Category: Astros
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Top of the Week: Of bottlenecks, lineups and young players
Good morning, happy Monday! The Astros are 10 games away from the midpoint of 2015 and in a place no one dreamed just three short months ago. Again, No. You. Didn’t. Okay, maybe you did dream it, but you woke up in a cold sweat when you got to the part where Jim Crane was…
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The Luhnow drafts: How to build a legacy
A recent New York Times article was entitled “Of All Teams to Hack, Why the Astros?” Most of the speculation wound around Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow, and the Times article highlighted a rather amazing statistic. Luhnow had oversight over the Cardinals’ draft starting in 2005 and in the three drafts between 2005 and 2007,…
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Free Blog Weekend: Failed prospects, July lineup and other notes
Jesus said the “poor will always be with us”. So, too, will the baseball prospect always be with us. The organization that can discern the difference between a prospect and a future major league baseball player is destined to be among the best teams. It’s that simple, at least for the teams not in the…
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Re-ranking the Astros’ prospects after promotions
The other day one of the many excellent commenters on this blog asked for a re-ranking of the prospects after the recent call-ups. This request from “Tony Eusabio” seemed reasonable, and who could deny the former Astro his request even though he seems to have forgotten how to spell his own name. The self-imposed rules…
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Random Astros’ thoughts: Roster, Luhnow and the up-and-down season
I’m traveling this week, but the Astros continue to baffle with — as some have noted — a “new hero” everyday. Just when you think a huge losing streak has doomed the season and calls into questions early moves, the Astros now appear to be in somewhat of a portion of the season that will…
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Astros’ youth movement is in full swing
In the dark, early days of the 2014 season a Houston Astros’ lineup might contain the names of Jesus Guzman, Robbie Grossman, Matt Dominguez, L.J. Hoes, and Alex Presley. While quite a few people in the lineup were youthful, this was not quite what the fans were hoping for when it came to a youth…
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Three areas of concern for Astros: Rookies, McHugh, Altuve
So, 64 games in the Astros are 36-28. In those first 64 games, there have been some good runs (late April through mid-May) and some not-so-good runs (the most recent East Coast road trip). But, with just under 100 games to go, if this is who the Astros are, that’s a 91-win team. Warts and…
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Sunday Update: Astros’ rotation could be the team’s downfall
After 63 games, the Astros have used 60 different batting lineups, seven cleanup hitters, four shortstops, seven left fielders, and 36 players overall. Perhaps the most glaring number, however, is the number of starting pitchers A.J. Hinch has penciled into his lineup. After 63 games, Houston has used 10 different pitchers to start a game,…
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