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2019 Houston Astros Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 weeks ago. Tomorrow she starts her treatment. She's been a wreck ever since the diagnosis. I mentioned a few pages back how a friend of the family manage

Rustic Horn
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Mez2
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Newest Astro fan was born earlier today at 12:09 am Mez3, holla!

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WBT

WBT 20640

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That was weird.  I can see trying to reach as the tying run but it didn't look like the 3rd baseman was playing very deep based on where he caught it. 

Plus there's the whole getting it down thing. 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6315

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1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

would correa bite a bougaerts type contract ?

He'd injure his thumb on the way to the signing and would be unable to grip a pen...

You never know at this point, but I still kind of doubt it. Would you be comfortable guaranteeing Correa $150 MM or whatever, considering that he has missed almost a third of the year during his age-22 and 23 seasons, and is already missing games this year with neck pain? I imagine the club would like to see how this season goes with him. 

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UTexasFight

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Fwiw:

5. And, to the dismay of fans, Hinch is going to once again be proactive in implementing rest days for the Astros’ core position players. Brantley, who is only 31 but has an injury-riddled past, became the first recipient of a game out of the lineup Sunday despite being the team’s most consistent performer in the first three games.

“It’s part of our plan. I’m going to be very conscious with all of our guys,” Hinch said. “I know it probably feels like it’s early, but I’m going to leave some gas in their gas tanks throughout the year. … I pre-determined it before the series started that this was the day (Brantley) was going to get off, and it’ll happen again. We plan on playing a really long time this season, and I’m going to start the rest periods when I feel like it’s necessary.”


And

But after Díaz committed errors in each of the first two games and botched three throws Friday, Hinch reversed course Saturday, moving Bregman to shortstop and Gurriel from first base to third base. The manager spun the change as a planned decision and not a reaction to Díaz’s struggles.

“I had that planned before (Friday) night,” Hinch said. “I know it’s going to seem like it’s a reaction to a rough night defensively (Friday) night, but it wasn’t. It was done beforehand. If you watched our (pregame) groundballs (Friday), Yuli took them at third and Bregman took them at short.”

Reactive or not, Hinch will face a decision in the future about whether to play Díaz at shortstop only if Correa’s out. Díaz came to the Astros with more experience at shortstop than any other position, but the publicly available defensive metrics have never been kind to his ability at the position. He has graded out better, albeit in a much smaller sample, at third base, which is where he finished out last season for the Blue Jays.

In Sunday’s series finale, Hinch started Díaz at second base. As a backup at second base, third base and designated hitter would seem to be the best role for Díaz, who went 0-for-9 at the plate in the Rays series.

It was a bad opening weekend for the Astros’ side of the Díaz trade in general. The player they traded for him, right-hander Trent Thornton, struck out eight and allowed only two hits and zero walks across five scoreless innings Sunday in his major-league debut for the Blue Jays against the Tigers.

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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

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Was worried about McHugh with his fastball trending towards the dreaded 90 mph line as a SP but his secondary pitches may be good enough to allow him to minimize his fastball usage.  He has become particularly adept at sneaking his slider into the zone for called strikes, which has buoyed his K% without a corresponding jump in SwStr%.  His slider was third in MLB (minimum 50 sliders thrown) in called strike % last year.  Josh James' slider was #1 on that list.  I wouldn't be surprised if they try to Patrick Corbin him this season and have him throw his slider more than any other pitch.

Speaking of James, although his slider didn't get much attention last year following his call up, it had the second highest SwStr% + called strike % of any slider last season after Chapman's.  

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Seasick Sailor

Seasick Sailor 3747

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1 minute ago, Fozzz said:

Was worried about McHugh with his fastball trending towards the dreaded 90 mph line as a SP but his secondary pitches may be good enough to allow him to minimize his fastball usage.  He has become particularly adept at sneaking his slider into the zone for called strikes, which has buoyed his K% without a corresponding jump in SwStr%.  His slider was third in MLB (minimum 50 sliders thrown) in called strike % last year.  Josh James' slider was #1 on that list.  I wouldn't be surprised if they try to Patrick Corbin him this season and have him throw his slider more than any other pitch.

Speaking of James, although his slider didn't get much attention last year following his call up, it had the second highest SwStr% + called strike % of any slider last season after Chapman's.  

I was impressed with McHugh and James this weekend. If McHugh can get enough swings and misses on his FB to keep hitters honest, I think he'll be fine in a mid/back of the rotation spot. I hope we can get decent production out of 3-5 in the rotation, either with the current guys or with Whitley in the mix, because James has the potential to be a dominant multi inning reliever. 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9515

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Good callouts on McHugh.
From Kaplan yesterday:

McHugh leaned heavily on the pitch in his season debut Saturday, even throwing more than twice as many sliders (33) as four-seam fastballs (16) among his 81-pitch outing. It generated eight swings and misses, six called strikes and only three balls in play, all of which were turned into outs.

“I knew it was a good pitch. I saw it all last year. It was a good, quality pitch and something I knew that could be a weapon,” McHugh said. “I don’t want to have to throw that many of them in a game. I think I’d like to have a little bit better fastball command. And I think that’s going to come with a little bit of time and just a little bit more experience getting back out there throwing heaters and throwing changeups and cutters all of the different pitches that I have.”

McHugh also leveraged his best skill — his innate ability to spin the ball — by throwing 20 curveballs and 10 cutters. The heavy dosage of breaking balls resulted in nine strikeouts in his five innings of two-run ball. He mixed in four-seamers up in the zone to change the hitter’s eye level and set up more breaking balls.

In addition to McHugh’s lagging fastball command, the matchup surely also played into his unique usage, as the Rays are a good fastball-hitting team.

McHugh’s fastball velocity not surprisingly dipped back to his pre-reliever days in his return to starting. Saturday, he averaged 89.7 mph with his four-seamer, almost 3 mph down from last season but about 1 mph down from his 2016-17 seasons. Pitchers’ velocities tend to creep up as the season progresses, and McHugh is a start behind his rotation mates in terms of readiness because a balky back cost him a spring training outing.

 

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Scraps

Scraps 13570

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@Chandler_Rome: A.J. Hinch said the Astros will stay in rotation for the team's first homestand.

 

Against Oakland:

 

Fri: Collin McHugh

Sat: Wade Miley

Sun: Brad Peacock

 

Against the Yankees:

 

Mon: Justin Verlander

Tues: Gerrit Cole

Wed: Collin McHugh

 

 

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