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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

Victor Lazlo

Victor Lazlo 1742

Posted
Posted (edited)
48 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:


I wonder if James and Deetz argue over what sucks more: western Oklahoma or northeast Oklahoma

And Luhnow drafted Laureano out of NE OK A&M too 

I’m wondering how the hell did Luhnow misjudge Laureano so badly as to trade him last year?  He would be the answer to any outfield problem that we might have. 

Sure, small sample size and all. 

But he’s hitting .300 with a +850 OPS. That would play in either right or left for us right now. 

Edited by Victor Lazlo
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WBT

WBT 20397

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Altuve and Correa are a combined 3 for 25 (.120) this month.
Also, Astros are 5-0 in September

Altuve broke the longest 0-fer streak of his mlb career last night with that double.  

I think he's either about to break out in a big way or his knee is still bothering him and he won't be right until next year.

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texifornia

texifornia 56434

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Scraps said:

Not only the same inning, but pretty sure it was the 1st inning.  Hell of a way to start the game.  

The Yanks went from 1-out, bases loaded in the top of the 1st, to being down 4-0 (thank you Severino/Sanchez) in the bottom of the 1st.

Edited by texifornia
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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9369

Posted
Posted

Pressly.
A guy with a high spin rate that is featuring his curve at a much higher percentage since joining the Astros? Sounds familiar


Garvin Alston was hired as the Minnesota Twins’ pitching coach in late October, a timeline that afforded him more than three months before spring training to familiarize himself with the arms that he inherited. By the time February rolled around, he was well-versed in the high-end potential but inconsistent results that to that point defined reliever Ryan Pressly’s career.

Pressly was also all ears after a season in which his ERA neared 5.00 and he watched his pitches leave the yard at a career-worst rate. When in their first meeting, on day one of spring training, Alston asked the 29-year-old right-hander what he wanted to work on, Pressly deferred to his new coach.

Alston started laughing. “You’ve got one of the best breaking balls I’ve seen in a long time,” he replied. “We’re going to work on that.”

For all of spring training, Alston gave Pressly carte blanche to throw his curveball whenever he wanted. The counts were irrelevant, and so were the situations. Freedom to throw the pitch even in 3-and-2 counts would generate confidence in it, Alston believed. Pressly, armed with one of the best spin rates in the game, needed to learn to land his curve for a strike.

Months later, and now a prominent member of the Houston Astros’ bullpen, Pressly identifies the refinement of his curveball in spring training as the key to unlocking his potential this season. Unlike in the past, hitters can no longer eliminate his curveball knowing he would throw it only out of the strike zone in an attempt to get them to chase.

“For me, it took a while to get that consistent release point,” Pressly said. “I kind of started from scratch this past offseason going into spring training. I could not afford to keep throwing fastballs down the middle. Being able to throw my breaking ball for a strike helps my fastball play up even more.”

Pressly’s ability to unleash his curveball for a two-strike chase or to land it for a strike to get back into counts has opened up the rest of his arsenal, a three-pitch mix that’s as dynamic as any in Houston’s bullpen. In addition to his sharp curve that averages 83 mph, he has a high-spin, four-seam fastball that ranges from 95 to 97 mph and a 90 mph slider that Alston and Twins bullpen coach Eddie Guardado actually regard as his best pitch.

Maximizing his trio of weapons has made Pressly the Astros’ best reliever since they acquired him from the Twins on July 27 for prospects Jorge Alcala and Gilberto Celestino. The two earned runs that Pressly has allowed in 15 2/3 innings with Houston have improved his season ERA to 2.84 in 63 1/3 frames. Since changing teams, he has struck out 40 percent of the batters whom he’s faced and has yet to issue a walk.

“It wasn’t a thing of trying to get his fastball command to be absolutely perfect. It was about getting his breaking ball command to get closer to his fastball,” Alston said. “Now, of all of a sudden, if you think of a hitter trying to hit either 95-97 or a breaking ball that’s probably one of the best in major-league baseball, that gives you the advantage.”

Pressly’s curveball, which he learned nearly two decades ago from childhood pitching coach and former major leaguer Steve Busby, is a weapon against both right-handed and left-handed hitters. He throws it harder than most and with an elite spin rate. Among pitchers who have thrown at least 200 curveballs this season, his average of 3,221 rpm is the best in the majors.



“For anybody at this level who has a good curveball, to be able to separate it and throw one for a strike and one as a chase pitch, that’s what’s going to take you to the next level,” said Twins catcher Jason Castro, the ex-Astro. “I’m sure he put in a lot of work kind of figuring that out because before it looked like he was just kind of throwing his best one every time like a chase pitch. You kind of have to set it up. At a certain point, you’ll stop getting swings if guys recognize every time you throw a breaking ball it’s a chase pitch. For him to figure that out and get comfortable with it, that’s huge.”

In just about the least surprising development imaginable, Pressly’s curveball usage has skyrocketed since he joined the spin-happy Astros.

In his 16 appearances with the defending World Series champions, Pressly has thrown the curve about 38 percent of the time overall. Against lefties, his usage increases to 50 percent. With the Twins this year, those percentages were only 24 and 31, respectively. The heavier volume of curveballs has cut into his fastball usage. He’s throwing about the same amount of sliders as he did while with the Twins.

“They’ve reiterated that my curveball’s probably one of the best in the league, so you should be able to use it more,” Pressly said of the Astros’ approach. “Now whatever situation, whatever finger [Max] Stassi, [brian] McCann or Maldy [Martín Maldonado] puts down, that’s what I’m going to go with. It just so happens that some of the hitters that we’ve been scouting in the meetings and stuff, they tend to not like curveballs. So, I guess that’s why my spike has probably gone up in that category.”

Pressly’s FB/CB usage 2018 with Twins 2018 with Astros
Four-seam fastball 43.98% 34.63%
Curveball 24.32% 38.05%
Source: Brooks Baseball

“We always want to optimize a guy’s pitches,” Astros manager A.J Hinch said. “When he has a weapon as dynamic as that [curveball], we want to make sure that he doesn’t miss an opportunity to use it in the right count to the right hitter the right amount of times. Generally, you’ll see an uptick in a guy’s best pitch with us, whether it’s a fastball, a breaking ball, a slider, change. More times than not, that’s offspeed for us. But it is something that we talked about — how to maximize his weapons.”

Pressly has quickly settled into a seventh-inning role for the Astros. His last 11 appearances have been scoreless, and six of his last seven have been 1-2-3 innings. When Houston leads, Hinch will deploy Pressly ahead of Héctor Rondón in the eighth and Roberto Osuna in the ninth. Those three plus Collin McHugh and, if healthy, Lance McCullers Jr., will make up the core of the team’s postseason bullpen.

“I’m extremely comfortable with him,” Hinch said. “In fact, I probably need to watch my usage of him down the stretch because he’s pitched a ton before he got here. He’s pitched a ton while he’s been here. I want to make sure that we keep him well-rested. But with the game on the line and at any point of the order in a leverage role, I’ve gained complete trust in him that he’s going to come in, use his pitches correctly, get his outs relatively efficiently and get at least three of the last nine outs.”

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Scraps

Scraps 13531

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Posted

Highly doubtful to happen, but it would be awesome if Bregman could get to 60 doubles.  He is at 47 right now.  He would be the 1st player since 1936 to get 60+ in a season if he could get there.  Todd Helton had 59 back in 2000.  

Astros record is obviously Biggio with 56 in 1999.  Berkman hit 55 in 2001.  

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9369

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Posted
Highly doubtful to happen, but it would be awesome if Bregman could get to 60 doubles.  He is at 47 right now.  He would be the 1st player since 1936 to get 60+ in a season if he could get there.  Todd Helton had 59 back in 2000.  

Astros record is obviously Biggio with 56 in 1999.  Berkman hit 55 in 2001.  

22 games left.

He won’t play in all of them (or at least won’t get 3-4 ABs in all of those)

Gonna be tough.

 

I’m not putting it past him though.

Play pepper with the green monster this weekend and get about 6.

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kevwun

kevwun 15595

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Scraps said:

Highly doubtful to happen, but it would be awesome if Bregman could get to 60 doubles.  He is at 47 right now.  He would be the 1st player since 1936 to get 60+ in a season if he could get there.  Todd Helton had 59 back in 2000.  

Astros record is obviously Biggio with 56 in 1999.  Berkman hit 55 in 2001.  

On the 30/50/100 deal, only 18 players have done it.  Would be neat if two of them are Astros.  Berkman did it in 2001.

Edited by kevwun
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Scraps

Scraps 13531

Posted
Posted (edited)
54 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:


Mookie is the MVP favorite right now.

I was on the Mookie wagon too, but not anymore.  He is going in the opposite direction as Bregman.  This is a "what have you done for me lately" scenario.  

Mookie has 4 homers and 15 RBI since July 29th.   I would no longer consider him the favorite.  I think he has regressed back to the pack and Ramirez/JD/him are a toss up at the moment.  Bregman is closing the gap fast and Lindor is hanging around there as well.  

 

Vegas may disagree and that's fine lol 

 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6310

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1 hour ago, Scraps said:

I was on the Mookie wagon too, but not anymore.  He is going in the opposite direction as Bregman.  This is a "what have you done for me lately" scenario.  

Mookie has 4 homers and 15 RBI since July 29th.   I would no longer consider him the favorite.  I think he has regressed back to the pack and Ramirez/JD/him are a toss up at the moment.  Bregman is closing the gap fast and Lindor is hanging around there as well.  

 

Vegas may disagree and that's fine lol 

 

He has slowed down, but he's still the favorite. Leads baseball in WAR per Fangraphs and B-R. And he has pretty traditional stats, especially if he wins the batting title. He and Ramirez are both likely to pass 30 SB, which voters love. 

Bregman has a shot though - if he finishes the year on this tear that he's on, the team wraps up the division, etc - he'll be right there. 

 

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