2023 Houston Astros Thread

[Limp Brisket 546]

So far, we’ve gotten a lemon.

[runthebone 8131]

1 minute ago, Limp Brisket said:

So far, we’ve gotten a lemon.

No, lemons are useful

[HtownHorn 14915]

Might as well call up Gilbert. Maybe he can add some excitement. I know it will never happen, but this team is trash right now. Goes to show you, never let guys that have never done talent evaluations consistently be GMs.

[Lat22 4051]

The more he sucks, the more I hate his stupid beard and unbuttoned jersey. I know. Important stuff. 

[closetojumping 63086]

We’re just being thrown an onslaught of AAAA players right now. Dubon, Julks, France, Bielak, Gage, Martinez. Guys on this thread have been touting Julks and calling me out about it. L!O!L!  Dude has one walk in a fifth of a major league season. Holy shit. 

Meanwhile, Dusty Baker continues to do what he wants, which includes playing a catcher who is actively defining “worthless”. This is a negative WAR guy this season. Abreu needs to be benched. Bregman needs to be fucking shamed. 

25-30 when Altuve returns. 

[Dennis Taylor 19025]

Is that bad? It seems bad 

 

[billfromlaketravis 11601]

Once Brantley is back, I think Abreu needs a phantom IL stint. A Diaz and Brantley platoon if/when Abreu gets right would please me. 

Abreu appears to be a pretty big screw up. I thought we jumped on him early, and got a good deal, but the rest of league probably saw what the Astros didn’t want to see. Namely decreasing bat speed. 
 

Montero is also looking like a bad contract, but he was lights out in the 2022 postseason. I’ll reserve judgment.

Stanek I’m sorry, should not be pitching in high leverage situations. 
 

Not really worried about the starting pitching if France can put up a similar stat line to Garcia.

[Rimbo 26420]

[Guadaloopy 11039]

Shitty weekend.   Time for a bounce back.  

[Hank Chinaski 6324]

10 K, 1 BB by the lineup today. Nice work, fellas.

Crane’s hubris and nonchalance about having nobody run the organization this past winter is coming home to roost. Perhaps an analytically-inclined GM wouldn’t have outbid himself for the right to overpay an old 1B with diminished bat speed. (That this is the first year of his deal, not the last, is a sobering thought.)

 

[rvm96 1643]

40 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

We’re just being thrown an onslaught of AAAA players right now. Dubon, Julks, France, Bielak, Gage, Martinez. Guys on this thread have been touting Julks and calling me out about it. L!O!L!  Dude has one walk in a fifth of a major league season. Holy shit. 

Meanwhile, Dusty Baker continues to do what he wants, which includes playing a catcher who is actively defining “worthless”. This is a negative WAR guy this season. Abreu needs to be benched. Bregman needs to be fucking shamed. 

25-30 when Altuve returns. 

I call you out on it because you wanted Dirden who wasn't and isn't ready. Dirden is finally getting hot but he was hitting below .200 in triple A until this week. Julks has done his job of being a solid bench player. I find it funny that you put that whole list together but left off Hensley...

[tx 3 putt 77920]

Last two games sucked donkey boner. It’s a game of inches and missed plays. Starting pitching was good enough. On to Anaheim, need some W’s 

[HtownHorn 14915]

1 hour ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Is that bad? It seems bad 

 

If I was an opposing team, I would fine a pitcher that throws Abreu an off-speed pitch.

[tx 3 putt 77920]

4 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

If I was an opposing team, I would fine a pitcher that throws Abreu an off-speed pitch.

why even pitch to Yordan with Abreu on deck ?

 

this team as is, should easily be 20-13. Have to catch some breaks, tighten up the defense 

[UTexasFight 9603]

7 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

If I was an opposing team, I would fine a pitcher that throws Abreu an off-speed pitch.

He better sit against Ohtani this week.

 

really the entire week but know that ain’t happening 

Edited May 8, 2023 by UTexasFight

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1549]

Bregs and Abreu need to be 7-8.   Should have kept Yuli for cheap, 1 year deal, right? 

[TexArcher 38409]

I think I said this here before, but Jose Abreu is my least favorite Houston acquisition since Scottie Pippen.  And I really didn't see this one coming.

I'm panicking over here.  Hold me.

[rvm96 1643]

I'll give it another month before I start panicking for Jose Abreu.

[Rockethorn1978 6153]

0 homers for abreau. I know guys regress with age but this is ridiculous. I thought for sure he was gonna come here and rake. Fml.

[Wulaw Horn 19232]

9 hours ago, rvm96 said:

I'll give it another month before I start panicking for Jose Abreu.

Oh you should be terrified right now with his underlying data along with the eye test. He looks like he’s fallen off a cliff. I agree it’s not set in stone and the story is not finished but abject panic is absolutely warranted. He’s doing nothing a good baseball player should. 
Conversely nobody should have any panic about Bregman. All his numbers look just fine. He will be just fine. Someday. 

[UTPhil2006 3828]

At least one scrub is going back to AAA today so we got that going for us 

[Chuckie Finster 22759]

1 hour ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Oh you should be terrified right now with his underlying data along with the eye test. He looks like he’s fallen off a cliff. I agree it’s not set in stone and the story is not finished but abject panic is absolutely warranted. He’s doing nothing a good baseball player should. 
Conversely nobody should have any panic about Bregman. All his numbers look just fine. He will be just fine. Someday. 

Not a single player in the league has more ABs than Abreu with 0 home runs.

Jean Segura is the only qualified player in the league with a lower slugging percentage/OPS.  

This isn't just a slow start, this is our $20m clean-up hitter being arguably the worst hitter in baseball.  This is BAD.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Chuckie Finster

[texashorne 1178]

Everyone on this board, including myself, loved the Abreu deal in the offseason. You don't get to love the deal then trash the GM when it doesn't work out. 

That being said he needs to get his shit together. Badly. 

This team has played into November for 2 straight seasons, and this past Spring had the added bonus of the WBC where pitchers go 100% right off the bat. Urquidy, Garcia, and Altuve all played in the WBC. 

 

[UTPhil2006 3828]

The WBC was anything but a bonus. You will catch me outside MMP in 2026 preventing our players from going 

[texashorne 1178]

At this point, we need to be in striking distance of the playoffs when the ASB rolls around. Hopefully by then Altuve and Brantley are full speed, Abreu and Bregman have their head removed from their asses, LMJ is back, and Dusty sees the light at catcher. 

 

[tx 3 putt 77920]

The Astros have promoted top prospect Drew Gilbert to Double-A, per Chandler Rome. Gilbert was hitting .361 with 8 2B, 6 HR, 4 SB in 21 games in High-A.

[Hank Chinaski 6324]

33 minutes ago, texashorne said:

Everyone on this board, including myself, loved the Abreu deal in the offseason. You don't get to love the deal then trash the GM when it doesn't work out. 

 

I didn’t love it. I thought it was one year and several million dollars too much. I don’t think I was the only one.

That said, I did think Abreu would be better offensively than Yuli was in 2022, so I did expect that it would be an upgrade, even if it was too much money.

But beyond what fans think, the problem is that there was reason to believe that Abreu’s ability was declining. A national writer said as much at the time - that his bat speed was slowing and his 2022 season showed it.

This is the kind of stuff analytically-inclined front offices would be likely to detect. But the owner decided that we didn’t need anyone leading a coherent front office this past off-season. That’s the problem.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Hank Chinaski

[Huckleberry 33519]

4 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Oh you should be terrified right now with his underlying data along with the eye test. He looks like he’s fallen off a cliff.

So much this. He is being overpowered by 93mph fastballs. Consistently. As much as anyone I'm aware of the danger of small sample size reactions but what you see matters and he is done. I will be thoroughly shocked if he even hits his 2022 numbers starting today through the end of the season. 

[tx 3 putt 77920]

We can only hope for the best with Abreu. He has to get better because he can’t get much worst 

[tx 3 putt 77920]

 

[Hank Chinaski 6324]

4 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

So much this. He is being overpowered by 93mph fastballs. Consistently. As much as anyone I'm aware of the danger of small sample size reactions but what you see matters and he is done. I will be thoroughly shocked if he even hits his 2022 numbers starting today through the end of the season. 

Yup, the sample size isn’t that small anymore. He’s past the count of PAs and batted-ball event at which the K rate, BB rate and contact quality tend to stabilize and accurately describe who he is. These aren’t necessarily predictive per se, but they are real indicators.

He’s a disaster and is unlikely to even come close to justifying the contract that Crane gave him. 

[texashorne 1178]

46 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Yup, the sample size isn’t that small anymore. He’s past the count of PAs and batted-ball event at which the K rate, BB rate and contact quality tend to stabilize and accurately describe who he is. These aren’t necessarily predictive per se, but they are real indicators.

He’s a disaster and is unlikely to even come close to justifying the contract that Crane gave him. 

Just realized it was 3 years, not 2. dammit. 

[runthebone 8131]

Maybe he hits better in a toxic clubhouse.  Speeds up the hands.

[tx 3 putt 77920]

1 minute ago, runthebone said:

Maybe he hits better in a toxic clubhouse.  Speeds up the hands.

bring in LaRussa as a bench coach 

[rvm96 1643]

6 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Oh you should be terrified right now with his underlying data along with the eye test. He looks like he’s fallen off a cliff. I agree it’s not set in stone and the story is not finished but abject panic is absolutely warranted. He’s doing nothing a good baseball player should. 
Conversely nobody should have any panic about Bregman. All his numbers look just fine. He will be just fine. Someday. 

His hard hit percentage and exit velocity page looks recoverable. 

[kevwun 15943]

Per a friend, Urquidy is out until the ASB at least.

[tx 3 putt 77920]

10 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Per a friend, Urquidy is out until the ASB at least.

Brown confirmed this yesterday 

[kevwun 15943]

Sorry I skipped over the game thread yesterday.

[texashorne 1178]

17 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Per a friend, Urquidy is out until the ASB at least.

Not great, not terrible

[tx 3 putt 77920]

Worst hitters in MLB by wRC+ (min. 130 PA)

Jose Abreu, 48 wRC+
Elvis Andrus, 54
George Springer, 63
Jurickson Profar, 64
Jose Miranda, 65
Ryan McMahon, 68
Nolan Arenado, 78
Spencer Torkelson, 70
Andres Gimenez, 74
Jeimer Candelario, 75

 

I guess Hensley doesn’t have enough at bats 

Edited May 8, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[David Dennison 19117]

4 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

We can only hope for the best with Abreu. He has to get better because he can’t get much worst 

I hope he gets better and I hope it starts near the bottom of the order.

[Wulaw Horn 19232]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

Per a friend, Urquidy is out until the ASB at least.

At least doing a lot of work right there. I hear shoulder and I think career threatening. 

[henrygandorf 29199]

i had to stop in dfw on my way from atl->lax this morning and someone was on the la leg wearing a horns cap and an astros hoodie.  i assume it was one of you clowns. 

we need good hb tonight.  he's our undisputed sp3 for the rest of the season + playoffs unless we make some moves.

[UTPhil2006 3828]

Chas up Bannon down Abreu still batting 4th 

[UTPhil2006 3828]

Brantley in the house but not active. Salazar lives to see another day 

[WBT 20735]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:06 PM, David Dennison said:

Looking like we signed a washed up player to the final three years of a long term deal.

Cool.

Yeah, I read somewhere that Crane won't give Tucker a 10 year deal but voluntarily just signed up for the downside risk of that with Abreu.  I hadn't thought of it in those terms but yeah...

Edited May 8, 2023 by WBT

[billfromlaketravis 11601]

When do they have to make another move at starting pitcher? I assume they’ll roll with Bielak and France until they have to play on Thursday? 

[Chuckie Finster 22759]

Brantley in the house but not active. Salazar lives to see another day 

Salazar has to be one of the weirdest roster decisions in recent memory. He made sense if we were going to be creative with Yainer, but Diaz has just turned into your standard backup catcher that plays 1/5 days.

[tx 3 putt 77920]

 

[tx 3 putt 77920]

Wear your Henry jersey today with pride !