Astros continue to defy doubters with ESPN midseason grade providing more proof

These aren’t the Houston Astros of old. George Springer is north of the border. Alex Bregman’s in Boston (though is still the subject of trade rumors). Justin Verlander’s winless in the Bay Area. 

Although Jose Altuve’s still in Houston, he’s struggling in a way we haven’t seen in his career. But that hasn’t stopped the Astros from working their way into the middle of the postseason picture. In fact, the Astros entered play on Thursday with a 55-38 record and a 6 1/2 game lead on the Mariners in the American League West. 

And that approach has earned them some national respect as evidenced by ESPN’s newest iteration of its MLB power rankings.

Astros continue to defy doubters with ESPN midseason grade providing more proof

In the new power rankings, ESPN’s David Schoenfield gave the Astros a grade of an A, which is the second-highest grade he’s offered behind the upstart Tigers. He also went on to add:

I heard someone refer to them as the Zombie Astros, which feels apropos. Alex Bregman left as a free agent, they traded Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez has been injured and has just three home runs, and the Jose Altuve experiment in left field predictably fizzled.

But here they are, fighting for the best record in the majors and holding a comfortable lead in the AL West. They're getting star turns from Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Jeremy Pena, while the risky decision to start Cam Smith in the majors with very little minor league experience has paid off, as he has now become their cleanup hitter.

Schoenfield summed the Astros’ season up the best that anyone could. They’ve been impacted by injuries, free agent departures and seemingly everything in between, but that hasn’t stopped them from winning. 

That conversation begins and ends with Hunter Brown, who has a 2.21 ERA through 110 innings and was leading the American League in ERA prior to getting lit up by the Guardians earlier this week. 

He was solid last year, but he’s taken a huge leap this year. He’s also been flanked by Framber Valdez, who has a 2.90 ERA and has already thrown two complete games this year. Couple that with strong seasons from Josh AHder and Bryan Abreu, and all of a sudden Houston has a formidable pitching staff. 

The offense has been carried by some more unheralded players, however. Jeremy Peña has built on his success last year and had a .322 batting average before going on the injured list.

Jake Meyers is also putting together a career year (though he could be headed to the injured list with a calf injury), Isaac Paredes has become an All-Star in his first year in Houston and Smith has raked in his first MLB action. 

It just remains to be seen if it’ll be sustainable. Their offense has benefited from a variety of career years and overachievement from the players mentioned above, and there’s always the chance that they’ll end up regressing back to the mean. 

But that overproduction has given them a good cushion whenever that swoon comes (if it’s not here already). The faces may be new, but it looks like the Astros could be playing in October once again. 

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