Well this is kind of weird, because this blog was started yesterday before the game. To be fair to myself, this was actually almost finished by the first inning of the game, and I thought I could phone it in. This was maybe a mild poor assessment of the Astros after really only seeing one game. I posted before, but my focus Thursday through Sunday was March Madness. Admittedly, I took the day off from sports on Saturday after UH’s loss, but that was all sports.
This blog was supposed to be a breakdown of how the Astro’s season started. Not in a doom and gloom kind of way, but a more tempering of expectations kind of way. Just going into the season, it felt slightly like a fall off season. Like one of those years that the team does okay, but doesn’t live up to the expectations bestowed by the media and the team legacy. It’s not a bad thing; it hast to happen at some point. And after starting winless, it felt like the writing went from the wall to the batter’s eye. We had reached a down season.
While we’re on the batter’s eye, I just want to address that here. There seems to be a little debate surrounding the Minute Maid batter’s eye. Not to call this twitter user out, I just saw it first.
It’s not the batter’s eye. I know it was changed in September, but it’s just that the Astros cannot hit at home. If it was the batter’s eye, you’d expect to be the opposite of Coors, where every team struggles to get any sort of offense going. But, according to Statcast, Minute Maid is pretty middle of the pack. I think the Astros just may be bad at hitting while at home.
Juan Soto is 25
So that explains the [Redacted]. The word was supposed to be winless. This post was supposed to be about winlessness. Instead, this has morphed into the dichotomy of the soul. The dichotomy of the Astros. After the end of the Yankees series, I was seeing this kind of post everywhere on Twitter.
While I am still not unconvinced someone sold the soul of Houston sports for the 2017 run, it’s nice to see the other teams doing well. But, I would have liked the Astros to not have completely fallen apart in those first games. Maybe it was jitters. I’m also not going to sit here and just blame Espada for these losses. I actually have a pretty hard time blaming managers in general for losses. Unless it’s something like the Grienke pull or a lot of the weird Dusty moves, I’m not going to sit here and call someone a bust. If this was football or basketball – maybe.
My real takeaway from those first games were really twofold: 1. the Astros bullpen needs some help or something; Maton is busy retaliating for past wrongs in Tampa Bay. 2. I still really hate Juan Soto and am annoyed he plays us more That stupid nut grab drives me up a wall. Oh no the pitcher threw a ball? Let me grab my nuts and pretend like I did this. The hitting thing as well, but that’s normal. And the inconsistency is a feature, not a bug, of the Framchise.
It seems unnecessary to detail to the full struggles of the bullpen right now. The Astros are currently rocking a 6.89 ERA with 12 earned runs and 19 hits. After the starters put in some relatively quality starts (I’ll even let JP live on this island), the bullpen just killed itself. I’m also vaguely annoyed at Josh Hader. I want to believe in him, but giving it up to Juan Soto is a real check in the column against him. His other performance have been great, though.
This section is named after Juan Soto, just because he was the most memorable Yankee to me. I also cannot stand him. I want to like him, but I just don’t. That stupid walk off single (it wasn’t even a great hit) and that run-saving throw annoy me. Maybe Dubón shuldn’t have gone, but it was a fantastic throw. I have to give some credit to him there.
I think this was a bit of a fluke series, lost by the bullpen. Should the Astros have hit more? of course they should have. But like the Framchise, that is a feature not a bug at this point. Let’s just wipe this one off our minds.
Blanco Blanking
Before I get into everything Blanco, I want to address the mortal enemy of Dusty Baker. (I need to out myself, I could not remember Dusty’s last name. I kept calling him Dusty May. Crazy enough both have made radical career-ending decisions in the last six months). Yanier Diaz somehow has both come alive as a batter and called a no-hitter. I have reliable information told to me that actually the only catcher who has ever called a no-hitter is Maldy. Too bad he is too busy trying to prevent a first base coach from doing his job.
Also, one last note from the undermound – Jose Abreu. First off, go on buddy get a hit. Proud of him. Always a big day when your first baseman, a position known for struggling to hit, finally gets on base. But also, way to save a no hitter.
Unlike his performance in child making, Blanco is pitching blanks on the diamond. Genuinley, an unreal performance by that guy. I saw somewhere that he came into the game with an 88 ERA+. Like, no offense to the guy, but he wasn’t on anyone’s radar. He made the starting rotation at the last moment, and only was pushed as a starting pitcher last year. What a great eigth start, though. I’m still not fully sure what I expect from him. He had a 4.50 ERA in 17 games and 7 starts last year. But I’m here to ride the high of a no-hitter. I will mentally call it a perfect game.
Would I have liked a perfect game? Sure that would have been cool. But George Springer has earned the right to get a walk. Not two, like he did, but a walk nonetheless. I also think Cavan Biggio gets the birthright of one walk, but that’s up for debate.
The Blue Jays aren’t some middling franchise, so I think this series will be a better indicator of where the Astros are. Maybe the bullpen will actually feature tonight, but maybe that’s a new Espada strat. Big mind starts.
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