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2019 Houston Astros Thread

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One more Cavan Biggio post...The Athletic had a good article on his callup

Spoiler

 

Biggios and Blue Jays: A Hall of Fame dad welcomes his son to the big leagues

GettyImages-1146134540-1024x751.jpg
By John Lott May 24, 2019comment-icon@2x.png 15 save-icon@2x.png

As batting practice was about to begin, Craig Biggio found himself in an unfamiliar baseball setting: standing behind a velvet rope that kept special guests of the Blue Jays from running onto the field and getting in the players’ way.

Biggio was not just any special guest, and he certainly could not embarrass himself on a baseball field. He’d spent 20 years in the major leagues, all with the Houston Astros, and in 2015 he was elected to the Hall of Fame. He was known as the consummate pro.

But on this day, more than all of that, he was a proud parent.

A day earlier, Craig and his wife, Patty, were in New Jersey, preparing for a weekend trip to Allentown, Pa., where the Buffalo Bisons would open a series against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Friday night. The Biggios’ middle child, Cavan, was a prospect of note for Buffalo, the Blue Jays’ top farm club. They would spend the U.S. Memorial Day weekend immersed in baseball and family time.

Then Craig’s phone rang, and their plans changed.

“He called, and I’m like, ‘Hey, man, how are you?’” Craig said. “He said, ‘Everything’s good.’ He said, ‘Are you still coming up tomorrow?’ I said, ‘We’re planning on it.’

“Then he goes, ‘Well, you may want to change your flight and go to Toronto.’ I said, ‘That’s a better option. We can do that.’ That’s how he told me. It was pretty nice.”

Suddenly, our interview was interrupted. Cavan Biggio approached the velvet rope, grinning from ear to ear. He and his parents had not connected earlier in the day. Father and son hugged. Then Patty stepped up to the rope and embraced her son for a very long time. “I’m so excited,” she said.

Then came more hugs: Cavan’s older brother, Conor, and younger sister, Quinn, and his grandfather, and his girlfriend, and a couple of cousins, and three buddies from back home in Houston, who had driven four hours to Dallas to catch a last-minute flight.

“A group of kids from high school that grew up with him,” Craig said with a big smile. “They said, ‘If you ever get to the big leagues, we’re gonna be there.’”

Then, after posing for a few photos, Cavan trotted away to his first big-league batting practice, still wearing a grin. Behind the velvet rope, his folks and fans were smiling too.

When the Hall of Fame dad got the call from his son, he offered no special send-off, no words of wisdom.

“No, no,” Craig said. “He’s been around the game for a long time. He’s a smart kid, an educated kid, and I can’t tell you how proud we are of him and all the hard work he’s put in. He’s on a good path.”

Cavan stepped onto that path early. His father was in his eighth season when Cavan was born in April 1995. When they were old enough, Cavan and Conor began to hang around the Astros clubhouse, soaking up the big-league ambience, learning the culture in a matchless manner.

Craig remembers Cavan as a quiet, diligent apprentice.

“He’s always been a student of the game,” the dad said. “When I was a player, I would tell him, this is the team’s clubhouse. You can’t be running around. We’re here to win games. That’s the most important thing. And he would sit there in that chair and listen to conversations. He took it all in. He watched how guys handled adversity, how they handled failure. I think that’s what helped him be where he is today.”

Formal education was important, too. Craig and Patty attended Seton Hall University in New Jersey. All three of the Biggio kids went to Notre Dame, where Conor and Cavan played baseball. Quinn, who just finished her freshman year, is an infielder on the women’s softball team.

biggio_scrum_closeup_2474.jpg
 
Cavan Biggio at his debut media scrum. (John Lott / The Athletic)

In high school, as draft-conscious clubs began to take notice, Craig’s coaches played him at various positions, depending on where a scout wanted to see him on a certain day. That would foreshadow his own versatility as a big-league player, and Cavan’s too.

Out of high school, Craig chose college over pro ball. After three years at Seton Hall, he was ready, and so were the Astros, who drafted him in the first round.

In his second pro year, Houston called him up, launching a career that lasted two decades. (He was hitless in his first game. So was his son.) First Craig was a catcher, and an All-Star to boot. Then, for most of his career, he was a second baseman and a five-time All-Star at that position. Near the end, he spent the better part of three seasons in the outfield.

Cavan comes to the majors having played all four infield positions and two in the outfield. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo says he’ll keep Cavan primarily at second base for the moment. But Cavan has embraced the utility role in the minors, and his dad is all for it, too.

“What he does is really hard to do,” Craig said. “If you have the athletic ability to move around and play different positions, that’s a manager’s best friend.”

Throughout his career, Craig Biggio was a steady hitter with a high on-base percentage and unusual pop for a player measured at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds. Cavan is a slim 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, with a power stroke that blossomed last year in Double A after he adjusted the position of his hands and calmed the rapid bat wiggle that had become as instinctive as breathing.

When Craig first watched that wiggle, he held his tongue. “I wasn’t a fan,” he said. He expected the time would come when Cavan would have to make an adjustment.

Craig started his career with a relatively conventional stance and swing. As time went on, he used a leg kick of varying heights. Adjustments can come hard, Craig said, but they’re vital to survival. Cavan realized that before the 2018 season.

“When he left me last year to go to Double A after the changes that he made, it was the best that I’ve ever seen him look swinging the bat,” Craig said. “It’s not easy to make those changes when you’ve been doing things a certain way for your whole life. But I give him all the credit in the world. He worked hard and hard and hard, until he was able to smooth it out more and more.”

Last season Cavan hit 23 homers, drew 100 walks and posted an .887 OPS. This year in 42 Triple-A games, he was hitting .307 with a .445 on-base percentage and a .949 OPS.

Cavan still wiggles his bat before he swings, but he stops the movement earlier, when the pitcher starts his delivery. That helps him maintain a smoother, more consistent swing, his dad said.

“It’s like a recipe,” Craig said. “You have to try different ingredients sometimes. But as a player, once you get to the point where you’re going to do something, it’s important that you commit to it, and that’s what he did. I give him all the credit in the world.”

In a 2016 interview, shortly after Cavan turned pro with the Jays’ rookie-ball team in Vancouver, he told me his dad’s baseball career left little time to coach his sons in their early years. But eventually, Craig waived the chance to continue playing so he could make up for lost time.

“When he was playing, it was pretty difficult for him to help me out individually as a baseball player because he wasn’t around the house when he was playing every day,” Cavan said then. “When he retired, he obviously had at least three more years in him. But he thought it was time because my brother and I were in high school, getting ready to go to college, and he thought it was a good time to help us out and to be around us more. I think it just shows the amount of selflessness he has as a person.”

Both father and son say Craig took a minimalist approach with his lessons. On Friday, Craig said he avoided sharp criticism and tried to keep things simple.

“It was always a positive thing,” he said. “I never tried to complicate it any more than it already is. The game is really hard. It’s really hard to get here. For us, it was always, put in the time, put in the work, and at the end of the day, you can look in the mirror and say you gave it everything you had, whether you had a good day or a bad day, and then come back out and do it again the next day, and the next, and the next.

“You never want to complicate things too much for a young person. We would tweak things with conversations here and there, but I was never a guy to make it complicated. And he’s a great student.”

Only once did Craig play in Toronto. That was in the 1991 All-Star game — his first of seven — when he caught the final two innings for the National League and went 0-for-1.

He doesn’t remember Cal Ripken’s three-run homer off Dennis Martinez or much else about that day. But he will probably remember more about the next time he came to the stadium known as SkyDome when he first visited.

“We have a nice room up there,” he said, pointing to the hotel windows high above centre field. “It’s beautiful looking down on the field.”

And beautiful, too, knowing that’s where another Biggio is launching another big-league career.

This line stood out though:

Quote

“When he was playing, it was pretty difficult for him to help me out individually as a baseball player because he wasn’t around the house when he was playing every day,” Cavan said then. “When he retired, he obviously had at least three more years in him. But he thought it was time because my brother and I were in high school, getting ready to go to college, and he thought it was a good time to help us out and to be around us more. I think it just shows the amount of selflessness he has as a person.”

Lolwat?  I love Craig but it was time...if anything a year too late.

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Dennis Taylor

Dennis Taylor 18875

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On 5/25/2019 at 6:59 PM, Dennis Taylor said:

Ok we get it that you and Smoltz are incapable of comprehending ground rules, but that was a double,  not a home run no matter how many times you bitch about it. Shut the fuck up Joe Buck.

I fucking hate when the Astros are on a national broadcast.  

Oh yeah I almost forgot... you two ass clowns did a wonderful job of diagnosing David Price as needing Tommy John surgery from the broadcast booth based on the overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence of a single facial expression after one pitch. Completely ridiculous and irresponsible commentary 

(Narrator- he's still getting over the flu)

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Seasick Sailor

Seasick Sailor 3747

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The Astros Are Ludicrous

By Ben Clemens

The 2019 Astros are an exercise in baseball absurdity. Their best hitters are as good as any team’s best hitters. Their mid-tier hitters are better than a bunch of other teams’ best hitters. Their worst hitters are league average. If it’s hard to wrap your head around how good this team is, that’s reasonable. Teams don’t bat this well for full seasons. Since 1900, the only team with a better league-adjusted full-season line is the 1927 Yankees, who were literally nicknamed Murderer’s Row. Teams that hit like the Astros are dimly remembered myths, not flesh-and-blood modern concerns. That’s not a comparison you can make in your head, most likely, because it isn’t one I can make in mine.

 

 

Friend, you’re a baseball fan. You don’t need me to tell you that the Astros are great, because you already know it. You probably know they’re playing .650 baseball so far this year. If you look at their run differential, you might notice that their Pythagorean record is actually better than their record — they “should” have one more win based on their run differential. Heck, if you look at BaseRuns standings, which look at underlying production rather than runs, they “should” have three more wins. Their offensive and defensive statistics work out to a projected .700 winning percentage. That’s a 113-win pace for a full season, and playing well enough to have a 113-win season with neutral luck is outrageous.

You also don’t need me to tell you that the Astros offense is great. Their team batting line so far this year is .275/.349/.488, good for a 126 wRC+. If the entire Astros offense were a player, they’d be a top-60 hitter in all of baseball. Not the Astros starters. Not qualifying Astros batters. The entire team, backup catchers and minor league call-ups and all, is producing slightly better than Ronald Acuna this year. Ronald Acuna signed a $100 million contract this year and people protested how underpaid he is. Again, the entire Astros team is hitting like that.
 

The thing is, though, you also already knew that. Astros offense superlatives and near-superlatives are endless. They strike out less than any team but the Angels. They hit for more power than any team other than the Twins. They get on base more than any team in baseball. In a stadium that doesn’t help offense, they’re scoring 5.2 runs a game, with underlying statistics that look like they should be scoring 5.5. They’re hitting for the highest batting average in baseball and simultaneously have the third-most home runs, all without having played the Orioles. Average or power? Porque no los dos?

Yes, finding new and interesting things to say about the Astros offense is challenging. I’m going to try, though. One of the strengths of this Astros team is their incredible star power. George Springer is vying with Mike Trout for the most WAR in the American League, with a 172 wRC+ that’s sixth in baseball. Alex Bregman is replicating his breakout 2018 — a 152 wRC+ with more walks than strikeouts. He’s running a BABIP of .237 despite an xBABIP of .316 — he could actually be due for some positive regression! Michael Brantley has turned the Astros’ one lineup hole from 2018, left field, into a point of strength. He’s striking out a what-are-you-talking-about 9.5% of the time while hitting for power on his way to a 144 wRC+.

Those three players have been worth a combined seven wins above replacement. They have a collective 156 wRC+. The only teams with a better-hitting top three (minimum 100 PA per batter) are the Dodgers and the Cubs (the Pirates are a close fourth). The Astros’ stars, in other words, are the envy of nearly all of baseball. As an aside, the best three Marlins batters have put up a cumulative 99 wRC+. What’s an article about a great offense without a fun fact about the inverse?

That’s all well and good — the cream of the Astro crop is incredible. You probably knew that, because all three players are drawing headlines. Great, cool, amazing. What you might not know, though, is that the rest of the offense is incredible as well. Think of it this way: George Springer just went on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain. How will the Astros offense fare without him? Well, the rest of their team has combined for a 122 wRC+ this year, which would be the second-best batting team in the majors, behind only the equally hot Twins.
 

We can take this further. Let’s get rid of Bregman as well. Without Bregman and Springer, the Astros would have a 116 wRC+, good for the fifth-best non-pitcher wRC+. Two MVP candidates down, the Astros are nipping at the Cubs’ heels for fourth-best offense in baseball. Heck, let’s go further and take out Brantley. With all three of the Astros’ top trio removed (and again, they’re one of the best groups in baseball), the remaining Astros have compiled a 112 wRC+ this year. That batting line would be fifth-best in baseball, just ahead of the Braves. The Braves have a dynamic offense, with sensational young talent backed by Freddie Freeman. That’s how good the Astros are after you get rid of three MVP candidates. If that doesn’t make much sense to you, well — good. It’s outrageous!

We can go further. The weighted wRC+ of the Astros’ 4th-6th best hitters (Carlos Correa, Jake Marisnick, and Robinson Chirinos) is 137. Want to replace Marisnick’s small sample with a larger sample of a worse batting line from Josh Reddick? It’s still 133. As you might expect, this group of 4th-6th offensive options is the best such group in baseball. The Rangers’ trio of Logan Forsythe (not as washed up as I expected), Elvis Andrus, and Danny Santana are within striking distance at a 127 wRC+, but no one is particularly close to matching the Astros’ trio. Heck, this Astros group is better than 15 other teams’ top three hitters, even if you use the lower-wRC+ Reddick group. The Astros’ mid-tier guys are simply unlucky — they’d be the best three guys on plenty of teams.

Let’s get really crazy now. Let’s exclude the six best hitters from the Astro lineup. I’m cutting Reddick out here in the interest of making the remaining lineup score as poorly as possible. With none of their top six hitters, the Astros have a remaining team wRC+ of 98. The back half of the team, the part that is largely comprised of fifth outfielders and utility infielders and backup catchers, is almost as good at batting as the league as a whole.

If that sounds absurd, it’s because it is. There’s an MVP candidate having a so-so year in this group (Jose Altuve and his 117 wRC+), which is only notable because it’s not one of the best eight batting lines on the team. Aledmys Diaz has a 118 wRC+, which would rank among the top 10 second basemen in baseball if he could get on the field enough to qualify. Heck, even Tony Kemp’s 86 wRC+ isn’t too bad — it’s certifiably great for a fifth outfielder, but it’s not even embarrassing for the worst regular starter on a team, which Kemp most emphatically is not.

How stacked is this Astros team? If the top six Astros weren’t allowed to bat and instead of replacing them with minor leaguers, the team filled in the missing plate appearances with the remaining players’ 2019 lines, the team would project to score roughly 4.5 runs a game after accounting for park factors. With the team’s great pitching (3.53 runs per game allowed), their Pythagorean winning percentage would be .611. The hobbled Astros would have the fifth-best Pythagorean winning percentage in baseball. Want it in BaseRuns? That still works out to a .610 expected winning percentage, fourth-best in baseball.

Now, in reality, this is more of a fun fact about the Astros pitching staff than one about their hitters. Replace the historically dominant Astros offense with a sub-100 wRC+ bunch, and the team would still be one of the best in baseball. Their pitching is just that good. But it’s also an Astros offense fun fact because that 100-ish wRC+ team just so happens to be the Astros’ offense after subtracting out their six best hitters in 2019.

Just to drive the point home, here’s a table of the Astros offense, only subtracting out their x best hitters. The distance you have to go down the line to make a bad team is staggering. The Astros minus their top nine hitters would have the same wRC+ as the Indians this year!

 
Astros Offense, With Missing Persons
No. of Hitters Removed Remaining wRC+
1 122
2 116
3 112
4 106
5 103
6 98
7 92
8 88
9 77

The 2019 Astros are an exercise in baseball absurdity. Their best hitters are as good as any team’s best hitters. Their mid-tier hitters are better than a bunch of other teams’ best hitters. Their worst hitters are league average. If it’s hard to wrap your head around how good this team is, that’s reasonable. Teams don’t bat this well for full seasons. Since 1900, the only team with a better league-adjusted full-season line is the 1927 Yankees, who were literally nicknamed Murderer’s Row. Teams that hit like the Astros are dimly remembered myths, not flesh-and-blood modern concerns. That’s not a comparison you can make in your head, most likely, because it isn’t one I can make in mine.

Getting rid of the good players makes a comparison a little more mentally reasonable. Remove three MVP candidates, and the Astros are still one of the best-hitting teams in baseball. Remove three more of the best hitters in baseball, and the dregs of the team still hit like the A’s or the Nationals. So don’t focus on the aggregate line, the pure statistical absurdity of the 2019 Astros. Focus on how well every part of the Astros lineup is hitting, how their utility infielder hits like your All-Star second baseman. This performance almost certainly won’t keep up, but it’s still amazing to marvel at the extent of their excellence in 2019.

Edited by Seasick Sailor
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Scraps

Scraps 13582

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Also LOL @ Fresno.  Thank god they aren't with us anymore.  Not to CR this bitch but - 

They played a Reagan speech vid yesterday with a bunch of clips in it and once it got to him talking about the "enemies" it showed Kim Jong, Fidel, and Ocasio-Cortez lol 

People are pissed and now they are trying to apologize 

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HoustonFrog

HoustonFrog 368

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Looks like Seth Beer is joining Alavarez and Tucker as a high potential prospect. Been raking all year and up to AA

Probably need to ship out Springer, Brantley and Reddick to make room for a new outfield. Would be the worst defensive outfield in history, but doesn’t matter when you score 20 runs a game

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6321

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Random Astros thought...

At what point do we become concerned with the organization's (in)ability to draft/sign and develop starting pitchers? Unless I am forgetting someone, Keuchel is the last guy that the team drafted and turned into a good MLB starter. He was drafted a decade ago. 

Obviously Whitley and Bukauskas are very good prospects...but they've both been terrible so far in 2019 and don't seem anywhere close to contributing. There was Appel (though in fairness, the Phillies couldn't do anything with him either). Martes was acquired at a very young age, and he seems less and less likely to be a player each year. Folty is a pretty good pitcher with ATL, maybe he would have done just as well here. 

Luckily, the FO is good at getting guys like Peacock, McHugh, Morton, etc. and getting more out of them at the big-league level than they had shown in previous stops - so that's good. But at some point it would be nice to develop a guy internally. Maybe Corbin Martin can stick. 

Maybe it is coincidental - but it just seems strange that the org is great at getting the most out of guys at the big-league level, but appears to underperform in terms of developing pitchers in the minors. 

 

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