One Third of the Way Done

Well, we're at the one third mark of the 2013 season and the Astros find themselves coming off a 3-1 series win over the Rockies bringing their record on the year to 17-37. That puts them on pace to go 51-111 on the year, which doesn't sound great, but it at least isn't going to set any records for futility outside of Houston. Some projections based the first third:

C - Jason Castro .286, 45 2B, 18 HR, 48 RBI, 45 BB, 141 K

1B - Carlos Pena .231, 27 2B, 12 HR, 42 RBI, 87 BB, 165 K

2B - Jose Altuve .302, 33 2B, 6 HR, 63 RBI, 42 BB, 75 K, 24 SB

3B - Matt Dominguez .238, 24 2B, 24 HR, 78 RBI, 18 BB, 96 K

SS - Marwin Gonzalez .237, 21 2B, 9 HR, 33 RBI, 15 BB, 75 K, 12 SB

LF - J.D. Martinez .282, 30 2B, 15 HR, 60 RBI, 15 BB, 99 K

CF - Brandon Barnes .295, 12 2B, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 21 BB, 78 K, 12 SB

RF - Jimmy Paredes .237, 12 2B, 3 HR, 21 RBI, 12 BB, 57 K

DH - Chris Carter .218, 12 2B, 30 HR, 84 RBI, 60 BB, 231 K

BN - Carlos Corporan .311, 9 2B, 9 HR, 24 RBI, 15 BB, 48 K

BN - Ronny Cedeno .288, 12 2B, 3 HR, 27 RBI, 9 BB, 54 K

BN - Trevor Crowe .243, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 9 BB, 24 K

SP - Bud Norris 12-12, 3.71 ERA, 189 IP, 114 K

SP - Lucas Harrell 12-18, 5.37 ERA, 191 IP, 105 K

SP - Erik Bedard 0-6, 5.32 ERA, 132 IP, 126 K

SP - Jordan Lyles 6-3, 4.50 ERA, 96 IP, 69 K

SP - Dallas Keuchel 3-6, 5.53 ERA, 122 IP, 84 K

RP - Hector Ambriz 3-6, 4.68 ERA, 75 IP, 63 K, 27 HLD

RP - Travis Blackley 0-0, 3.66 ERA, 59 IP, 54 K, 21 HLD

RP - Wesley Wright 0-3, 4.22 ERA, 64 IP, 54 K, 12 HLD

RP - Paul Clemens 9-6, 4.13 ERA, 98 IP, 72 K, 15 HLD

RP - Jose Cisnero 3-0, 3.13 ERA, 69 IP, 57 K

RP - Brad Peacock 3-9, 8.51 ERA, 73 IP, 63 K, 3 HLD

CL - Jose Veras 0-12, 4.70 ERA, 69 IP, 72 K, 24 SV

Some of the highlights for the first half as far as numbers go:

*Paul Clemens and Jose Cisnero each earned their first Major League wins.

*Jose Veras already has a career high 8 saves

*Hector Ambriz already has a carer high 9 holds and recorded his first Major League save.

*Carlos Corporan is just one homer shy of tying his career high of 4 set last year.

*Jason Castro's 15 doubles and 6 homers have tied career highs set last year.

*Marwin Gonzalez already has set career highs in homers and steals and needs just 1 more rbi to match last year's total.

*Trevor Crowe's home run was his first at the Major League Level since 2010.

*Erik Bedard is on pace to make 27 starts this year, the most for him since 2007 when he made 28.

*Carlos Pena's .231 average is his highest since he hit .247 in 2008 for the Rays.

The following Astros have made their Major League Debuts this season:

Paul Clemens

Brett Oberholtzer

Jose Cisnero

Robbie Grossman

Josh Fields

Random Thoughts on Things We Can Do Better

1) While I understand Bo Porter wants to settle on a lineup instead of continuing to play musical chairs with his outfielders, I can't say I'm thrilled that he selected J.D. Martinez over Trevor Crowe or Brandon Barnes. While J.D. hits for power, and he's had a good series against Detroit so far (4/7 with 3 doubles in the first two games), he doesn't strike me as someone who's ever going to be anything more than mediocre. He doesn't run well, he's not a plus defender, he doesn't draw many walks... I guess I'm not sure why he opted to go that direction instead of giving more playing time to Barnes (the only outfielder we have hitting over .250), or Crowe (switch-hitter with good speed). The only thing I can think of is that J.D. is getting one last chance to prove he's able to play at this level, and playing him every day is the only real way to assess that. And if that's the case, I'm all right with it as I get that this season is about more than just winning games. Still, I think Barnes and Crowe both deserve a chance to show they're more than role players... And as I write that J.D. hits a 3-run homer off Scherzer. Still not in love with the guy's game though.

2) I get that our pitchers are young, but you CANNOT give up a Grand Slam on an 0-2 pitch. That's horrendous. I pitched through college, and I know nothing would fire up my coach like a bad 0-2 pitch. And by bad, I mean good. That pitch is supposed to be unhittable. It's a pitcher's opportunity to waste a pitch and get a guy to chase. Bud Norris, our ace, giving up a Grand Slam on an 0-2 pitch in a 3-2 game is not good. It put a close game out of reach and as the ace, it's his job to keep us in games like that and give us a chance to win. It's little things like that that separate us from the good teams in the AL, and until we can learn to execute, we're going to continue to struggle.

3) We're 40 games into the season and Carlos Pena has THREE home runs. That concerns me. I think it's great that he draws walks, and that he's scoring runs, but how's a guy like that only have three homers? Carlos Corporan has three homers. MARWIN GONZALEZ has three homers. If Pena's not going to hit for power, he shouldn't be hitting in those power spots in the lineup. Let him hit #2, we know he can bunt.

4) What's Paul Clemens got to do to get some meaningful innings? Yes, he's been great as the long man in the pen, but why not use his talents at the back end of the bullpen. Let Cisnero and Edgar Gonzalez be the long relievers. Ambriz hasn't been BAD, but he hasn't been good enough that we shouldn't be looking at other options there. I think Clemens has that power arm that could be a game changer for us, and I just feel like we're wasting him on mop-up duty right now.

5) Couple roster decisions looming as Josh Fields continues his rehab and Justin Maxwell gets closer to a return from his broken hand. My gut tells me Cisnero and J.D. are the two on the hot seat. Cisnero hasn't necessarily done any wrong, but he's not getting any work, which means he isn't going to be getting any better. He's young enough that he still needs to get innings so when Fields comes back, it makes sense that he'd go unless Ambriz just completely implodes. For the outfielders, I think it has to be J.D. unless he keeps hitting the way he has in Detroit in which case it probably means Crowe is the odd man out. At least there's competition. It's not much, but it's a start.

Tigers Showing Us How Far We Still Have to Go

Not much you can say about a 17-2 loss, except that at least we didn't give up 19 runs in a game for the second time this year. The Tigers showed us exactly how far we still have to go yesterday. They hit, they pitch, they make plays, they put balls in play, they execute on the bases... They're a model franchise, especially for a team like Houston considering that a decade ago (2003), Detroit lost 119 games. The Astros also have a special connection with that team in that Carlos Pena played for them. And look at Detroit now. A couple trips to the World Series, a perennial contender... That's what we want to get to. And unfortunately, it's not going to happen over night. Things don't get any easier today either with the Tigers throwing their ace Justin Verlander against Philip Humber, who has lost all six of his starts this season. We've just to keep grinding it out though and keep moving forward. As my college coach, Pete Barry, used to say: Every day, in every way, we get a little better. Some final thoughts on yesterday's blowout:

1) Lucas Harrell is not very good when his sinker isn't working. When he's on, he's a groundball machine (see Yankee Stadium earlier this week). When he's off... every ball gets hit hard.

2) Carlos Corporan was one of the few bright spots offensively picking up two hits and slugging his second home run of the week. The 29 year old Puerto Rican born catcher needs just 2 home runs to tie his career high of 4 set last season.

3) Robbie Grossman reached base 2 more times last night, leading off the game with single, and then later drawing a walk. Grossman's on base percentage is still low at .327, but it's been steadily rising. He's in the midst of a 6-game hitting streak that has seen his average rise from .091 to .205 and he's also drawn 5 walks during that stretch. Unfortunately, his baserunning still leaves a lot to be desired as he's been caught stealing twice in the Tigers series.

4) At some point the schedule has to start getting a little bit easier, right?

5) Brandon Laird was 0 for 2 last night with a pair of strikeouts lowering his average to .226 (7/31) and giving him 12 strikeouts on the year. With Marc Krauss hammering the ball in AAA, it makes me wonder how much longer Laird has in his audition.

6) Hey, at least we didn't get shutout, right?

Carlos Corporan Channels His Inner Mickey Mantle in Astros Rout

Wow, that was fun last night. Isn't winning fun? Amazing how quickly you can forget about the Boston series and that ugly stretch of games. The fact that it was in our first ever AL game in Yankee Stadium wasn't bad either. Some thoughts on last night's big win:

1) Brandon Barnes is doing everything he can to show he deserves more playing time. After last night's 3-hit game, Barnes is now hitting a Ted Williams-esque .405 with a Barry Bonds-esque .488 on base percentage. He's playing good defense, he's stealing bases, he's getting extra base hits... Look, I'm a big fan of Fernando Martinez and Rick Ankiel, but Barnes is outplaying both of those guys right now, and until he cools off, don't you have to play him? We'll see what Bo does tonight with the righty Kuroda on the hill, but I'd start him.

2) Who was that guy disguised as Carlos Corporan last night? Mickey Mantle? Corp was 4 for 5 missing the cycle by just a triple and racked up 4 rbis... It was ridiculous. He did so much baserunning that he cramped up his 4th time around the bases and was thrown out by like 30 feet at third base. I'm not going to lie, I thought he'd pulled a Gabe Kapler and ended his season. The way this season is going, it would not have surprised me in the least that a guy like Corporan would have the game of his life, and then irreparably hurt himself. Just glad he's ok. Now we just have to get him to duplicate that on a semi-regular basis.

3) Every starter on the Astros roster should watch film of Lucas Harrell's start last night. Harrell threw strikes, threw groundball outs, and shut down an admittedly depleted Yankees lineup for 6 1/3 innings giving more rest to what's been a very taxed bullpen. Yeah, he gave up 8 hits, but they were all singles and he induced double play groundballs when he needed to. Harrell now has three wins on the season, matching Bud Norris for the team lead. Houston's 3 other starters have combined for one win between the three of them, and that came from Brad Peacock who's been demoted to the bullpen.

4) Speaking of Peacock being out of the rotation, that means a spot has opened up. With Cisnero throwing Sunday and Blackley pitching in relief yesterday, I have to think Paul Clemens is going to be tabbed as that guy. Other than being susceptible to the longball (5 in 16 2/3 innings), Clemens has been solid posting a WHIP of just 1.02, limiting walks (only 3), and holding opposing hitters to just a .226 average.

5) Chris Carter returned to the lineup after a day off and had 2 hits raising his average back up to .226. He also only struck out one time which is an improvement. Hopefully the day off did him some good, because we could really use that power bat of his in the lineup.

6) Robbie Grossman doesn't seem to be getting a lot of breaks early in his career. I feel like he's hitting balls hard, but either right at people, or dying on the track. He did reach base a couple times yesterday which was nice to see, especially after he endured that 0 for 17 in the Boston series. He's going to need a few more hits to drop in there though if he's going to keep a roster spot once Maxwell returns from the DL.

7) Carlos Pena is back up over .200 after single and tripling in 5 trips yesterday. 2013 hasn't exactly been memorable for the lefty slugger, but his 2-out rbi single in the first did open the scoring and set up Corporan's 2-run double. Without that hit, who knows how the game plays out? He's still only got 2 homers and 7 rbis, but he's now had back-to-back multi-hit games which is a step in the right direction.

8) Word on the street is that Josh Fields is getting closer to making a rehab start. Rhiner Cruz did record a 1-2-3 inning last night, but I still think he's going to draw the short straw unless Peacock or Cisnero implode during the next week.

A Touchdown and 4 Field Goals Later...

Not much to say about last night. I feel like I've said that a lot this week. For the third time in 5 games, a Houston starter failed to make it out of the first inning. 19 runs later, well... you get the picture... Still, even as bad as last night was, there were some positives. My thoughts on last night's blowout:

1) Despite everything else, Jose Altuve continues to get hits. The diminuitive second baseman had two more hits to commemorate his bobblehead night, and extended his hitting streak to 6, and raised his batting average to .371. At some point, don't we have to stop viewing him as our leadoff hitter and start considering him in the 3-hole? I wouldn't mind seeing Brandon Barnes or one of the shortstops hitting leadoff. It can't hurt, right? As Danny Glover said in Angels in the Outfield, 'What are we gonna do? Fall out of last place?'

2) Paul Clemens has to be viewed as the big winner this week. In two blowout losses, Clemens tossed 8 2/3 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits. He's certainly made the most of his opportunity and I'm fairly confident when I say that he'll be a staple in the Houston bullpen for the rest of the season. Now if we could just get him some meaningful innings.

3) Travis Blackley made his Astros debut last night and Jason Giambi wrecked it with a 3-run homer. I'm not going to put too much stock in last night's appearance though. It was his first game as an Astro, his first game back off the DL, and a blowout. Let's see what he can do now that he's got the first game jitters out of the way.

4) Brandon Laird homered in his second at bat showing the hot bat he had this spring wasn't a fluke. He finished 2 for 5, but he did strikeout out with runners on 2nd and 3rd an 1 out in the 5th. It wouldn't have changed the game any, but if he's going to be a middle of the order guy on this team, he's got to do better with situational hitting.

5) Philip Humber's ERA jumped from 2.89 to 6.63 after he allowed 8 runs in just 1/3 of inning. Figures this would be the game where we finally scored him some runs too. Humber is now 0-4 and on pace for a 30-loss season. Yeah...

6) Carlos Corporan was hit by a pitch in the 7th inning making him the first Astro all season to get on base that way. That's unbelievable. 16 games without a hit batsman? By contrast, Astros pitchers have hit 7 batters this year. I don't know if it's just bad luck, or if there's just no need to pitch our guys inside because they don't intimidate anyone. Either way, I found it interesting.

7) Brandon Barnes ripped his first home run of the year last night. He's hitting .333 now and I'd love to see him keep getting playing time. In fact, an outfield of Fernando Martinez, Justin Maxwell and Barnes intrigues me. Throw in Rick Ankiel here and there just to mix things up. Again, worth a shot, right? Let's find out what we've got with these kids.

Harrell Roughed up as Streak Hits 5

Lucas Harrell had far from his best stuff today as the A's lit him up, knocking him out of the game before he could get through 5 innings. Harrell struggled with his control, and when he did find the plate, the A's made him pay. At the end of the day, he'd walked five and conceded three home runs. Not exactly what we were hoping for. Some other thoughts and observations from Game 6:

1) Brett Wallace looks like he's lost all confidence at the plate. He went 0 for 3 today with 2 more strikeouts bringing his season totals to 1 hit in 17 at bats with 13 strikeouts. You can tell he's all up in his head right now, and that's a tough thing to break out of. He needs a hit, and he needs it bad. The only guy who probably needs one worse right now is Rick Ankiel who fanned for the 10th time in his last 11 at bats as a pinch hitter in the 9th. If they keep it up, you have to wonder how long they'll last, especially when you've got guys like Brandon Laird (6/16 with 6 rbis), Jake Elmore (7/16), Jimmy Paredes (8/15 with 3 doubles), and Robbie Grossman (5/13 with 5 walks) off to fast starts in AAA.

2) Am I the only one who's wondering where the heck is Josh Fields? With our bullpen logging crazy innings, our Rule 5 draft pick has faced just 2 hitters. Surprised he didn't get work yesterday or today, especially when you consider we were extending Dallas Keuchel and Xavier Cedeno beyond two innings of work.

3) Speaking of Xavier Cedeno, it was nice to see him have some better luck today. After facing seven hitters on Friday night and retiring ZERO, he tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings today. His control was still a bit shaky, but he appeared to be able to work through some of that and he got stronger as he went. It was also nice to see a 1-2-3 inning from Hector Ambriz, especially after allowing 7 hits in his previous 2 innings of work.

4) Carlos Corporan and Brandon Barnes each logged their first hits of the season today meaning every position player on the roster now has at least one hit this year. It was nice to actually see Barnes in the lineup today too, especially with the way Ankiel has been struggling.

5) I'd say I was concerned about Jose Veras being our closer, but the way we're playing right now, we don't really need a closer, so I guess it doesn't matter. Veras has yet to record a 1-2-3 inning in three appearances this year and he's allowed 7 baserunners (5 hits, 2 walks).

6) Nice to see Chris Carter finally get an extra base hit. I think it's funny how everyone was ragging on Justin Maxwell this spring, when it's been Carter who's been ice cold out of the gates. Carter, who legged out a triple to left center in the 8th, is now 2 for 22 with 11 strikeouts. Conversely, Maxwell, who only had 9 hits all spring, is 8 for 21 and has scored a team high 5 runs. Meanwhile, our leadoff hitter Jose Altuve has scored ZERO. Figure that one out.

7) Edgar Gonzalez, who was designated for assignment following the trade for Travis Blackley, didn't clear waivers and is headed for Toronto. Gonzalez, who did not pitch for Houston this year, was 3-1 with a 5.04 ERA in 6 starts in 2012.

8) Next up for the Astros, a West Coast road trip that includes stops in Seattle, L.A., and Oakland. Things aren't going to get any easier for this club, they're just going to have to keep fighting. Eventually the hits will start dropping in there. As frustrating as it is, it's still really early in the season. There's lots of time for the boys to turn things around.

We Scored!

Another loss for the Astros as a missed opportunity on a potential double play ball turned what could've been a scoreless inning into a 7-run 5th. The 8 run deficit was too much to overcome, but at least the Astros managed to score this time. Some observations from Game 4:

1) Houston middle infielders are pulling their weight, but that's about it. Jose Altuve and the shortstop platoon of Marwin Gonzalez and Ronny Cedeno are a combined 13 for 29 (.448) while all other Astros are 12 for 100 (.120).

2) Astro hitters struck out 13 more times last night giving them 56 through 4 games (an average of 14 per night). Brett Wallace notched his third hat trick of the season giving him a team high 11 strikeouts through the first four games. He wasn't even the worst offender last night though as Rick Ankiel managed to strike out in all four of his appearances. After slugging a pinch hit three-run homer in his first at-bat as an Astro, Ankiel is 0 for 10 with 9 strikeouts. If you play fantasy baseball, you may want to consider starting whatever pitcher is throwing against the Astros. Even Bartolo Colon.

3) Chris Carter and Jason Castro finally notched their first hits of the season. Houston now has only three players still looking for their first hit of 2013: Carlos Corporan (0/3), Brandon Barnes (0/1) and J.D. Martinez (0/3).

4) Brad Peacock has good stuff, but he needs to be more efficient. Peacock threw 89 pitches in 4 1/3 innings of work causing the bullpen to be forced into action early once again. And considering Houston's bullpen has an ERA of 7.53 (and that's including 3 1/3 scoreless innings from Erik Bedard), that's not a good thing. On a brighter note, the Astros starting 5 have a collective ERA of 2.16 through 4 games.

5) Having to get extra outs will kill a bad team. Marwin Gonzalez's misplay of a groundball in the 5th led to 7 runs, 3 of them unearned. If Houston gets out of that inning without yielding a run, maybe it's a different ballgame. You can come back from 1-0 down. 8-0? Not so much.

6) Brandon Laird went 3 for 5 with a home run and 4 runs batted in during a AAA double header yesterday. Keep an eye on his production in Oklahoma City, especially if Brett Wallace continues to struggle.

Whirling Darvish Dazzles Astros

Not quite the follow-up to the season opener we were all hoping for, but hey, at least we didn't get no hit. Thank you, Marwin Gonzalez. Some observations on the loss:

1) Yu Darvish made our lineup look silly. I made a comment the other day that there are going to be days where this team resembles a minor league ball club at the plate, and this was one of those days. Yu Darvish cruised through the Astros lineup retiring 26 in a row - 14 of them via the strike out - as the Rangers evened the series at one game apiece. In fact, the only Astro not to strike out last night was backup catcher Carlos Corporan. Now it's not like Darvish is a slouch. As we saw last year, he's a legitimate ace. But even as good as he is, you expect to hit more than one ball out of the infield. It's not going to get much easier today when the Astros get Alexi Ogando, but I don't think anyone will miss Darvish.

2) One of the many, many questions surrounding this year's Astros team is their bullpen. And the bullpen looked REALLY shaky last night. Yes, it's a small sample size, but it wasn't pretty. The pen inherited a 1-0 deficit in the 7th inning last night, and between Xavier Cedeno, Rhiner Cruz, Wesley Wright, Josh Fields, and Jose Veras, they surrendered 6 runs turning a close game into a rout. Only Fields managed to get through the game without giving up a run, and he pitched just 1/3 of an inning.