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.

Humber Out, Edgar Back In

After last night's Philip Humber meltdown, you kinda saw this move coming. After starting the season 0-8 with a 9.59 ERA in 9 appearances, Humber was designated for assignment today. The Astros didn't waste any time filling his roster spot either as they signed free agent Edgar Gonzalez who was recently released by Toronto. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Gonzalez made the Astros out of Spring Training, but was designated for assignment before appearing in a game this season to make room for Travis Blackley. Now he's back and will help out in long relief for the Astros. How long he stays on the roster remains to be seen as Josh Fields is getting closer to returning from injury. Gonzalez made 4 starts for AAA Buffalo going 1-0 with a 5.49 ERA, and 3 relief appearances for the Jays in which he posted a 7.88 ERA (7 runs in 8 innings). Gonzalez made 6 starts for the Astros a year ago, going 3-1 with a 5.04 ERA. He beat the Pirates, Reds and Brewers. Is he "the answer" to our problems? Probably not. But, he buys us some more time so we don't have to rush the kids (Cosart, Wojo, etc.)

Some other notes from last night:

1) I really like Trevor Crowe. He did three things last night that stood out for me:

*A two-strike base hit off of closer Joe Nathan in the 9th inning to drive in a run
*Threw out Ian Kinsler at home on a would-be sacrifice fly
*Went from 1st to 3rd on a wild pitch in the 9th inning to set up a run

A switch hitter with good speed, Crowe present us with some interesting possibilities moving forward. A former first round pick, it'd be great if he finally put things together.

2) Erik Bedard was terrific yesterday and deserved to win that game. He left with a 3-1 lead in the 6th after fanning 7 and allowing just 4 hits in 5+ innings. His most impressive inning was the 5th in which he worked out of a 1st and 3rd no out jam without allowing a run. That's the Bedard we thought we were getting when we signed him. He's had an interesting season so far. Let me break it down for you in three parts:

Part 1 (Apps 1-2): 7 1/3 IP 2 H 0 ER 2 BB 5 K - 0.00 ERA 0.55 WHIP
Part 2 (Apps 3-6): 11 1/3 IP 21 H 17 ER 10 BB 16 K - 13.50 ERA 2.74 WHIP
Part 3 (Apps 7-8): 8 1/3 IP 6 H 3 ER 3 BB 10 K - 3.24 ERA 1.08 WHIP

Now if we could just harness parts 1 and 3 and keep THAT guy going forward...

3) Nice to see Sweet Matty D go yard twice against Darvish yesterday getting his first 2 home runs of the year and notching his first career multi-homer game.

4) Jose Cisnero pitched well in relief of Humber allowing a Lance Berkman home run in 3 1/3 innings of work. While Cisnero has pitched well for the most part during his brief tenure in Houston, I think he's the likely guy to get sent back down when Josh Fields returns. It's not a knock on Cisnero's performance at all, but being a young guy, it's more important for him to get work than it is for him to sit on the bench in Houston.

So Close... Yes So Far...

I'm trying to put a positive spin on last night's game, but it certainly isn't easy. For the second time in as many nights, we let a game slip away against the Tigers. This time, closer Jose Veras surrendered a 9th inning 2-run homer to Alex Avila, who's now hitting an Astro-like .179 on the season, dealing us a 4-3 loss. On top of that Jose Altuve got robbed on a great play by Omar Infante in the 9th and Jason Castro hit a line shot, but right at left fielder Don Kelly to end the game. So, positive spin... right. The only thing I can really think to say is that we're in these games, and we're actually expecting the results to be different. A couple of weeks ago, we expected to lose EVERY game, and by a lot. But now the starting pitching is getting better, and with the exception of Veras, both Hector Ambriz and Travis Blackley were solid out of the pen. Robbie Grossman reached base 3 more times as he continues to work his way out of that 0 for 17 skid in Boston, Jose Altuve had 3 hits, we actually rallied from a 2-0 deficit late in the game to take a 3-2 lead... Good things are happening with this club, they just aren't translating into wins yet. And let's face it, this year isn't about wins, it's about next year, and the year after that. It's about figuring out what we have, and who's worth keeping. Did anyone really think Jose Veras was the long term solution at closer? No, he's there the mentor younger guys in the bullpen. But as guys like Ambriz and Clemens and Blackley and Cisnero start to emerge out of the pen, and Harrell and Norris and Lyles have successes in the rotation, Castro emerges as an every day player, Dominguez plays his Gold Glove defense at third, you're starting to put together a team, which is something we haven't been doing since the early 2000s. Don't get me wrong, I hate losing, and it's frustrating to look at our record and see we're 8-22. But we are making progress, however small, and you've got to buy into what the organization is trying to do otherwise you're in for a long couple of months/years. So hang in there, Astro fans, and stay positive. Take the small victories for what they are and a few years from now, you'll be able to say you were there through the dark years, and always believed. It'll make the end reward that much sweeter.

Final Thoughts on the Boston Series

No matter how you slice it, the Astros simply got outplayed in every facet of the game these past four contests with the Sox. Pitching, offense, defense... Boston got it done, and we did not. Their long at bats ended with hits, ours generally ended with strikeouts. They got runners into scoring position and scored them, we had the tying run on base or at the plate late in each of the last three games and we failed to get a run across. In most cases, we ended up striking out. Their starting pitching battled, ours with exception of Bud Norris, got beaten down. Pick a reason, but that's why the Sox are at the top, and we're at the bottom. Hopefully our kids grew just watching a team like that play, because otherwise that was just a painful series to watch. Some final thoughts on Game 4:

1) Bud Norris got us six innings, which was huge for the bullpen given the way our starters had been pitching, but it wasn't enough. Bud still allowed 11 baserunners via hit or walk, and then there was Marwin's double-error which led to two more unearned runs. I don't want to say Bud pitched badly, but he's still got a ways to go before he goes from being "our ace" to a "true ace". The flip side of that is, if our guys are logging quality starts, our offense needs to be giving them more of a chance to win.

2) Ronny Cedeno, our DH the past two games, was the only Astro to get a hit with runners in scoring position on Sunday and he did it twice. Cedeno, who is hitting .333 on the year, now has 8 rbis in his last 4 games. By comparison, Matt Dominguez has 8 rbis this season, Carlos Pena has 6, Jason Castro has 4, J.D. Martinez has 7, Justin Maxwell has 6, Brandon Laird, Robbie Grossman and Fernando Martinez have 8 between the three of them, and Marwin Gonzalez has 7. And that is why, much to everyone's amazement, Ronny Cedeno has been our unlikely designated hitter.

3) Jose Cisnero finally got scored on, but his response to that was particularly impressive as he struck out 3 hitters in a row after yielding the run. I like this kid, I think he's going to stick around. But again, like Paul Clemens, I'd like to see him get some more meaningful innings under his belt.

4) The series ended as you would expect, with Robbie Grossman absolutely smoking a ball into right field only to have Daniel Nava make a full extension diving catch robbing him of extra bases. This was just that kind of series. Jonny Gomes making silly defensive plays in left, Nava in right... We could not buy a break the entire series. Hey, if that's the kind of year it's going to be, go ahead and just pencil us in for 110 losses.

5) Don't look now, but Rick Ankiel put the ball in play in all four of his plate appearances. Could he be on the verge of turning things around? Perhaps not, but it's still a step in the right direction.

6) Jason Castro went 1 for 3 with a walk raising his average to .266 as he continues to grow into the role of 3-hitter. It'd be nice if we could get him some more rbi opportunities, but at least he's getting hits, and getting on base. Castro has now hit in 6 straight, and if you forget the Rangers series ever happened, he'd be hitting .309. He's also drawn a walk in 4 of his last 5 starts.

2 Runs Are Better than None

So on paper, scoring just 2 runs might not seem like an accomplishment, but the Astros gave Clay Buchholz his highest ERA in any of his 5 starts by crossing the plate twice against him in 7 2/3 innings. That shoots his ERA all the way up to a Bob Gibson-esque 1.19. Hey, small victories, right? Some more notes on yesterday's game:

1) Philip Humber is having a rough go of things lately. After being arguably Houston's best starter the first three trips through the rotation, Humber has been crushed by bad first innings in his last two outings sending his ERA from 2.89 up to 7.99. In his last two first innings, he's retired just 4 hitters and allowed 12 earned runs. You ready for the math on this one? That's an ERA of 81.00. No good. You've gotta feel for the guy though. He's 0-5 which makes sense given his high ERA, but if you take away the 6 runs Houston scored in their 19-6 blowout loss to the Indians, the Astros have managed to score just 3 runs in Humber's starts. Unless you're Clay Buchholz, that makes it awfully tough to win.

2) Fernando Martinez was a bright spot yesterday going 3 for 4 in his 4th start since returning from the DL. Nice to see him squaring up on the ball against some pretty good pitchers (Buchholz and Daniel Bard). People tend to forget Martinez is only 24 so he's still got a lot ahead of him if he can stay healthy.

3) Jose Cisnero was very sharp in his second outing, once again throwing shutout baseball. J-Cizzle tossed 2 scoreless innings against the Sox bringing his scoreless innings streak up to 5 2/3 innings since his arrival. It's going to be awfully hard to send him back down to AAA if he keeps throwing like this. The next big question is, can he pitch effectively when the game is on the line? So far we've only seen him in blowout baseball.

4) Travis Blackley had his best outing as an Astro yesterday going 1 1/3 innings in relief of Humber and fanning two while walking just one. The lefty from Australia has gotten better each time out following his return from the DL which is very promising. It will be interesting to see how his role in the pen progresses, especially with Clemens and Cisnero on the roster. There's no real reason to carry 3 long relievers (unless your starters can't get out of the first inning 3 nights a week), so it stands to reason that someone will start to take on a different role. However, until the day comes when our bullpen isn't completely burned out, all we can really do is speculate.

5) Rick Ankiel drew his first walk of the season yesterday giving him 1 walk and 28 strikeouts. Ridiculous. Ankiel has drawn 155 walks in 1837 at bats in his career, with a high of 42 in 2008. On a brighter note, Ankiel has already matched his home run total from 2012 (which took 158 ABs) and needs just 4 more rbis to hit last year's total in that category as well.

6) After drawing just one walk in his first 16 games, Jason Castro has walked in each of the last three contests. Castro has also seen his average jump out lately going from .200 a week and a half ago, up to .250 and he's hit safely in 5 of the last 6 games.

7) Chris Carter struck out two more times yesterday giving him 37 strikeouts through the first 22 games of the season. Carter has only played one game this year in which he did not fan at least once. That came against the A's on April 16th in which he was 1 for 3 with a walk. Carter has struck out 3 times on 3 occasions, and twice in ten different games. He's currently on pace to end the year with 272 strikeouts which is almost as absurd as Rick Ankiel's strikeout to walk ratio. On the plus side, both Ankiel and Carter are on pace to hit 37 homers with 35 of Carter's projected to come against the Mariners.

Cisnero Debut a Success, but That's About It

The losses are starting to pile up again, but the truth is, there's not a lot of shame in getting shut down by King Felix. It would've been nicer to see Peacock go a little deeper into the game, but short outings are apparently all the rage right now. At least we got a great outing from Jose Cisnero in his debut. Some more thoughts on last night's game:

1) Brad Peacock had his worst outing of the season allowing 3 homers in 4 1/3 innings skyrocketing his ERA up to 7.50. After striking out 7 his last time out, Peacock managed just 1 strikeout last night, and once again just threw too many pitches. Unfortunately, no one else is pitching any better right now, so it's hard to justify making any sort of move.

2) Jose Cisnero was terrific last night in relief logging 3 2/3 scoreless innings in his Major League debut. He becomes the latest in a long line of long relievers that have appeared on the Astros roster this year: Edgar Gonzalez, Travis Blackley, Dallas Keuchel, Paul Clemens, Brett Oberholtzer, and now Cisnero. If nothing else, Cisnero has earned the right to stick around a bit. The kid has pretty good stuff, so many he can help out sooner than expected. I just wish we could have a game where our best player wasn't one of our long relievers.

3) All or Nothing Ankiel crushed another homer last night raising his average up to .237. Ankiel is now  9 for 38 with 24 strikeouts. He has two singles, two doubles and five home runs for a team high 11 runs batted in. When he puts the ball in play, he's batting .643. Simply ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that he still hasn't drawn a walk in 2013.

4) Jose Veras tossed a scoreless inning in relief last night, but once again allowed a hit so he's now gone 8 straight outings without retiring the side in order. On the plus side, he has gone 3 straight appearances without allowing a run after blowing that save against Albert Pujols and the Angels.

5) Jason Castro had his 3rd multi-hit performance in the last 4 games with a pair of doubles and a walk raising his average up to .242. Unfortunately, the walk was just his 2nd of the year which is way down from his walk rate a year ago. He's not the only one this applies to on this roster, but Astro hitters need to work more counts, and draw more walks. Cutting down on the strikeouts would be nice too. Yes, I'm talking about you, Chris Carter. Carter picked up a hat trick last night giving him 31 strikeouts in 70 at bats this season. No good.

6) Jose Altuve went 1 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to 8 games and he's now hitting .377 on the year. The only other Astro hitting over .300 right now is reserve outfielder Brandon Barnes (.333 - 8/24).

Cisnero the Latest Through Revolving Door of Long Relievers

Brett Oberholtzer is headed back to AAA as soon as he'd arrived after making his debut with a 2 inning outing against the Indians yesterday. Now it's Jose Cisnero's turn to play long reliever for the Astros. Cisnero, like Oberholtzer before him, hasn't exactly been lighting it up in AAA this year, but Houston needs fresh arms so the 24 year old Dominican gets the call. A power arm who's racked up strikeouts at almost every level, Cisnero has been used almost exclusively as a starter in the minors, but his plus arm could make him a bullpen asset as well. In the short term, he's getting an audition to be a long reliever and log some innings in the event Houston's starters keep getting knocked out of games early. If recent history is any indication, we'll see him on the hill pretty soon...

Year	Team	League	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	GO/AO	AVG
2008	DSL AST	DSL	0	3	3.10	10	6	0	0	2	29.0	18	15	10	0	11	34	0.89	.180
2008	Minors		0	3	3.10	10	6	0	0	2	29.0	18	15	10	0	11	34	0.89	.180
2009	GRN	APP	4	2	3.56	13	13	0	0	0	55.2	32	25	22	5	30	64	1.31	.165
2009	Minors		4	2	3.56	13	13	0	0	0	55.2	32	25	22	5	30	64	1.31	.165
2010	LEX	SAL	8	6	3.65	26	26	0	0	0	133.0	106	69	54	11	65	126	1.41	.221
2010	Minors		8	6	3.65	26	26	0	0	0	133.0	106	69	54	11	65	126	1.41	.221
2011	LAN	CAL	8	11	6.06	27	27	0	0	0	123.1	115	88	83	13	75	152	0.76	.246
2011	Minors		8	11	6.06	27	27	0	0	0	123.1	115	88	83	13	75	152	0.76	.246
2012	CC	TEX	9	6	3.40	20	20	2	1	0	108.2	93	44	41	7	46	116	0.62	.227
2012	OKC	PCL	4	1	4.54	8	8	0	0	0	39.2	52	23	20	1	18	32	0.71	.329
2012	Minors		13	7	3.70	28	28	2	1	0	148.1	145	67	61	8	64	148	0.65	.255
2013	OKC	PCL	1	1	9.35	3	1	0	0	0	8.2	13	10	9	1	7	7	0.64	.342
2013	Minors		1	1	9.35	3	1	0	0	0	8.2	13	10	9	1	7	7	0.64	.342