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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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TexArcher
TexArcher

Bregs is going Crawford Boxes right here.

ERhine
ERhine

Prior to the footage being edited by Bender:

wesleywest
wesleywest

Two Diamond Club tickets available for the Sunday night game.  Free.  Need to pick them up from me in 77027. Rules: Poster must be a big contributor to this thread/last years shag thread.  No gue

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Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, VivaNaranja said:

Did Barkley wear 34 for us or is that Olajuwon?

You're right.  Chuck wore the 4.

I didn't recall Dream ever wearing that horrific abomination of a uniform.

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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8065

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54 minutes ago, Mez2 said:

here's your "don't freak out about Altuve" article:

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/5/14/17350590/houston-astros-jose-altuve-home-run-stole-base-struggles

 

 

Interesting. I think part of what’s going on is that several other guys are down from last year, which puts greater hopes on José to be superhuman. When he then hits a rough stretch (as he has lately), it’s magnified. 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9429

Posted
Posted

Somehow I did not realize/remember Gattis tweaked his swing near the end of last year:


Not satisfied with a career OPS around .780, Evan Gattis decided to make a change.

This was last year, after he recovered from the August concussion that cost him three weeks of the season. He was slashing .278/.330/.490 but had only 11 home runs at the time. His swing, he felt, was too steep and not conducive enough to hitting the ball hard and in the air.

An adjustment to rectify it and refine his approach paid off in the postseason, when Gattis had some of the Astros’ most consistent at-bats. His damage consisted of only two doubles and one tone-setting home run off CC Sabathia in Game 7 of the ALCS, but he worked nine walks, half of his regular-season total.

Yet it had played out dreadfully this season up until this weekend, when Gattis’ powerful right-handed bat, at last, began to heat up. The Astros’ primary designated hitter launched home runs in each of the team’s 6-1 wins against the Rangers this weekend, doubling his total from his first 25 starts this season.

Gattis, a career .250/.302/.473 hitter entering Sunday’s game, is still batting only .214/.283/.350 in 113 plate appearances this season. His value to the Astros is tied exclusively to his bat, as he’s fallen out of the catching rotation. This weekend’s series was a start, but they need continued production. He should be in the lineup again Monday against Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney.

“I’m trying to be patient, but at the end of the day you want results,” Gattis said. “This game is built on results, and I want to do better. … Every day I come to work and I just do that. I come to try to get better.”

Gattis was a combined 4-for-9 with a walk in the Astros’ three games against the Rangers. His homers, off Texas starters Doug Fister and Matt Moore, each came on first-pitch fastballs. Sunday’s 400-foot, two-run home run off Moore registered a 107.2 mph exit velocity, Gattis’ best recorded by Statcast this season. It was, he said, his most rewarding swing of the season to date.


Coming into the weekend, it was appropriate to wonder how much longer the Astros could afford to stick with Gattis. Given his track record (112 career OPS+), roughly 100 plate appearances was still too small a sample for a drastic move. But with the red-hot J.D. Davis breathing down his neck in Class AAA, it seemed like Houston’s front office could soon reach a point when the difficult conversations would need to be had.

The Astros owe the 31-year-old Gattis $6.7 million this season, his last before he will become a free agent for the first time. His five-plus years of major league service afford him the right to decline being optioned to the minor leagues.

Year Astros OPS from DH spot (AL rank)
2013 .621 (14th)
2014 .816 (3rd)
2015 .751 (8th)
2016 .686 (15th)
2017 .668 (15th)
2018 .633 (12th)
Gattis has been battling to balance not swinging at balls while also not missing the strikes. His strikeout rate (27.4 percent) has nearly doubled from last season (15.4) despite him actually making contact at a career-high rate (80.7 percent, per Baseball Info Solutions, coming into Sunday’s game.) Before Friday’s series opener, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he thought Gattis was “missing pitches that he normally hammers.”

“If you’re too careful up at the plate, especially when you’re Evan Gattis, you can get lulled into trying to find the perfect pitch and then you miss a mistake or two. Part of the endearing side of the offensive side of Gattis is sort of the ambush,” Hinch said after Houston’s victory Sunday.

“We saw the down-and-in sinker hit to left (off Fister). We see the ball up tattooed, basically to the train (against Moore). And everything in between, a couple base hits here and there. He’s a threat and the other side knows it, and I like the aggressiveness that he came with in this series and then obviously the results followed.”

Gattis has started poorly in the past but never this terribly. In 2015, his first season with the Astros, he had a .183/.204/.382 line through 137 plate appearances. In 2016, he was .203/.257/.313 through 70 plate appearances. Last season was his lone with Houston in which he started off strong, batting .321/.400/.518 in April.

Despite his brutal start, Gattis committed himself to the swing adjustment he began working with last year. “Right now it’s not working so well, and I’m not going to shitcan it just because,” he said before Saturday’s game. He did alter his routine in batting practice, making a concerted effort to hit balls to right field to hone his timing. Eventually, he believes, it all has to pay off.

“We always say we can score from any part of the order,” Hinch said. “When those guys are swinging the bat at the bottom, we’re tough outs.”

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9429

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Posted

Athletic also has an article on LMJ having similar results so far this year as last year but doing it despite a faster curveball 87 mph vs 85.5 last year (and a full mph faster than Kimbrel)...But less spin (150 rpm). (He clearly hasn’t gotten the foreign substance memo from CFM and Cole)

Also increased usage of the changeup: using it 14% of the time so far this year

If can get consistent with the latter pitch and find the spin again on the curve, look out.

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Posted

Evan Gattis is a huge reason why this team is so fucking fun to root for. 

If his story doesn't inspire you, then your wood's all wet. 

We don't need no stinkin battin gloves...but go ahead and hit a homer for Mommy on Mother's Day. 

Fuck yeah. So many Astros find a way to make it happen. 

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