July 14, 2008: Astros in Review: First Half 2008 Season

Now that we are at the All-Star break, it is a good time to look back on the first half of the season and take stock of what the Astros have and have not achieved.

EXPECTATIONS

First, let’s think about our expectations of the Astros on March 31, 2008.  Going into the season, the Astros had several new players on the team put together by first year GM Ed Wade.  Based on the off-season acquisitions, we expected the Astros to be able to score alot of runs, but to struggle in pitching.  It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to hope that the Astros would end the season at .500.

LINEUP

Here is a look at the Astros lineup on starting day compared to yesterday:

Position *	March 31, 2008	July 13, 2008
C *	Brad Ausmus	Brad Ausmus
C	J.R. Towles	J.R. Towles
1B *	Lance Berkman	Lance Berkman
2B *	Mark Loretta	Kaz Matsui
SS *	Miguel Tejada	Miguel Tejada
3B *	Ty Wigginton	Ty Wigginton
IF	Geoff Blum	Geoff Blum
IF	Tomas Perez	Mark Loretta
IF	n/a	David Newhan
OF *	Michael Bourn	Darin Erstad
OF *	Carlos Lee	Carlos Lee
OF *	Hunter Pence	Hunter Pence
OF	Darin Erstad	Michael Bourn
OF	Jose Cruz, Jr.	n/a
SP *	Roy Oswalt	Roy Oswalt
SP	Brandon Backe	Brandon Backe
SP	Wandy Rodriguez	Wandy Rodriguez
SP	Shawn Chacon	Brian Moehler
SP	Chris Sampson	Sampson/Paronto/Reineke?
RP	Dave Borkowski	Dave Borkowski
RP	Brian Moehler	Doug Brocail
RP	Wesley Wright	Wesley Wright
RP	Geoff Geary	Geoff Geary
RP	Oscar Villareal	Tim Byrdak
RP	Doug Brocail	Jose Valverde
RP	Jose Valverde	Sampson/Paronto/Reineke?

* Starter

INJURIES

The following players have been on the DL: 2B Kaz Matsui (twice), 3B Ty Wigginton, C Humberto Quintero, RP Geoff Geary, and SP Wandy Rodriguez.

TRANSACTIONS

The following players have been sent to the minors: C Humberto Quintero, C J.R. Towles, IF David Newhan, IF Tomas Perez, OF Reggie Abercrombie, SP/RP Jask Cassel, RP Fernando Nieve, RP Dave Borkowski, SP Runelvys Hernandez, RP Oscar Villareal and SP/RP Chad Reineke. 

The following player was outright released by the Astros: SP Shawn Chacon.

CONCLUSION

The first thing that jumps out is the fact that I have no idea who our fifth starter is.  That’s a very bad sign.   Remember the question of pitching at the beginning of the season?  Clearly that question has never been answered.  Look at the transactions as well.  The majority of the players that have been sent back and forth to the minors are pitchers.

The second thing that is obvious is that we do not have a starting catcher of the future.  J.R. Towles was sent to the minors early on and if it wasn’t for a concussion to Humberto Quintero, he would probably still be there.  The Astros drafted a catcher as their number one pick in the 2008 draft, so they are looking ahead already.

The last thing that I want to mention is Michael Bourn.  In my opinion, he is no longer the starting center fielder.  The Astros traded Brad Lidge to the Phillies for Bourn, Geoff Geary and minor league 3B Mike Costanzo.  The Phillies obviously got the better end of the deal, but don’t forget that Geoff Geary has been decent in the bullpen, so the trade wasn’t a complete loss.  (Costanzo obviously isn’t going to start for the Astros at thirdbase.  Mark Saccomanno is the starter of the future.)

However, Michael Bourn, at this point, is a bust.  The kid can run, but he isn’t a great bunter.  The benefit of having Willy Taveras who could get all of those infield hits because of his speed and bunting isn’t coming to fruition with Bourn.

Lastly, we expected the Astros to score alot of runs even while they struggled in pitching.  The Astros are sixth in the league in batting average (.260), twelfth in runs (414), eighth in homerunes (96), eleventh in RBIs (396), last in walks (280) and eighth in slugging (.409).  Nit very good numbers for a team that was supposed to knock the leather off the ball.

On the brightside, we have done a few good things on offense.  The Astros are third in stolen bases (84) and fifteenth in strikeouts (586). 

What does this tell us?  With Michael Bourn in the lineup, we get alot of steals; without him in the lineup, our stolen base stat is going to suffer.  Also, since we have a low amount of strikeouts and walks, we must be getting the bat on the ball and either getting left on base or grounding or flying out.

Our final goal was to be .500 at the end of the season.  Right now, the Astros are in last place in the NL Central and they are 44-51 overall.  Unless the Astros get things figured out in pitching, I don’t see them getting to .500.