Astros pitching takes heat but hidden issue is making everything worse

By now, it's well known that pitching has been the Houston Astros' main Achilles' heel. Whether it be ineptitude from the starters or implosions by the relief corps, the club has compiled a league-worst 6.00 ERA through May 2.

There are many reasons for these struggles. Houston's 175 walks issued through the end of April is a historically bad number. Walking the No. 9 hitter 20 of those times is unforgivable. Those mistakes are compounded by a .262 batting average against, third-worst in MLB, and a 1.43 HR/9 mark, which comes in ahead of only the Washington Nationals.

We knew that there would be uncertainty at the back-end of the rotation, but no one saw Bryan Abreu channelling his inner Rafael Montero as a potential outcome this season, nor did many think that all of the high-end risks the Astros took, namely Mike Burrows and Tatsuya Imai, would go belly-up immediately.

Add in injuries to key figures like Hunter Brown and Josh Hader, and you have a recipe for disaster. But with all that said, there's another issue that has been weighing Houston's staff down, but this has nothing to do with the hurlers on the mound and everything to do with the gloves behind them.

The Astros' shoddy defense is exacerbating their already awful pitching performance

As bad as the Astros' pitchers have been, they haven't gotten much help defensively either. Houston ranks 29th in defensive runs saved with minus-eight, finishing ahead only of the laughably bad Philadelphia Phillies defense, which comes in at minus-23.

If you don't like DRS as a metric, then consider that the club is also towards the bottom in outs above average at minus-five, ranking 23rd. By fielding run value, their minus-four mark also ranks 23rd in the league.

Traditional defensive stats show that they convert outs just fine when they can actually get there to make the play. The Astros' .990 fielding percentage ranks fourth in baseball, and they've made the fourth-fewest errors with 11. Unfortunately, they just don't get to many balls to try and make a play.

Jose Altuve's dalliance in left field might be over, but the impetus for that strange decision last year was his declining defense at the keystone. Unsurprisingly, the 36-year-old ranks 20th out of 25 qualified second basemen in DRS with minus-two, and 24th in OAA with minus-two.

Another issue has been playing players outside of their natural positions. Poor roster construction plus injuries have forced a natural second baseman, Brice Matthews, into the outfield, and now, with the wave of injuries that have taken down Jake Meyers, Joey Loperfido, and Taylor Trammell, Matthews is starting every day in center field.

Aging position players and suboptimal defensive alignments explain it all. These guys are sure-handed when they get to balls in play, but their old legs don't allow them to reach many that younger, faster defenders would.

It's hard to see how they can tighten this up. Jeremy Peña, Meyers, and Loperfido getting healthy will help, but only to an extent. In the meantime, the poor defensive showing is throwing salt in the wounds of an already battered pitching staff.

The defense isn't the reason that Astros pitching has been so putrid, but it certainly hasn't helped. With limited means to improve the defense, the key to a turnaround is going to be the Houston arms pitching better. Cutting down on the walks is the first order of business, but even then, it will be an uphill battle.

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