The Astros made the playoffs: It’s not a time to complain

In the words of guitarist Joe Walsh in the classic “Life’s Been Good to Me”

“I have a mansion, forget the price. Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice…. I make hit records, my fans they can’t wait. They write me letters, tell me I’m great….. Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through. (Everybody say I’m cool) (He’s cool).
I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do…Life’s been good to me so far.”

It would be easy to start complaining about the Astros, who likely will be in and out of the playoffs quickly.

But I am a really big-time OG fan, going all the way back to when my family moved to Houston in 1966.

Are you upset that the Astros snuck into the playoffs despite their 81-81 record – exactly .500 and a game worse than the previous worst record for a playoff team? I understand the upset, but it’s not the time.

Going back to the Colt .45s start to the franchise, it was eight long seasons before the Astros even touched that .500 record in 1969. And that team ended up 5 out of 6 teams in the NL West and 12 games out of first place.

It was not until their 19th season that the Astros finally made the playoffs in the magical but eventually bitter 1980 season.

As we covered before, it was not until their 43rd season (2004) that the Astros won a playoff series and the 44th season (2005) brought their first World Series appearance.

It was not until their 56th season (2017) that they would finally win a World Series and their 61st season (2022) that they won a championship that was not tainted in the eyes of the world.

After all the pain and time it took to reach the .500 mark and then eventually make the playoffs in the first place I cannot turn my back on the Astros.

Looking back at the season, we saw some good and some very bad play, but we saw resiliency.

  • They overcame a 20-31 start to the season.
  • They overcame having 19 different players start games for them (OK – 3 or 4 of those were “openers” – but still)
  • Their starting rotation at the beginning of the season was Hunter Brown, Mike Burrows, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, and Lance McCullers Jr.. Burrows, Imai, and McCullers pitched so poorly they were removed from the rotation, with McCullers being traded away for a bucket of balls. Brown only made two starts before he was on the IL for 2-1/2 months. Javier made 3 starts before he hit the IL and did not return for 3 months and did not return to the starting rotation for another month after that.
  • Their outfield was a rotating mess of underachievement. Cam Smith, Dalton Varsho, Jake Meyers, Taylor Trammell, Brice Matthews, Lamonte Wade Jr., Joey Loperfido, Zach Dezenzo, Zach Cole and what seemed like every OF cut lose from every organization all hit under .220 BA and under .700 OPS with most of them way below that number.
  • Not counting the COVID year, Jose Altuve had his worst hitting year since his rookie season and was a candidate for the Leaden Glove Awards. His old playoff buddy, Carlos Correa played well until he tore a tendon in his ankle in early May and never returned despite working his tail off to make it back.
  • The Astros had to overcome playing the first two months of the season without the best closer in the game, Josh Hader, and had to live with Bryan Abreu pitching like he psychologically could not take Hader’s spot.
  • They went through so many pitchers during the season who either were released, sent down or sent elsewhere, it looks insane when you compile the list. Along with Burrows, Imai, and McCullers mentioned before, they ran through Spencer Arrighetti, Kai-Wei Teng, Ronel Blanco, Ryan Weiss, Colton Gordon, Nate Pearson, Jason Alexander, Cody Bolton, Jayden Murray, J.P. France, Christian Roa, and Roddery Munoz. (Note – Blanco did return to throw two scoreless innings in the finale.)
  • The Astros won the division despite Peter Lambert leading the team with 8 wins – a number that was unchanged for the last 2 months+ of the season.

But the Astros did climb back into the race, due to the fact that nobody was turning this into much of a race. It felt like if they could ever get back to .500 they would have a shot. No one thought that .500 would win it, but that is what happened.

The Astros won it because….

  • They beat the Texas Rangers in 9 of their 13 games, which earned them the tiebreaker and I believe gave them a psychological edge down the stretch even if they did not end up in a tie.
  • The trio at the top of the lineup, Jeremy Pena, Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes were the best run producers in the American League. They were all critical to the success of the offense.
  • A bit of a renaissance by Yainer Diaz, who was tremendous down the stretch helped them stretch the lineup.
  • Starting pitching assistance came from all sorts of odd places. Peter Lambert? Hayden Wesneski coming back from TJ surgery? Ethan Pecko?
  • Tremendous bullpen assistance from Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu (after Hader returned), Steven Okert, and a special season from A.J. Blubaugh who led the majors in innings from the bullpen. Miguel Ullola turned into a critical cog down the stretch.
  • Christian Walker, after starting strong, and collapsing for long stretches, came alive the last week of the season.
  • The injury of Dalton Varsho heading into the last week of the season may have been the luckiest break of the season. The Astros brought back young Lucas Spence, who had shown nothing that would make you believe he was a difference maker. Well, a double, triple, four home runs and nine RBIs later and Spence helped the Astros win 3 of 4 in West Sacramento and the AL West.

In the end the Astros somehow survived one of the most challenging regular seasons in their history and will live to play another day.

←
→

13 responses to “The Astros made the playoffs: It’s not a time to complain”

  1. I can’t help it. I watched all of the Saturday night game. Then all of Sunday’s clincher. But I remain ambivalent. I don’t care all that much. So it’s easier to watch our Astros. I’m just not hanging on every pitch like I sued to. I’m glad the A’s produced some flat out terrible pitching when we really needed it.

    I am thinking about who is pitching on Tuesday. Do we go with some kind of bullpen game and save Hunter to start on Wednesday with regular rest? And if Wesneski can be held back to start a potential game three, then he’d be on full rest too. Seems like I’m missing someone, but we don’t have enough starters at this point. Lambert and Pecko really can’t go on Tuesday. Do the Astros do something wild and bring Joe Burrows in? Blubaugh has to be an important part of game 1. We need to get to the back of the bullpen.

    And regarding our fish out of water, Imai, I have to assume he’ll be a 50 million man left off the post season roster. I watched him trudge into the champagne spraying chamber yesterday looking like he really did not want to be there. He was unmasked. Again. I’m hoping he just wants to go home. By the way, how did the White Sox end up the happy guy, Murakami, for less money and a whole bunch of homers?

    I wonder about things like how many people will show up for the game on Tuesday afternoon. It’s a great excuse for leaving the office early!

    Dan, you sure are correct about Varsho. Seems he was damaged goods when we got him and his unfortunate/fortunate trip to the IL gave Lucus a chance to be a real hero. Totally unexpected. I hope he’s got another big dinger left in him before he turns back into a pumpkin.

    Christian Walker ended up with 29 homers and 87 RBI’s along with the 103 OPS+. We’re going to need that from him if we play next year. That salary is not moving. Isaac with 25 homers and 94 RBI’s. Coming off that hamstring injury last year that he elected not to have surgery on, I did not know what to expect. And Yanier became a good hitting catcher again.

    You know, Jose Altuve has had so many great post season moments. So we have to go with him. But we might be putting a better team on the field with Nick Allen at second base.

    So let’s see what the cockroaches can do.

    Like

    Reply

    • Quietly, Nick Allen hit .283 BA/ .327 OBP/ .720 OPS and had 1.3 WAR in only 145 at bats.

      Jose Altuve hit .250 BA/ .306 OBP/ .701 OPS and had 0.0 WAR in 524 at bats.

      Just saying.

      Like

      Reply

      • Yep, I am a huge Altuve fan. However, he has earned his HOF marker and should go ahead and retire at the end of this season.

        Like

    • Thanks Z. Yes, they are starting over and its – who knows? The 2020 Astros snuck in as the last of 8 AL teams and had a 29-31 record. They got on a roll and came within one more rally of making the World Series – losing 4-3 in the ALCS to the Rays.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. I’ve got a complaint – is the game on Peacock tomorrow? I feel cheated and definitely won’t be paying extra to watch.

    The White Sox are good at hitting HR and striking out. Hopefully they are doing none of the former and more of the latter.

    Like

    Reply

    • Yeah – I spent much of my adult life (back in the 90’s / 00’s) missing playoff games that were done before I left work. Now we have to wonder where things are being broadcast. I think I can get to Peacock because its part of my cable package but I don’t blame you for not paying more for it

      Like

      Reply

      • Don’t get me started. I pay annually for the full season MLB package and don’t have Peacock. So I’m screwed tomorrow, unless a friend of mine can get me hooked up with NBCSN. He’s confident.

        Like

  4. Breakdown vs. AL Playoff Teams

    vs. Chicago White Sox: 5–2

    vs. Cleveland Guardians: 4–2

    vs. Tampa Bay Rays: 2–4

    vs. New York Yankees: 3–3

    vs. Boston Red Sox: 5–1

    Like

    Reply

    • Mark – thanks for the reminder that the Astros played up (or down) to their competition this year and really were not afraid to play anybody (but the Mariners).

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • This will be my response when my Red Sox friends tell me the Astros don’t belong in the playoffs.

        The other thing to point out is that they do have the sixth best record in the AL, so it’s not like they are preventing some other more deserving team from going.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. So Blubaugh to open. I actually thought Espada might go with King given that the Sox are likely to bat 4 lefties in the first 5 spots. I wonder what the leash will be? Do you think he has a set number of outs? Or batters? Or is Espada going to do what I would do and let it fly? Maybe you can get the first time through the order with him.

    At some point he is going to need length from someone. Pecko threw 3 innings on Sunday, but it was only 34 pitches. I still wouldn’t think he would be the 3-4 inning answer this afternoon though. Lambert threw 41 pitches. But you are not likely to use Lambert again this series. He is going to have to be able to empty the pen to get the 7 he needs – Abreu and Hader are well rested and should be ready to go. Espada is going to be earning his pay trying to get the most he can out of matchups for 21 outs.

    I can’t find a lot of news on Okert. I might have just missed it or something. The only thing I am seeing is he was reportedly throwing and eyeing the wild card round. But I would think with the way things line up he would have been the opener so they must not have him on the roster. I’m sure the roster will be out sometime this morning.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Am looking forward to seeing the roster. Would you rather see Burrows or Imai? Lambert threw 103 pitches between Friday night and Sunday. How many lefties do we end up with?

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment