Two Lineup Changes the Astros Can Make To Boost Offense

1 of 3

The Houston Astros‘ offense has been the calling card of the team for the past half-decade. This year, they have sputtered a bit while showing flashes of what could come.

Still, it has been disappointing considering the fire power many expected from this lineup. The Astros are now a third of the way through the season which is no longer a small sample size. The time to be patient due to small sample sizes has passed.

The Astros have two adjustments they can make with their lineup to increase their offensive output.

We’ll go from top to bottom of the lineup with the changes they can make. This initial change is sure to stir controversy, but it’s certainly worth experimenting with to put crooked numbers up, especially in the first inning.

The Astros should switch Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman in the lineup.

Jose Altuve is obviously a terrific leadoff hitter with the potential to start any game with a solo shot off the first pitch. This is less an indictment of his skills and more an indictment of Alex Bregman’s inability to create big innings in the three spot.

While Bregman’s batting average is nothing to write home about, he has a similar on-base percentage to Altuve — .341 to .352 respectively. While it’s great to draw bases-loaded walks, it would be better to see bases clearing doubles and grand slams.

Considering Altuve’s penchant for being clutch as well as his slugging percentage being light years ahead of Bregman’s — .528 to .380 respectively — it would be better to put the slugger at the three spot and the on-base guy at lead off.

Bregman has seen the most pitches of any Astros’ batter at 879 and is third in average pitches seen per plate appearance at 3.89. Altuve’s aggressive approach profiles more in the three spot and Bregman’s patient approach is better for the lead off spot.

Wasting a starter’s pitches and forcing him to show his secondary pitches in the first at-bat is something Bregman could do to help the hitters behind him. If he sees six or seven pitches and can work a walk for hitters like Brantley and Altuve, it would be better than having your three hole hitter working walks while your lead off hitter is cranking home runs. A three-run blast would be more productive than a one run blast.

And Altuve has experience in the three hole. Remember, he won his MVP award in 2017 batting third for a majority of his games and batted third primarily in 2018 before being moved to the two spot in the order in 2019.

Regardless it’s always been the rule of thumb in baseball to have your lead-off hitter be an on-base guy who sees a lot of pitches and to have more thump at the three spot in your lineup. Even if Bregman doesn’t get on-base, just wearing down the starter in the first plate appearance could help the guys behind him.

Bregman may not fit the prototypical lead off hitter lacking elite speed but remember we live in an era where Kyle Schwarber hits leadoff. It’s at least worth a try as Bregman has gotten clutch walks but not a lot of clutch hits and would be something to just shake up the lineup and see if it works.

The Astros should put Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Jeremy Peña in the four-five-six spot.

The Astros have already started to deploy Alvarez and Tucker back-to-back at the four and five spot, so they’re headed in the right direction, ignoring the somewhat meaningless endeavor of making sure righties and lefties alternate in the lineup.

Tucker and Alvarez have shown they are not bothered by left-handed pitching. This year, Tucker has more disparity in his splits of righty vs. lefty, but in a larger sample size last year, he hit .299 against right-handed pitching with 17 home runs in 365 plate appearances and .287 with 13 home runs against left-handed pitching in 202 plate appearances.

Alvarez, this year, also has a greater disparity between his at-bats of righties vs. lefties, but again in a larger sample size last year, he had a better batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage over lefties than righties.

Plus, since a reliever has to face a minimum of three batters, a lefty that starts the inning against Alvarez and Tucker will still have to face Peña in the six spot. The final part of this move is Peña hitting six and dropping Yuli Gurriel to seventh. As much as Gurriel has contributed in the past, it’s been a rough go for him this year.

He still has plenty of time to turn his season around, but in the meantime while the Astros wait for that, they should put the hitter who makes contact and puts the ball in play in that six spot to offer protection for Alvarez and Tucker.

These lineup changes will help as when you look situationally at how these players hit with runners on base, Bregman and Gurriel are sixth and seventh on the team in batting average, on-base and slugging. You can’t have those being your third and fifth or sixth hitter on the team.

It’s also possible to consider Peña in the lead off spot as he does hit for contact but considering Bregman has a higher on-base percentage than Peña it makes sense to put the guy who may not get the big hit but has a better chance of getting to first as your lead off hitter.

Next. Prospect report: Enmanuel Valdez's Triple-A debut. dark

These moves may or may not work, but it’s worth tinkering with as we now have a full third of the season as a sample size and we know the lineup as constructed is not performing up to the Golden Era Astros offensive standards.

Home / Astros News

The Astros have two adjustments they can make with their lineup to increase their offensive output.

The Astros should switch Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman in the lineup.

The Astros should put Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Jeremy Peña in the four-five-six spot.

Schedule