Astros begin a week that should help gain ground on Rangers

A look at the upcoming week and the Astros and Rangers Pythagorean records.

The Houston Astros find themselves at 50-42, eight games above .500, but still 4.5 games behind the Texas Rangers. They face the bottom teams of the AL West this week, the Athletics and Angels, who are both currently tied for last place with the opposite record of the Astros. The Astros have 16 games left until they go head-to-head against their rival Rangers, so the Astros need to gain some ground.

While I’m not to go as far as to say the Astros will sweep both the A’s and Angels, but the Astros need to focus on continuing to win series. If they win two of three in the next two series, this will put them at 54-44, ten games over .500. The Rangers are going through some tough times at the moment, so the time to strike is now.

The Athletics play the Astros really well, at least they try to put up a good fight. The Astros are now 6-4 versus the Athletics in 2016, scoring 44 runs while allowing 35 runs. The A’s series could be a trap series for the Astros, but with the way the Astros are playing, they can beat anyone. They will face Kendall Graveman, TBA, and Daniel Mengden. Graveman shutout the Astros in his last start for eight innings, so let’s hope the Astros can get to him this time.

The Astros have dominated the Angels with an 8-1 record this year, which is very Ranger’esque domination. The Angels have the best player in baseball who probably won’t win the AL MVP again this season because he plays for a team with little hope of being competitive. The Angels are in the same situation the Astros were in before the process, with a very weak farm system.

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Pythagorean and BaseRun records via Fangraphs

The Astros will eventually overtake the Rangers based on the Pythagorean record for both teams. Based on the runs scored and allowed for the Rangers, their record is better than it should be. The Rangers are 55-38, but their Pythagorean record is 48-45. While the Astros Pythagorean record would be their exact record of 50-42, the Astros should be where they are now. The Rangers will eventually come back to earth, while the Astros are on the rise.

The BaseRuns record for the Rangers is even worse at 45-48, meaning they have allowed more runs (-18) than they have scored this season. Some would say that the Rangers record has more to do with their dominance over the Stros with their 9-1 record than them being a good team. This shows that Houston just lack confidence versus the Rangers. The Stros’ BaseRun record is 48-44, scoring 22 more runs than they have allowed.

This week’s Talking Stros

Next: Talking Stros with Program 15, on Bregman and Gurriel

The Astros are returning the favor to the Rangers for what happened in 2015 where they overtook the Astros. But, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, the Astros still need to continue to focus on one game at a time. With the addition of Yulieski Gourriel and Alex Bregman soon, the Astros will have a formidable lineup. Sit back and enjoy the rise of the Stros!

***Season, Pythagorean, and BaseRun record all from Fangraphs Depth Charts***