Astros Top Performers in April

One year ago, the Astros were entering the month of May with a dreadful 7-17 record. Needless to say that last season’s first month was a rather forgettable one in terms of baseball results. The most recent April, though, proved to be different.

Thanks to various contributions, some more noteworthy than others, the Astros finished this latest edition of April baseball with a 16-9 record. Regardless of the result from last night’s heated affair with the Texas Rangers, this is definitely the start that Houston needed to set themselves up for success.

While there is plenty of praise to be spread around the Astros roster, however, there are three players in particular that stood out with their contributions.

Top Performer #1: Dallas Keuchel

Dallas Keuchel has had an impressive start to his bounce back season. The bearded southpaw went from winning a Cy Young award in 2015 to a struggling starter on a competitive club in 2016. Not long after his struggles began the question arose whether Keuchel was just a two-season wonder. If we can rely upon his results from the month of April then the answer has to be a resounding “NO”!

Statistics as of 4/30: 44.2 IP, 1.21 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 62.8% GB%, 21.8% K%

The Astros needed the Keuchel of old to resurface in 2017, and thus far he has held up his end of the deal. As a whole, the Astros starting rotation had done relatively well when you consider that Collin McHugh has yet to throw a meaningful pitch this year. This further stresses the need for a healthy and effective Keuchel for the entire season. Thus far, he has been everything that the Astros needed.

Top Performer #2: Yulieski Gurriel

Like the majority of the Astros offense, Yulieski Gurriel had a cold start to his 2017 season. In his first 35 plate appearances, Gurriel posted a 32 wRC+ with a .029 ISO and a 0.0% BB%. This is not optimal for any first baseman, or player for that matter, in baseball.

Those abysmal statistics that I just mentioned were as of April 15th. Fast forward to April 30th and Gurriel flipped the narrative on us.

Statistics as of 4/30: .329/.354/.481, 138 wRC+, 2 HR, 7 RBI

Gurriel’s success is definitely something good. Anytime a player can post those kind of numbers then it has to be beneficial to the team. However, there are a few issues that may prevent us from tabbing Gurriel as the team’s next best hitter. One is his BABIP, which came in at a high mark of .364. For those who may not know, a .300 BABIP is about average. The act of maintaining a .364?BABIP is awfully difficult as only seven players achieved the feat in 2016. I’m not saying Gurriel can’t achieve that level, but it is unlikely from a player that has entered his first full major league season.

The other issue that immediately jumps out to me is Gurriel’s remarkably low walk rate of 1.2%. Thanks to the high BABIP, this hasn’t been a metric which has been paid much attention to as of late. Regardless, the early results have been encouraging to a certain extent. He clearly helped the team or I wouldn’t have named him to this list. I recommend, though, that we exercise a cautious optimism with Gurriel until further notice.