The Official Houston Astros Thread

Awesome 1st outing for Kazmir. 7 shutout innings while allowing 3 hits on only 91 pitches against the AL best Royals.

The absolute icing on the cake for the Astros getting Kazmir is that he's not only spent his entire career in the AL but the last 5 of 6 seasons in the AL West. An away game in the AL West at this point probably isn't so much different than a home game for him. Not only is he used to pitching in all of these parks regularly but he's used to pitching against all of these guys as well. Seeing as his two best seasons were the past two seasons, I think not really having to change scenery within the game will be very helpful in continuing his dominance. Even outside of baseball, Houston is familiar to him because he's from there. After last night, his chances of maintaining his current dominance looks solid.

Also, the Astros within the next week or two will most likely upgrade two more times without even having to make another trade. Jed Lowrie and George Springer will be returning. The Astros are looking to move Lowrie to 3rd in place of Valbuena because he's played 3rd before and Altuve/Correa have solidified 2nd/SS. Valbuena will probably split some time Chris Carter at 1st while Springer will shuffle into the outfield and replace Marsnick's bat I'm assuming. Lowrie and Springer were both batting .260-.270 range I believe before injury while Valbuena is batting .200 and Marsnick .235. If Lowrie/Springer can both bounce back from injury down the stretch, will be a nice increase in batting average/consistency for a team that probably starts some of the worst batting averages in all of baseball. Last night they had Valbuena(.201), Castro(.209) and Singleton(.171) starting. Yikes.

Still wouldn't mind if the Astros made another trade or two despite the addition/return of Kazmir, Lowrie and Springer. Especially if they can find a cheaper deal similar to that of Kazmir as opposed to the insane packages it would take to get a Price or Hamels. Though, I wouldn't be opposed if the Astros aimed for a star. None the less, it's also nice having a good farm system to go with your winning team. There have been star studded teams that were insanely good one year and like two years down the road they flame out completely. You'd hate to trade your farm system for something like that to occur so I don't want them to deplete for their run this year. There is still time for players in the farm system to develop and turn into stars. Don't need to trade 5 potential future MLB players for 1 current star that an injury or age or whatever could ruin at any given moment.

You'd really hate though to not do everything you can to win this year with the possibility being a real one. The Astros could miss the playoffs altogether but they could also win the WS's this year should they get in. It's such a crap shoot at this point in getting into the playoffs. As of right now, the Astros are battling it out with the Angels for the division and the Twins for the wild card. And that's just for now. Who says KC doesn't slip back to the Twins? or the Yanks/Rays/Jays don't catch up for the wild competition. I think the Astros have a real shot at the title if they can get in. But getting from where they're sitting is going to be a brawl down the stretch. Hopefully they can string together a 10 game winning streak or something for the knockout blow. Both win the division and avoid the 1 game playoff. I hate the 1 game playoff. After playing 162 games, to decide it on a single game... pretty absurd imo.
 

1st base is a huge need for the Astros. Chris Carter and Jon Singleton are both batting under .200 on the year. And Valbuena even if replaced at 3rd by Lowrie and moved to 1st, his average of .201 isn't much better.
 
Astros: 42nd game this season recording 2+ HR, the most such games in MLB

Crazy.

They do suffer in other areas for it though. Some of the guys crushing those home runs are batting around .200. It's awesome when they rip one to put runs on the board but some of them if they're not hitting home runs, they're going 0-4. Price ya pay. Over time, hopefully they can find guys who can hit homeruns and bat for average and not have to trade one for the other. In most cases, I'd rather have a bunch of high batting averages but hitting home runs with low batting averages is apparently working for the Astros. May miss the playoffs since it's such a close race at the moment but they're hanging in there. Just took first place back from the Angels. Probably lose it in game 3 tomorrow to close out the series against the Angels.

Also, Astros whiffed on getting Cole Hamels. Worse, he went to the Rangers. Ultimately, I'm not too unhappy about the Astros not getting him since I'm not sure how many prospects I want them to surrender. But not happy the Rangers got him.
 
Kazmir having another awesome outing so far. In his first game with the Astros he pitched 7.0 innings while allowing 3 hits, 1 walk and 0 earned runs on 91 pitches striking out 3. Tonight against the Angels he's pitched 5.0 innings allowing 1 hit, 2 walks and 0 earned runs on 73 pitches striking out 3.



Also, Astros traded for another pitch with a sub era of 4.00 And another bat. Not sure how I feel about it since it took giving up a few prospects. Obviously it would take something to get something. I guess we'll see how the something the Astros got panned out. I was really happy with Kaz trade though. This is a toss up for me.
 
@ESPNStatsInfo: Astros: 60th win in their 106th game of year, fewest games to get to 60 Ws since 1999 (100).

In 2011, ’12, ’13, HOU never reached 60 wins
 
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No. 13 Astros prospect J.D. Davis has gone yard in his sixth consecutive game for the Class A Advanced Lancaster JetHawks.
 
Yankees and Astros stranded so many runners last night. Wasn't a fun way to lose 1-0. Especially after the Oliver Perez walked 3 straight batters to start the inning. Then they replaced him with Qualls who gave up the sack fly for the walk-off. Hope the Astros can pull it out today. The playoff race is insanely close, every game feels crucial. Yankees, Jays and Rangers have all been hot.
 
Awesome start for the Stros to go up 5-0 in the 1st.

Offense has been letting the pitching down lately. Hopefully the pitching doesn't let the offense down tonight.
 
Carlos Correa is now in 2nd place for home runs hit by a short stop this season. He has 18. Crawford on the Giants has 19. Correa has way fewer at bats though.
 
Yeah, the Astros really imploded while the Rangers got red hot. Sadly, I would just be happy to get a play in game at this point. Winning the division is so much better though because it assures you more than a 1 game playoff.


Also, Correa hit his 19th home run last night which ties him for 1st in home runs hit by a short stop. Not bad after getting called up midway through the season. Last night was also his last night as a 20 year old, he turned 21 today. He's been slumping recently but this has been a strong start to his career. Hopefully he keeps it up for the next decade.
 
Correa now leads the league in home runs hit by a shortstop on the season with 21 after hitting 2 so far today against the Rangers. Brandon Crawford in second with 20.

92 games 61rbi 47r 21hr 12sb .281avg

If this is what he'll be for his career, I'll take it. The idea that he's even close to on pace for 100rbi, 100runs, 40hr, 20sb as a rookie is awesome. Now if only the Astros make the playoffs...
 
Awards Watch: Cy Youngs should go to Dallas Keuchel, Jake Arrieta - MLB - SI.com


Not a bad year at all for the Astros. They struggled down the stretch when they could have won the division but they didn't get knocked out in one game which would have blown. Then they gave the Royals all they could handle before blowing leads in back to back potential games to close the Royals out. Given how bad they've been, I'll take that season all day. Will be interesting to see how they do with signing players now that they're contenders willing to spend or trading off some of that farm system. They won the award best farm system to. Two or three of their teams won it all I think.
 
Astros trade starting pitchers Vincent Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer and OF Derek Fisher to the Phillies for closer Ken Giles.

Seems like a lot to give up but Giles is on a 5 year deal with a low salary. Vincent Velasquez is the one that hurts. He and Oberholtzer both pitched games for the Astros last year. At 23, VV looked good, he's a righty. Oberholtzer looked okay and is 26 and is a lefty. Fisher just turned 22 in august and has potential. He's played well in the minors. If the Astros had Giles for the playoffs they might have actually closed out the Royals series instead of blowing games 4 and 5.


https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/674763883177975808

The #Astros acquire Ken Giles pending physical. Giles has a career 1.56 ERA. The lowest in baseball history (minimum 100 innings pitched).
 
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