Comments for Austin's Astros 290 Blog

Comment on Friday Fourspot — These are your Astros? by Austin Swafford

Austin Swafford — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:07:16 +0000

I’ll need to see a little more before I can say that’s true with Schafer. He’s cut down some and he’s only got three Ks in the last 6 games, which is awfully good for him, but I need to see him sustain that. Especially after the called third strike he had to lead off the game last night. I like his patience but he has to stop taking close pitches when he has 2 strikes.

And I ALMOST agree with your lineup. The only difference I’d have is that I’d move Altuve up to third and move everyone else down one spot. Altuve’s their best hitter by a pretty large margin. As much as I like a REAL hitter in the 8th spot, you can’t have your best guy’s plate appearances, RBI opportunities and scoring opportunities limited by having him bat so low in the lineup. If I’m going to put a real hitter in the 8th spot instead of just having their worst hitter there, which is the convention, I’d put Schafer there.

Comment on Friday Fourspot — These are your Astros? by Brian McNicoll

Brian McNicoll — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:00:08 +0000

Both are real. That’s going to be the thing about this team … sometimes extremely good, sometimes painfully close to being good. Another big thing in our favor — Jordan Schafer has stopped taking so many strikes. He is learning to tell the difference. It should be him first, Lowrie second, JD third, Carlos fourth, Bogey fifth, CJ sixth, Castro seventh, Altuve 8th.

Comment on Astros part ways with Pence, bolster farm system by Austin's Astros 290 Blog » Blog Archive » Wednesday’s good reads: The bad read edition » Austin's Astros 290 Blog

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:30:51 +0000

[...] prospects (Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton) when the dealt Pence in what I considered to be one of the few truly good deals of the Ed Wade era. Those two are doing great in Double-A while Pence is putting up mediocre [...]

Comment on Good reads: Astwoes by Austin Swafford

Austin Swafford — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:36:41 +0000

Carlos Lee being firmly planted in the cleanup spot has been a frustration to me for a few years now. I agree — he’s due to be bumped. Although the person I want there (J.D. Martinez) couldn’t hit his way out of a flaming paper bag right now. I really hope he comes around because he should be so much better than this. Am I allowed to blame Mike Barnett? Because that’s what I really want to do.

I’m not going to destroy Mills for pulling Wright, even though he was cruising, because Wright’s numbers against righties are about as good as mine would be if he put me on the mound, and Fernando has dominated right handed hitters. I didn’t have a huge problem with the move as it stands (my problem is having loogys at all), it just didn’t play out as well as you’d hope. I will say, however, that Fernando now leads the team in losses, so it might be time to either reevaluate his role in the bullpen or send him to the minors until he can throw a strike without grooving it. He has good stuff, he just makes way too many bad pitches.

Comment on Good reads: Astwoes by Casey M.

Casey M. — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:24:37 +0000

I’ve seen everyone in the order hit in a different spot other than the God awful Carlos Lee. I don’t see why that is. He doesn’t hit like a cleanup hitter. Why not try CJ there or something, someone that gives effort. And what was up with him taking wright out after striking out 3 in a row and facing a .200 hitter in Barmes? Another spot where Mills over thought.

Comment on ‘Stros overtake Sawx in power rankings by Austin Swafford

Austin Swafford — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:41:02 +0000

I’m optimistic about this front office. Luhnow has been pretty good so far and they seem to be far more realistic about this team’s situation than the previous owner and GM.

Comment on ‘Stros overtake Sawx in power rankings by Peabo

Peabo — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:31:56 +0000

I never said that it was a playoff team, I said I was worried that the front office will think it’s a playoff team and make bad trades. I know that there’s new people in the comfy chairs, but we’ve seen the astros make bad moves at midseason thinking they’re going to the playoffs. How many times did Drayton and Wade talk about how the ’05 team was 15-30, and so you can’t count yourselves out? Bad leadership can see a 10-15 game deficit in July and think they’re just one good player from making a run. That’s how you end up trading a handful of prospects for someone like Miguel Tejeda.

Comment on ‘Stros overtake Sawx in power rankings by Austin Swafford

Austin Swafford — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:57:02 +0000

Agreed…excited but I’m very concerned about what their offense has done the last couple of weeks. Schafer is showing a propensity for long cold stretches. Before his 4-for-5 performance in last night’s series finale, he’d gone hitless in his previous 15 at-bats. He also had a stretch in April where he went 1-for-15.

Nobody’s struggling worse than JD Martinez who has just 1 hit in his last 29 at-bats, only one extra-base hit in the last 20 games, and hasn’t hit a home run in almost a month. Not that I expected him to sustain his early OPS, but since the last time he was over 1.000, he’s batting just .120. That’s over 15 games.

Altuve has also cooled off a bit. He batted .360 with a .404 OBP last month, and so far this month (though early) he’s batting just .265 with a .303 OBP. I’m confident in his ability to recover, but disappointing how much and how quickly he’s cooled off.

Then there’s Chris Johnson…batting for decent average and acceptable OPS but he has 31 Ks with just 5 BBs.

This team is definitely more exciting and moving in the right direction, but still has a long way to go and some very big problems to fix.

Comment on ‘Stros overtake Sawx in power rankings by Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:29:17 +0000

Whoa whoa whoa. I am definitely excited too, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves Mr. Peabo. This is not a playoff team. At all. That doesn’t mean they’re not capable of playing good baseball, because they have here and there. But I’ve also seen us win at least 4 games this year because of opponent errors. Think about that…instead of 14-17, we’re 10-21. That’s not to say that errors don’t happen and kudos to the Astros for capitalizing…but that trend won’t continue.

I’m more excited about us having some fight….that and a #1 draft pick coming up

Comment on ‘Stros overtake Sawx in power rankings by Peabo

Peabo — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:05:44 +0000

I’m excited about the team so far, but I’m actually a little afraid that they might do too well this year. We’ll have to see how the new GM handles it, but if they are only a few games back come trade deadline, I’m worried they won’t move Myers or might do something even stupider and trade prospects for a veteran to push for the playoffs. The only playoff minded move I would be okay with would be signing Roy Oswalt in July.