So, Uh, The Astros Are Legit

Last night, I watched the first place Houston Astros take on the Chicago White Sox.  The Astros sat at 34-26 and had lost 6 straight games.  They went on to lose the game by a score of 4-2, dropping to within 2 games of the heathly-again Texas Rangers.  But in the course of blowing the game late, they made a believer out of me.  Around this time, the casual observer or blogger will see this seven game losing streak as a sign of the Astros returning to their preseason destination as the cellar of  the AL West. Not Off The Bench; nay, we believe in these Houston Astros.

Not too long ago the Astros led the league in homers, steals, and strikeouts.  They’re certainly a fun bunch in that regard and with Chris Carter, Evan Gattis, George Springer, Colby Rasmus and Luis Valbuena will continue to be.  The Braves from a year ago showed just how poorly a team that lives and dies by the long ball can perform when they fail to hit the long ball with the same gusto with which they had planned. These Astros currently sit atop the HR list, but rank just 13th in the majors in runs scored.  There is hope that these Astros will continue to hit home runs and that some of the young players (Jake Marisnick, and Jason Castro) who have struggled to get on-base so far will improve.

But the reason that so many were pessimistic about the Astros prior to this season is that their pitching staff failed to inspire much of anything. From Max’s preseason AL West preview: “The Astros rotation will hold them back. Scott Feldman is listed as the Ace and aside from the fact that I like Dan Straily, that’s all you need to know.”  While that was mostly true for the first two month of the season, the Astros have promoted a pair of young guns who suddenly make their rotation both exciting and apparently capable of success.

Let’s quickly review where the Astros rotation currently stands:

• Dallas Keuchel is the Ace that the Astros need. He’s currently sitting on a 1.90 ERA after posting a 2.93 in 200 innings last year.  He’s 27, a late bloomer, and doesn’t throw especially hard.  Great pitchers come in all shapes and sizes and this one happens to have a great beard.
• Colin McHugh fits in the 2-4 starter somewhere and is struggling to match the 2.73 ERA from a year ago, but he’s hardly walking anyone and should see his 4.39 ERA drop.
• Lance McCullers made his debut a few weeks ago.  I was excited and proceeded to compare him to the other great flamethrowers out there (Michael Pineda, and Yordano Ventura).  In the four starts since, McCullers has continued to strike everyone out and sports a 2.32 ERA.
• Vincent Velasquez made his debut last night and was thoroughly impressive.  He consistently threw fastballs that clocked in at 97 with movement.  His curveball had tremendous movement and he managed to not hang any of the ones that he threw last night.  Hitters were taking weak swings at Velasquez and his stuff was certainly impressive on the TV.  He threw 5 innings and didn’t give up a run.
• This is where things got ugly.  The artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona still can’t pitch since the name change.  Brett Oberholzer is nothing more than a high-upside number 5 pitcher. And Scott Feldman was never going to be worth the $30 Million that the Astros agreed to pay him last offseason. But someone among that group will stabilize the number 5 starter spot.  Oh yeah, and Dan Straily is ready to go in the minor leagues as the backup to the 5th starter.  Or the Astros could trade for someone like Aaron Harang to join all these young guns.

The Astros have recently called up some young flamethrowers who help their rotation depth, provide another exciting spark to improve their mlb.tv ratings, and ensure that they’ll stay in the hunt through the summer months.  The full rotation is not anything to write home about just yet, but now promises to be good in the years to come.  More importantly, I no longer feel that the rotation will hold the Astros back as they pursue the AL West crown.

-Sean Morash

Stat of the Day: Mark Appel, the Astros top overall pick in 2013, currently has an ERA above 5, in 50 innings at AA Corpus Christi.