Houston Astros Trend: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not (Vol 5)

The Houston Astros finished the first half of the season playing good baseball, capped off with a miraculous six-run rally to beat the “high and mighty” New York Yankees. Houston has reminded everyone in the league that they are, once again, a bona fide World Series contender.

Over the last 30 days, the Astros went 19-8 Which included an 11-game win streak and some impressive offensive output.  During that time, they have leapfrogged the slumping A’s In the standings and now have a semi-comfortable first place lead in the AL West. This team, which has the best offense in baseball, appears to be improving with their bullpen are getting production from all 25 guys on the bench. Just a masterful job by Dusty Baker thus far.

How have the Astros looked over the last few weeks?

Team Trend

The Astros offense continued to rake in June, ranking 6th in OPS and 7th in both batting average and slugging over the past 30 days. During this time Houston 38 homers (sixth in the league) and generated 114 walks (second in the league) . With very few exceptions – Frankie Montas and Gerrit Cole – opposing pitchers have not been able to slow down this Astros offense.

What’s impressive about these numbers was most of these games were played without MVP candidate Alex Bregman, Aledmys Diaz and (only recently) Carlos Correa. With those players set to return during the second half, this offense could take yet another jump. Houston has a lineup has a potent blend of power, average and plate discipline that frankly no other team other than the Dodgers have.

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• Houston Astros: A Lineup Change to Spark Offense
• Astros prospect Hunter Brown throws 6 shutout innings in debut
• Always faithful Astros World Series champion Josh Reddick defends the title
• Michael Conforto declines Astros’ 2-year, $30 million offer

While the offense gets all the headlines and the glory, the Astros pitching has been key too their ascension to the top of the AL West standings. the Astros have posted a 3.07 ERA for the last 30 days (second in ERA) and 8th in WHIP with a 1.20.

This was attributed to the return of Framber Valdez and Jake Odorizzi to anchor the starting staff, but a lot of it is linked to the better performance of the bullpen.  Despite their record-setting 14 walks on Sunday, this bullpen has greatly improved from what they were two months ago.

The last trend piece we focused on the abysmal play of the Astros bullpen which was costing the Astros games and the entire fan base strong migraine headaches.

The Astros bullpen is posting a 3.69 ERA and are now rank 14th in ERA in the seventh inning or later – Houston was 26th in late inning s back in May. This ascension in late inning ERA is linked to with some recent strong performances from guys like Ryne Stanek, Brooks Raley, Blake Taylor and (always) All-Star Ryan Pressly.

Houston will still need to add a consistent arm in the bullpen for the playoff push, but this upward trend is very encouraging. As long as they don’t walk every other batter, they’ll be fine.

Who’s Hot 

Myles Straw

This could easily be Michael Brantley, but I thought Myles Straw deserves some recognition. Over the past month Straw hit .317 (27-85) with six stolen bases, .857 OPS 18 runs, three doubles and even two home runs -a power surge for his standards. His ability to get hits and get on base in the eighth or ninth spot gives the top-of-the-order Astros (Altuve, Brantley, Gurriel) another baserunner for RBI opportunities, while also applying more pressure on opposing pitchers.

More from Astros News

• Just how much better is the Houston Astros playoff rotation than the rest?
• Houston Astros: A Lineup Change to Spark Offense
• Astros prospect Hunter Brown throws 6 shutout innings in debut
• Always faithful Astros World Series champion Josh Reddick defends the title
• Michael Conforto declines Astros’ 2-year, $30 million offer

Many including myself were skeptical of having Myles Straw as the everyday centerfielder to replace our beloved George Springer. Straw was primarily known as a speedster around the bases, but didn’t have much pop with his bat and was an unknown defensively.

However, after a very slow April for him at the plate, Straw has really picked up his play both at plate and in the outfield.  He’s become one of the best on-base guys in the league and has gradually improved with his bat production. Straw has made the Springer departure less painful for us Astro fans, while at the same time proving to us and all other 29 teams that he’s a big-time starter in this league.

Jake Odorizzi

To quote Adam Sandler at the end of Billy Madison: “Boy, I’m glad (James Click) called that guy”.

James Click signed starter Jake Odorizzi late in the spring, which at the time wasn’t the most exciting signing for fans. And Odorizzi didn’t exactly wow at the start of the season – he gave up some big bombs in his first start, struggled with his command fastball command and even had an elbow injury scare.

However, after a brief stint on the IL, Odorizzi has come back and been elite. In his last five appearances Jake Odorizzi is 2-1 with a 1.02 ERA to go along with 21 strikeouts, only four walks, as 0.72 WHIP and an opposing batting average of .167. This run includes a 14-inning scoreless streak over three games (vs. Texas, @ Baltimore, @ Detroit) where he combined for 15 strikeouts and only allowed 4 hits.

Odorizzi has been effective with his 4-seam fastball – a pitch he’s using nearly 60% of the time this season. Although he only averages 92 MPH on that pitch, his ability to place and add movement to the pitch makes it tough to hit and generally gets hitters to chase out of the zone. Opponents are only hitting .189 against him with that pitch – a career-best for Odorizzi. That, along with his highly whiff-able (is that a word?) splitfinger and slider,  continues to make Odorizzi been a force to be reckoned with on the mound.

With Odorizzi – along with the likes of Zack Greinke, Lance McCullers, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy – the Astros have one of the deepest rotation in the majors. Now let’s hope health remains on our side.