Houston Astros: Preview of Opening Series in New York

Opening Day is almost here, Houston Astros fans!

Monday, April 4^th, at specifically 12:05 pm CST cannot get here soon enough if you are a Houston Astros fan. Most of us have brackets that have long since busted, are overdone with talking about the NFL Draft possibilities, and are tired of seeing exhibition baseball box scores with many names you don’t know, and even the Google search results are a toss-up.

The Astros open the 2016 season in New York to take on the Yankees. It seems like yesterday that Dallas Keuchel was flat-out dominating Yankee hitters in the AL Wild Card game, and that is likely fresh in the minds of the players.  Both teams have made significant moves over the offseason, specifically acquiring closers. New York signed Aroldis Chapman, who will be serving a 30-day suspension thus inactive for this series, and Houston traded for Ken “One-Hundred Mile” Giles.

The Yankees also traded for Starlin Castro with the Cubs, giving them youth in the middle infield between him and Didi Gregorious. Other than those two players, the Yankees are still true to form in having a lineup consisting of under contract, veteran players. Jacoby Ellsbury, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, and Brian McCann are the usual suspects to face opposing pitchers.

Ricky Keeler of Yanks Goes Yard (Fansided) joined Talking Stros to talk series preview.

The Yankees starting pitching is actually a relatively young staff, minus CC Sabathia, if he even makes the rotation. Their bullpen, on paper, is one of strongest in baseball. To the Astros advantage, Chapman will be serving his suspension, and Andrew Miller, New York’s interim closer, took a line drive off his right wrist in his most recent game against the Braves. This will be a huge blow to the Yankee bullpen if Miller has to miss any amount of time, although he has stated he wants to play through it in order to be available for opening day.  Next in line is hard-throwing Dellin Betances.

The Astros lineup will consist of mostly the same players that faced New York last year, with the exception of possibly Tyler White at first base in replacement of Chris Carter. Many of the Houston hitters are very young, and have had another off-season and spring training to improve their craft, and this team is picked by many to win the AL West and recently picked to win the World Series by Sports Illustrated.

The Astros have released their three starting pitchers in order of Keuchel, Collin McHugh, and Mike Fiers. New York has not released theirs yet, but we can see almost certainly pencil in Masahiro Tanaka as the opening day starter, and then a mix of Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, and Nathan Eovaldi.  So let’s take a look at the possible pitching matchups coming up.

Next: GAME 1 – Dallas Keuchel vs Masahiro Tanaka

GAME 1 – Dallas Keuchel vs. Masahiro Tanaka

Yes, this is a rematch of the AL Wild Card duel in which Keuchel pitched six shutout innings, and both Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez hit home runs off the Yankee ace, to help defeat New York 3-0 and move on to the ALDS.  Keuchel went on win the Cy Young award and looks to continue his dominance. Current New York hitters have a career .233 average versus Keuchel, with Beltran doing the most damage (9 AB, .444, 1 HR).

Hitters like Rodriguez, Ellsbury, Teixeira, and Headley have all struggled against the award-winning southpaw, and Castro has yet to get a hit off Keuchel in five career at-bats. The Yankees lineup provides a good mixture of right-handed, left-handed, and switch batters, so Keuchel will again need to pitch to his strength and locate fastballs and offspeed pitches to multiple corners and cold zones. Keuchel has had a great spring and recently held the Phillies scoreless over seven innings.

Tanaka had off-season elbow surgery to remove bone spurs and has caused some speculation. Though spring numbers are for the most part irrelevant, he has given up 9 earned runs in 11 innings pitched. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild stated, “I think some of this stuff starts with going back to last spring. All the talk (has been) about his arm and just trying to protect it and not getting it as much as trying to make sure he’s healthy. Beyond that, you want to be healthy, but you want to be healthy in the context of throwing the ball the way you can and turning the ball loose the way you can. I think that’s where were are right now.” http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankees-insider-rothschild-don-worry-tanaka-article-1.2577136 Tanaka, when on point, is an ace with a nasty arsenal of pitches, so it will be interesting to see how Tanaka starts off the season.

Next: GAME 2 – Collin McHugh vs Michael Pineda

GAME 2 – Collin McHugh vs. Michael Pineda

Collin McHugh holds Yankees hitters to an even lower combined batting average of .143.  Last year’s 19 game winner for Houston looks to build off an incredible second half of the season. Last season, pre-All Star break, McHugh was 9-5 with a 4.50 ERA, after the All-Star break he caught fire, going 10-2 with a 3.11 ERA. If McHugh’s breaking ball is on, and can throw it for strikes, he can make quick work of the best lineups in baseball. McHugh started two games against New York last year, earning wins in both and giving up only 3 earned runs in 14.1 innings.

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Michael Pineda is a 27-year-old pitcher out of the Dominican Republic. He has shown some electric talent, but thus far has also proved to be very inconsistent, which is common among young pitchers. Pineda was the polar opposite to McHugh as he did well in the first half of the season with a 3.64 ERA, and a poor 5.80 ERA after the break. This spring he has been untouchable, so if the trend continues, we could be in for a pitcher’s duel for game two.

Next: GAME 3 – Mike Fiers vs Luis Severino/TBA

KEY TO THE SERIES

The big key for any team playing the Yankees this year will be to get ahead of them early, and not play from behind. When New York is at full strength in their bullpen, Betances-Miller-Chapman is arguably the best 7-8-9 inning combination in baseball. Not having Chapman will help the Astros’ causes, but even just Betances and Miller will be tough.

Next: Houston Astros Acquire Catcher Erik Kratz for Dan Straily

Expect Houston to play just as aggressively as last season offensively, and Keuchel, McHugh, and Fiers to continue where they left off. It will definitely be fun to see what White can do in his first major league action, in Yankee Stadium, and also to watch the young Eovaldi pitch. This writer’s prediction is that the Astros take the first two games, but Eovaldi deals in game three for a Yankees victory.

**Stats courtesy of MLB.com**