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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

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TexArcher
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Bregs is going Crawford Boxes right here.

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Prior to the footage being edited by Bender:

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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

henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29228

Posted
Posted

and 2.5 games was the closest they ever came again....

i hope.

for those in the "i don't think this team is as good as the 2017 version" camp, let me remind you of where we were one year ago today...

on august 29th, 2017 we lost 12-2 to the rangers, as part of a losing "home" series in a game mike fiers started (and got blowed up in).  afterwards, we were 79-52 (right now we are 82-51).  we were still 48 hours from any type of justin verlander announcement.  we were one week away from being 31 games over, which is where we stand today.

and for whomever said we needed mccutchen, you'll get tyler white (for free) and like it.

the baseball gods (scraps) work in mysterious ways.

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Mez2

Mez2 4048

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Scraps said:

Whats funny is I am also one of the ones that was glad White got sent down earlier in the season and really didnt care if I saw him back in the majors.

So a big "fuck you" to me today as part of my walk off fun lol

I, too, have been served a nice big helping of some chinga tu madre and Tyler white is letting me help myself to it

 

I hope he can sustain, or, stay somewhat consistent with this, a couple of months goddess was the talk of the team. But fuck it, at this points wins are wins. 

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DaysOff

DaysOff 8212

Posted
Posted
and 2.5 games was the closest they ever came again....
i hope.
for those in the "i don't think this team is as good as the 2017 version" camp, let me remind you of where we were one year ago today...
on august 29th, 2017 we lost 12-2 to the rangers, as part of a losing "home" series in a game mike fiers started (and got blowed up in).  afterwards, we were 79-52 (right now we are 82-51).  we were still 48 hours from any type of justin verlander announcement.  we were one week away from being 31 games over, which is where we stand today.
and for whomever said we needed mccutchen, you'll get tyler white (for free) and like it.
the baseball gods (scraps) work in mysterious ways.
Inconceivable.

That 42-16 start and burying the division in May gives a different perspective.
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Guadaloopy

Guadaloopy 11138

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

and 2.5 games was the closest they ever came again....

i hope.

for those in the "i don't think this team is as good as the 2017 version" camp, let me remind you of where we were one year ago today...

on august 29th, 2017 we lost 12-2 to the rangers, as part of a losing "home" series in a game mike fiers started (and got blowed up in).  afterwards, we were 79-52 (right now we are 82-51).  we were still 48 hours from any type of justin verlander announcement.  we were one week away from being 31 games over, which is where we stand today.

and for whomever said we needed mccutchen, you'll get tyler white (for free) and like it.

the baseball gods (scraps) work in mysterious ways.

Only 9 of the last 30 games are against teams who are over .500.  Need to take care of business against the sub-.500 teams, scrape the Mariners off their heels, and make statements against the Red Sox and D-Backs.  

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Tommy Nobis

Tommy Nobis 905

Posted
Posted
let's be real.  after white's fade in 2016 (?) after the hot start, nobody saw something like this coming.
if white, marwin, and one other of maldonado/yuli/gattis/reddick are contributing this way for the next 6-8 weeks, we're a fucking freight train.

Yep 2016. IIRC he made the show out of spring training and was red hot that April. Then fell off a fucking cliff. Glad he’s doing decent after being given a few opportunities up here the last few years.
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Victor Lazlo

Victor Lazlo 1814

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Tommy Nobis said:


Glad he’s doing decent

He’s got a 1.031 OPS 

I’d say that’s just a little bit better than decent.

Sure, SSS and all, but, damn, let’s give the the man some credit. 

We’ve been desperately needing what he’s been providing. 

Edited by Victor Lazlo
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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've been wanting White to get another shot when he showed real improvement earlier this year in Fresno.  He'll obviously cool off sooner or later but I think he could be a legit .360-.380 wOBA hitter.  His power is going to obviously come down but I think his K% will come down as well given his minuscule SwStr%.

Edited by Fozzz
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WBT

WBT 20990

Posted
Posted

Good Q&A with Kemp by Kaplan on the Athletic:

 

Spoiler

 

Q&A: Tony Kemp on seizing his chance, proving wrong the naysayers and his ’26th man’ playlist

Tony-Kemp-1024x819.jpg
By Jake Kaplan 3h agocomment-icon@2x.png 10 save-icon@2x.png

After waiting his turn in Triple A for the better parts of three seasons, outfielder Tony Kemp has carved out a niche for himself this season as a spark at the bottom of the Astros’ lineup.

Playing predominantly left field but also filling in at times for George Springer in center, Kemp has accumulated a career-high 203 at-bats and put himself in strong contention for a spot on Houston’s playoff roster. In his best major-league opportunity to date, the Franklin, Tenn., native and former SEC player of the year has batted .276 with a .774 OPS.

Earlier this week, Kemp spoke to The Athletic about his season, grinding through Triple A, the obstacles that came with being 5-foot-6 and how he used his omission from the Astros’ playoff rosters last year as motivation during the offseason.

(This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.)

You’re more than 200 at-bats into a season that really represents the best major-league opportunity you’ve gotten so far. How would you assess how it’s gone relative to your expectations coming into spring training?

Tony Kemp: I think my expectations were to just be in the big leagues at some point during the year. As far as this year, I think I’ve exceeded my expectations of what I thought could be completed this year. I’m hitting around .280, getting on base and just trying to win ballgames for the team. Obviously, I’m just blessed to be in this opportunity. It’s tough because all of this is just perspective. You have to realize where you came from and how you got here and how much hard work you’ve put into just being able to be in this situation.

I was talking to my brother the other day, and he was talking about how many times I’ve led to a walk or a hit or a scored run to like either tie the game or lead the game. I don’t really look back into that. But it’s important to do that because you kind of see how much you have helped the team throughout this stretch, especially because we had a lot of our big guys out.

Going into spring training and obviously getting optioned to Triple A to start the season was very discouraging. I just wanted to come into this season with a positive attitude. Being in Triple A to start out the year, it was tough. Just to be able to get that opportunity again, just to be here and do as well as I’ve done, it feels good.

You always seemed confident you could do this if you got the opportunity. What were the biggest difficulties of grinding through basically three seasons in Triple A, a lot of which you didn’t really have much left to prove there, in a league where I know the travel is less than ideal?

Kemp: I think the hardest part about is just, one, knowing if you could get your shot, and, two, getting the consistent at-bats to show your worth. I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting consistent at-bats all of the time. I was kind of like, “Man, this is kind of your last shot. This is kind of your last opportunity. This is your third year being up in the big leagues, up and down.” It wasn’t that I wanted to prove anything. I just wanted, to myself, I just wanted to be good enough.

Obviously coming up and getting a hit off Garrett Richards (on May 16) and then being able, in that Cleveland series, when the fan interrupted the double down the right-field line, that was huge. Just like building off that momentum. Every day I wanted to come to the field and forget about yesterday. I wanted to come to the field, forget about yesterday and start fresh everyday, and I think that’s helped a lot. Not dwelling on the past but knowing that you always have to live in the present.

Were there times throughout the years you were in Triple A and blocked up here when you doubted you’d ever get an opportunity like this year?

Kemp: Yeah, I mean, you definitely get discouraged. But I think last year was the one year that I really looked at it and was like, “Hey man, you’re in Triple A on the best team in the big leagues.” Could you have opportunity elsewhere? Yes. But that’s not where God is pointing me to be right now. Just being where my feet are at the moment is the most important thing to realize. You can’t get ahead of yourself in this game. You can’t take anything for granted. I think that being in Triple A as long as I was last year, getting a September call-up, it was tough. The only position players that did get September call-ups were me and Tyler White. And we had great seasons, but you see guys like AJ Reed or you see guys that are not getting the opportunity that we’re getting. Like I said, everything’s perspective.

You are 5-foot-6, a height we don’t often see among major leagues. The only other major leaguer your height is, of course, your teammate, José Altuve. Growing up, what challenges did that present to you in terms of getting noticed, and did it lead to you feeling overlooked at times?

GettyImages-841982148.jpg
 
Juan DeLeon/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Kemp: Yeah. I think that’s why on my Players’ Weekend cleats I had “undersized” on my Centennial cleats because in high school that’s all I heard. All I heard was, “He’s a good player, but he’s undersized.” I’m like, “What does that mean?” It’s like, “Oh, he’s a good football player, but he’s too tall.” So, that was the biggest hurdle. I remember in high school, “He’s just undersized. He’s just too small.” Any time I was in the weight room or working, that would always be a voice in my head, that you’re not good enough, that you’re too small, you’re undersized.

Obviously, you should let those negative opinions make it positive toward your journey. Kids out there that have negative opinions said about them, I don’t want them to dwell on those opinions. That’s how you beat yourself up. That’s how you get down on yourself. Essentially, negative opinions, to me, are like cyberbullying. Essentially. Because you go online, and you see what these people say about you in a negative form; that’s not good for you. That’s not good for your psyche.

So, being able to just get over that hurdle. I remember they would say, “Yeah, you’re going to Vanderbilt, but you’ll probably sit the first two years and you might get a chance your junior year.” A lot of people said a lot of things, and those are just naysayers, man. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I understand why people said most of the things that they said. But right now, I feel like they’re putting their foots in their mouth.

When it came to college recruiting, how big of a hurdle was your height?

Kemp: It wasn’t that big. I actually got an offer from East Carolina my junior year in October. I got offered to go play outfield there. Mike Trout was supposed to go the year before me. So, I don’t think that Billy Godwin was too happy that he had Mike Trout and myself decommitting from his school. But, it wasn’t too bad. I only had two college scholarship offers. I had East Carolina. They offered me 70 percent to play outfield. And then a couple of months later Vanderbilt offered. Full ride. So, obviously I felt bad decommitting from East Carolina. But East Carolina was eight hours away, and Vanderbilt was 30 minutes away. And a full ride versus 70 percent — you do the numbers. I don’t think it was too hard. I think that Coach [Tim] Corbin actually recruited my brother, but my brother had signed to play at Tennessee Tech two days before he tried to reach out to him. I wish I could still find those emails. Corbin had an email, and it was like, “I lost your brother, and I’m not going to lose you.” I still periodically text Corbin and just say “Thank you.” Just out of the blue, and he knows what it means. It’s just, “Thank you for believing in me.” Because a lot of college coaches didn’t. And I could see why. “The small outfielder doesn’t do anything for me.” So, I send him a text every now and then and just say thank you for giving me that opportunity.

At one point in your baseball career, did you think playing professionally was a legitimate possibility for you?

Kemp: (Laughs.) Oh, man. Well, it’s funny because all I told my brother was I just wanted to get a college scholarship. Like, “I think it would be cool to play in college. That would be cool.” And I kind of just took it one step at a time. But when I really found out that I could probably play professional baseball was probably after the Cape Cod League. My sophomore summer, I went up to the Cape Cod League. I think I hit like .320, maybe .330. I kind of just said if I could compete with all of the top college prospects, and these guys are the first rounders, the second rounders of the draft, maybe I have a shot to turn this thing into something special. Then I had my junior year and won player of the year, and I was like, “Man, maybe I am pretty good.” Ever since the Cape and my junior season at Vandy, I was pretty confident that I could make it to pro ball.

I believe at Vanderbilt you became the first SEC baseball player of the year to hit zero home runs in the season you won the award. You’ve increased your power, relatively, as a pro. How has your swing changed in the last few years to get you to the point where you have five home runs this year?

GettyImages-167984347.jpg
 
Tony Kemp and Mike Yastrzemski | Jeff Blake/The State/MCT via Getty Images

Kemp: Last year, when I had 10 home runs, one of those being an inside-the-park home run, being able to work with Jeff Albert and the way that he talks about hitting; it’s in a different world. My whole life, people always said I had good hands at the plate. And they say, “Use your hands. Use your hands.” And that was the wrong cue. Jeff would say, “You need to use your body.”

And so, I tried to use my body in my swing, and I could kind of see balls jumping off the bats in gaps, to right field and sometimes to left field, and being able to be rotational with my swing and use torque and being able to use my body in a whole different realm. It’s a word that baseball players use when they see a player “click.” They say, “Oh, that dude clicked.” And I think that my swing kind of clicked last year. And I think going into this year, you can still obviously improve, but I think that click of like once you get that pitch and you’re not missing it, that’s kind of how my swing was going.

(Note: Jeff Albert, now the Astros’ assistant hitting coach, was previously their minor-league hitting coordinator.)

Strike-zone discipline and just grinding out at-bats is a big part of your game. Where does that discipline come from?

Kemp: I remember in High A they voted me best strike-zone discipline for the California League. I kind of was just playing baseball. You never really look into statistics until you get an award like that. I was like, “Man, maybe I do have good strike-zone discipline.” Obviously, it’s a little tougher in the big leagues and pitchers are a little better. But I think that just kind of came from knowing that I needed to get on base any way I could. And if I could not swing at the balls, I could get on base quicker, right? So, I think it kind of came from just understanding the game. It kind of came from my junior year at Vandy, I would probably say, and then kind of crept into pro ball.

Coach Corbin helped me out with that a lot. I credit a lot of these guys that came out of high school that get to the big leagues and have great careers. I’m biased because I’m one of those players that wouldn’t be where I am without Coach Corbin, without Josh Holliday, without Travis Jewett, and going to Vanderbilt. I just wouldn’t be the same player. A lot of that came from my junior year at Vandy.

(Note: Holliday, now the coach at Oklahoma State, and Jewett, now the coach at Tulane, were assistants on Corbin’s Vanderbilt staff during Kemp’s tenure at the school.)

Last season, you spent September with the Astros but were left off all three playoff rosters. How difficult was that to stomach, and how did you end up experiencing the World Series run from afar?

Kemp: I remember being in Boston (for the final series of the regular season) and they called some guys in — me, Max Stassi, J.D. Davis — but they wanted to keep me, Max and Francis Martes in Florida as reserves. They told us before the Boston games, so the last game of the year, which was tough because I felt like my September was decent. I mean, I didn’t prove anything. But I really wanted to be on that playoff roster. When I got left off, it definitely hurt. But you only can control what you can.

I flew in for (World Series games) 3, 4, 5 — me and Michelle did, my wife, and then we watched [the final two games] from her parents’ house in Franklin. I was so excited, man. I was in every pitch. I was so excited for the guys, man. To have a World Series ring and to be a part of that team was something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

But after the World Series was over, it was turned into motivation. That’s where my 26th man playlist came. They said that, “Hey, you were just off; you were our 26th guy,” and it kind of stuck with me. I remember going into the weight room in the offseason just like, “How are you going to better yourself?” And seeing “26th man” every day, it gets at you. What it does, it takes you back to that moment when you were sitting in that room and they’re saying you’re not good enough. That’s what I felt like. I knew I was good enough. But pretty much, that’s what that means. I think that was good for me to have a playlist name like that because it’s something you see every day.

This journey is actually something special just because you have all of that; you work your butt off, have a good spring training and then, “We’re going to option you to Triple A.” This game will beat you up, and it will beat you up and it will spit you out and it doesn’t care, and I think that you just have to be mentally tough. You have to be mentally strong. You go through slumps and you go through ruts, and the sun will always come up the next day.

I had a huge thing that I wrote down on the plane coming to Houston when I got called up, and it was all of the things that I wanted to work on and get better at. The last thing I wrote on the paper was “Don’t go back to the minor leagues.” In all caps, it said, “Don’t go back to the minor leagues.” I think it was important to have those things written out because it really sticks with you, and you remember those things. I don’t think I’ll be going back to the minor leagues this year. But ever since getting called up from May 15th on, I think that I’ve played pretty well.

You mentioned the 26th man playlist. What’s on it?

Kemp: I can bring it up right now. (Kemp pulls his iPhone out of his pocket and scrolls through Spotify.) We have Ric Flair on it. God’s Plan by Drake. Cold Little Heart, Michael Kiwanuka. Look Alive, Drake. All the Stars, Kendrick Lamar. It’s got a whole range. Big Shot, Kendrick Lamar. I mean, I made this playlist huge. It’s got like 100 songs on it. It was even my playlist just when we’re like going to dinner, and we get in [the car] and we put on 26th man. [My wife’s] like, “Why do you have this playlist on?” I was like, “I need this for myself.” (Laughs.)

As September rolls around and we in the media start predicting the Astros’ potential playoff roster, is that a focus for you right now, continuing to prove that you should be one of those guys?

Kemp: That’s definitely one of the goals. I definitely would like to be on the playoff roster and help this team win another championship. But like I said, you only can control what you can and just put your best foot forward every day you step on the field. But I hope that once it gets toward that time, that I’ll be on the playoff roster to help this team win.

 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6362

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

and for whomever said we needed mccutchen, you'll get tyler white (for free) and like it.

I've been banging that drum; i was also in the "dump Gattis, replace with White" camp back in May before Gattis got really hot for several weeks and everyone (including me) called me an idiot, which I very well may be. 

Anyway, why not both? Cutch still upgrades  the OF.

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10783

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, HoustonFrog said:

I'm definitely not very high on Kemp. But I thought White was doneskies also. 

Really need Reddick/Marwin/Gattis to be mediocre to end the year. Oh and need Correa to wake up (and Altuve to wake up in clutch moments)

We're in good shape

WTF? I hope you meant to put not in there

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