CTH’s Houston Astros Players of the Week (May 3 – May 10)

It has been a very rough week for the Houston Astros. They saw their 10-game win streak snapped when they got swept by Texas, and they lost George Springer for a short while due to a concussion. Their weekly record was 2-5. The biggest positive to the week was the split series with the Los Angeles Angels.

On to the awards.

Pitcher of the Week: Collin McHugh

This is a tough one. The starting pitching has some excellent performances this week (there were also a couple of horrendous outings, too). It really came down to McHugh versus Dallas Keuchel.

Collin McHugh gets the award this week because he came in and was very good in the first game against the Angels, though he got the no-decision. The Astros needed a strong performance from their starter that night because Scott Feldman and Sam Deduno gave up a combined 16 earned runs over 7.2 innings in the last two games against Texas.

“McHuge” pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two earned runs and a walk while notching seven strikeouts. The bullpen (which put in a lot of work in Arlington) was able to come in and shut down the Angels for the next two innings, allowing the ninth inning rally and subsequent victory for Houston.

Batter of the Week: Jose Altuve

This really could’ve been a no award type week for the batters.  The offense was so stagnant against Texas and LA that Jose Altuve lead the club by hitting .240/.321/.400 with six hits, a home run, a double, two RBI, two steals (also two caught stealing) and three walks.

When your team leader is doing that poorly, it’s no wonder the record is 2-5 for the week.

Weekly Goat: Sam Deduno

There are many candidates for this award since so many players struggled, but the worst performance of the week came from Sam Deduno. In a spot start against the Rangers on May 6, Deduno was called upon and the team was hoping that he could give the bullpen some relief by pitching 5.0 innings. But that wasn’t in the cards.

Deduno had a gawd-awful performance by allowing 10 earned runs on 11 hits over 4.2 innings. It was the exact opposite of what the team was hoping for. His ERA ballooned from 2.70 to 7.00 on the season.

Redemption Player: Scott Feldman

Scott Feldman was pretty awful in his May 5 matchup against the Rangers. In the blowout loss, he gave up six runs on nine hits over 3.0 innings. He really needed a bounce back game in Los Angeles, and that’s what he did yesterday against the Angels.

Feldman went 7.0 innings giving up three runs on six hits and striking out five batters. He kept the Astros in the game, though the offense couldn’t muster more than a hit against Garrett Richards and the team’s only run came by way of a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.

That’s a wrap for this week. In case you missed it, here’s the previous weekly awards:

Week 4 (4/27 – 5/3)

Week 3 (4/20 – 4/26)

Week 2 (4/13 -4/19)

Week 1 (4/6 – 4/12)

Next: The Astros' Chris Carter Conundrum