After steady rebuild, Astros on verge of taking a step back

If Keuchel and McCullers were doing this year what they did last year, then this team would be doing fine. Everything came together last year much faster than anyone predicted.

What I'm hoping for the remainder of this season is for Bregman, Reed, and Gurriel to become consistent and productive members of our starting lineup.

 

I doubt Lourdes would start until, at the earliest, mid-way through the season. I'd like to see us move for a veteran OF bat, preferably Braun.

 

The Astros didn't overachieve last year... they underachieved last year, their pyth% was 93 wins last year. They underachieved by 7 wins..

The Astros young players overall haven't really struggled overall, it has been OLDER players that have really struggled.

 

I'm not going by Pythagorean. I'm talking about the expectation level and where the team was at. There were players that had career years. Everything came together all at once and they had exceeded the expectations of most people. They had overachieved the same way the Cubs had also. It was reasonable for them to take a step back. The season is still far from over with a month and change left. 42 games is a lot, just remember 2011 when the Braves and Red Sox blew it in the final month. All it takes is to get hot in the final month and that's probably where you want to be at as a team entering the post season.

Not a fan of that Pythagorean expectation btw. I don't think runs scored and runs allowed tells the full story about a team.

 

Gotcha.... so we will go with your gut over what the stats say.

The Astros had one player had a "career year" other than possible Kuechel?

 

By expectation measures, this season has been even more of a disappointment than the Rockets. Multiple outlets had them as World Series champions and even the players talked about having unfinished business in the playoffs. To say this season is a disappointment is a vast understatement. If you decide to look at just metrics, then the team has now underachieved two seasons in a row.

 

This year was certainly a step back, not sure how anyone can argue otherwise even if they think the team overachieved last season.

Keuchel went from a Cy Young to MoR SP #s.
Gomez was a complete bust.
Rasmus was oftinjured and erratic.
Correa failed to take the step from star to superstar.
McCullers was injured.
Giles was awful at the start of the season and closer in general has been unreliable.
None of the unestablished hitters broke out (White, Reed, Bregman, Tucker, Moran, Kemp, Marisnick).
Fiers has been inconsistent and had a down year overall.

There were certainly some pleasant surprises:
Fister panned out.
Devenski pitched great.
Altuve played like a HoFer.
Teoscar has looked good.

But really it boils down to 2 players who were being counted on for star level performances (Keuchel and Gomez) didn't meet expectation and Luhnow didn't splurge enough to build in a cushion in the roster to be able to overcome that.

 

This should be repeated over and over. Despite everything else, this boils down to our two aces. The team is 10-14 in Keuchel's 24 starts. Last year, they were 25-11 in his 36 starts. If they are 16-8 this year, they are in the WC spot right now. That's not even accounting for McCullers.

 

Mother****ing Cubfans.

 

I'm no genie either but it all comes down to what will become of dallas and mchugh. These guys had too many games where they didn't even give the team a chance to compete. If they get back to some normalcy, then that adds up to possible wins that were automatic loses before reaching the 4th inning.

We're back in business with the addition of 1 pro hitter, two pro hitters would be getting greedy even for someone not named crane. The resigning of Valbuena, Hinch seasoning more and One 16 oz bottle of moose antler spray for Lance. Also, replacing Fiers with Dev maybe Fiers can be the new feldman.

Alex is showing he is the real deal. It just took some "time". I put it quotes because everyone wants instant gratification from a rookie. It's usually a process.

Even a stacked astros entering the year 2000 would take a step backwards. Injuries but still..nothing is e guaranteed.