2019 Houston Astros Season

Opening day finally arrived and it was a happy arrival. Houston beat Tampa in Tampa to start the opening series of the 2019 season. Justin Verlander, who came in 2nd place in 2018 Cy Young voting, faced off against Blake Snell, the man who won the Cy Young last season. Statistically, Verlander should have won the Cy Young but since Snell had the best record in baseball he got the win. Yesterday Snell took the loss as Houston beat Tampa 5-1. Verlander clearly outpitched Snell as he went 7 innings allowing just one run, a lead off home run by Rays RF Austin Meadows. After that, except for a some excitement in the 2nd inning, Verlander was unhittable. For the game he gave up just the one run on 3 hits and a walk. He also notched 9 K's on the day. Snell, on the other hand, went 6 innings giving up all 5 of the Astros runs. Houston got all of their runs via home runs. Down 1-0 in the 3rd C Robinson Chirinos and Jake Marisnick worked walks. George Springer came up and hit a tape measure homer to straight away center field. According to statcast the ball traveled 427 feet. It was the third consecutive year Springer homered on opening day. In the 4th, newcomer Michael Brantley hit a solo homer and Jose Altuve added a solo shot in the 5th to round out the scoring.

All in all it was a very nice first day. As the joke goes, the Astros are on pace to go 162-0. Game #2 of the 2019 season is tonight at 6:10 PM. Gerrit Cole will go for Houston and he will face former Astro Charlie Morton goes for Tampa. ....and a fine time will be had by all!

I sure had a lousy sports weekend. First of all, Duke got upset by Michigan State in the NCAA’s. I don’t think about the Spartans one way or another normally, but I have never liked their basketball team going all the way back to when MSU faced off against Indiana State in the NCAA finals. Of course, that was the first time Magic Johnson and Larry Bird went at each other and, of course, I was rooting for the underdog Sycamores and, of course, they lost. MSU plays Texas Tech this weekend and I am really hoping for a Red Raider win for several reasons!!!

After a nice opening day win over Tampa Bay the Astros fell flat on the faces the rest of the weekend. The Astros scored a grand total of 4 runs in the 3 losses from Friday thru Sunday. The lost by an identical score of 3-1 on Saturday and Sunday. In the 3 losses the Astros did have 11 hits, so the problem wasn’t hitting so much as it was hitting when it mattered. That’s okay, the Red Sox have the same record as the Astros so it’s just a spring thing I guess. Let’s hope the bats wake up pretty quick. Like last year’s slow start pitching is not the issue. Gerrit Cole had a bad day inning giving up 4 runs, but only 1 earned in six innings in the Astros 4-2 loss on Friday. Cole was victimized by 2 errant throws by Aledmys Diaz who was playing SS for Carlos Correa. Collin McHugh gave up just 3 runs in 5 innings of work in the 3-1 loss on Saturday and Wade Miley gave up 3 runs in 6 innings of work yesterday. All 3 were quality starts technically and the bullpen was solid all weekend so, there’s that.

Carlos Correa missed the first 3 games with a sore neck that he hurt in the previous Friday’s spring training game against the Mets. He got back into the lineup and fell right in with the rest of the crowd going 0-3 yesterday. Oh well.

The Astros have a chance to bounce back this week. They begin a 3-game series against the Texas Rangers who went 2-1 in their opening series against the Cubs. Brad Peacock makes his 2019 regular season debut and the Rangers will send Drew Smyly to the hill. You know, if there was any justice in this world Peacock would have pitched yesterday in Tampa and Wade Miley would start tonight. Think about it, Miley vs Smyly. How could you not smile or even laugh out loud at that pitching matchup? It makes me laugh just thinking about it! It may happen sometime this year and I will be soooo happy!!! Go ‘Stros!!!

What a way to begin a season. 2 series, 2 losses. Having a 2-5 record heading into their first homestand of the season Friday is definitely NOT what we were expecting. Tampa is okay but, one paper, Houston is better. The Rangers are definitely not better than Houston but, they took 2 of 3 and handed the Astros a big old poop sandwich start of the season. Last season Houston set a record for wins on the road and their runs scored per game was way up there in the annals of MLB history but, so far, 2019 is starting out in the opposite direction. In the opening series against Tampa Houston scored a grand total of 9 runs in 4 games, they scored 5 runs in their opening day win. Against Texas Houston scored 5 runs in 3 games with 4 of those runs coming in the 2nd game on Tuesday night, a loss BTW. Except for a hiccup by Justin Verlander on Tuesday night the pitching has be decent. Only Verlander’s stinker on Tuesday night was the only non-quality start of the 7 games the Astros have played.

So, what’s the friggin’ problem? The offense. Against Tampa the Astros were 2-21 with runners in scoring position. Against the Rangers they were 2-22 with runners in scoring position. Pitiful display. The Astros have 4 games with 10, 8, 8, 12 hits in those games and they lost all but one. The road doesn’t get any easier because in their next 2 series, their home debut in 2019, they face the A’s and the Yankees. Yikes!!! I understand there is a long way to go in the season but, it sucks when they start out so bad. Back in the 80’s when that era of Astros were good they often shot themselves in the foot by starting off the season badly only to turn it on late but, except for 1980 and 1986 it was too little too late. I’m having flashbacks to those days and I don’t like it. After only seven games into the season Houston is trailing division leading Seattle by 4.5 games. 4.5 games is not insurmountable at all but there is an unsettling trend going on here that I hope the Astros figure out a way to reverse.

One last thing, last night was a prime example of why baseball needs to go to electronic balls and strikes calling. The ump was so bad, and it seemed skewed against the Astros where the home plate ump seemed to be squeezing both the Astros hitters and pitchers. It was so bad that Houston bench coach, Alex Cintron, and manager AJ Hinch were both ejected in the 2nd inning. The 2nd inning!!! The arbitrary strike zone of the umps is ridiculous. Every single game they show you the box that defines the strike zone and they show you if the ump is right or not. Most of the time the umps do okay but there are games where the home plate ump seems to have a bug up his ass over one team or the other and the calls get really bad. Everyone wants the pace of play to speed up but how can it when an ump is so bad at calling balls and strikes there are arguments and ejections. The players are pissed off and a pleasant day at the ballpark turns into a stress-a-thon. C’mon baseball, get into the new millennium and take the overrated “human” element out baseball in a place that is screaming for change. The one good thing about today is the Astros won’t lose. Today is an off day. Small victories where you can get them.

Week 2 recap is much better than Week 1. W1 was just four games and going 1-3 against the pesky Tampa Bay Rays wasn't the start anyone would have imagined. In W2 Houston's offense seemed to find itself this weekend as they completed the sweep of the Oakland A's. In the series Houston put up 3 runs in a 3-2 win, 6 runs in a 6-0 win marking the first shutout of the season for the Astros and today they scored 9 runs in a 9-8 nail biter. In these three games Houston logged 9 hits, 11 hits and 14 hits respectively. This series could have been a blowout if Houston was just a little bit more efficient with runners in scoring position. Beginning Friday they went 3-10 with RISP and stranded 9 base runners. On Saturday they went 1-7 stranding 6 and today they went 4-15 stranding 12 men. The offense is definitely waking up but stranding baserunners is something that began in Arlington against the Rangers. Houston lost 2 of 3 against the team from North Texas stranding a total of 26 baserunners while only scoring a total of six runs in the series. Getting clutch play seems to be getting better for the offense but you would really love to see the Astros a bit more efficient driving in runs.

Today's game was crazy. It was Peacock vs ex-Astro Mike Fiers in today's game. Fiers probably should have stayed in bed as he gave up 7 hits and 6 runs, 5 coming in the first inning to stake Houston to an early 5 zip lead. The 5 runs was the most scored by the Astros in a single inning so far this season. After giving up another run in the 2nd Fiers' day was done after 1.2 innings. Brad Peacock wasn't much better as he allowed 5 runs in 5 innings. He gave up 2 in the first and 2 more in the 2nd. Houston held a 6-4 lead after 2. Peacock gave up an RBI double by Robbie Grossman in the 4th to make the score 6-5. That was the score after 5. The crazy part of the game began in the first when Kevin Piscotti skied a fly ball to left that hit the rafter in fair territory. LF Michael Brantley may not have realized that the ball was in play and he actually could have made a play on it but, it hit the left field wall in fair territory driving in Robbie Grossman and Stephen Piscotti who had gotten on base earlier in the inning. This came with 2 out in the inning. In the 2nd, again with 2 outs in the inning, Robbie Grossman hit a 2-run homer. The Astros sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the 1st. The big blasts coming from Aledmys Diaz, who played 1B today, who got his first hit as an Astro, his 1st HR as an Astro and his first RBI's as an Astro when he hit a big 3-run HR. Preceding Diaz' HR Houston had tied the score at 2 apiece on RBI singles by Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa. Houston made the score 6-4 in the 2nd on an RBI bases loaded walk by Aledmys Diaz. Houston could manage a hit with baserunners so they had to settle for just the one run.

In the 6th Josh James came on to pitch and after two outs he gave up a single followed by a 2-run home run by Josh Phegley that gave the A's a 7-6 lead. The A's got an insurance run off Hector Rondon to make the score 8-6. I personally gave up at this point. Then it got crazy again. In the bottom of the 8th Tyler White made the first out of the inning but Tony Kemp stepped and jacked a solo HR to narrow the A's lead to 8-7. Georges Springer, who was 0-4 until this AB, hit a double just out of reach of 2B Jurikson Profar. Springer advanced to 3rd on a single by Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman drove in Springer to tie the game on a fly ball to center field. Roberto Osuna came on the top of the 9th to set the A's down 1-2-3 to set up the bottom of the inning. Josh Reddick began the inning working a walk from A's closer Blake Treinen. That was followed by a single by Aledmys Diaz. Robinson Chirinos tried to a sac bunt by Treinen made a heads up play to get Reddick out at 3rd. Tony Kemp came up and had a marvelous AB to load the bases with just one out. Springer came up and tried to check his swing on a ball in the dirt with 2 strikes on him but the ump rightly called him out bringing up Jose Altuve with 2-outs and the bases still loaded. All Altuve did was work a 4-pitch walk to give the Astros a walk-off walk to win the game 9-8. On a day when Houston banged out 14 hits and 8 walks the game winner was the 8th walk of the game for Houston.

With the win Houston evens it record to 5-5 as they went 4-2 on the week. It's not going to get any easier as Houston hosts the New York Yankees for 3 game beginning Monday evening. The Yanks blasted Baltimore 15-3 today and they won three in a row over the O's. Houston has Verlander, Cole and McHugh for the series. As far as the standing go Houston is 3.5 back of division leading Seattle who are 9-2 on the season. The Rangers look like they on their way to being swept by the Angel of Anaheim as they lost the first two games of the series and they are losing today 7-2 in the 8th. If Texas does lose they will fall into a 2nd place tie with Houston. Hopefully the bats stay hot and the pitching is better than it was last week. The Astros will need both working to beat the Bronx Bombers.

The Astros have won 4 straight and the last two wins are a testament to the old adage, “It’s always something….” (thank you Rosanne Rosannadanna). Sunday the Astros completed a comeback win over the A’s with a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 9th. Last night they scored the winning run in the bottom of the 8th on what amounted to a swinging bunt up the first base line with just one out and Alex Bregman on 3rd. A pitch by one of the best closers in baseball, Adam Ottavino, that was in on the hands to Carlos Correa that Correa fought off with an inside-out swing that actually broke Correa’s bat. The ball dribbled up the first base line about 40 feet in a no-man’s land between the 1B and pitcher where neither could make a play on it to either get Correa out at first or Bregman out at home. The result, a 4-3 lead that the Astros Roberto Osuna was able to nail down in the top of the 9th for the win.

On consecutive days Houston successfully pulled off wins against top notch closers. Sunday it was Blake Trienen who the Astros victimized and last night it was the duo of Zack Britton and Ottavino who should be in the same conversation as the Astros Ryan Pressly-Roberto Osuna as the best set-up man-closer duo in all the MLB. Pretty impressive stuff but another old adage comes to mind, “I’d rather be lucky than good.” which gives way to the more appropriate saying, “I’d rather be lucky AND good!” which certainly applies to the Astros.

Justin Verlander sort of bounced back from his last start when he only lasted 4+ innings with a disastrous 5th in which he gave up a triple, a hit batsman and back-to-back singles that scored 2 runs for the Rangers. A very un-Verlander outing for sure and it was his worst start as an Astro. Last night he gave up seven hits and 3 runs in 6 innings of work. He left trailing 3-1 but ended up with a no-decision after Houston made its comeback late in the game. As a result of his 2nd ND game of the season Verlander’s record remains at 1-0.

Gerrit Cole takes the hill tonight. Cole has been sort of Houston’s hard luck starter. In his first two starts he has gone 6 innings but those starts were right in the middle of the Astros slow offensive start to the season. In his first outing Cole gave up 4 runs but only 1 was earned due to throwing errors by utility man Aledmys Diaz who was playing SS for Carlos Correa. In his second start he gave up 3 runs but, again, with the offense slumping, it was 3 runs too many as Houston lost to Texas 4-2. Tonight with the offense seemingly back on track he will look for win #1 of the season.

The Astros Week 3 Recap is easy. Just like cleaning up at home, sweep, sweep, sweep. That’s in reference to the 9-game winning streak the Astros on currently on that began 11 days ago against Oakland and continued on through the sweep of the Mariners yesterday. As this week began Houston had to feel good sweeping the A’s but they had to be leery about the Yankees series as the Bronx Bombers had just completed a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles pummeling the O’s in the series finale 15-3. It didn’t matter to Houston however as they found their own offense against Oakland. Houston beat the Yankees 4-3, 6-3 and 8-6 just to show everyone that whatever they got, Houston has 2 better.

It was a different story heading into the series against Seattle. The M’s were the hottest team in baseball with an MLB best 13-2 record going in. Game 1 was a slugfest with Houston prevailing 10-6 on the strength of 3 swings of the bat. First, a 2-run jack by George Springer in the 3rd to tie the score at 2. Then, in the 6th inning the Astros worked the bases loaded for Jose Altuve who took it deep for his 2nd career grand slam giving Houston a 6-2 lead. The Mariners came back in the bottom of the 7th with two runs to make it 6-4. The final nail in the M’s coffin on Friday night was a bases loaded grand salami by Yuli Gurriel making the score 10-6. Chris Devenski and Roberto Osuna shut the door on the M’s hopes for a comeback. On Saturday Justin Verlander shook off a leadoff home run to begin the game Saturday to pitch six strong innings recording 11 K’s in the process. Jose Altuve hit his 5th HR in 4 games to help Verlander get the win 3-1. On Sunday it was Garrett Cole’s turn to be sharp. He did give an early homer in the 1st and in the 3rd he gave up back-to-back doubles to give Seattle a 2-0 lead after 3. The score remained unchanged until the 6th when the Astros finally strung together some hits and Michael Brantley got a 2-RBI single with the bases loaded to tie the game. In the top of the 7th Aledmys Diaz got his second home run of the season leading off the inning to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. Hector Rondon, Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna locked it down to end game with 3 scoreless innings of work to wrap up the game and the series sweep against Seattle. It was a shock for Houston to sweep the Yankees and it was a downright WTF moment when they swept the Mariners. Two of the hottest teams in baseball were schooled by our very own Astros!

The AL West is a lot tighter now with the M’s holding a 1 game lead in the division at 13-5 with Houston right behind at 11-5. The AL West record-wise is the best division in baseball right now. This is the only division where every team is .500 or better. Seattle has the best record in either league and Houston has the 2nd best record.

Houston has a light week this week. The have a day off on Monday before a 2-game series against Oakland in Oakland. They get Thursday off and head into Arlington for 3 games with the Rangers. The Astros will be looking for their 10th win in a row against Oakland on Tuesday night.

Right now life is good in Astro-land.

Last night’s Astros game was remarkable for several reasons not the least of which was winning their 10th straight game. It is the fourth time since 2015 Houston has had double digit win streaks. It really is the Golden Age of Astros baseball!

Not only did Houston win its 10th in a row but the win, coupled with a Mariners loss, has put the Astros in first place in the AL West by ½ game. Alex Bregman pounded a grand slam that put the game out of reach of the Oakland A’s in the 4th inning. Houston actually scored 5 times in the inning adding to the 3 zip lead they already had. At 8-0 at not quite the midpoint of the game the Astros put the game on cruise control and I was able to go to bed happy. Collin McHugh dominated the A’s allowing just 2 hits and 2 BB’s with 5 K’s in his 6-strong innings of work. The biggest deal for McHugh was his impression of Neo from the Matrix series. In the second inning the A’s Kendrys Morales hit a line shot right back up the middle and McHugh literally bent over backwards to avoid being hit by the ball. The ball passed right below his chin and it actually slightly clipped his throwing hand. Killer reflexes on McHugh’s part and the only thing he didn’t do was get back erect from his reclined position. He actually fell to the ground because he bent backwards so far. Here is a link to McHugh’s amazing escape. Still, a heckuva move and some great reflexes on his part.

https://www.mlb.com/astros/video/mchugh-s-matrix-esque-move

The Astros Week 4 recap is short and to the point. They sucked this past week. Not totally but enough to go 2-3 for the week. They had two days of rest this week which obviously doesn’t agree with them. Another irksome thing is Sunday was my birthday and sucked early and got down 9-1 at one point and they came back to make the score 11-10 Rangers in the 9th with the bases loaded. The downside is there were two outs and C Robinson Chirinos ended the game with a strikeout after the Rangers had walked four straight batters. Nothing like having that comeback carrot dangled in front of your face only to have it jerked away at the last moment. Even more irksome is the fact the Astros lost the series to those dog molesting Rangers, the second series loss of the season, both series in Arlington. The season series stands at 2-4.

Even, even more irksome is Houston began the week in first place in the AL West and they end up the week in 2nd place behind Seattle who was only slightly less bad than the Astros. The Astros had pitiful starting pitching in their 3 losses. Wade Miley in the series finale at Oakland in didn’t actually suck. He went 6 innings and just gave up 2 runs and with a solid bullpen effort that all the A’s could muster. Unfortunately, the Astros offense took the night off as Oakland beat Houston 2-1 and got a series split of 1 game each. The A’s have not lost a home series since Houston swept them last July. Since then they went 13 wins and 2 splits and with the split at mid-week make that 13-3. Gerrit Cole did suck in his start against the Rangers on Saturday as he gave up 5 runs in the first inning on the way to a 9-4 loss that wasn’t really that close. On Sunday Collin McHugh showed his sucky side by allowing 10 runs, 9 earned, in just 3.1 innings of work. The Astros tried to come back bashing 5 home runs in the game to get within a bases loaded 2-out strikeout away from breaking the Rangers hearts and giving me a dandy birthday present to boot. Instead it was the me and the Astros who were heart broken.

McHugh began the week in Oakland dominating the A’s lineup as he got the win in the series opener and Justin Verlander pitched Friday’s opener against Texas in equally dominating fashion nailing down a 7-2 win.

Wade Miley is the outlier on the staff. He’s been pretty good so far in 2019 but the Astros offense has seemingly picked him screw over. I mean, the guy can’t get any run support. In his 5 starts offense has scored a grant total of 10 runs for him, 6 of those was in one start, a 6-0 win against Oakland the first time around. Miley begins the series against Minnesota back home at the Juice Box. Hopefully, yesterdays 10 run outburst has served to wake up the Astros bats. They will need some offense to beat the AL Central 1st place Twins for 3 games followed by 4 games with Cleveland to close out their April home stand next weekend. Cross your fingers because you never know who is showing up on a given game. The good starting pitching or the sucky starter. The prolific offense or the sucky offense. I guess that 10-0 10-game stretch kind of gets a person spoiled. Like you figure they will be all that every night. But, damn man, you’d think they’d win a game on a fella’s birthday.

The first month of the 2019 Astros season was a ride. Including the last week of March when Houston went to Tampa and got their arses handed to them to finishing the month of April with a dominating win over Minnesota. For the month, including opening series of the year in March Houston had an 18-12 record good for a one game lead over Seattle for the AL West division lead. The Astros are up 3 games on the Rangers and 5 games on the A’s and Angels. After a very slow start to the season the Astros rebounded by winning ten straight games. Wins 7,8 and 9 were against the Mariners which got the Astros right into the conversation about who was leading the division. That got the team to the middle of the month and since the Astros have been up and down splitting time with Seattle as the division leader. In week 5 of the season (last week) Houston went 4-3 for the week beating Minnesota 2 out of 3 games and they split the 4-game series with Cleveland.

In the past 11 days, Jose Altuve has hit a rare opening month slump beginning April 20 that has seen his batting average fall from .316 on April 19 to its current .248. You just aren’t used to seeing this type of slump from Altuve.

On the opposite end of the spectrum you have the hottest hitter on the team and that would be Josh Reddick. During the offseason Reddick worked hard on hitting to the opposite field to counteract the shift teams were using on him stacking the right side of the infield because traditionally Reddick had been a dead pull hitter. So far, the change has worked beyond all expectations. Reddick is carrying a very healthy .352 batting average leading the team by a wide margin. Reddick is 7th in the league in BA after several hitters have begun the season ridiculously hot. None more than the Dodgers Cody Bellinger who, after a whole month of baseball is batting a sick .431.

The Astros are still hoping that Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa can find some consistency at the plate. Bregman has a respectable .278 BA but that is not what we expect from him. Correa is batting .298 and he’s been a little more consistent and if he hits .298 for the season we will be happy for it.

There are two players who have been a big surprise so far, C Robinson Chirinos and Jake Marisnick. Chirinos is batting .271 which is 36 points higher than his career average. The thing about Chirinos is he’s gotten some very clutch hits for Houston plus he’s played great defense. Marisnick came out on fire at the plate. As of April 12th, he was hitting .391 for the season but since then he’s come back to earth. If the Astros get that .267 he’s batting now for the season it a big win for both Houston and Marisnick. His .267 is 40 points higher than his career average and given that he’s a premiere defensive player maintaining that level could earn him a big money deal when he becomes eligible for free agency after this season is over.

The one player who has been no surprise is Michael Brantley. He’s been solid in the field, but he is nearly impossible to strike out. He has the ability to make contact on almost every at-bat and his .331 BA is testament to his ability to use the whole field. It’s the same results Josh Reddick is enjoying and when Altuve, Correa and Springer are at their best they also use the whole field. Being a veteran player, maybe the oldest on the team can help all the players get better.

The pitching has been okay. You would like to have more consistency from the starters. Every one of them has had at least one stinker start so far and some two. Wade Miley has been the most consistent even though his record doesn’t show it at 2-4 but he’s the guy who can’t get any run support. The bullpen has been great and lousy. Josh James and Framber Valdez where just awful up until last week when both had scoreless outings. Will Harris and Chris Devenski has been inconsistent from one outing to the next, but they haven’t really hurt the team that much. The guys who have been stellar are Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna. The official setup man and closer have been untouchable so far. Pressley is closing in on a team record scoreless inning streak of 32-1/3 innings set by Roy Oswalt in 2008. JR Richard is in 2nd place with 31 scoreless innings and he did that twice in 1980. Pressly currently sits at 30-1/3 scoreless innings as of his last outing on April 28. Osuna is 2-0 with 7 saves in 7 tries and has a sick ERA of 0.73.

Going 18-12 is a pretty good month and there is one key to making May even better. Consistency. From the pitching to the offense if this team finds its groove there is not stopping them. They begin May finishing their 4-game series in Minnesota then things might get a little easier. Then again, when Houston in locked in all the games are easy.

Week 6 recap is a tale of two climates. On the one hand you have the four-game series in Minnesota against the AL Central division leading Twins in Minneapolis. The worst thing about the series is the Twins don’t play in a dome and in early May it’s still wintertime in the great white north. Or, at very least, the spring takes quite a bit longer to take hold. All 3 night games saw temperatures in the mid to high 30’s. Certainly not anything most people would call “baseball weather” with a straight face. The Astros wasted a gem of game by Justin Verlander on Monday. He pitched 6 innings giving up just one run on two hits, 2 BB’s and 7 K’s. The bats took the night off as they were shutout by the Twin 1-0. The Astros bounced back on Tuesday behind Gerrrit Cole and handed the Twins a shutout with a score of 11-0. That was it though, as Houston lost Games 3 and 4 scoring a grand total of 4 runs in back to back 6-2 and 8-2 losses. That’s it for the Twins in 2019 as they won the season series on the strength of that home stand 4 games to 3. If Houston makes the postseason they will likely see the Twins again in October.

After a day off on Friday Houston travelled to Monterey Mexico for 2 games against division rival Angels of Anaheim. Warm tropical weather was just the ticket for an Astros rebound. Not to mention the fact that the Angels are not contenders for a division title and it showed. The Astros began by stomping the Angels 14-2 behind Wade Miley who didn’t give up a run in the fourth and was cruising until Mike Trout hit Miley with a line drive back up the middle. Miley stayed in the game and gutted it out but in the sixth inning his command got a bit shaky and he gave up a massive HR to Albert Pujols. It didn’t matter as Houston scored often to put the game out of reach. On Sunday Justin Verlander pitched another gem but it wasn’t as good as Monday’s game. Getting some run support always helps as Verlander surrendered 4 runs I 6.1 innings of work but he got 10 runs of support from his offense. The 2-game sweep of the Angels kept Houston in 1st place in the division partly because they won and partly because their closest division rivals, the Mariners and Rangers, both had losing streaks at the same time as Houston did.

Ryan Pressly is the Astros record books for setting a franchise record of 33 consecutive scoreless innings. The old record of 32.1 scoreless was held by Roy Oswalt which he did in 2008. Earlier in the year Pressly became the relief pitcher with the most consecutive scoreless innings when he lapped Todd Jones record of 28.1 CSI set in the 1994-95 seasons. My son and I always called Todd Jones “Big Head Todd” because, well, he had a big head. The name was sort of inspired by a band called Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The Astros Big Head Todd was a good reliever in his day but now Ryan Pressly has climbed atop the Houston record book as a reliever and now as a pitcher regardless of whether he’s a starter or reliever. Pressly has a sick ERA of 0.00 and a WHIP of 0.53.

Alex Bregman hit two homers yesterday including his 3rd career grand slam, his second of 2019.

Yuli Gurriel broke out of a 2-35 slump bashing the ball around against the Angels this past weekend. The went 4-8 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored and he hit his first home run since April 12th. Now, if Jose Altuve would get back to his usual self, notching multi-hit games and running his batting average up to around .340 or .350 life would be seem to be back to normal where the Astros are concerned.

The Week 7 recap is not bad at all. There is a downside or two but, for the most par the Astros had a pretty good week. The week didn't start great as Houston came home from sweeping a two game series against the Angels and they continued by beginning Week 7 winning 2 of 3 against the lowly (14-27) Royals. The middle game of the series was a 12-2 hammering of the Astros due mainly to a start so bad by Collin McHugh it got him sent back to the bullpen on Saturday. In his last 4 starts McHugh went 0-4 with an ERA of 12.00. Against the Royals he went just 3 innings allowing 8 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. More on McHugh later.

Since last Saturday Houston has won 8 games and lost just one. The have taken control of the AL West by opening a 6.5 game lead over the Angels and a full 7 games on Seattle and 7.5 on Oakland and Texas. When this weekend's series with Texas began on Thursday Houston's lead was just 3.5 games but the Astros pulled out the big broom and dust pan and swept all four games against the boys from Arlington. it started on Thursday with a nice game by Wade Miley leading the way to a 4-2 Astros win. Friday was the Justin Verlander show. He went 7 innings of one-hit ball in a dominating performance to extend his season record to 6-1. Ryan Pressly pitched the final 2 innings of shutout ball and Pressly extended his consecutive scoreless record to 35 innings. On Saturday the Astros brought out the lumber bashing out 11 runs on 13 hits and earning 5 walks to boot. The big blast was a grand slam in the sixth inning by Alydmes Diaz to make the score 6-1 at the time. The Astros scored all 11 runs in their final 5 innings. Gerrit Cole went 6 innings of one-run ball and the only run scored was a homer by former Astros Hunter Pence. Chris Devenski came on the in 7th and he continued his struggles as he went only 2/3 of an inning while giving up 3 runs on a 3-run homer by Ronald Guzman or the score would have been 11-1. The big deal on Saturday was twofold, Gerrit Cole extended his AL lead in K's by ringing up 12 Rangers. The other big deal was that Jeff Bagwell was in the TV booth and his input along with the interaction with former teammate and current play-by-play man for the Astros Geoff Blum. Bagwell was insightful, and his take on the mindsets of the hitters on both teams and the pitchers of both teams was just pure gold. Bagwell and Blum made the broadcast one of the most enjoyable I have ever watched. Today was all Astros as they destroyed the Rangers by a score of 15-5 and it wasn't even that close. As I said before, Collin McHugh was moved to the bullpen on Saturday and his spot in the rotation was taken by the Astros number 4 prospect Corbin Martin. Martin's debut was really good as he allowed just 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk with 9 K's. McHugh got into the game in the 6th relieving Martin with one out in the inning. McHugh allowed a run Martin was responsible for and one of his own to make the score at the time 10-3. Framber Valdez, who has his good days and his bad days, got thru the 8th without allowing a run but Devenski came on to finish off the game and he did but not before he gave up 2 runs to make the score 15-5. Devenski would have had his second K of the inning but a swinging strike 3 which was a wild pitch allowed Danny Santana to reach 1B. What usually happens when you mess up like that is something bad is coming right behind it. Sure enough the next batter was Elvis Andrus and Elvis left the building with a 2-run homer. The final score was one sided but Houston has got a couple of pitchers that are struggling right now in McHugh and Devenski. Hopefully, the Astros can continue to score runs in bunches that will allow them to get into games to work things out.

It's nice to see Houston where they should be, at the top of the AL West and they are sporting the best record in the AL and they are second in MLB to the Dodgers. Pretty sweet. The only downer this past week was that Jose Altuve went on the 10 IL because of a pulled hammy suffered as he legged out an infield single in the opener against Texas on Thursday night. Putting Altuve on the IL allowed Houston to call up Corbin Martin so even in this there was a silver lining. It was a happy Mother's Day for the Astros offense. Alex Bregman went 3-5 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's. George Springer went 5-5 with 2 HR's 4 RBI's, Carlos Correa went 3-3, Yuli Gurriel went 2-5 as did Alydmes Diaz and Tony Kemp went 3-5. The Astros hit the road this week as they play 3 against Detroit and 3 against Boston who, after a really bad start to the season seems to have found their mojo again as they swept the Mariners this weekend. The Astros record is now 26-15, 11 games over .500 and they are have just completed one quarter of the season. As Wayne Campbell used to say to his buddy Garth Alger, "Party on!!!"

Astros News and Notes on an off day for the team.

So, Jose Altuve better get his quad or hamstring, whichever got hurt, better soon because Aledmys Diaz has been playing pretty well. He’s also, with extra playing time been a much better hitter than he was prior to Altuve going on IL.

Houston as they sit right now on May 16, 2019 own the best record in baseball. They are tied in wins (29) with the LA Dodgers but they have one less loss. Interestingly enough, in 2017 at the same point in the season they were 29-14 compared to the Astros 2019 record of 29-15. (Cue the eerie music here!) Houston is also on pace to set a new MLB record for home runs in a season if they continue on their current pace.

Houston is currently two wins away from their 2nd 10 game winning streak of the season. Houston is 9-1 in their last 10 games and they have won 8 in a row so far. That streak will be put to the test when they begin a 3-game series against the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox in Bahst’n.

There is an article on the Astros website talking about how George Springer is the ‘heart and soul’ of the Astros. I can believe that and if you read the article I’m sure you will too. Even Jose Altuve says so and that is plenty good enough for me. In the article it talks about how Joey Cora, former Astros bench coach and since 2017 the Bosox manager took his best player, Mookie Betts, aside and told him he was moving him to the leadoff spot in the batting order at the start of the 2017 season. Betts asked Cora what he wanted him to do and Cora responded by saying, “Just do what George Springer does.” Just shows to go ya what kind of respect Springer has in the league.

The Astros veteran reliever, Joe Smith who has been on IL since before the season began because he had Achilles surgery in the offseason has been doing some light running and he has actually thrown off a mound a couple of times. Smith is expected back late in the summer which will give the Astros a quality arm, a fresh quality arm, in the bullpen for the stretch run of the season.

Houston has the largest lead of any division leader in either league, 7.5 games and they are 13 games over .500 heading into the Bahst’n series.

I don’t know if its due to the Astros new hitting coach, or coaches as Houston now has two, Alex Cintron and Try Snitker or the influence of hitting machine Michael Brantley or some combination of those and other factors but I suspect the new hitting coaches have a lot to do with this lineup. None are a better example of the change than Jake Marisnick and Josh Reddick. Who would ever have thought that Big Jake would be hitting .313 past the ¼ mark of the season? Jake barely hit above the Mendoza Line in 2018 and his career BA is .230 for goodness sake. Jake is in a contract year and if he keeps this up all year he will be in for a huge payday come 2020 because there is nobody, and I mean nobody better as a defensive outfielder than the Jakester and now he’s got a legit stick to go with it???? Ged oudda heah, as they say in Brooklyn. Josh Reddick is a career .264 hitter. Last year he slumped to a .242 BA. In 2019 do date Reddick is hitting a team and AL leading .333. I’ll bet you look like that cartoon character whose jaw drops to the floor and his eyes bugged way out their eye sockets when you read that that stat. It’s due in large part to Reddick changing his whole hitting style. Prior to this year Reddick was a dead pull hitter and opposing teams employed the dreaded “shift” where 3 infielders play on the pull side of the infield and the outfield shifts to cover roughly 1/3 of the outfield because that’s where the ball will be going. So-called baseball experts say “The Shift” should be banned because it’s unfair to the hitters. Poppycock! The way to beat “The Shift” is to learn to go opposite field where there are only 2 defenders covering roughly 2/3 of the field. Old time Hall of Fame baseball player “Wee Willy” Keeler had good advice for hitters in his day, ‘Keep your eye clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t.’ Josh Reddick has taken that advice and he learned to go opposite field. He learned it so well teams don’t even employ “The Shift” on him any more. I also credit the Astros hitting coaches for encouraging Reddick’s change in philosophy. In last night’s game the worst BA in the lineup was Aledmys Diaz’ .256. It’s taking Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel a bit of time getting up to speed, but those guys will get it and when they do, watch out because even if the starting pitching is bad it won’t matter because of how many runs this team will score. Without the offense clicking on all cylinders the Astros just destroyed the Detroit Tigers in their recent 3 game series. Houston score a total of 23 runs. We’ll see how Houston does against a resurgent Red Sox team who has clawed out of the AL East cellar to 3rd place just four games behind division leading Tampa Bay. Unlike the Rockets, the Astros are not chokers and I will be happy to see them push the Bosox back toward the cellar this weekend.

Week 8 was a darn good week for the Astros. They posted a 5-1 record for the week, increased their lead in the division from 7.5 to 8.5 games over their 2nd place team in the division and they maintained the best record in all of the bigs. They won both their series’ last week sweeping a helpless Detroit Tiger team and taking 2 of 3 from the Boston Red Sox. Winning in Boston on Friday and Saturday enabled Houston to reach ten straight wins for the second time this season. Not too shabby, wouldn’t you say?

Losing in the series finale on Sunday was disappointing but to think Houston could sweep the defending World Champs was a bit of a stretch. Wade Miley is what he is, a good 5th starter but he’s going to give up 3 runs per start, that’s just who he is. Unfortunately, 3 runs were two too many on Sunday. It wasn’t all Miley’s fault as the defense was uncharacteristically shaky and an Alex Bregman error at 3B resulted in an unearned run on Miley’s line score. It didn’t help any that Houston couldn’t capitalize on a bases loaded situation in the 3rd inning with George Springer striking out ending the threat. Springer is the Astros best hitter so far this season but it turns out he was dealing with a sore back on Sunday and after his 3rd K of the game that included Springer reaching for his back and wincing in pain AJ Hinch pulled him from the game to avoid further injury. As it turned out Springer had an MRI when the team returned to Houston after Sunday’s game and Springer does not have an issue with his back. He will miss a couple of games but that’s it. A collective sigh of relieve could be heard in Houston as Springer, Hinch and the rest of the Astros organization and fanbase were happy Springer’s back is not an issue. He will likely sit out a couple of games to allow his back to rest but by the weekend he will likely be back in the lineup.

It was a great week last week and all without All World Jose Altuve who was on the IL with a bad hamstring. Altuve missed all of last week but news out of Houston is that he will likely do a short rehab stint in Round Rock and be back in the lineup likely for the series against Boston at home this weekend. Aledmys Diaz pulled his hammy last Friday in relief of Altuve but it wasn’t considered serious and he may be back on the field as early as tonight. Tony Kemp did a nice job filling in at 2B and he gives AJ Hinch more options on off days for Altuve when he returns. A nice week for the Astros in Week 8 and they started off Week 9 with a shutout win over the White Sox last night. It would sure be nice if Houston strings together another 10-game win streak on this 10-game home stand but 9-1 will do!!!

The month of May was pretty good for the Astros all things considered. I'll get to those considerations in a moment. Houston went 20-8 for May that includes a 10 game winning streak while also winning 13 out of 14 games. They only lost 2 games in a row twice, that being the beginning of the month to Minnesota on the 1st and 2nd and to the Chicago White Sox on the 22nd and 23rd. The only series the Astros lost in the month began at the end of April when they lost 3 out of 4 to the Twins. They split the four game series with the White Sox but all the other series in May the Astros won. The Astros won 8 series during the month including sweeping the A's this weekend to begin the month of June. Of those 8 sis eries won the Astros swept 4. As a result, Houston took control of the AL West as the Angels, A's and Rangers jockeyed for 2nd place all month. Currently, the Ranger have 2nd place in hand. Seattle has become a raging dumpster fire as they have gone from the penthouse to the outhouse in May.

Week 10 which concluded today, was a mixed bag of good and bad with the bad really bad. Carlos Correa suffered a broken rib while getting a massage, which he has done daily when the Astros are at home, and cause of which is a total mystery at this point. All we know is that the Astros have said he will be out 4-6 weeks. This news is just the cherry on top of injuries that have kicked the Astros roster right in the crotch. In May, the Astros lost Jose Altuve first to a pulled hamstring and just when he was about to get back with the team he suffered what was being called leg fatigue in his right leg. The prevalent theory is it's due to his surgically repair knee cap that he broke last summer. It is said that Altuve will need a few more weeks to strengthen the leg and the knee. Aledmys Diaz is also out with a pulled hammy he reinjured in Week 9. Also in Week 9 George Springer was lost for several weeks to a grade 2 hamstring strain. Collin McHugh went out with elbow soreness and Max Stassi went out with a bad knee. As a result, the Astros have had to remake their roster. To replace McHugh the Astros brought up Corbin Martin who had 2 good starts but his last two were less successful. Houston has also pulled up Brady Rodgers who is a real feel-good story since Rodgers is trying to come back from Tommy Johns surgery. To fill Stassi's spot as 2nd catcher the Astros brought up Garrett Stubbs who doubled in his first AB as a major leaguer. He catches on the days Robinson Chirinos gets days off. To replace Diaz the Astros brought up infielder Jack Mayfield who, like Stubbs doubled in his debut AB as a big leaguer. Both players debuted on different days and the parents and families of both players were in the stadium for their debut. Feel-good stories abounding. When Correa went down Houston brought up OF Myles Straw. Straw showed up big in spring training and you had to feel like he was going to get a shot and he's made the most of his opportunities. Today was Straw's 2nd start since being called up and he has performed very well in the field making Jake Marisnick-type plays on defense and he's actually gotten on base often stealing bases and scoring runs with ease due to his prodigious speed. If I was Tony Kemp I would be worried I would lose my job to this kid. In Week 10 Houston won both series getting 2 of 3 on the Cubbies and sweeping the A's. Both series were on the road which was even more impressive. Going 5-1 in a given week is never a bad thing. Last Sunday Houston eclipsed the 1/3 mark in the season with a 35-19 record which is on a par with the 2017 World Champion Astros.

As you might expect the Astros run production has gone down with their top 3 offensive players out of the lineup but the starting pitching and relief pitching has been carrying the team. In Week 10 Ryan Pressly's record 40 inning scoreless streak came to an end as did Roberto Osuna's 25 inning scoreless steak but both have been the best set-up man-closer duo arguably in all of baseball. Of the top four batters in the Astros lineup only Michael Brantley has kept up his hitting. As advertised he is a contact hitter who doesn't strike out much and he gets lots of hits by just making contact. Josh Reddick, Jake Marisnick and Yuli Gurriel have slumped some but the Astros are getting help from the new guys. The Astros are as advertised, a very talented team with a good starting rotation, a really good bullpen and enough talent on offense and defense to continue to win games despite all the injuries they have suffered.

Houston is going to begin Week 11 continuing their 11 game road trip with 4 games in Seattle. After wrapping up their longest road trip to date in 2019 they end the week back home with 3 against the Baltimore Orioles. The Astros currently own an 8.5 game lead over 2nd place Texas and their 40 wins is tops in the AL and 2nd only to the 41 wins by the LA Dodgers. With summer kicking into high gear, life is good and the Astros are just where they should be. The hope is they can continue their success with a big chunk of their team on IL.

It’s hard to belief we are already has had 11 weeks of the season pass but there it is. Almost 3 months into the current season and the Astros are right where folks thought they would be, in first place in the AL West, holding the best record in the AL and 2nd best record in the bigs by ½ game to the Dodgers. Their 45-22 record is the best in club history including the 2017 Championship season. Baseball-wise, life is good.

The week started out with a series against Seattle, a series that would be 4 games and Houston had just managed to split the two 4-game sets. Seattle has spotty pitching and bad defense and it looked like the end of the 10-game road trip might be pretty easy but, if there’s anything about this 2019 team is that nothing, and I mean nothing comes easy. Corbin Martin got the start and after giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and two runs in just 3 innings of work he was done, not just for the day but for the Astros as the team sent him back to AAA Round Rock to let him work out his issues. Mainly, giving up home runs and having trouble finding the strike zone consistently. Everyone in the organization feel Martin has the stuff to be a big leaguer one day but it wasn’t going to happen now. Houston won the series 3-1 which was a good start to the week. The only hiccup was a 14-1 drubbing on Wednesday. From Brad Peacock to Tyler White every pitcher for Houston had one of those forgettable games. Brady Rodgers was so bad he was sent back to AAA. No wonder because he was just awful on hump day giving up 8 runs on 6 hits, 3 walks. 3 of the hits he gave up were homers. The Astros tried to screw over another Justin Verlander start on Thursday and they did after all. Verlander wasn’t great giving up 3 runs on 5 hits but no walks with 7 K’s as the Astros carried a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the 7th. Verlander retired one batter in the inning in between 2 singles by the M’s. After the second single AJ Hinch pulled the plug on Verlander despite his pitch count being just 94 pitches. The bullpen had been taxed to the max on the road trip and an extra 2/3 of an inning would have helped a lot but Hinch pulled the plug and the flood gates were opened. Will Harris came in and in 4 batters faced he got one out in the middle of 3 singles which scored both the inherited runners he got from Verlander plus one of his own to make the score 5-4. Kids, thank Mr Harris for sucking. Thank you Mr Harris. Ryan Pressly came in and got the last out of the inning. Houston tacked on an insurance run in the top of the 8th but Pressley gave up a run in the bottom of the inning making it 6-5. Roberto Osuna came in and got the Astros through the 8th without any more damage. The 9th was a different matter as Osuna allowed the tying run to score sending the game into extra innings. The Astros and M’s traded runs in the 10th and it stayed that way until the 14th when Myles Straw led off the inning with a triple. Yuli Gurriel followed with a sac fly to give the Astros the lead. The heroes of the night were Josh James and Chris Devenski who each pitched 2 scoreless. Verlander could have been the first pitcher in the bigs this year to reach 10 wins. Usually Verlander can’t get any run support but on that night, he couldn’t get any bullpen support.

Back home in the friendly confines of the Juice Box Houston went from a 14-inning game against a bad opponent to an 11-inning game against a bad opponent, the Baltimore Orioles. The Astros won a weird play in the bottom of the 11th. With 2-outs and Yuli Gurriel on 1st Robinson Chirinos doubled down the left field line. Gurriel was going on contact and as he rounded 3rd and you could tell he was going to be meat at the plate. The O’s catcher couldn’t handle the throw in and the ball rolled around in the dirt as C Chance Sisco tried to gain control. When he did gain control he didn’t tag Gurriel whom, Sisco had completely blocked from home plate, he just held the ball up for the ump to see. Seeing the ball loose the home plate ump called Gurriel safe. Replay showed Gurriel never touched home plate, and still hasn’t but neither did Sisco ever tag Gurriel out. So, replay simply upheld the ump’s safe call ending the game. Cionel Perez, who was called up when Brady Rodgers was sent down to AAA, was the hero of the night pitching 3 scoreless innings as he blew away Oriole hitters left and right. Houston lost game 2 of the series 4-1 spoiling a terrific first start by Framber Valdez who went 7 innings giving up just one run on 5 hits 0 walks and 7 K’s because the Astros bats took the night off. This past week Astros ruined starts by Verlander, Valdez and Gerrit Cole who started Friday night’s game. He went 7 innings allowing 3 runs, only 1 earned, a career high 14 K’s with no walks. Between a lackluster offense and a leaky bullpen, the week could have turned out even better than the 5-2 mark they actually posted. Houston will get two days off sandwiched around a two-game series with Milwaukee. Houston needs this short break with 2 days off in a week for the first time in, like, forever. Milwaukee will be no pushover and then they will host the Blue Jays which will be even more significant because Craig Biggio’s son Cavan was recently called up to Toronto from the minors and Yuli Gurriel’s brother, Lourdes, plays for the Jays too. Whew, we could all use a day or two off!

The Astros Week 12 is in the books. It was a so-so week that saw Houston go 3-2 splitting a 2-game series with Milwaukee and taking 2 of 3 against Toronto it wasn’t a bad week, it just wasn’t great.

First of all, Brad Peacock got 10 runs of support as earned a win in the opener with the Brewers despite the fact that the bullpen tried to give the game away in a 10-8 affair. Then, in Game 2 with the Brew-crew Justin Verlander pitched 7 innings setting a career high in K’s. Betcha think Houston won that game. AAAAHHHH. Wrong. For the second start in a row Verlander has pitched well enough to win except he gave up 3 runs which wouldn’t have been bad if the offense hadn’t gone cold. Houston lost their first extra innings game falling to Milwaukee 6-3 in 14 innings.

A day off on Thursday as Houston came out smokin’ on Friday night against the Blue Jays scoring 3,3,2 and 2 runs in the first four innings to stake Gerrit Cole to a 10 zip lead. Cole gave up 2 oh-by-the-way runs to Toronto in 5th on a 2-RBI double by Craig Biggio’s bouncing baby boy, Cavan. Cole ended the day with 10 K’s which brought his league leading total to 140. In Game 2 on Saturday Framber Valdez made his second start for Houston and unlike his first when he kicked royal ass and didn’t get a decision because he got no run support he did get some run support on Saturday. The Astros offense scored 7 runs in 6 innings which is just how long Valdez pitched. Chris Devenski and Josh James handled the final 3 innings in scoreless fashion as Houston clinched a series win with a 7-2 victory. Game 3, I don’t want to talk about. I think Houston had imposters on the field as their pitchers beginning with Brad Peacock were bad and the offense was just terrible. I get frustrated when the Astros make a so-so pitcher look like the second coming of Roger Clemens. The Jays Trent Thornton came into the game with a 1-5 record and a 4.78 ERA and he pitched 6.2 innings not allowing a single run despite giving up 6 hits and 3 walks. The Astros stranded 10 base runners in the game and they were 0-7 with RISP as Toronto spanked the Astros behinds 12-0 (OUCH!!!) I guess everyone is entitled to a bad day once in a while but sheesh!

To fill an open roster spot the Astros called up from AAA their 3rd ranked prospect Yordan Alverez. All Alverez was doing in Round Rock was hit homers (26) and work walks (38), drive in runs (71 RBI’s) and score runs (50) while hitting .343. Add to that an OBP of .443 and an OPS of 1.184 and you could say he earn a shot at the bigs. All he did in the six games he played was hit .381 after an 0-4 game yesterday with 4 HR’s, 6 walks, with 7 K’s, 8 runs scored and 8 RBI’s. Tell me this kid doesn’t deserve AL Player of the Week honors. Heckuva first week in the majors.

Despite losing Altuve, Correa, Springer, McHugh and Diaz all in May the Astros have continued to win posting a 48-24 record which is tied with the LA Dodgers for best record in the majors. They still own a 9.5 game lead on the Rangers in the division and they are on a pace to win 108 games this season which would be the best in franchise history. Myles Straw, Jack Mayfield, Peacock, Alverez, Perez, Derek Fisher and recent call up Rogerio Armentaros have all been contributors to the Astros success with all the injuries to key personnel over the last month.

Jose Altuve and Max Stassi are doing rehab assignments in Round Rock and should return to the lineup this weekend. Correa and Diaz are on a slower trajectory for return but could be back before the All Star break. Collin McHugh is on a rehab assignment as well and could be back soon. George Springer is very close to going out on a rehab assignment which mean he’s not far from being back to the big club as well. Despite all the injury problems, Houston hasn’t lost a series since losing 3 of 4 to Minnesota April 29 to May 2. Since then they are 11-0-2 in series including 4 sweeps as they head into Week 13 against Cincinnati. The best of the lot of the replacement players is Alverez who looks like he could have found a home in Houston if he keeps up his production and Myles Straw who has hit pretty well and also displayed jack-rabbit speed and good defense. Straw might be the only player faster than Jake Marisnick on this team. The Astros are looking good and the hope is they will continue to look good down the road as they start getting their best players back off the injured list.

Week 13 for the Astros was one that we could have lived without. Houston lost 6 of the 7 games they played and beginning with a loss to end their home stand a week ago Sunday, an unexplainable 12-0 whoopin’ to Toronto the Astros suffered through a 7 game losing streak. The losing streak seemed to begin about the same time as George Springer went on his minor league rehab assignment. There is no doubt who is the emotional leader of the Astros. Good news for the Astros, Springer will be back in the lineup tonight when Houston returns home to face the Pittsburgh Pirates. In his first game in Corpus Christi Springer homered twice.

Losing seven straight has not hurt the Astros in the standings, they still lead the AL West but with the Rangers winning more than they’ve lost they have climbed to within 6.5 games. The Rangers begin their week playing the lowly Detroit Tigers while Houston plays the not-quite-as-lowly Pirates. The Pirates share the NL Central cellar with the Cincinnati Reds but a week ago it figured Houston would smoke the Reds but instead Cincy swept the Astros. It was the first time in over a year the Astros had been swept and almost 2 years since they were swept on the road. That was a bitter pill to swallow and this whole damn week pretty much sucked for Astros fans.

It was bad enough for the offense to struggle the way they did all week but they had two games won if not for Roberto Osuna blowing a 2-1 9th inning lead to the Reds last Monday to Ryan Pressly giving up a 3 runs when the Astros were leading 5-4 to the Yankees who won Saturday’s game 7-5. The Astros came out swinging in Sunday’s finale against the Yanks as Jose Altuve hit a HR to lead off the game for the Astros as AJ Hinch inserted Altuve into the leadoff spot on Saturday in place of Alex Bregman. The Astros finally gave Justin Verlander some run support and he needed it because he gave up 3 runs on a DJ LeMahieu 3-run jack in the 5th. Verlander was working with a 9-run lead at the time so you could excuse him a little bit. Verlander went 7 innings for the second this this past week and he finally got his 10th win of the season against just 3 losses.

The Yankees, Twins and Dodgers all have better records than the Astros now thanks to the losing streak but the Astros are still on pace to win 100 games this season. What really needs to happen is for Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel to get out of the funk they’ve been in for a while now. Bregman really has yet to hit like he has the past two seasons. Isn't it funny how when a guy gets a big contract his performance goes downhill. (BTW, it's not funny at all.) Despite his woes at the plate he’s still leading the team in home runs with 20. He got #20 in the Friday night 10-6 loss in a game where Framber Valdez got smacked around like a red-headed step child giving up 5 runs in 3.1 innings of work. Bregman is only part of the problem as Gurriel has been, as in the title of the Foreigner song, “Cold As Ice”. On Sunday it seemed like Gurriel, as well as Josh Reddick and Jake Marisnick seemed to be waking up from their hitting slumbers. It’s a good sign to see the offense showing signs of life and it will be great to have Springer back.

The batting order is likely to be Springer leading off, Bregman 2nd, Altuve 3rd and Yordan Alverez 4th with Gurriel 5th with some combination of Reddick, Robinson Chirinos and Jake Marisnick next. I really believe Tyler White should be hitting 9th as he’s the weak link in the Astros offense. White started out his big league career on fire at the plate but he’s settled in as a below average big league hitter. He can be a streaky hitter but he’s a consistent .220-.230 hitter which ain’t great.

Let’s hope for a much better week as Houston plays the Pirates and Seattle at home. Houston is 2 games away from the true half way point of the season and they have just 11 games until the All-Star break. 7-game losing streak aside, Houston is about where they should be at this point and they are starting to get healthy again. The future is starting to look pretty bright for the Astros so I better go find my shades.

You know, you would have thought the world was right again after Houston began the week with a 9-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. No such luck as it turns out. I'm glad I missed the 10 zip drubbing the Astros took this afternoon. This is after yesterday's 14-2 pasting. Sheesh, Astros, you're killing me!!! In Tuesday's loss the Astros didn't lack for baserunners, they had 9 hits and 3 walks in the game but, as has been the case over the last two weeks, they couldn't get a hit when it really counted. The Astros were 0-6 with RISP and they stranded 8 men for the game. Last night was like the 3rd time Tyler White finished a game because AJ Hinch did not want to waste a bullpen arm on a lost cause. Sad state of affairs. In today's shutout loss Houston the Astros had 9 hits but unlike yesterday they had no walks but their futility continues to get clutch hits. Houston was 1-5 with RISP and even the hit they got did not result in a run for the good guys.

:flush: The Astros again stranded 8 baserunners. Former Astros Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz pitched the first 7 innings of this nightmare looking like the second coming of Roger Clemens despite owning losing records and ERA's of 4.57 by Musgrove and 6.63 by Feliz. On the flip side for the 2nd straight game the Astros starting pitcher stunk up the Juice Box. Brad Peacock who was cruising along so strong for Houston slammed right into June and he began to suck big time. That trend continued today as he gave up 4 runs in the 1st inning and, basically, you could have stuck a fork into the Astros because they were effectively done -- in the first blasted inning. Sheesh.

To make matters worse everyone in the division except Seattle has been winning. The despicable Rangers have won 5 straight and they have gotten to within 4.5 games of the Astros. Oakland is just 6.5 back and the Angels are 8.5 behind Houston. Only Seattle has continued to lose with regularity and they are in the AL West cellar 14.5 games in arears. That will likely change as Houston hosts the Mariners for 4 games beginning tomorrow and the way Houston is going they will likely get swept by the M's and their once double digit division lead will have disappeared. Shakespeare once wrote about a "winter of discontent" but now we suffer through a June of total suckage!!!

Week 14 has come and gone as has the month of June and I’m here to take a look at both the last week and the last month.

The month of June was pretty successful all things considered. Things like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Collin McHugh, Aledmys Diaz, Brad Peacock, Max Stassi and last but not least Joe Thomas who has been out all season to date rehabbing a torn Achilles tendon he hurt in the offseason. Houston went 15-12 for the month which included a season high 7-game losing streak. It was an unexplainable streak as a team that had been performing so well during the course of the season suddenly in June recorded their first 3-game losing streak followed within a week by that 7-game streak. It wasn’t just the offense that went stagnant, it was the starting pitching, the relief pitching and, to some extent, the defense that took almost half the month off. It took Justin Verlander 5 starts to get his 10th win and in Saturday’s extra inning win he gave up 4 runs and allowed 2 home runs which ties him for the MLB lead in HR’s allowed. It seems Verlander can’t make a start without giving up at least 3 runs and at least one HR per. A disturbing trend for your staff ace. Right now, the staff ace is really Gerrit Cole who is leading the majors in strikeouts and has put together 7 straight quality starts. He has gone 4-0 with 3 no-decisions while posting a 2.05 ERA in that time period. He has lowered his ERA from a season high 3.98 to its current 3.28. The Astros finished the month leading the AL West by 6.5 games over 2nd place Texas and their 53-32 season record is 3rd best in the AL behind the Yankees and the Twins. Everyone in the majors is looking up at the 57 win Dodgers. I don’t know if the Dodgers are that good or the rest of the NL, especially the NL West, is just that bad.

Week 14 saw Houston fall to another NL Central cellar dweller as they lost 2 of 3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They didn’t just lose the final two games of the 3-game series, they got smoked. Pittsburgh scored 24 runs in their two wins to Houston’s paltry 2 runs. Playing the NL Central has been embarrassing in 2019 considering the Cincinnati Reds swept the Astros two weeks ago. Houston salvaged their week by sweeping division rival Seattle but it wasn’t easy. Two 10-inning walkoff victories on Friday and Saturday night got Houston over the hump and a relatively easy 6-1 win on Sunday completed the sweep of the Mariners. Yuli Gurriel was the hero of Friday and Saturday night’s games as he hit a walkoff HR in the bottom of the 10th on Friday’s 2-1 win and he hit an RBI walkoff single Saturday to give Houston a 6-5 win. Josh Reddick tied the game at 1 on Friday night in the 8th inning to send that game into extra innings and Alex Bregman tripled to set the table for Gurriel’s hit Saturday. Justin Verlander gave up 4 runs in just 5 innings of work Saturday night but he still left with a 5-4 lead as the offense finally gave him some run support. Unfortunately, the usually reliable Ryan Pressly gave up a solo HR in the 7th that tied the game that was decided for the 2nd night in a row in extra innings. In fact, Saturday night’s game was the 3rd straight game with the Mariners that went to extra innings. Back on June 6 Houston beat the Mariners in Seattle 8-7 in 14 innings. Sunday’s 6-1 win broke that string and left Houston a 4-2 record for the week.

Jose Altuve returned to the Astros lineup in Week 13 and in Week 14 Houston got Collin McHugh, Max Stassi and George Springer back and all of them made big contributions during the week. If anyone doubted Jose Altuve just consider the fact that he’s hit .292 since being activated off the IL and Sunday he went 3-5 at the plate notching his 141 3-hit game of his career tying him with Jeff Bagwell for 2nd place in team history with 3-hit games. It is likely the first time all year he is completely healthy since having surgery to fix a partially broken knee cap last fall and the results of that health are showing. I understand why AJ Hinch has Alex Bregman hitting 3rd, it’s because of his power potential. However, if Altuve is Altuve he will hit .300+ and drive in runs which is miles better than what Houston is getting out of Bregman this season. I fully expect Bregman and Altuve to flip spots in the batting order. Maybe as soon as after the All-Star break next week. We’ll see how Altuve does against the Rockies and Angels this week as this is the last week before the break.

I don't really mean to make my posts so long and I apologize to all of you who get annoyed with them but I don't post every day and I try to make each one count. That's why I didn't post some things worth mentioning yesterday when I did my weekly and monthly recap. Things like, Yordan Alverez making it back to the Astros lineup on Sunday after missing a couple of games because of a sore knee. He came back with a vengeance going 2 for 3 with a walk and no K's. He also drove in the first 3 runs of the game for Houston nailing a bases loaded double in the bottom of the 1st and an RBI single in the 3rd following an Alex Bregman triple. He's maintaining a .300+ BA and he has a very healthy OPS of 1.139. I believe Houston has their cleanup hitter for the next 10 years or so. Alverez got clutch hits the Astros have been missing for a while and behind his success it looks like the rest of the team is waking up from its offensive slumber.

Sunday the Astros found out they have a MLB leading 6 players who will represent the team at the All-Star game next week. We already knew going into last weekend Houston had Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley and George Springer being voted into the Summer Classic but the pitchers were not named until Sunday afternoon. At that time we all found out that Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Ryan Pressly were named to the All-Star roster. Verlander, the leading candidate for the 2019 Cy Young, may be tabbed as the starter but will pitch for the Astros on Friday against the Angels and he will only be on 3 days of rest. Cole will pitch Saturday so he may be available for just one inning. If Jose Altuve had no missed so much time injured he likely would have made his 7th appearance in the ASG. This is the first time since 2013 that the mighty mite will miss being an All-Star. Last year because of a broken kneecap, which Altuve played through for over half the season and the playoffs, he missed adding to his total of seasons with 200 hits and batting .300 or better. Because he missed 6 weeks of playing time he will likely not make either milestone again this season. But, with Altuve finally at full strength there is no reason he can't play MVP caliber baseball again.

And speaking of Gerrrit Cole, I saw an article that said that Cole will be a free agent after this season is over. If the Astros are smart (meaning GM Jeff Luhnow) they will get busy with a contract extension because Cole has developed into a pitcher who can be the staff ace. With Verlander getting up in age the Astros should be thinking about the post-Justin team prospects. Cole is in his prime as a player and Houston would be stupid to let him get away. I'm just saying.

With Brad Peacock nursing a sore elbow and Collin McHugh being unreliable as a starter and Framber Valdez a flaming dumpster fire the Astros starting rotation doesn't look so healthy right now. In tonight's opener vs the Rockies at Coors Field the Astros have brought up RHP Jose Urquidy from AAA Round Rock. He will be the 10th player to make his major league debut this season for the Astros. Prior to tonight you had Myles Straw, Jack Mayfield, Yordan Alverez, Garrett Stubbs as position players and pitchers Rogelio Armenteros, Cy Sneed, Brian Abreu, Dean Deetz, and Corbin Martin. Martin and top prospect Forrest Whitley are both hurt and Framber Valdez has been the poster child for bad pitching. I'm surprised Houston hasn't turned to Josh James to make a start but I guess Luhnow and AJ Hinch don't feel he's ready, I honestly don't know. The free agent signing period rolls around in a couple of weeks and it stands to reason Houston will be looking for a quality starter (or two) to strengthen the rotation. Joe Smith is a quality arm for the bullpen who will likely make his season debut after the ASG. Smith has been out all season after tearing his Achilles tendon in an offseason workout. It's actually quite amazing that Smith is so far along in his rehab. Generally, an Achilles injury takes a full year to come back from and Smith has only been out 6 months since tearing the tendon in late December. Kevin Durant is said to have to miss all of the 2019-2020 season after tearing his Achilles during the finals against Toronto last month. BTW, apologies to Smith and his parents for calling him Joe Thomas yesterday. Some names being thrown out as potential prospects are Madison Bumgarner, Matthew Boyd and perhaps Marcus Stroman. It just depends on what teams want the Astros to give up in a trade. The Astros have one of the strongest minor league systems in baseball so they can afford to take a hit. The Astros would not be in trouble with their rotation is they had resigned Charlie Morton this past offseason. Morton was a hero of the Astros World Series Championship team in 2017 and he was a valued member of the rotation last year. The Astros offered Dallas Keuchel a tender offer knowing full well he intended to test the free agent waters but the team didn't offer Morton squat and now he's leading the Tampa Bay Rays staff. The Astros front office has done a great job since they took over but not offering Morton a deal and opening negotiations was a major fail that the team is paying for now.

Week 15 is in the books. Houston had a good week going 4-1 in their 5 games played. They swept a 2-game series in Colorado to start the week and they took 2 of 3 against division rival Angels of Anaheim this weekend. It was no cake-walk the way the two games they played in Mexico back in May though. The Angels beat the Astros in Friday's opening game as Justin Verlander couldn't stop giving the Angels pitches to hit out of the park. The Halos hit 3 off Verlander, two were solo shots and the 3rd was a two-run job that gave the Angels a 4-2 lead at one point. The final score was 5-4 thanks to poor hitting by the Astros with RISP and a solo HR allowed by Hector Rondon in relief of Verlander in the 8th. Houston came back Saturday with a 4 zip shutout behind a strong performance by Gerrit Cole. Today Houston had one of those slugfests you normally see in a "Rocky" movie. The Angels hopped out to a 5 nothing lead thanks to rookie pitcher Jose Urquidy looking like the rookie he is. In the 3rd inning Urquidy gave up all five runs while only recording one out before AJ Hinch has seen enough and gave him the hook. His debut in Colorado on Tuesday was decent, he lasted 3.2 innings and only allowed the Rockies 2 runs before getting the hook. I foresee and trip back to Round Rock in his future. He served his purpose, to eat up a few innings to make up for injuries to the starting pitchers. It's obvious he's not the answer to the Astros pitching woes, not this year anyway. It's ironic, given the fact that Verlander and Cole have been shanghaied by a lack of offense in many of their starts, that Urquidy has gotten run support from his offense allowing him to record 2 no-decisions in his two starts. BTW Houston ended up winning both those games. It's a stone cold fact that Houston just doesn't need to trade for a good starter, they HAVE to make a deal for pitcher, or two, if they hope to maintain their hold on the AL West.

At the end of last week Houston held a tenuous 4.5 game lead over the 2nd place Rangers. At the end of this week we find the Rangers have fallen on hard times and they are now 9 games behind Houston. The Oakland A's have taken over 2nd place in the division and they are 7 games back. So, you have to call it good week when you add 2.5 games to your lead.

Yordan Alverez is looking like the real deal. He continues to hit well over .300 and he has driven in 25 runs in less than a month's worth of games. If you add his big league RBI's to his AAA RBI total he has almost 100 RBI's at the All-Star break. That is some sick production.

Yuli Gurriel had a great week. He lead the Astros offense all week driving in runs left and right. He tied a franchise record 5 games in a row with a home run and he did it in style with a grand slam in the 6th inning. That hit tied the game but both teams scored two more runs each to remain tied through 8 innings. Roberto Osuna and Ryan Pressly each threw a scoreless inning of work and in the bottom of the 10th Josh (from Rake Farm) Reddick led off the inning with a double. Robinson Chirinos lined out weakly for the first out. George Springer was up and everyone was hoping for a Springer Dinger but after the Astros had stranded a small army of RISP during the game I'm sure we all were just hoping for a walk-off hit. Springer delivered as Reddick easily scored from 2B for a 11-10 win that also gave Houston a series win when about 4 and half hours earlier it looked like a runaway for the Angels. The game lasted a whopping 4 hours and 49 minutes. The doggone game nearly caused me to miss the start of Naked and Afraid XL!

The Astros good week does not diminish the fact that the starting pitching has some huge holes. With Brad Peacock on the IL and Collin McHugh pretty much relegated to the bullpen that leaves two big holes in the Astros rotation. AJ Hinch has played plug and play with his minor league prospects including Framber Valdez, who has been really disappointing so far, with mixed to disappointing results. Houston hasn't been able to use their top prospect, Forest Whitley, because he's been out with arms issues. They learned this past week that their 2nd best pitching prospect, Corbin Martin, had to have Tommy John surgery on his pitching arm. That means, barring a miracle, he will be out until at least next summer. Houston has to use some of the talent they have stockpiled in the minors to get a starting pitcher, or two, after the All-Star break. I'm sounding like a broken record here but it's true and everyone in the baseball world knows I'm speaking the truth.

AJ Hinch has already started tweaking his starting rotation. Yesterday he announced that beginning with next Friday's game Gerrit Cole will start the second half of the season as the #1 guy. He will be using Wade Miley next followed by Justin Verlander. The reason Hinch gave for the shakeup was because Verlander and Cole are pretty much the same, right handed power pitchers while Miley is a left handed control pitcher. Cole over the month of June and early July is clearly the best pitcher on the Astros staff and has earned the 'ace' spot in the rotation. Verlander has been prone lately to giving up a lot of home runs and it should take some pressure off by allowing him to pitch against the other guys' #3 starter. It's a good move IMO and might serve as a wake-up call for everyone. The Astros actually begin the 2nd half on Thursday but who will make that start is the million dollar question right now. It's almost as big a mystery as to who will start game 5 of the 2nd half on Monday after Verlander's start on Sunday. Did I mention Houston has a hole or two in their starting rotation? Oh well, we get a couple of days away from the grind as the All-Star break is upon us. Alex Bregman will be participating in the Home Run Derby tomorrow night and Houston has a league best 6 players on the All-Star roster. Bregman, Michael Brantley and George Springer will be starters in the game and both Verlander and Cole could get the nod as the starting pitcher for the American League.

Week 1 for the stretch run to the playoffs began after the All Star break. The break was great as there was a very exciting home run derby on Monday night that, unfortunately, saw Alex Bregman exit early on a night where home runs were flying out of the Cleveland Indians stadium like 4th of July fireworks. Finalist Vladimir Guerrero Jr was electric hitting 29 HR's in the first round, 40 in the second round and 22 in the finals for a total of 91 homers. Unfortunately for Guerrero his worst round of the competition was in the finals and the Mets' Pete Alonzo hit 23 to take home the trophy and $1 million buck first prize. In the ASG itself, Justin Verlander got the start pitching a scoreless inning that included a yapping match between Verlander and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman. Freeman was wired for sound by FOX and he told Verlander he was going to homer off him and he dared him to throw him a fastball. Verlander did and Freeman failed to hit it and the at-bat ended when Verlander struck out Freeman with a breaking ball. The Astros on offense became the first teammates to get the first 3 hits in an All Star game. George Springer, Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley turned the trick. Brantley, who spent the first 10 years of his career in Cleveland got a huge ovation from the Cleveland crowd. Brantley was both touched and appreciative of the acknowledgement for the great career he had in Cleveland. The American League won the game 4-3 for the 7 straight ASG win in a row.

The first game back after the break was Thursday and it looked like Houston was still not really back following the break. Starting pitcher, Framber Valdez, set a new "I suck" record for the shortest outing by a starter going just 2/3 of an inning allowing 4 Ranger runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. The Rangers got another run on a solo HR in the 3rd and that was all the offense in the game as Houston looked lethargic and disinterested in the 5-0 shutout loss.

Friday was a different story. The Astros gave Gerrit Cole some run support staking him to a 7-4 lead through 6 and after scoring a run in the top of the 7th it looked like Houston was going to cruise to an easy win. NOT! Will Harris, Hector Rondon and Roberto Osuna managed to give up 5 runs in just 3 innings as the Rangers came up with an unlikely come from behind 9-8 win that nearly caused me to throw a can of Dr Pepper into my TV. Yep, I was mad. I hate the Rangers and it makes me sick to see them win any game much less even one, much less two, against the Astros. The only thing worth noting was that Yordan Alverez got his first multi-home run game with 2 jacks.

Saturday's game with Wade Miley was sort of weird as Houston jumped out to a 2 zip lead in the 1st but Miley gave up back-to-back jacks to the Rangers to tie the game at 2. In the 3rd Houston scored a run to take a brief 3-2 lead but poor defense contributed to the Rangers scoring 2 more runs with both runs unearned because of errors by his defense. Houston found itself down 4-3 until the 5th when the Astros pushed across a run to tie the game and another run in the 6th to take a one run lead. Miley got 2 outs in the 7th but he gave up his 3rd HR of the game allowing the Rangers to tie the game at 5. Unlike Friday's game when the relievers blew a big lead, the relief pitching was good enough to take the Astros into the 11th inning when Houston, on the strength of an RBI double by Jose Altuve, scored two runs in the top of the 11th. Roberto Osuna came on in the bottom of the 11th and he made my tushy pucker some as he allowed a run to tighten the score to 7-6 before getting the final out of the game. With the win, Houston is 8-1 in extra inning games in 2019. Jose Altuve had another 4-hit game going 4-6 including the big hit in the 11th to give Houston the lead.

Altuve came back in this afternoon's game going 3-5 on the day but he was part of a 3-run first inning to stake Justin Verlander to an early lead. Verlander gave back 2 of those runs in the bottom of the inning but after the 1st he was money, going 6 innings with 1 walk and 7 K's to go along with just 2 runs on 4 hits. The most significant stat is he did not allow a HR to the Rangers who had been bashing de ball all weekend. It was nice to Verlander keep balls in the ball park for a change. Jose Altuve has really come out in the 2nd half making contact and this past week he's raised his batting average from a pre-All Star break .261 to a much healthier .274. In the 20 games since he came off IL he's hit .322 with 10 extra base hits and 10 RBI's. Yordan Alverez is also maintaining a BA of almost .350 and he's got 29 RBI's in just 23 games. Today he did everything but get an RBI and homer. He went 1-4 with a walk and he was hit by pitches 3 separate times! It looked like Alverez was trying to break Craig Biggio's MLB record of being hit by a pitch in one game. Verlander finally got his 11th win on the season and Houston managed a split with the slime sucking Rangers in their four game set. The A's remain in 2nd place in the AL West and they managed to make up two games in the standings as they trail the Astros by 6 games. Houston makes a trip to LA to face the Angels in a four game set beginning tomorrow.

Houston got some bad new yesterday as Brad Peacock reported shoulder problems after his bullpen session. He's back in Houston getting evaluated by doctors. This puts Houston in a big bind in their starting rotation and they will continue to rely on Framber Valdez who continues to waste his opportunities with poor pitching. I'm not sure why Collin McHugh isn't given another chance as a starter but Valdez is not the answer and most of the rest of the guys in the minors the Astros could use are either hurt or ineligible to come up to the big club for at least a week. July 31st is the trade deadline so GM Jeff Luhnow needs to get busy getting a starter or two down the stretch.

It was just announced that Josh James will start out the game tomorrow against the Angels going 2 or possibly 3 innings and give way to Framber Valdez. There is a strategy that is going around the bigs to have a reliever start a game and they bring on a starter with the thinking that the starter will benefit from sitting out the first inning or two. Who knows if it really works, but Hinch has to do something to get positive production from his 4th and 5th starters. Tuesday night's starter still has yet to be determined.

I'm just a casual fan of the Astros and even I could see that Tyler White was going to be gone, by whatever method, MLB makes players gone. I'm curious, as to what will happen, when the injured guys, ( Correa and Diaz), return? How many infielders do you keep? Correa, Bergman, Gurriel, Altuve + Kemp, Diaz, plus whoever the Astro's bring in to backup, at 1st base. Myles Straw is not going anywhere. He would seem to be the backup and the relief SS plus he can play the OF plus he can motor. Straw has made himself a very valuable commodity.

I'm guessin' that the Astros will trade for another starting pitcher. I just wonder, which players, that they are willing to trade away?

I'm just a casual fan of the Astros and even I could see that Tyler White was going to be gone, by whatever method, MLB makes players gone. I'm curious, as to what will happen, when the injured guys, ( Correa and Diaz), return? How many infielders do you keep? Correa, Bergman, Gurriel, Altuve + Kemp, Diaz, plus whoever the Astro's bring in to backup, at 1st base. Myles Straw is not going anywhere. He would seem to be the backup and the relief SS plus he can play the OF plus he can motor. Straw has made himself a very valuable commodity.

 

I'm guessin' that the Astros will trade for another starting pitcher. I just wonder, which players, that they are willing to trade away?

i think correa, diaz up probably means straw and possibly kemp down.