I'd like to begin with some notes on what I see as positives. I think Bourn is performing pretty well as a leadoff hitter. His OBP is .357, against a league average of .320 and a baseline need from a leadoff hitter of .340. Last year his OBP was .341, the year before that .354. I think that's adequate, and apart from the stolen bases he's an adequate baserunner as well. He has gone from a .220 hitter that most had given up on to significantly more than that and I'm incredibly happy that he's an Astro.
Brett Wallace is having a monster April. We're all excited about Brett Wallace at 1B.
Towles and Q are hitting and fielding and if you add them all together that's a great backstop component any team would envy. So far.
Bud Norris is in serious danger of turning the corner. Walks are down, WHIP is down, Ks are up. His 3.86 ERA is second among the starters.
Brett Myers' numbers are down a shade from last year but he's still the stud bulldog on the staff.
Pence hits some.
Now, the other side of the coin.
.280/25/85. FoTF. Take a look at this list of comparables: Corey Hart. Bob Cerv. Aubrey Huff. Rondell White. It's like looking at your team and your Best Player, your Star, your Leader is Bob Cerv or Aubrey Huff. This is where this team is. It's Aubrey Huff, running around with his tongue hanging out of his mouth leading no one into anything. Over the last two weeks, this middle-of-the-road guy has cost the team as many wins as he's had a hand in delivering. He's never going to be any more than he is now, .280/25/85 and that would be fine if he wasn't such a boneheaded loose cannon that he ran or bumbled his team out of wins. It's his heroic downside that keeps his upside from mattering.
Carlos Lee is done. Dead man walking. Making a whole lot of money for two more seasons of hope and little else.
History is not full of tales about successful nibbling closers.
The starting pitching has failed this team so far. Getting 6.1 IP from #1 and #2 is not good, but getting 5.1 IP from the rest of the staff is killing this team. The starters were supposed to be the strength, and the relievers were tuning up for next year, hoping to get through this year and answer some questions. Instead, this situation is overtaxing a weakness and unless the starters get stronger, this could be a destructive year for the relievers rather than one where they come together. They're overworked already; maybe Figueroa's rubber arm can take some of the damage until Lopez comes back and they can get situated again.
Hall, Johnson and Lee all have OPS below .595 in three very important lineup positions. If you could turn two of these into .750 OPS, you'd have a decent team. I think CJ is kinda snakebit, seeing an evening out of last season's luck but he hits the ball hard and that is a good sign. He'll come around.
Every time I'm ready to kick Hall to the curb, he does something that makes me think he's snapping out of it and will consistently produce. This is maddening and the equivalent of fool's gold. Or not. Maddening.
The majority of every teams' losses can be attributed to a round-robin spreading of the blame. Rarely are players who are consistently costing a team its wins allowed to keep on giving away games, unless that team is so thin that replacements aren't available. The Astros are in many ways this sort of team. The relief corps doesn't have a lot of alternatives to turn to. Pence consistently puts his team in harm's way as often as he rescues it, and the same can be said of Lyon. Lee appears incapable of delivering in the RBI situations he is hired to deliver in. The starting pitching is underperforming. Unless these problems are fixed, this team won't get better.
