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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

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

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9376

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He looked pretty good, whiffed 7 but gave up a couple of long hits (HR and a 3B) and a walk. He had a very easy first inning. 

Yeah
Felt very JV-like.
Completely dominant for stretches but then a hitter would run in to one.
Gave up a solo shot and a triple down in the LF corner.
But you could definitely see the potential. His stuff is just filthy. Flipping 98 up there looking like he’s playing soft toss and then can come with some nasty offspeed stuff

You can see he has the stuff to be successful at the highest level—probably now.

I’m maybe most excited that he and JV should have 2-3 years being around each other every day.
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TexArcher

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Just now, UTexasFight said:


I would wait to see Bregs actually back in the lineup before making this post...

Yeah, he probably will and should sit longer.

Still, I like that he gets legitimately hurt and feels like he needs just two days off.  Guy's a gamer.  

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UTexasFight

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Great read from Kaplan.
Chirinos doing work to address all of the concerns/skepticism when he was signed.
Early returns are that things are trending positive (although he couldn’t get much lower on defense). Time will tell.

When the Astros filled their void at catcher in early December by signing Robinson Chirinos for one year and $5.75 million, the decision was met with skepticism.

Two weeks of the regular season aren’t enough for those doubts to dissipate altogether, and even Chirinos acknowledges he still has areas to improve. But early in his tenure as their primary catcher, he’s off to a strong start.

The 34-year-old’s openness to suggestions and intent on improving are why. After an inconsistent 2018 with the Rangers, he entered the offseason with clear areas of focus. Those points of emphasis jived with the plan the Astros presented him upon his arrival to spring training in February.

Here’s a look at the adjustments he has made since joining the Astros, as explained by Chirinos.

Receiving

Beginning at 8:30 every morning of spring training, Chirinos spent a half-hour in a batting cage going through a series of catching drills with Michael Collins.

Collins, a little-known 34-year-old Australian, is an Astros bullpen catcher who doubles as their catching coach. He played parts of 10 seasons in the Angels’ and Padres’ farm systems, primarily as a catcher. Astros manager A.J. Hinch knew him from his Padres’ front office days and hired Collins onto his coaching staff ahead of last season.

Under Collins’ guidance, Chirinos used his six weeks in Florida to fix his setup behind the plate. Last season, he leaned too far forward with his upper body, he said. Collins worked with him on squaring his chest and keeping his head high in his crouch.

“That took a little while, just because my body was so used to getting to that position right away,” Chirinos said. “Michael really helped me to do it every day, and now I’m going into the game without thinking, ‘I have to get to that position.'”

Chirinos also struggled in the past to receive high pitches, a weakness he sought to address at the start of the offseason. When he signed with Houston, it became of even greater importance. As much as, if not more so than, any other team, the Astros love throwing the elevated four-seam fastball. Justin Verlander thrives off it.

Chirinos still has work to do in this realm. Publicly available metrics regarded him as one of the game’s worst pitch framers last season. In Baseball Prospectus’ framing runs metric, he ranked 114th of 117th. In BP’s called strikes above average stat, he ranked 99th. Once this season is six weeks to two months old, the sample size should be large enough to properly gauge his progress with Houston.

Throwing

Last season, Chirinos’ throwing was even worse than his pitch framing. He threw out only 10 percent of basestealers, down from 25 percent in 2017, 27 percent in 2016 and 29 percent in 2015. In Baseball Prospectus’ throwing runs metric, he ranked dead last.

Chirinos has shown improvement early this season, having thrown out two of seven basestealers (see video below). He worked throughout spring training to cut down the length of his transfer.

“I feel like I got away from what I did in the past, where I was cheating with my left knee before I throw,” he said. “If you go and watch the throws this year, I’m moving (my left) knee in before I catch the ball. Going back to last year, I was catching and then moving.”


Chirinos learned in spring training that his arm action wasn’t getting him to his release point as efficiently as it could. After grabbing the ball out of his glove, he’d pull it away from his body and around to his release point instead of just pulling it straight back out of the glove and firing.

This finding came not from Collins but from pitching coach Brent Strom. He noticed it toward the end of spring training, so Chirinos is still in the process of breaking his old habit. Before games, he makes 20 to 25 throws with a weighted ball to get used to the adjustment.

“I’m still working (on it) every day,” he said.

Hitting

Chirinos came to the Astros as a bat-first player. He slugged 35 home runs over the last two seasons with the Rangers, and it’s not difficult to envision a 20-plus-homer season for him now that his home field is Minute Maid Park, where right-handed pull hitters have the benefit of the short porch in left field.

Chirinos has garnered the start over Max Stassi in eight of the Astros’ 12 games thus far, including all three of Verlander’s outings. He’s batted .259/.375/.519 with one home run and four doubles in 33 plate appearances, and his timely hitting from the bottom third of the lineup has keyed a couple of Houston wins.

Unlike his work on defense, Chirinos hasn’t made any significant changes to his swing. However, he has altered his approach in two-strike counts as a response to last season’s excessive strikeout total (140 in 426 plate appearances). His 32.9 percent strikeout rate was eighth-worst among major leaguers with at least 400 plate appearances in 2018.

“I feel like last year I was not changing my approach with two strikes,” he said. “This year, that was something that I put in my work for this season, just to be able to choke up on the bat and make sure I put the ball in play and make something happen. It’s something I’ve been working on since spring training and even right now. I go into batting practice, and I have a round where I choke up and make sure I let the ball travel and just stay short.”

Chirinos has been encouraged by how he’s felt in the batter’s box lately, especially after Monday. During pregame batting practice that afternoon, José Altuve alerted Chirinos that he was leaning too far over the plate, limiting his ability to get to fastballs. Chirinos worked the rest of BP on standing a little more upright, which freed up his hands. He took the adjustment into the game, and, lo and behold, it was a 94 mph fastball he hit off the Yankees’ Zack Britton for his game-tying double in the seventh inning.

 

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