber? Or, if it’s just an expression, sort of like, toe the line?
Either way, good question…and if the Astros keep playing like they are, we’ll probably have plenty of time this summer to explore other oddities about America’s pasttime!
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Really disappointing week for the good guys. I don’t have a lot new to add to what everyone else is saying, but will throw out my standard complaint that you play 162 games but certain games do count more in the standings because they go towards the primary and secondary tie breakers. The Astros should have learned this hard lesson last year when they watched Detroit and Cleveland playing in the postseason, but based on the lack of mental focus against Seattle I’m going to just assume nothing has changed. Can’t do much about the injuries other than assume anytime Houston says someone is day to day it will be 4 weeks.
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Pena and Imai to the IL.
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I’m wondering if JP France is signed up for frequent flier miles. I’ve seen up and down, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it in the same series all the way to Seattle.
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Well I am assuming that
a) France never flew back to Houston in the first place or
b) If he flew back he is staying here in Houston
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I would guess he is staying in Houston as well. They just had to use the IL rule to get him right back on the roster, which meant he was tied to Imai’s roster spot. I assume he left because when he was sent down he can’t be called back up without the injury exception for 10 days, so head back now, maybe meet up with SL and get an appearance or two in.
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1st inning seattle 3, astros 0. Different day same result.
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So, Josh Naylor came into the game with no home runs and 2 RBIs.
And….in the first three innings today he hits two home runs and knocks in 5 RBIs
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I really thought Burrows was a great candidate for the Astros “car wash.”
But I’m beginning to think the car wash is closed for repairs.
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And of course the additional question is who was the most critical employee at the car wash? Josh Miller who stayed or Bill Murphy who left?
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On a brighter note the Masters Tournament was fun to watch.
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Burrows threw 98 pitches yesterday. He is on pace for over 3000. He has never thrown 2000 in a season, at any level, in any year. I’m sure the Astros know what they are doing here, after all pitcher injuries hardly occur with this franchise.
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Astros Fan 2025 “I’ve never seen this many injuries on a pitching staff in my many years of following the team.”
Astros Fan 2026 “Hold my beer”
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Oh man, we have to play Colorado again? I guess at least it’s at home this time.
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A squeaker to say the least. At least we had the one big inning that we were able to ride to the final out. Pitching is still an issue and so far there seems to be no solution for it. Bullpen held it’s own for the most part but I had to go for the Rolaids again. Glad we broke the losing streak.
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