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2022 Houston Astros Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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Txslnghrns
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Fuk Houston.

We’reTexas
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This postseason has become more sentimental for me and my wife's family.  My father in law is the biggest Astros fan I know.  He watches every game without fail, even DVRing them if he can't watch liv

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Guadaloopy

Guadaloopy 11,129

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Great article in The Athletic today talking about the Astros organizational approach to coaching, featuring Yordan and Tuck.  Yordan’s power heat map is just ridiculous.   Basically, he hits anything in the strike zone for power. 
 

Spoiler

Considering that Yordan Alvarezalready has 26 homers this year, we could all be forgiven for thinking little of his opposite-field tank off Kris Bubic last week. It wasn’t his first homer of the series (he already had two going into that game) or even the biggest homer of the series (he hit a walk-off in the series opener on July 4). It wasn’t the first opposite-field homer of the season (four) or even the series (one).

But it was his first opposite-field homer off a fastball in two months, and if you listen to the end of this clip, his hitting coach Alex Cintron was particularly proud of this one.

“The whole series they were attacking me on the outside with fastballs,” Alvarez said of the moment. A quick look at his fastball heatmap from the Royals this year confirms the plan:

2022-07-11-13.36.15.png

“Cintron told me I wasn’t doing damage on those pitches, I thought it was something mental, that I was chasing pitches outside of the zone, but Cintron told me to make an adjustment,” Alvarez continued. “I did it and then I hit that home run and that’s why he was so happy for me.”

It’s the kind of thing that players do everywhere: make adjustments. But this team seems to make more of them than most. Despite being 12th in runs scored this year, they’re top three when it comes to walk, strikeout, and slugging rates at the dish. And if you ask around, there are some commonalities that speak well of the coaching process in Houston — and some differences amongst their players reflecting an organization that has learned a cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work.

Alvarez, who landed on the injured list this week, sounds like the kind of guy who wants to know all the tendencies of the opposing starter.

“Once I got to the majors, there are a lot of scouting reports so pitchers already know where they could pitch you to try to keep you from doing damage,” the slugger said. “So after I came up I started to do a lot of research and studying to see where they trying to pitch me to get me out, and then make those adjustments.”

For him, the conversation with Cintron was about the game plan the Royals starters were using — and which of his different swing mechanics he should feature to combat that plan. Different situations require different swings.

“Definitely not just one swing, if you have just one swing then it’s going to be really hard to catch up to both the pitch up and the pitch down,” Alvarez said of his uncanny ability to hit both the high pitch and the low pitch and in the inside pitch and the outside pitch for power (just look at that power heatmap from FanGraphs below). “The key is recognizing early on where the pitch is going to be, if it’s going to be high or low, and then adjusting to having that swing for that certain pitch.”

2022-07-11-13.52.09.png

But for others on the Astros, the process is a little different. Kyle Tucker is a tinkerer.

“I change my swing a lot during the year,” he said. “Small things. I probably have a different swing from the beginning of the season to now. Whatever feels comfortable.”

His process isn’t as much about knowing tendencies, it’s about feeling right in the cage.

“I don’t look at the analytical stuff, I just hit in the cage,” Tucker said. “If I feel like I’m too open I might change my foot, or maybe stand taller, or get wider, maybe move the hands around a little. Trying to get a good bat path in the cage.”

The rest comes from what he sees on the field. For example, Tucker is 42 of 48 on stolen base attempts over his five-year career despite having below-average sprint speed. In a league that’s mostly using math to be more efficient at base stealing than ever before, and on a club that has a reputation for being more data- and tech-driven than almost any team in baseball, you might think that his success comes from knowing the numbers. Not for Tucker.

“I just go out there and look,” he said of his base-stealing acumen. “I get a better read when I’m out there. If the guy is a 1.35 to the plate, which is decent, but I can’t pick up his move to start — it’s weird to me for some reason — then you get a late jump and you can get thrown out. If the guy is a 1.1 to the plate, and that’s pretty quick, but you can get a read on his move, then you can get a really good jump.”

These are two products of the same player development system that have taken very different paths toward getting the most out of their talent. You might think that a data-driven organization would find best practices in its research and then implement them across the board in the minor leagues to produce very similar players. That almost did happen in Houston once. At one point, they were telling all their minor league hitters to set up the same way at the plate: they’d rest their bat on their shoulder and then take it a couple inches off and set. Multiple sources confirmed that the players didn’t like it.

“You’re not going to put every hitter to start the same position, their hands in the same spot,” said former Astro Carlos Correa several weeks ago. “That happened in the minor leagues in Houston for a couple years, trying to get everyone to hit the same way, and it didn’t work, and they got rid of that. You look at good hitters in Houston like Yordan Alvarez, he’s had that same swing since he got there … everyone has their own stance.”

Maybe during that process the Astros recalibrated the relationship between top-line research and development findings and the feel required to connect with your players while coaching. It sounds obvious that you wouldn’t tell Yordan Alvarez to set up the same way as every other minor leaguer, but there’s also something more subtle going on when considering how different Tucker and Alvarez’s approaches to the game are. Even an analytically-friendly player like Alex Bregmanappreciated that data shaped the advice he was getting, but he didn’t have to hear all about it, and had some autonomy when it came to his career.

“They don’t force us to look at any of that stuff,” Bregman said of the numbers the coaches use.

“You gotta keep things as simple as possible even if all those numbers can help,” said Tucker. “The numbers were always there coming up, and the coaches had them if you wanted to use, but you don’t have to do anything.”

“There isn’t one specific thing, it’s a combination of a lot of different things we do,” Alvarez said of his work with his coaches. “No easy answer.”

Astros coaches are hugely important. They form the glue between the data-borne underpinnings of the player development process and players who all have different expectations and interests. They seem to be doing it so well that the Astros have trouble retaining them — Houston has a bottom-five tenure when it comes to the premier leadership positions.

“They were awesome,” Tucker said of his coaches coming up. “They had everything and whether or not you used it, they just wanted to help you play as well as you can.”

Maybe it was the use of words like “awesome” and “we.” Maybe it was the fact that Alvarez pointed at his hitting coach as he rounded the bases. Maybe it’s the fact that only the Dodgers have won more games in the last five years. Or maybe it was Alex Cintron, waiting at the top of the steps to congratulate his player for a tweak he made.

But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that this organization knows how to make adjustments — and more importantly, knows how to help its players make adjustments, so they can be the best they can be.

 

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Storm the Field

Storm the Field 5,366

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Hopped in bed last up 5-1, figuring I could go to bed early. Checked my phone during the middle of the 7th-inning debacle. Ended up staying up until final out b/c I knew if I didn't, I'd wake up at some point in the middle of the night and check the final score and if we had ended up losing, I'd toss and turn and get absolutely no fucking sleep.

That would have been the dumbest fucking loss of the year, barely eclipsing the Maldonado Meltdown on Saturday.

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Storm the Field

Storm the Field 5,366

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One other thought, all season I've kept holding out hope for Gurriel to at least get back to being slightly above replacement, but that infield fly with bases loaded, no outs last night was just the epitome of his season so far. Prime Gurriel would have smashed a bases-clearing 2B or at least hit a deep sac fly. This Gurriel is just plain washed. 

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UTPhil2006

UTPhil2006 3,930

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7 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

Hopped in bed last up 5-1, figuring I could go to bed early. Checked my phone during the middle of the 7th-inning debacle. Ended up staying up until final out b/c I knew if I didn't, I'd wake up at some point in the middle of the night and check the final score and if we had ended up losing, I'd toss and turn and get absolutely no fucking sleep.

That would have been the dumbest fucking loss of the year, barely eclipsing the Maldonado Meltdown on Saturday.

Yep and now we get to stay up til 12+ again tonight. Hate these west coast games.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 106,889

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scooped 2 for tonight.
got a bet with my cousin
Altuve cracks a homer off showtime 

We’re going to the game in Anaheim tonight, too. Haven’t decided where to sit. Seem to be some decent seats just past the end of the 1b line.
Looking forward to seeing the pitching matchup.
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kingkoopa6

kingkoopa6 8,695

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6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


We’re going to the game in Anaheim tonight, too. Haven’t decided where to sit. Seem to be some decent seats just past the end of the 1b line.
Looking forward to seeing the pitching matchup.

oh damn hell yea!

yea.. first baseline is nice.. i would usually get a tix for sections near the foul pole... like 134 133 .. they usually 10 bucks.

then i would just walk to the section behind the dugout and just find a gap of seats to choose... pictured below..

 

the oc Texas Exes group gonna be in section 309 - the highlighted spot 

 

edit: i highlighted 308.. but we in 309

 

image.thumb.png.92c481fe8490a7265be8156f5904febb.png

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29,225

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26 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


We’re going to the game in Anaheim tonight, too. Haven’t decided where to sit. Seem to be some decent seats just past the end of the 1b line.
Looking forward to seeing the pitching matchup.

yeah i think 124-125 is astros friends and family and there are always huge chunks of empty seats down there and it's not hard to relocate yourself to that area.

we were originally going tomorrow but this week has gotten away from us.

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 78,676

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Unpopular opinion …… bring up Brown for one of the Yankee games. I’d prefer they not get any more looks at our top starters

1 minute ago, Guadaloopy said:

Seeing Keuchel and Devo’s recent results reminds us how fleeting success in this game can be, especially for pitchers. 


loved both these guys, hope they can find ‘it’ again 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19,595

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Just now, Rickylovesweed said:

Keuchel might be done. Since 2020 he's been dreadful. 

There is almost no doubt he is done. Chicago waived him and a bottom division team where he has a champion for him as a pitching coach picked him up, and he's now shitting the bed.  That's express train to unemployed.  So glad he isn't our problem. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19,595

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16 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Unpopular opinion …… bring up Brown for one of the Yankee games. I’d prefer they not get any more looks at our top starters


loved both these guys, hope they can find ‘it’ again 

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion here, I would venture to say most of us would LOVE to see Brown called up and see what he's got.  Promoting the highest ranked prospect in the system is like Christmas day for baseball degenerates. 

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10,764

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31 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Unpopular opinion …… bring up Brown for one of the Yankee games. I’d prefer they not get any more looks at our top starters

I’m pretty sure there would be some service time ramifications to that, not to mention a 40 man roster move. Admittedly, I’m not sure what they are after the new CBA. 

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Scraps

Scraps 13,799

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4 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Benintendi and 9 other Royals can’t play in the upcoming series against the Jays. Would you still trade for him or any other non vaccinated player on the off chance that you would play Toronto in the playoffs?

Yeah when I saw that in the MLB thread I LOL'd that 2 of the Yankees potential trade targets wouldn't even be available for them for part of the ALDS possibly 

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