Astros Report Card: Grading the starting pitchers of 2019

In this third installment of the Astros’ Report Cards, I’ll be rehashing the 2019 season of each starting pitcher and handing out their grades for the year.

It was an interesting year for the starters of the Astros. The top of the rotation was fantastic to watch and simply the best it gets. The bottom of the rotation was a revolving door of prospects trying to prove themselves worthy of pitching in the big leagues, to veterans trying to figure out their role in the pitching staff. Let’s jump right in and pass out the grades.

Justin Verlander:  A+

Like a fine wine, Justin Verlander just gets better with age. The Astros ace had one of the best years of his illustrious 15-year career. At 36 years old, he’s still one of the most durable pitchers in the league. He tied for the highest number of starts in the Major Leagues with 34 and led the entire league with 223.0 innings pitched.

The eight-time All-Star also topped the Majors with the most wins at 21 and had the lowest WHIP (0.80) and hits/9 IP 5.53. He also led the American League with a 7.14 SO/BB ratio and tied Mike Minor of the Texas Rangers with 7.8 WAR.

Verlander hit the 300 strikeout plateau for the first time in his career this season and also went over the 3,000 mark for his career, ending the season with 3006. That moves him up to 18th on the all-time list, passing up names like Cy Young and Mike Mussina. If next season is anything like this season, he could climb the ladder to 12th, eclipsing some of the greats like Bob Gibson and Curt Schilling.

It’s no wonder that he is one of the front runners for this year’s Cy Young Award. He led the league in several other statistical categories, and if he wasn’t at the top, you can bet he was most likely among the top five.

The only fault I can find, in what was otherwise a stellar season, was his penchant to give up home runs. He surrendered 36 homers this year, the most in his career and the 3rd highest in the Majors. Can you imagine what some of his numbers would look like if he had kept that down to just his career average of 23?

Gerrit Cole:  A+

Not too many teams can truly give both of their #1 and #2 starting pitchers an A+ grade, but I have no issues with giving Gerrit Cole and Verlander the same top rating. But then again, how many teams have two pitchers battling it out for the Cy Young Award. You can pretty much take it to the bank that one of the two will take home the hardware.

Cole had the best season of his seven-year career, hands down. It couldn’t have come at a better time, right before he becomes a free agent. Virtually every statistical category saw career-best numbers in 2019. Not to mention, shattering several MLB records this season. Cole was named the AL Pitcher of the Month three times this season, June, July and September.

He led the Major Leagues in strikeouts (326), SO/9 IP (13.818), and had the highest ERA+ (185). Cole ended the season with a 2.50 ERA, the lowest in the American League. He came in second behind teammate Verlander in so many categories including his 0.895 WHIP, 6.019 hits/9 IP, and his 6.792 SO/BB ratio.

Cole became only the fourth pitcher in history to have 21 games with double-digit strikeouts in a season, joining Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan. That feat obliterated the franchise record and he had nine straight games with 10 or more Ks at one point, setting a Major League record.

From May 22, up until the first game of the World Series on October 22, a full five months, Cole went 25 games without recording a loss. In the midst of that time frame, he went 19-0, the longest winning streak by a pitcher in 107 years.

I’d hate to be one of those that has to make the decision and cast that ballot for the AL Cy Young Award this season. As Cole stated toward the end of the season, the ideal situation would be if he and Verlander could share the award. I just hope Jeff Luhnow can wave his magic wand and get him signed.

Wade Miley:  B-

I really struggled to try to come up with a grade for Wade Miley. If I could give out separate report cards for different portions of the season, it would have been much easier. He would have earned a top grade for most of the season, unfortunately, the bottom just seemed to fall out toward the end, making us all forget his earlier successes.

Wade Miley started out the season doing his best impression of an ace. He didn’t give up more than three earned runs in his first eight games. In fact, dating back through the 2018 season, he had a streak of 24 games of surrendering three runs or less. He still only went over that three-run limit twice in his first 28 games of the season and in those games, he still kept it down to four runs.

Through August of this year, Miley had an ERA of 3.06 and kept the opponents batting average down to .232. His W-L record was 13-4 over that span and the Astros went 20-8 in those 28 games he started.

Then, all of a sudden, everything went south. On September 5th, Miley gave up five runs on five hits and a walk, before ever recording an out. AJ Hinch saw enough and pulled him from the game. Surely, it was just an anomaly. Nope, in his next appearance, he surrendered seven runs and was yanked after getting just one batter out in the first inning.

Miley’s numbers for September were a far cry from what he put up in the first five months of the year. He went 1-2 with a 16.68 ERA allowing the opposing teams to hit .467.

Despite the dismal September performance, that left a sour taste in our mouths, you can’t deny how well he pitched from April through August. He gave us well above average what you would expect from the #3 position in the rotation and I feel he played an integral part in the Astros 107 win season. Alright, let me go back and change that grade one more time.

The latter end of the starting rotation was a much more fluid situation as the ebb and flow of pitchers came and went, searching for consistency. After the top four pitchers of Verlander, Cole, Greinke, and Miley, the Astros started 10 different pitchers in 52 of their games. Let’s take a look at a few of the major players.

Brad Peacock: C

Carrying most of the load was Brad Peacock, who started 15 games for Houston this season. In those games that he started, he went 6-7 with an ERA of 4.24. Peacock seemed to be more comfortable and successful in the role of a reliever going 2-0 and carrying a 3.27 ERA in the eight games that he came out of the bullpen.

Collin McHugh: C-

McHugh started out the season as one of the starters in the initial rotation, but after his first eight appearances, he would spend the remainder of the year pitching out of the bullpen. In his eight starts, McHugh went 3-4 with a 6.37 ERA and a WHIP of 1.22. Like Peacock, McHugh fared much better as a reliever sporting an ERA of 2.67.

Jose Urquidy: B-

Don’t let the ERA of 4.24 in the seven starts for Urquidy fool you. I was impressed with the way he handled himself, considering he was pulled up and down between the Majors and the Minors like a yoyo. Urquidy continued to improve as the season progressed, rounding out the season with a great September, posting a 1.50 ERA for the month.

His late-season success impressed management so much, he made the postseason roster for the ALDS, ALCS, and the World Series. Proving no situation is too big for him, his postseason ERA was 0.90 surrendering just one run in 10 innings of work. Urquidy may have just worked his way into next season’s starting rotation.

Framber Valdez: D

Valdez also started eight games for the Astros in 2019 and had the highest ERA (7.07) of any starter on the team with more than one start. He still hasn’t really mastered locating his pitches, a problem that has plagued Valdez for a while. This was evidenced by his 5.80 BB/9 and 1.70 K/BB ratios, both among the worst on the pitching staff.

Stay tuned for the upcoming fourth installment of the 2019 Report Cards, when I take a look at the catchers and designated hitters. If you happened to miss them, be sure to check out the grades for the infielders and outfielders in the first two installments of the series.