When you look back at the past two seasons, you might be surprised to know that the Astros, as good as they were, did not have particularly good starts to either the 2021 or 2022 season. In fact, in both years, they were 11-11 to open those seasons. Welcome to 2023 which, so far, feels a bit like 2021 and 2022. If history repeats, the Astros will be back in the World Series again, rough start and all.
For now, it’s been an up and down beginning with struggles and explosiveness. It doesn’t help that they continue to wait on the recoveries of three of their most important players in Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley and Lance McCullers, Jr. Until they return, this team will need to figure it out and we’re right there with them.
The pitching has stabilized.
Despite a shaky start from Christian Javier on Tuesday night, the pitching this past week has been much better. Even with his struggles Tuesday, Javier still managed to go six innings, something the Astros rely on from their starters. Right out of the gate, the bullpen was being severely taxed as the starters were unable to make it out of the fourth or fifth innings. It hasn’t turned into a long win streak yet, but the fact that the starters are going deeper into games — Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown were outstanding in their last starts — allows the bullpen to do what it does best (most of the time), which is go an inning at a time. Eventually, this will pay dividends even if it isn’t right at the moment.
What the hell is going on with Mauricio Dubon?
Check this one. Dubon is leading the team by a wide margin in batting average. Mauricio Dubon. His OPS of .813 is fourth best in the lineup and his .394 OBP is third. You can honestly say without hyperbole or sarcasm that he is as good if not better than Altuve…right now. Regression to the mean is a real thing and no one should expect Dubon to continue hitting the way he is. But, one thing that we can expect is for him to continue to have an extremely disciplined approach at the plate. In 31 at bats, he has ONE strikeout. That is something he should be able to build upon even if his average begins to come down over time.
McCormick makes sense leading off as Peña slumps.
Speaking of strikeouts, Jeremy Peña leads the team with 16. While his bat has been slowly coming around (and it will get better), putting someone that strikes out that much in the leadoff spot is insane. Enter Chas McCormick, who no one would view as a lead off hitter and he’s been excellent. His strikeout numbers are too high (the whole team’s numbers are through the roof so far this season) but he is hitting the ball and making good contact regardless. His .841 OPS is third on the team behind Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. This isn’t a permanent spot for him, obviously, but it’s working out so far.
The new rules are making the games more…fun.
With so much angst over the rule changes going into this year, the praise has been, quite frankly, glowing. Games are down an average of 30 minutes, hitting (at least when you deep dive into things like BABIP) has improved, and stolen base percentage is WAY WAY up (in the 80-plus percent range). This kind of baseball is frankly just fun. There is loads of action on the bases, no wasted waiting around for pitches, and balls put in play are more likely to wind up as hits. Embrace them if you haven’t already.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
