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Astros: Three players trending up following a strong April

By Simon Chahayed

HOUSTON, TX - APRIL 30: Charlie Morton #50 of the Houston Astros pitches in the first inning against the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park on April 30, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - APRIL 30: Charlie Morton #50 of the Houston Astros pitches in the first inning against the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park on April 30, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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Winners of four out of the last six games, the Astros find themselves leading the AL West. At 20-10, the defending champs hold a 2.5 game lead even after dropping two of three with the Angels late last week.

Wrapping up the April, they scored 41 runs allowing 16. Many took part of Offensive Surge 2.0 and the pitching has been dominant. We found some players who did a complete 180 degrees flip from last week and found some new names on the “Trending Up” list this week. As April was coming to a close, we put the panic buttons away for now as the Astros we are used to return to form. Who took part of this hitting clinic this past week?

Trending Up: Derek Fisher

Would you look at that? On the Trending Down week last week, Fisher has found himself on the Trending Up list. When the opportunity presented its self, Derek conquered. And we like that. In ten at-bats, Fisher has four hits and four runs batted in for a .400 batting average bringing his season average to .184 a climbing, hopefully. He is swinging the ball at least, totaling five strikeouts on the other hand. Having a tremendous week, he is slugging 1.000. I hope Fisher sees more time on this list and not the other. Manager AJ Hinch has a spot for him in the outfield and here’s hoping he can be a fixture for this offense. Welcome Derek, happy to have you.

Trending Up: Jose Altuve

I don’t think Jose Altuve has been trending up or down at all this season. He has had a relatively quiet but very productive April batting a smooth .327. Altuve had himself a week. In 23 at-bats, including an 0-for-5, Jose managed eight hits and two home runs. Finally with the monkey off his back, Altuve goes deep for the first time this season on April 25th and has two on the season. After that goose egg on April 24th, Altuve is now on a five-game hit streak. He landed on this list mainly because of his two long balls last week. Quite frankly, Altuve has been eerily consistent all season. The reigning MVP hasn’t had much chatter about him because we expected this from him. He leads the club house with a .347 average and 41 hits in route to my predicted sixth consecutive 200-hit campaign.

Trending Up: Charlie Morton

What can I say? How can you trend up, if you never trended down? I feel like Charlie Morton deserves some time on the “Trending Up” list because he has only gotten better since the season started. Even after starting the season with a 0.00 ERA through two games, he’s now at a low 1.72. How’s that trending up? Mainly because he is a team best 4-0 tying Justin Verlander and getting the outs he needs when he needs them.

Next: Astros: Three players trending down despite a strong close to April

Morton has 45 strikeouts on the season along with allowing only seven earned runs in his six starts. Who knew coming into the season that Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton would be as dominant as Verlander. I’ll take that all day long with the hopes that Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers flip the script very soon.

*** Statistics and information courtesy of Baseball-Reference and MLB.com ***

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