2019 Houston Astros Thread

[Rimbo 25,753]

20 hours ago, formermav43 said:

I think too many people focus on hitting to the exclusion of everything else a player does. That’s more true for catchers than any other position. All Stassi did last year was be the best framer in MLB. He was the most valuable catcher in the entire AL per fWAR in only 250 plate appearances.

Yeah, he needs to hit better. If he continues at his earlier rate this year, that’s a problem. But with as well as Chirinos is playing, you could do a lot worse for a guy who will only play 1-2 times a week. The #2 catcher is never going to be a great offensive player, and he’s superb at his most important job.

Remember when we were having this discussion about Marisnick?

[Rimbo 25,753]

13 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

ok, so here's the tuesday report:

with tonight's milwaukee win, we clinch (at worst) a split in the series.  it's june 11th, and the last series we lost started in april. 

that will also be true on june 15th, which is nutso.

current homestand is 3-1, halfway home.  verlander goes for a sweep of milwaukee and clinches at least a .500 homestand.  then we get toronto for 3.

in our 33 game stretch from when our injuries got nasty up thru the asb (when we hope everyone will be back), we are currently 9-2 with 22 remaining (a third of the way home).

that 9-2 stretch includes fairly minimal production from brantley and bregs, and some really shitty stretches from our best bullpen arms.  

this week (mon-fri) should be a solid rest for our pen.  they needed it.  no osuna tonight was nice.  so was limited pressly.

we started 2-5.  we're 44-17 since.  that's a .721 clip if you're scoring at home.  .721 gets you 117 wins, but our actual winning pct (.676) only projects to 109.5 wins.

my favorite word i've seen so far to describe yordan alvarez: "unfair".

let's go.

i'm starting to think those 3 100-loss seasons while we built this machine were worth the effort... but it wasn't just about the tanking, you know? It's everything since and continuing, a true dedication to always improving no matter what happened last year, month, or week.

[Rimbo 25,753]

13 hours ago, Wishbone said:

You shut you whore mouth! (You’re dead on though given the history) 😐

is alvarez not playing? Because I see at least 2 HR's in this game if he is

[henrygandorf 29,174]

so on that trade target list, there were two lefty relievers - diekman and will smith.

i can't imagine either would cost much, but we could use a lefty.  (do we miss tony sipp?)

i like the idea of acquiring 1-2 relief pitchers and just letting them all use august/sept as a tryout for the playoff roster.

harris/rondon/pressly/osuna are in, but i don't think anyone else* has locked in a spot

 

*peacock has, if he ends up getting bumped to the pen, a move i'm in favor of

[UTexasFight 9,370]

Because we’re 46-22 and I’m bored.

Give me this in October

 

1. George Springer CF

2. José Altuve 2B

3. Alex Bregman 3B

4. Michael Brantley (L) LF

5. Carlos Correa SS

6. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH

7. Yuli Gurriel 1B

8. Robinson Chirinos C

9. Josh Reddick (L) RF

 

Bench: Diaz, Straw, Marisnick, Stassi

 

Pitching:

Verlander

Cole

SP3 (via trade)

Miley

Osuna

Pressly

7th or 8th inning guy (via trade)

Peacock

The most effective four out off:

McHugh

Rondon

James

Harris

Smith

 

 

Edit: just saw HG’s post. yeah, what he said

 

 

And lol at our catcher , who’s on pace for 20 HRs, batting 8th and a guy with a batting avg over .300 batting 9th in the postseason.

High times, my friends.

[TexArcher 37,459]

36 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

is alvarez not playing? Because I see at least 2 HR's in this game if he is

You think we're gonna pitch hit for him in the 5th?  I dunno, man.

[HoustonFrog 368]

Springer as lead off always makes me laugh given our team. He makes all the sense as the 3 or 4. I get that it works, but the below seems a lot more logical

 

Altuve

Breggers

Springer

Correa

Brantley

Alvarez

 

 

[tx 3 putt 76,170]

I like our record with springer as lead off 

[mycox 582]

43 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Because we’re 46-22 and I’m bored.

Give me this in October

 

1. George Springer CF

2. José Altuve 2B

3. Alex Bregman 3B

4. Michael Brantley (L) LF

5. Carlos Correa SS

6. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH

7. Yuli Gurriel 1B

8. Robinson Chirinos C

9. Josh Reddick (L) RF

The Astros finally have a legit cleanup hitter that can hit 40+ hrs. I wouldn't hesitate putting Alvarez in the 4 spot.

This lineup is better than the 2017 team. Reddick in the 9 spot is just unfair to the other teams. 

Edited June 12, 2019 by mycox

[Mez2 4,020]

59 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Because we’re 46-22 and I’m bored.

Give me this in October

 

1. George Springer CF

2. José Altuve 2B

3. Alex Bregman 3B

4. Michael Brantley (L) LF

5. Carlos Correa SS

6. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH

7. Yuli Gurriel 1B

8. Robinson Chirinos C

9. Josh Reddick (L) RF

 

Bench: Diaz, Straw, Marisnick, Stassi

 

Pitching:

Verlander

Cole

SP3 (via trade)

Miley

Osuna

Pressly

7th or 8th inning guy (via trade)

Peacock

The most effective four out off:

McHugh

Rondon

James

Harris

Smith

 

 

Edit: just saw HG’s post. yeah, what he said

 

 

And lol at our catcher , who’s on pace for 20 HRs, batting 8th and a guy with a batting avg over .300 batting 9th in the postseason.

High times, my friends.

there's a whole lot here that I agree with. like, all of it. 

[henrygandorf 29,174]

1 hour ago, UTexasFight said:

Because we’re 46-22 and I’m bored.

Give me this in October

 

1. George Springer CF

2. José Altuve 2B

3. Alex Bregman 3B

4. Michael Brantley (L) LF

5. Carlos Correa SS

6. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH

7. Yuli Gurriel 1B

8. Robinson Chirinos C

9. Josh Reddick (L) RF

 

Bench: Diaz, Straw, Marisnick, Stassi

 

Pitching:

Verlander

Cole

SP3 (via trade)

Miley

Osuna

Pressly

7th or 8th inning guy (via trade)

Peacock

The most effective four out off:

McHugh

Rondon

James

Harris

Smith

 

 

Edit: just saw HG’s post. yeah, what he said

 

 

And lol at our catcher , who’s on pace for 20 HRs, batting 8th and a guy with a batting avg over .300 batting 9th in the postseason.

High times, my friends.

that looks right.

i love our bench, but assuming jake is our late inning def replacement, which he should be, it just sucks because that would mean losing brantley or yordan's bat.  whatever, hopefully that's part of our 8/9th inning shut down and win plan, along with pressly and osuna.

i keep forgetting about joe smith.  if he looks good, that's almost like making a trade for free.

[formermav43 4,599]

1 hour ago, henrygandorf said:

so on that trade target list, there were two lefty relievers - diekman and will smith.

i can't imagine either would cost much, but we could use a lefty.  (do we miss tony sipp?)

i like the idea of acquiring 1-2 relief pitchers and just letting them all use august/sept as a tryout for the playoff roster.

harris/rondon/pressly/osuna are in, but i don't think anyone else* has locked in a spot

 

*peacock has, if he ends up getting bumped to the pen, a move i'm in favor of

I’m not saying they couldn’t use a lefty reliever-after all, the ones they’ve trotted out there have been underwhelming-but they statistically have the best bullpen against lefties this season despite that. I think Smith is a good acquisition in any case-he’s a free agent after this season, should come cheap, and while the bullpen has been much better than the doomsayers realize, it’s also an easy spot to upgrade. But I don’t think the Astros get hung up on handedness the way a lot of teams traditionally do. 

[henrygandorf 29,174]

3 minutes ago, formermav43 said:

I’m not saying they couldn’t use a lefty reliever-after all, the ones they’ve trotted out there have been underwhelming-but they statistically have the best bullpen against lefties this season despite that. I think Smith is a good acquisition in any case-he’s a free agent after this season, should come cheap, and while the bullpen has been much better than the doomsayers realize, it’s also an easy spot to upgrade. But I don’t think the Astros get hung up on handedness the way a lot of teams traditionally do. 

i actually don't mind the idea that some righties are just as tough (or tougher) vs lefties.  sucks that devo was one of them.  harris is solid too i think, if i'm remembering that right.

i'm not a huge subscriber of playing l/r matchups, and there aren't a ton of scary lefty bats we'd be facing in the postseason.

[HtownHorn 14,446]

28 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i actually don't mind the idea that some righties are just as tough (or tougher) vs lefties.  sucks that devo was one of them.  harris is solid too i think, if i'm remembering that right.

i'm not a huge subscriber of playing l/r matchups, and there aren't a ton of scary lefty bats we'd be facing in the postseason.

Just about every team currently in the playoffs minus the Yankees have 2-3 guys with an OPS over .800 that bat lefty. The Dodgers have 5.

[UTexasFight 9,370]

That’s fun

[henrygandorf 29,174]

50 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Just about every team currently in the playoffs minus the Yankees have 2-3 guys with an OPS over .800 that bat lefty. The Dodgers have 5.

i was really just thinking about boston/nyy.  boston is as righty crazy as we are, but shit, right now the rangers are in front of them, so who really knows.

i would like to see us add a lefty just to switch it up, and i don't think they love what we have with our aaa guys.

[HtownHorn 14,446]

2 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i was really just thinking about boston/nyy.  boston is as righty crazy as we are, but shit, right now the rangers are in front of them, so who really knows.

i would like to see us add a lefty just to switch it up, and i don't think they love what we have with our aaa guys.

Boston will likely have 3 and Bradley owns us right now.

[henrygandorf 29,174]

4 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Boston will likely have 3 and Bradley owns us right now.

i'm completely unable to explain jackie bradley, so you definitely got me there.

that said, i wonder if modern analytics would eventually render l/r matchups relatively pointless.  i would trust certain righty relievers more against tough lefties than someone like diekman.  that shit is over in 2020 anyway.

[UTexasFight 9,370]

Ho hum

I declare the 2000s the century of the Astros.
Ponder this. The Yankees won their first World Series in 1923. And proceeded to win 25 more by the end of 2000.
The Astros won their first World Series in 2017 and will proceed to win ___ more by the end of 2100.

[TonyTexas 10,478]

Boston will likely have 3 and Bradley owns us right now.

How exactly does JBJ own us right now? This year he has a .059 BA and .359 OPS against the Astros . Last year was .150 BA and .492 OPS.

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

4 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Ho hum
 

 

I declare the 2000s the century of the Astros.
Ponder this. The Yankees won their first World Series in 1923. And proceeded to win 25 more by the end of 2000.
The Astros won their first World Series in 2017 and will proceed to win ___ more by the end of 2100.

 

81..

Edited June 12, 2019 by FondrenRoad

[UTexasFight 9,370]

Until MLB pitching adjusts/finds a hole in Alvarez’ swing, I’m loving Yuli slotted in between him and Brantley.

Some of you stats whiz guys have been calling out certain numbers that would indicate Yuli is due to perform better than he has anyway but putting him right between Uncle Mike and Air Yordan, he should see plenty of good pitches.

[Hank Chinaski 6,310]

12 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Until MLB pitching adjusts/finds a hole in Alvarez’ swing, I’m loving Yuli slotted in between him and Brantley.
 

 

Some of you stats whiz guys have been calling out certain numbers that would indicate Yuli is due to perform better than he has anyway but putting him right between Uncle Mike and Air Yordan, he should see plenty of good pitches.
 

 

Our cleanup hitter is slugging .402. That's less than ideal. 

[Scraps 13,532]

How exactly does JBJ own us right now? This year he has a .059 BA and .359 OPS against the Astros . Last year was .150 BA and .492 OPS.

Lol come on...you know they are referring to his 9 rbi ALCS MVP

[formermav43 4,599]

21 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

that said, i wonder if modern analytics would eventually render l/r matchups relatively pointless.  i would trust certain righty relievers more against tough lefties than someone like diekman.  that shit is over in 2020 anyway.

Not only is handedness not as important as is often thought, but there’s a tendency to overestimate the usage of LOOGY’s. It’s not as much of a thing as people think. The season with the most 1 batter appearances, 2015, had 1410 total-that’s roughly 8 per team per month. Only 1 other season had over 1300. Bruce Bochy teams alone usually accounted for close to 10% of these, no joke.

Each of the last 3 seasons has seen fewer than 1200 1 batter appearances-on average, about 6 per team per month.

I don’t think the new rule will have much effect because I think teams are increasingly realizing the role isn’t that valuable. 

[TonyTexas 10,478]

Lol come on...you know they are referring to his 9 rbi ALCS MVP

Oops. My bad. Forgot to include post season. Even so, he still only hit .200 that series. Unfortunately his 3 hits happened to be 2 HRs and a double.

[Scraps 13,532]

I wish i could have forgot about it as easy as you did /sadnana

[HtownHorn 14,446]

16 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Oops. My bad. Forgot to include post season. Even so, he still only hit .200 that series. Unfortunately his 3 hits happened to be 2 HRs and a double.

Lulz, he had a OPS over a 1.000 in the series. Batting average, the 1980s called, they want their key hitting statistic back.

It's not like he was the ALCS MVP, oh wait he was.

Edited June 12, 2019 by HtownHorn

[TonyTexas 10,478]

Lulz, he had a OPS over a 1.000 in the series. Batting average, the 1980s called, they want their key hitting statistic back.
It's not like he was the ALCS MVP, oh wait he was.

Tyler White has an OPS of 1.121 over the last 3 games. You have to take sample size into account.

[rvm96 1,643]

 

[rvm96 1,643]

53 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Tyler White has an OPS of 1.121 over the last 3 games. You have to take sample size into account.

It was the most important sample size of our season 

[HtownHorn 14,446]

1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

Tyler White has an OPS of 1.121 over the last 3 games. You have to take sample size into account.

White also had a OPS of .222 in the ACLS, striking out 5 times in 7 ABs. Which do you think are more important?

[Wishbone 4,731]

2 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Until MLB pitching adjusts/finds a hole in Alvarez’ swing, I’m loving Yuli slotted in between him and Brantley.
 

 

Some of you stats whiz guys have been calling out certain numbers that would indicate Yuli is due to perform better than he has anyway but putting him right between Uncle Mike and Air Yordan, he should see plenty of good pitches.
 

 

If we trot out a healthy lineup like you posted above, everyone in it will see really good pitches, or set a team walk record.

[Wishbone 4,731]

1 hour ago, rvm96 said:

 

Matthew related to Shoeless Joe Jackson?

[runthebone 7,929]

"Slot," heh heh.

[Fozzz 152]

Brett Conine might be having the best season of any of our minor league arms. Send his ass to Corpus already. 

[TonyTexas 10,478]

Pretty cool interview by Julia with Jake and Yelich. They were roomies in the Marlins organization and were called up on the same day. Some good stories and off the field video when they were just pups. Yelich seems like a good dude.

[Wishbone 4,731]

1 minute ago, TonyTexas said:

Pretty cool interview by Julia with Jake and Yelich. They were roomies in the Marlins organization and were called up on the same day. Some good stories and off the field video when they were just pups. Yelich seems like a good dude.

Agree. That was well done. Both guys seem like pretty good guys.

[tx 3 putt 76,170]

Derp 

[Mo Horn 8,795]

Well at least he gave it up early

[runthebone 7,929]

Got that out of his system early.

[Scraps 13,532]

Had to be to the biggest douchefuck on their roster too

[Wishbone 4,731]

20 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

So we lose 1-0 in a Yelich HR, because if there are two things that are certain, JV won’t get run support and he’s going to give yo a solo HR.

🤘🏻

Just don’t need the loss part.

Edited June 13, 2019 by Wishbone

[UTexasFight 9,370]

I just bought a row 1 seat in LF in Cincinnati when I’m there next week when JV is on the mound.

Figure I might as well catch a HR ball

 

[Scraps 13,532]

That looks to be the 67th solo homer we have given up

29 with runners on

[Scraps 13,532]

Verlander now has 13 solo given up

2 with men on

[elfenix 34,168]

Pro

[Wishbone 4,731]

Furk

[elfenix 34,168]

Got verlander's solo HR and yulis gidp out of the way early

[YChang 3,430]

Damn it Yuli.