Staff Picks: Who Is Your 2013 Astros MVP?

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Staff Picks, where Astros fans choose their own destiny! Today, we look back on the 2013 season and choose who was the best of the worst.

Contrary to popular belief, the 2013 Astros season was not all losses. Nor was it full of a roster void of talent. The Astros have a few players who can make their claim as team MVP, so let me know who you think deserves the title by voting on the last slide.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

There is no way to do list without talking about the Astros sole All-Star, Jason Castro. Castro finally made it through (most of) a season healthy and showed why the Astros took him 10th overall in 2008. In 2013, Jason did not disappoint. He earned his spot as the first Astro on an American League All-Star team and took over as a true offensive threat in the lineup.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Jason Castro finished his 2013 campaign with 18 HR,  56 RBI, 35 2B, 50 BB, and 130 Ks. He posted a slash line of .276/.350/.485 which was helped tremendously by his almost .100 jump in Batting Average against Left Handed pitching this year. Castro was consistently the guy who you wanted to see coming up to bat all year as he settled into his role in the middle of the Astros lineup.

Much has been made about Castro’s defense behind the plate, but judging from Baseball-Reference’s WAR count, he is worth 1 win above a replacement player. To put that in perspective, Buster Posey is at 0.7 dWAR for this season, so Castro is definitely not a liability back there.

Overall, Jason Castro had a WAR of 4.6 in 2013, by far the highest of any Astros hitter this season. He makes a very compelling case for the team MVP.

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Jose Altuve has quietly put up another great year at Second Base for the Astros. For much of the season he looked like he was regressing, but with 5 games remaining he looks like he will post almost identical numbers to his breakout 2012 year.

To prove my point, see if you can see a difference here:

 G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB

147 630 576 80 167 34 4 7 37 33 11 40 74 .290 .340 .399 .740 101 230 8 6 4 4 0

148 654 610 62 173 30 2 5 52 35 13 30 85 .284 .315 .364 .679 89 222 24 2 4 8 5

So, which one is a breakout year and which is the letdown? Altuve has been red-hot in September after struggling in the middle of the year. I chalk that up to the leave he took for a death in the family and getting punched in the face with Jimmy Parades’ entire self. He has earned that 4 year contract he got in July.

Like Castro, the knock on Altuve is his defense sometimes falls a bit short (ha). But if you watched him play this year, you could see long strides (haha) in his defensive development. Defensive metrics are not nearly as telling as advanced offensive stats, but we can look at what we have.

Last year, Baseball-Reference calculated his defensive WAR as -1.5. That’s Lucas Harrell kind of bad out there at second. (That was supposed to be a joke, but upon further examination Harrell has a WAR of -1.5 this season on the mound. This is a perfect metaphor.) But this season, he is at a respectable 0.3.

Basically, Altuve has essentially been the same or arguably better in 2013 than in 2012, but none of us noticed because we were too busy crying all season. Or was that just me?

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

I couldn’t do a list of candidates for the Astros Most Valuable Player without mentioning the most exciting player that took the field for the team this year. Do you remember his debut against the Rays? Do you want to watch the highlights again? Me too. Watch this and I’ll see you in 3 minutes.

After dominating the Rays, Jarred Cosart simply didn’t slow down. He started 10 games after the All-Star Break and finished with a superb 1.95 ERA. I’ve touched on the fact that this is unsustainable and I expect a bit of regression next year here, but that’s next year. What Cosart did this season was nothing short of incredible.

Looking deeper at the numbers you will find that not only was Cosart the Astros best pitcher in the second half, he was their best pitcher over the course of the whole season. In just 60 innings pitched, Cosart accumulated a WAR of 2.5, higher than any other Astros pitcher in 2013. Bud Norris posted a 1.8 WAR with the Astros and 0.3 so far with the Orioles. So, in 10 games, Cosart provided more value to the team than Bud did in ~30.

That’s not saying anything about the comparison of those two players, but rather an easy way to judge value by looking at someone we know a lot about.

Jarred Cosart was amazing for the back half of the season and cannot be forgotten when considering this year’s MVP.