***** 2024 Houston Astros Season Thread ***** [Staff Warning] - Page 287

CFTXAG10

9:23a, 4/17/24

Beau Holder said:
Here I am for some reason still thinking about going to the game today.

businessman's special. Why not?

iBrad

9:26a, 4/17/24

We're second in the AL in OBP at .340, so we are producing baserunners in over a third of our at bats. We lead the AL in BA at .269. And even with our struggles with guys on base, we are still sixth in runs scored.

The issue is that our offense explodes for some games and is virtually non-existent in others, and that's largely due to Bregman, Chas, and Abreu/Singleton. The same guys can't carry us every night. We've got a third of our lineup that was expected to be run producers struggling to produce runs.

AustinCountyAg

9:27a, 4/17/24

we have a -22 run diff. fourth worst in the league. BRUTAL

tjack16

9:32a, 4/17/24

In reply to iBrad

Yeah but we can all agree last year's team was weird. Going into the final week we had a better shot at missing the playoffs altogether than winning the division. We played at about an 85-88 win pace all year and then had a great final week alongside a Ranger collapse the final 2 months

Wabs

9:37a, 4/17/24

Beating a dead horse, but when (WHEN!) are we going to see somebody, anybody, do something about the first base position?? Can we not at minimum try Dubon over there? Let Diaz play 1B on days he's not catching? I'd take a combo of Dubon, Diaz and Caratini over Abreu/Singleton 1000 times out of 1000. It's extremely frustrating to see them trot 2 players out there every day that give the team absolutely nothing.

Who's got the call with this? Brown? Espada? Crane? Bueller?

Beau Holder

9:41a, 4/17/24

In reply to Wabs

I heard we have this tantalizing 1B prospect hitting two homers every other game in Sugar Land but his 33% K rate is somehow more concerning than Abreu and Singleton's combined -1.2 WAR.

iBrad

9:43a, 4/17/24

In reply to tjack16

We hit the 80 win mark with 21 games left and had the easiest closing schedule of any contender. We should have won 95 games, but had a stretch of games equally as bad, if not worse, than we're on now, which was our second of the season. And yet we still won the division.

The point I was making is that one bad stretch of games doesn't define a season, nor does a 17-5 run. There's a lot of baseball left to be played.

Marvin

9:43a, 4/17/24

In reply to Wabs

Wabs said:
Beating a dead horse, but when (WHEN!) are we going to see somebody, anybody, do something about the first base position?? Can we not at minimum try Dubon over there? Let Diaz play 1B on days he's not catching? I'd take a combo of Dubon, Diaz and Caratini over Abreu/Singleton 1000 times out of 1000. It's extremely frustrating to see them trot 2 players out there every day that give the team absolutely nothing.

Who's got the call with this? Brown? Espada? Crane? Bueller?

My impression, wrong as it may be, is that Brown has zero power and minimal influence beyond the draft and international signings.

Cromagnum

9:46a, 4/17/24

13-31 at home since last August.

W

9:53a, 4/17/24

the great hope is that the AL West turns out to be terrible this year -- and it might be

such that 84 or 85 wins will net 1st place

EastCoastAgNc

9:56a, 4/17/24

Astros GM Dana Brown on Josh Hader: "The fastball is still good. When you look at the back of these guys baseball card, they'll get going. He's going to close out a lot of games."@SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered @SSalisburyShow
— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 17, 2024

"Back of the baseball card" is to Dana Brown what "discomfort" was to Lunhow and Click. I wish they would eliminate that phrase from their vocabulary

Farmer1906

9:57a, 4/17/24

In reply to EastCoastAgNc

That's something Dusty kept saying last year.

EastCoastAgNc

9:57a, 4/17/24

"Imagine having FIVE starters on the IL. We lead the league in IL time. These teams are all good. We're fine. We can still pitch, we can still defend and we can still hit. I'll let you know when to panic." - Astros GM Dana Brown with us on @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered
— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 17, 2024

cc10106

9:58a, 4/17/24

In reply to Marvin

Crane and his crew of "special advisors" aren't fit to lead a looming rebuild so hopefully that isn't the plan.

W

9:59a, 4/17/24

Yordan has .689 OPS at MMP

having trouble with the high fastball and/or not seeing the ball at home

Beau Holder

9:59a, 4/17/24

In reply to EastCoastAgNc

Farmer1906

10:07a, 4/17/24

In reply to W

W said:
Yordan has .689 OPS at MMP

having trouble with the high fastball and/or not seeing the ball at home

He's hitting the absolute piss out of the ball at home.

He's got 5 outs where the ball went 380+ including one over 400.

He's hit 16 balls on play at over 100 MPH and only has 6 hits to show for it.

W

10:11a, 4/17/24

is .689 a typo?

MaxPower

10:12a, 4/17/24

In reply to EastCoastAgNc

EastCoastAgNc said:
Astros GM Dana Brown on Josh Hader: "The fastball is still good. When you look at the back of these guys baseball card, they'll get going. He's going to close out a lot of games."@SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered @SSalisburyShow
— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 17, 2024

"Back of the baseball card" is to Dana Brown what "discomfort" was to Lunhow and Click. I wish they would eliminate that phrase from their vocabulary

Agreed that I hate that phrase. Back of Bagwell's card looks great, Dana want him hitting?

Farmer1906

10:18a, 4/17/24

In reply to W

W said:
is .689 a typo?

Not at all. But two things can both be true. His OPS ain't great. He's hitting the ball extremely well and hard. If he continues to do so from the 54 PA sample over 300 PA, I would expect his OPS to be north of .900.

Bonnettecj1

10:28a, 4/17/24

EastCoastAgNc

10:37a, 4/17/24

Astros-Braves today: pic.twitter.com/tlLesIqe2Z
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) April 17, 2024

The lefties are split

Farmer1906

10:42a, 4/17/24

In reply to EastCoastAgNc

TED getting moved down after a 158 wRC+.

Tisk Tisk, Joe.

Farmer1906

10:44a, 4/17/24

In reply to Farmer1906

Also, we're facing a LHP. Jake and Doobie both should play these games, not Caratini. He can help more vs RHP because he switches and doesn't have one side where he's significantly worse.

tjack16

10:45a, 4/17/24

I guess Bregman has shown Joe enough to make him get more at bats and clutch opportunities

texasaggie2015

10:49a, 4/17/24

This would be the time to have Altuve DH, Dubon play second and Meyers play CF.

Wabs

10:50a, 4/17/24

Wabs

10:51a, 4/17/24

In reply to texasaggie2015

texasaggie2015 said:
This would be the time to have Altuve DH, Dubon play second and Meyers play CF.

Or Altuve play 2B, Dubon play 1B and Meyers play CF.

Mr.Bond

10:52a, 4/17/24

Chronicle throwing haymakers

Im looking for Ray Finkle.... and a clean pair of shorts. Im just a very big Finkle fan. This is my Graceland, sir.

EastCoastAgNc

10:53a, 4/17/24

I think we might slowly be getting a sense of why Joe kept getting passed over for other jobs.

texasaggie2015

10:53a, 4/17/24

In reply to Wabs

Eh. Dubon has played first base in two games in his entire career. As much as Abreu has frustrated me, I would rather have a natural first baseman there especially with France on the mound as there will be lots of balls in play.

tjack16

10:53a, 4/17/24

It would be like the Astros to make the two unknown Braves starters like like Cy Young winners and then turn around to light Fried up

texasaggie2015

10:53a, 4/17/24

In reply to Mr.Bond

That's a really weird headline. Wow.

I said this yesterday but Hader is at the very bottom of my list of concerns. He'll be fine.

iBrad

10:55a, 4/17/24

If you put Yanier back behind the plate today, there are more lineup options. But it's apparent he's getting the day off. Given that, the lineup is okay. The black hole at first obviously sucks.

tjack16

11:00a, 4/17/24

Caratini at first is my move. Yes no backup catcher… but it's either that or a black hole at first. He's played in 62 games before. .993 fielding percentage at 1st in 290 innings logged

If not having a backup catcher is the issue, DFA singleton and call up Salazar to be the backup