Wabs said:

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I'd add to the negative that bases can be stolen on us at will. But that's been a problem for a few years now.

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Good call. We're 25th in holding runners.

The Rays and Rangers are the bottom 2 by a good distance.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Goodness, for those of us making fun of Devers to start the season, he's now batting 265 with an 802 OPS.

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It's almost like good players go through bad stretches at times.

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Thank you.

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He also has made zero errors in the field

astros4545 said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Goodness, for those of us making fun of Devers to start the season, he's now batting 265 with an 802 OPS.

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It's almost like good players go through bad stretches at times.

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Thank you.

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He also has made zero errors in the field

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Gold Glove DH

Boiling Denim said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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After 12 games, the Astros are slashing .208/.293/.291 as a team. The .291 slugging percentage and .584 OPS are both the lowest in baseball.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) April 10, 2025

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We've now got an entire team of Jose Abreu production

Hilarious tbh

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Just a bad stretch dude. By everyone on the team. And worse relative to every other team.

Defense is a big positive. Looks like Jose might even be above average in LF. Rodgers has been meh at 2B so I'm still looking at that spot as somewhere to upgrade this year.

MaxPower said:

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Defense is a big positive. Looks like Jose might even be above average in LF. Rodgers has been meh at 2B so I'm still looking at that spot as somewhere to upgrade this year.

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Yall remember who I wanted to upgrade with? Brendan Donovan and his 3/4/5 slashline. Yes, I would have traded Spaghetti and prospects to get him.

As a Donovan fantasy baseball enjoyer I'm with you.

I also threw out the idea as a nice rental to buy.

Brandon Lowe
.293 BA
.326 OBP
.512 SLG

His expected #s thus far are even better.

Yall know who else is killing it? Nolan Arenado. However, I don't think it's legit. Just some early season luck.

Who I do think is legit? Kyren Paris. Go pick him up in fanasty if you haven't yet. Of course, he's not going to be a 355 wRC+ player, but I think the Angels have a 23-year-old stud in the making.

I don't think the angels will be contenders but I do think they won't be the laughable pushovers they've been recently.

txags92 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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txags92 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Goodness, for those of us making fun of Devers to start the season, he's now batting 265 with an 802 OPS.

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It's almost like good players go through bad stretches at times.

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The question is do we have a bunch of "good players" that are in a 2+ year dry spell and are about to get hot again, or do we have a bunch of JAGs that had a hot streak long enough for us to start to believe they were capable of more than they really are?

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Who are you referring to specifically?

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Mostly guys like McCormick, where he hit for an .842 OPS in 2023, but was in the mid .700s in 2021-2022 and can seem to get above .600 in 2024-2025. Is he a "good player" who is just having a bad 1.5 years? Or is he somebody we shouldn't expect to ever approach his 2023 levels again?

Or Diaz...is he the .846 guy from 2023, the .766 guy from last year, or the .200 guy from this year? What is a realistic expectation for him?

I think we also get ahead of where we really are with some guys because of how they performed in a few really clutch games. Pena is a great example. He was all world as the MVP of the WS in 2022, but he is a pretty pedestrian hitter over the course of the rest of his career. I occasionally see comments about him "regaining his WS form", like he has been in a slump since then, but looking over the full course of his career, where he has been since 2022 seems to be more of who he is as a hitter than the 2022 playoff run. Could say the same for Meyers. He hasn't shown anything to indicate is likely to become a .800+ OPS guy. We all see some potential in Jake, but nothing in his past suggests that is who he is as a hitter.

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I think Chas is somewhere between '24 and '23. If you combine those 2 years, his wRC+ is 108, the same as his rookie season. His career wRC+ is 110. That puts him ~10% above average. I think that is a fair expectation as long as he's getting ~30% of his ABs vs LHP. He's 29 years old and should be in the middle of his prime. A guy like Chas isn't the reason this team in struggling overall. He's only gotten 14 PA.

Look at Diaz's history:
2019 - 145 (minors)
2021 - 136 (minors)
2022 - 121 (minors)
2023 - 127
2024 - 117
2025 - (-37)

He's been a stud or at least well above avg every year no matter the level of play. He's in the middle of a crazy slump. He has plenty of flaws (chasing, too aggressive, etc) but I think we have a good amount of evidence to say that his 1st 2 season of play aren't flukes. This year (only 36 PA) is the anomaly.

I think Pena & Meyers are about who they've shown to be. The avg on offense with skills on base and in the field. They'll go thru flashes of greatness, but I don't think either is special.

mwm said:

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Yesterday was a kick in the groin.

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I was stopping by this thread to share my thoughts on the last couple of games, but then I saw your post and decided it captured my thoughts perfectly.

Ag_07 said:

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I don't think the angels will be contenders but I do think they won't be the laughable pushovers they've been recently.

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Their pitchers might as well be Cy Young since we are facing them at Daikan.

"I am interested to see how they evolve over the course of the season with this new mix."

Despite their early struggles, @Ken_Rosenthal isn't counting out the Astros just yet... pic.twitter.com/xkhnAzOzDJ

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 10, 2025

Farmer1906 said:

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Yall know who else is killing it? Nolan Arenado. However, I don't think it's legit. Just some early season luck.

Who I do think is legit? Kyren Paris. Go pick him up in fanasty if you haven't yet. Of course, he's not going to be a 355 wRC+ player, but I think the Angels have a 23-year-old stud in the making.

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I got him in fantasy a few days ago. on pace for an 80-60 season so far

Farmer1906 said:

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txags92 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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txags92 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Goodness, for those of us making fun of Devers to start the season, he's now batting 265 with an 802 OPS.

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It's almost like good players go through bad stretches at times.

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The question is do we have a bunch of "good players" that are in a 2+ year dry spell and are about to get hot again, or do we have a bunch of JAGs that had a hot streak long enough for us to start to believe they were capable of more than they really are?

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Who are you referring to specifically?

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Mostly guys like McCormick, where he hit for an .842 OPS in 2023, but was in the mid .700s in 2021-2022 and can seem to get above .600 in 2024-2025. Is he a "good player" who is just having a bad 1.5 years? Or is he somebody we shouldn't expect to ever approach his 2023 levels again?

Or Diaz...is he the .846 guy from 2023, the .766 guy from last year, or the .200 guy from this year? What is a realistic expectation for him?

I think we also get ahead of where we really are with some guys because of how they performed in a few really clutch games. Pena is a great example. He was all world as the MVP of the WS in 2022, but he is a pretty pedestrian hitter over the course of the rest of his career. I occasionally see comments about him "regaining his WS form", like he has been in a slump since then, but looking over the full course of his career, where he has been since 2022 seems to be more of who he is as a hitter than the 2022 playoff run. Could say the same for Meyers. He hasn't shown anything to indicate is likely to become a .800+ OPS guy. We all see some potential in Jake, but nothing in his past suggests that is who he is as a hitter.

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I think Chas is somewhere between '24 and '23. If you combine those 2 years, his wRC+ is 108, the same as his rookie season. His career wRC+ is 110. That puts him ~10% above average. I think that is a fair expectation as long as he's getting ~30% of his ABs vs LHP. He's 29 years old and should be in the middle of his prime. A guy like Chas isn't the reason this team in struggling overall. He's only gotten 14 PA.

Look at Diaz's history:
2019 - 145 (minors)
2021 - 136 (minors)
2022 - 121 (minors)
2023 - 127
2024 - 117
2025 - (-37)

He's been a stud or at least well above avg every year no matter the level of play. He's in the middle of a crazy slump. He has plenty of flaws (chasing, too aggressive, etc) but I think we have a good amount of evidence to say that his 1st 2 season of play aren't flukes. This year (only 36 PA) is the anomaly.

I think Pena & Meyers are about who they've shown to be. The avg on offense with skills on base and in the field. They'll go thru flashes of greatness, but I don't think either is special.

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I agree with you on pretty much all of that, and I wasn't trying to say any one guy was why the team is struggling (except maybe Cintron, but then where does that leave Snitker; j/k). But I was trying to make the point that kind of echoes what somebody else made a few days or weeks ago, which is that we have lost or traded away several really good players that were particularly clutch hitters. And except for the Tucker trade that might still work out well, we have not replaced them with similar players.

Pena in 2022 form was as good or better than prime Correa, but prime 2022 Pena has been absent since the league learned how much he loves to swing at sliders outside, yet can't do anything with them. Cam is not a 1-1 replacement for Tucker by any stretch, Meyers is not Springer, Paredes is good, but is doing his best "Bregman in April" impression. Jury is still out on Walker vs somebody like prime Gurriel.

The point being that we are all hoping (expecting?) these guys will still turn it around and come through offensively like the 2017/2019/2022 teams, but I think that is way too much to ask for based on who we really are now. We aren't going to go on long runs outhitting everybody we face anymore (God I hope they make me eat those words), which is why it is so much more important that we get good situational hitting in tight games and be smart about how we manage our lineup and game situations. We have not been good enough at either of those things recently (or for at least the last year) and our pitching (particularly the bullpen) are not good enough to carry us all season long.

here's one problem

Paredes has career OPS .820 vs. left-handed pitching

career OPS .728 vs. right-handed pitching

he needs to face leftys to pump up his numbers

but he's not getting the chance in the Astros lineup

likewise Pena has career OPS .823 vs. leftys

career OPS .663 vs. rightys

Pena is going to have a bad season if he only faces right-handed pitching

Completely agree it's a problem and one I don't see a good solution. Theres only two positions we could feasible plug in a bat (CF and 2B). It's really hard to find a good offensive CF, moreso one that hits lefty. 2B might be easier to find a platoon but that's a really niche thing to look for in a trade. It's also an organizational issue because we don't have many lefties in the minors (hitters or pitchers).

It likely has to wait until the offseason but I'm hoping it's a focus for the draft. Lefty SP specifically is fairly strong this year. Maybe if you trade Framber at some point you can make it a priority. The Red Sox have Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meyer as big league ready lefty bats, though they may be too highly regarded to trade for a rental. The Dodgers have some intriguing lefty bats (De Paula, Freeland and Hope) that might be obtainable.

It really seems like Yordan is more comfortable hitting third with someone separating him from Altuve who sometimes puts the first pitch in play.

That being said, hitting Parades behind Yordan might help him, especially once Yordan starting hitting like the threat he truly is.

As we have seen in the past, despite the fact that Yordan crushes LHP pitching as well, managers tend to go to lefties when he is threatening. He often reaches anyways, forcing said LHP to face the next hitter. Christian Walker is platoon neutral for his career, so Parades might make more sense hitting immediately behind Yordan compared to Walker to get him more ABs against LHP.

That would either mean switching Isaac and Yordan in the order, or bumping someone else up to the 2 spot in front of Alvarez/Parades/Walker.

It ignores the analytics of putting your best hitter in the 2 hole, but if Cam Smith gets going, he might be a fascinating candidate to hit second in front of Yordan (get challenged more in the zone, plus let his speed play along with Altuve at the top of the order).

Christian Walker this time last year.

48 AB: .292 AVG / .382 OBP / .500 SLG / .882 OPS. He had 1 2B, 3 HR’s, 11 RBI, and 17 SO.

Christian Walker in the same amount of AB’s this year.

48 AB: .146 AVG / .196 OBP / .229 SLG / .425 OPS. He has 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, and 18 SO.

I know…

— Astros Knower (@AstrosKnower) April 10, 2025