To be honest, this is what I expected from the Astros coming into this season. A lot of exciting plays from the youngsters, a lot of growing pains, not so many wins.
Might be time to give Singleton a shot and sit Carter for a while. Even bringing up Tony Kemp for a scuffling Marisnick, or give Rasmus a chance. I have to imagine Lowrie is going right to 3rd when he returns. Valbuenna has been struggling pretty bad.
Very impressed with V2 today. The curveball is much better than expected as all the scouting reports say it's his weakest pitch. Could refine it a bit, but it showed it's a swing and miss pitch today. Much better fastball than scouting reports say as he was 94-96mph all game and hit 98 a few times. 70 Fastball 60 Changeup 55 Curveball Control was a bit shaky today, but give him the benefit of the doubt as it was his debut and he has a strong track record of not allowing too many walks. Wasn't hitting his spots and seemed to be more of a thrower than a pitcher tonight, but he has a bright future ahead of him.
Honestly would rather the Rangers win at this point in the season. More nervous about the As as a threat going forward, even with their crappy record thus far.
I'm surprised by all the freak out. The only alarming thing to me is Altuve. I think when he hit his fifth home run I was worried that he'd try to hit more and for a while it seemed he was hitting a lot of fly balls that were easy outs. Now he seems to be hitting more grounders but those crisp line drives we saw earlier in the year seem all but gone. I think maybe he lost focus on what made him successful last year.
When Lowrie comes back, this offense will start really clicking. Hope we can stay healthy. I still say try to trade for a 1B. Shoot for Votto after all star game in Cinci.
I agree with this. Valbuena and Carter have been pretty awful. Valbuena has never really been a good hitter. In 8 years, he has never hit better than .250 for a season and his career batting average is below .225. Last year was an outlier, a breakthrough season, and he still only managed to hit .249. The point being that Valbuena is what he is, and at this point in his career, he isn't likely to get just a whole lot better. Combine this with Carter and his lofty .219 career batting average and you've got two pretty terrible hitters at positions where hitting should be somewhat of a priority. A really good lineup might allow you to hide one or the other, but to have them both out there everyday is turning into a real handicap for this team.
Because behind him you have Altuve, who does not take pitches (does not allow Springer to run much), swings at high balls, sliders inside on the dirt, and if the average is not .350 does not help much with the bat.
I like Singleton and would be happy to see him get another shot. He isn't the type of new bat they need though... but with what little they are getting out of Carter, he'd be an improvement.
