Astros: Three Players Trending Down In A Week Filled With Offense

Let’s review the Astros trending downwards despite the team’s relative success. 

After losing five of seven not too long ago, the Astros turn it around quickly by going 6-1 in the team’s last seven games. The lone loss in a week was dropping only last night’s opener with the Angels.

Playing the Mariners and White Sox provided plenty of opportunity to get hits and get more tallies back in the win column. But not everyone took advantage of the batting clinic. 47 runs scored on seventy two hits was a perfect opportunity for the sleeping bats to wake up. Not everyone got the memo though. Let’s take a look at who is trending down and who was slumping during offensive hit surge.

Trending Down: Derek Fisher

Fisher has seen 11 plate appearance in four games played during this span and mustered one hit no walks. He also struck out five times dropping his batting average to .128 on the season. It didn’t really matter because the Astros were putting on a show but it’s quite concerning that some players weren’t able to cash in on the action. Fisher has five hits on the season and has seen plenty of playing time whether staring in the lineup or being subbed in. It hasn’t become an issue yet as AJ Hinch stands behind his young player, we’re hopeful that Fisher turns this around soon.

Trending Down: Evan Gattis

Like Fisher, Gattis also wasn’t able to cash in on the hitting clinic that was that six-game winning streak. In 27 plate appearances, Gattis was 6-for-27 going .222. Again, that’s not terrible. He was only hitless in two games. One of the games he did pinch hit for Brian McCann and was hitless in last night’s shutout. Gattis is a career .250 hitter and a great piece on this Astros team. What’s concerning is while everyone else is getting hits, he accounted for six. He is flirting with a sub .200 batting average and we don’t want to see him reach that. Here’s hoping “El Oso Blanco” can take advantage the next time the flood gates open.

Trending Down: Jake Marisnick

And again, for the third straight week, Marisnick finds himself on the trending down list. How is that possible? Look, when the team scored 47 runs in seven games and you have one hit, you’ll be on this list again and again. This past week was the perfect opportunity for Jake to finally climb out of his slump and couldn’t. In 15 plate appearances Marisnick went 1-for-15 for a .066 average bringing his 2018 batting average to a low .125.

Next: Three Players Trending Up During An Offensive Resurgence

During those back-to-back ten-run games against the White Sox, he pinched hit twice seeing only two plate appearances but he hasn’t even taken a walk all season. Marisnick is also the only Astro to not earn a base on balls. In fact, he stuck out 10 times during this stretch and has a team-high 30 strikeouts on the season. I hope Marisnick can turn things around, who knows when hitting opportunities like this will come again.

*** Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference, MLB.com and FanGraphs.com ***