There are bad weeks and then there is whatever the Astros have gone through recently. After a solid 6-3 start, they have lost eight straight games including two to the As and three to the Rockies. They are wildly dichotomous team with one of the best offenses in baseball and, by far, the worst pitching.
It’s early, but with so many injuries piling up and the kind of walk numbers we haven’t seen from this team in, well, ever, even glimmers of hope are hard to come by.
Walks at a record pace
As of writing this, the Astros have walked 96 batters while scoring 95 runs. They, far and away, walk more batters than any team in baseball. Their WHIP is the worst in the league. And they have made bad offensive teams like the Mariners look like they have the best plate recognition in history. It’s remarkable and baffling for a team that has always preached pitching in the zone. And it isn’t just one pitcher. .. it’s everybody. There are only two pitchers on the roster who have fewer than three walks per nine innings, which seems damn near impossible, and only four with a WHIP under 1.3, one of whom is the injured Hunter Brown. Insert barf emoji.
ABS and the High Strike
On the television broadcast Sunday, Geoff Blum and Todd Kalas brought up the fact that the strike zone is slightly lower now with the Automated Balls and Strikes System. Given that the Astros have feasted on the high strike, particularly with fastballs, over the last decade, it does make one wonder if some of their pitching woes could be the result of this strategy. Check this incredible stat from Astros writer Michael Schwab.
We are talking about one of the best teams in baseball over the last decade when it comes to fastball performance and it has fallen off a massive cliff early this year.
Injuries … again
Hunter Brown. Tasuya Imai. Cristian Javier. Cody Bolton. Josh Hader. Jake Meyers. And that doesn’t include guys like Jeremy Peña and Carlos Correa who have been in and out of the lineup with minor issues or minor league players who are not healthy enough to make the major league roster. We would call this unprecedented if we hadn’t lived through 2024 and 2025.
Offense Like 2019
The lone bright spot in all this mess is, ironically, the thing they couldn’t do much with in 2024 or 2025, the offense. The team is near the top of the league in runs scored and most offensive categories. Yordan Alvarez is back with a vengeance and they are getting fantastically consistent play from Jose Altuve, Christian Walker and Cam Smith. If they could pitch AT ALL, they would be near the top of the majors in wins instead of at the absolute bottom.
