Boston is giving up 8 runs a game. Dodgers are scoring 9 runs a game. Tigers are scoring 1.4 runs a game. None of these trends will last. Every team, Astros included, will have extended stretches of pitching well, hitting well, pitching poorly, and hitting poorly. The Astros won't keep scoring 2.2 runs per game, nor will they keep giving up 2.4 runs per game. In 2015 or 2016, we probably had a lot of casual baseball watchers here that didn't follow the flows of a baseball season, but at this point, everyone should know that early season stats are meaningless. Getting worked up over it year after year just seems like self-torture.
Gonna have to disagree there. Could we still win the division without them, probably, our talent level is that great, and the division is that underwhelming. But no team is gonna win 95 plus with only 2 capable starters. We would be counting on a bunch of rookies and Wade Miley to make 60% of our starts. Luhnow would be required to use assets to acquire a starter.
.246 BABIP is the biggest reason why production has been down over these first FIVE games. Small sample size theater all the way around.
Come on, by your definition of "capable" not including Miley, Whitley, James, Valdez, and guys Astros will acquire via trade, the 2017 Astros only had 1 capable starter a week into the season and won 101. Musgrove, ever-injured McCullers, Pre-CFM Morton, Peacock, McHugh, Martes, Paulino, and Fiers would definitely not be viewed as capable. Without Peacock and McHugh, Astros still win about 95 games with Cole and Verlander healthy. Could be 90. Could be 100. If 95 wins is the bar of effective, the bar is wrong. Rolling out Miley and a bunch of rookies may not be pretty, but it should be good enough to get the job done provided Astros hitters get hits with RISP while Cole and Verlander act as steamrollers.
They're going to be able to move down to the lower level with no problem, if it's as empty as yesterday's game looked. I have an upper level ticket for tomorrow's game and don't plan to spend a single minute up there.
http://www.astroscounty.com/2019/04/tuesday-morning-hot-links.html Houston has scored 11 runs through their first five games. I thought that would be the lowest in quite some time, but the 2015 Astros scored ten runs in their first five games, and scored 13 runs in their first five games in 2017. The 2019 Astros now have 11 runs on 35 hits. That's the 4th-highest hit total in the AL to go with the 3rd-lowest run total.
You are expecting a bunch of rookies to pitch as well as our guys did that year. LMJ, Peacock, DK, Morton were all good in 2017. Fiers also had a great stretch when everyone was hurt. The pitching in 2017 was not trash by any means before we added Verlander.
Tyler White has gotten fat AF. His belly hangs over his belt. If you're gonna be fat and out of shape you better mash, if you're not mashing, then you better get in shape.
No. I'm expecting Verlander and Cole, if healthy and without an unexpected drop in performance, to steamroll other teams to a degree no Astros pitcher did in 2017. I'm expecting Brantley can hit well enough (though not expecting much from his defense) to turn Astros Big 4 into a Big 5. Not trash, but the Astros 2017 rotation raked up an ERA of over 4 with a similar FIP. Fiers despite a couple months of lights out was garbage for most of the year. Assuming Cole and Verlander rack up high 2/low 3 ERAs or FIPs and Miley is around 4, Astros rookies only need to be in the high 4s/low 5s to match 2017's rotation. I'm highly confident James is better than a high 4 or low 5 ERA or FIP. Same for Whitley. Valdez, too, but with less margin for error. Rookies only need to be playable. I'm placing a lot of faith in the Altuve, Bregman, Springer, Correa, and Brantley to win games whether it is McHugh or Valdez. In addition, I'm expecting Astros to add a TOR SP even with Peacock/McHugh. So basically, Astros need to get one rookie perform only moderately horribly out of James, Whitley, Martin, Valdez, and Bukauskas to match 2017's rotation if McHugh and Peacock's arms fall off.
