The Houston Astros of the American League West

he is also walking 2x his career rate

goat

McCullers back tonight, tough return to be @ bos

temporarily going to 6-man rotation accd'g 2 hinch

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjUfd6YWgAMxRef.jpg

springer hits a linedrive p much every ab

@brianmctaggart
Despite winning 17 of last 25 games, Astros have lost 1 1/2 games to the Rangers in the AL West.

@brianmctaggart
Jose Altuve’s last 23 road games: .500/.528/.714 (1.243 OPS) with three homers, 18 RBIs, 7 SBs.

2 HR IN 2 ABs FOR THE TUVESTER PUT HIM IN ALREADY

Down six in the fifth, George ".429 Stolen Base Percentage" Springer attempted to steal second and...was thrown out.

Probably not as notable as the team being swept out of Detroit and losing last night's game despite having the opponent down to the last out, with none on base, down two, but...

alex bregman is 1/32, his only hit was vs mike pelfrey

bregman (.053) batting 2nd ahead of altuve (.357) hitting 3rd

been in the bigs ten days? whatever

these 1980 vintage unis, ow my eyes

Devenski?

carlos gomez dfa'd!

Altuve's hitting .432 on the road. I can't find any corroboration online, but the Jays broadcast flashed a graphic yesterday listing that as the second-highest seasonal figure ever, behind only Harry Heilmann in 1925 (.456).

(When I checked Heilmann's splits to locate the right season, noticed this: in 1923, the year he hit .403, he was .400 at home and .404 on the road.)

3 hits from 1000

About to fall 6 behind in WC, so lookin' pretty done. What's their winter priority, or are they just counting on a year of maturation?

Noticed that Altuve's very close right now to Morgan's number of AB in '76 (his greatest offensive season).

Altuve: 480 AB, 35 doubles, 4 triples, 20 HR, 88 runs, 80 RBI, 26/33 SB, 50 BB, .365/.427/.579

Morgan: 472 AB, 30 doubles, 5 triples, 27 HR, 113 runs, 111 RBI, 60/69 SB, 114 BB, .320/.444/.576

Lots of adjustments needed, obvious advantage to Morgan, but just in terms of raw numbers, Altuve compares fairly well. OPS+: Altuve 174, Morgan 186.

gurriel up

I knew devenski was a weapon but wow @ 25/1 k/bb ratio rn

13 games up

now 30 games over .500 (57-27) & 16 games up in the standings

for reference, seattle in 2001 was 61-22 on the morning of july 5 and had a 20 game lead in the division (biggest division lead all year was the day before, up 21 games in the standings)

id put over/under at 105 wins

Down to see the Astros tonight. They lost, but I was amazed at the depth of their lineup. One starter had 8 HR, and Reddick came off the bench with 9; six other starters have between 10-15 HR, Correa has 17, and Springer has 25. They're right on track to finish the year with 10 players hitting between 15 to 40 or 45 home runs. Even including the steroid era, has that ever happened before? So it's not just that they project to hit 259 as a team, which'd be just shy of the 1997 Mariners' 264, it's how evenly they're distributed through the lineup.

1997 Mariners and 2000 Astros, to name two, had nine guys w/ 10 or more HR, wasn't able to find anything more specific. If someone has the BR Play Index it should be easy to find.

05 Rangers, 09 Yankees & 10 Blue Jays also had 9 players with 10+ but I could find any teams with 10x 10+ HRs.

As I mentioned, they have a legitimate shot to have 10 x 15+. Bregman sits 10th on the team, and he projects to 15 for the season. (And Evan Gattis isn't even included in the 10.)

five HRs in a 19-1 win

I think you can start looking at Altuve/Correa historically, at least single-season. These are the best post-war double-play combinations I can find, measured by WAR (and with the help of a couple of pieces linked to below--I also checked a few that weren't on either list, but I could easily have overlooked somebody). The bracketed number at the end is combined age.

1. Robinson/Reese – 16.6 (1949) (60)
2. Morgan/Concepcion – 14.9 (1975) (58)
3. Utley/Rollins – 13.9 (2007) (56)
4. Andrews/Petrocelli – 13.8 (1969) (51)
5. Alomar/Vizquel – 13.4 (1999) (63)
6. Whitaker/Trammel – 12.7 (1983) (51)
7. Herr/Smith – 12.0 (1985) (59)
8. Kent/Aurilia – 11.9 (2001) (62)

At least two of those are a little bogus: Petrocelli's and Aurilia's seasons were way out of the norm for them (and Andrews wasn't anything special). Petrocelli/Andrews and Morgan/Concepcion were mostly one-man shows. Robinson and Reese had two or three other seasons that would make the list, but that was their best.

Going into today, through 88 games, Altuve and Correa had a combine WAR of 9.0 (perfectly split between the two), which would project to 16.6 for the season--both had huge days today, too. If nothing else, they're the best young DP combination since the war: their combined age is 49, lower than anybody on the list.

Used these as a general guide:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/159424-the-top-10-double-play-combos-in-mlb-history
http://ca.complex.com/sports/2014/04/the-greatest-double-play-duos-in-mlb-history/

71 runs in their last 7 games, jeeez

What 62-30 teams do in their spare time.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/07/17/242669496/carlos-beltrans-teammates-held-a-funeral-for-his-glove

I think you can start looking at Altuve/Correa historically, at least single-season

alas, Correa injury will sink the numbers

I guess Altuve will be the first guy I check every morning now. He's going to hit .650 the rest of the year and make a run at .400.

http://m.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Rays-Declaration-of-Unfriendliness-Astros-Orbit-11721828.php#photo-12945357

Altuve's historic July

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jose-altuves-historic-july-and-his-mvp-momentum/

jOSE aLTUVE

― tupac, bach (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:25 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHix5xCV0AAk6Tw.jpg:small

I was looking at AL team stats and saw that Houston's *team* OPS+ is 131. This *has* to be historical ... the 1927 Yankees' OPS+ was "only" 127.

That Indians team that scored a thousand runs ('99) was only 111...that seems weird. '76 Reds were 120, '53 Dodgers (who scored 955 runs, almost 200 more than the next team) were 114.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20488740/houston-astros-play-texas-rangers-series-tropicana-field-wake-harvey-flooding

supposedly the rangers refused to swap home series (the two teams are scheduled to play in arlington 9/25-27), which is pretty lame

We will be back at Minute Maid Park on Saturday with a doubleheader #ForHouston. pic.twitter.com/wKbfx64g5w

— #AstrosHarvey (@astros) August 30, 2017

One of the Mets' Saturday pitchers will be... Harvey

Verlander needs October. He is a Hall of Fame-bound pitcher. Rather than become inhibited or intimidated or diminished by a Hollywood moment, he thrives on it, brushing aside noise and tumult and historical realities to throw a baseball with fury and grace.

This is what the Astros got Thursday night. They found a tribal chief for their pitching staff. They brought to Houston a right-handed craftsman who can yet throw a fastball at 97 mph, with an equally devastating curve, as well as a change-up, not to mention two — two — different sliders that make him a five-pitch maestro.

The Astros will love him, all because the man possesses two exceedingly rare traits. He has championship pitches and a competitive demeanor to match.

Those of us who have watched him pitch this season have been awed, even by past Verlander standards. Not even four and five years ago, when he could hit 100-mph with his fastball and leave hitters to ponder a job-training course at their local community college, was Verlander more imposing than he has been in 2017.

It has to do with his skill set and with the savvy an athletically intellectual man has marshaled in this, his 13th big-league season.

There was a sense Wednesday at Colorado, as he spun more gold against the Rockies, that this was it for Verlander and the Tigers. That this had to be his finale. It made no sense — not even in professional sports, where rational thought often can be at a premium — that Verlander was not being chased by a team aware of what he would deliver now and in October.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/columnists/lynn-henning/2017/09/01/henning-verlander-deal-makes-sense-all-parties/105179472/

as a red sox fan this move is incredibly dispiriting

Altuve's still hitting over .400 on the road--no shot at the record, but every other name on the list is a long-gone immortal.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/252486232/mlb-players-could-set-records-in-september/

Overshadowed by Kluber last night, but Verlander was just as awesome: 8 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 9 K, no runs, game score of 88 (Kluber's was 85).

I was looking at AL team stats and saw that Houston's *team* OPS+ is 131. This *has* to be historical ... the 1927 Yankees' OPS+ was "only" 127.

Well, they've fallen to 126.

One hit again (7.0 IP) for Verlander tonight; he's given up 11 in 28 innings since the trade.