Here we are 12 games into the season or another way to say that is we’ve already played 7.4% of the season. Yes, we have 92.6% of the season still to go. The Astros sit at 6-6 and in 4th place in the division a whopping 1.5 games back of the Angels. In comes the Toronto Blue Jays who have the best record in the AL at 8-5. At this point in the season we should dive deeper into those numbers and my first thought is that Toronto must be slugging the ball, but they have only scored 52 runs in 13 games, which is an average of 4 runs per game. On the other side they have given up 50 runs for a +2 differential. Looking at the Astros I don’t think any of us would be surprised to see that offense appears to be the early problem. The Astros have scored 41 runs averaging a little less than 3.5 runs per game while pitching has given up 48 runs. If you take out Jake Odorizzi the Astros have only given up 36 runs (yes he’s given up 12 runs, 9 of those earned, in 9 innings piutched). The good news in this regards:
Odorizzi is NOT scheduled to pitch in this series.
This weekend’s pitching matchups:
Friday Night 7:10 PM - Ross Stripling, 0-0, 3.00 ERA vs Justin Verlander, 1-1, 0.69 ERA
Saturday Afternoon 3:10 PM - Alek Manoah, 2-0, 1.50 ERA vs Jose Urquidy, 1-1 7.00 ERA
Sunday early Afternoon 1:10 - Yusei Kikuchi, 0-1, 3.24 ERA vs Luis Garcia, 1-0, 2.79 ERA
Players to watch:
For Toronto this is a bit obvious that one of Houston’s favorites, George Springer, is back in town. In addition to George, Vlad Guerrero Jr. is worth the price of admission and so far is having quite the season as is Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. with his younger version of the pina power. Teoscar Hernandez is on the DL so we don’t get lament that we traded him away for almost nothing. Cavan Biggio while on the team isn’t an everyday player for the Jays at this point so not sure if we will see him. In general this is a dangerous lineup and should be fun to watch.
As for the Astros, three weeks ago we all were worried about the SS and CF positions. So far offensively and defensively I don’t think we have anything to complain about. Jeremy Pena currently leads the team with an OPS of 0.953 followed by Yordan and then Chas McCormick. In addition to the two new guys, so far it appears that cocky Bregman might be back with some additional room to continue getting better. The bad or maybe unlucky is Tucker and Gurriel so far haven’t provided a whole lot. Tucker has 4 hits 2 of which are homers that were in the same game and is currently batting less than 0.100. Yuli has 5 hits (4 of which are doubles) but not have been timely and has yet to get an RBI and has only scored 1 run himself. Some of these numbers must start regressing to the mean, which in total will be good even if we see Pena, McCormick and Siri all come down some.
It is time for us fans to relax and let’s settle into the season. At some point the batters are going to get to their norm.
As horrible as the team played the other night in the city uniforms we are going to continue to see them. I personally don't care for the uniform, the hat is fire (I have to wait until father's day as it was bought for me), the jersey is ok, the pants suck and the socks are fire. That being said I think the consensus is that they are great.
ICYMI, Carlos Correa was voted 2021 Houston Athlete of the Year
TODAY IS JV DAY!!!
Jake O, isn't going anywhere too soon. Adam Wexler the other day was saying he thinks Dusty is gonna go to a 6 man rotation soon to continue to give JV an extra day off. Thus Javier may join the rotation and Jake O stays as well. We will see soon. Personally I got to believe Jake's leash is getting shorter by the start.
Meet the newest Cuban to join the Astros family
Lastly if you haven't seen it yet, we are less than a week away from the opening of Al Capone's vault...errr...I mean the Yankee's letter. I do have some thoughts that it will be a big nothing but that doesn't make sense with how hard the Yankee's and MLB tried to keep it sealed.
Odorizzi is NOT scheduled to pitch in this series.
This weekend’s pitching matchups:
Friday Night 7:10 PM - Ross Stripling, 0-0, 3.00 ERA vs Justin Verlander, 1-1, 0.69 ERA
Saturday Afternoon 3:10 PM - Alek Manoah, 2-0, 1.50 ERA vs Jose Urquidy, 1-1 7.00 ERA
Sunday early Afternoon 1:10 - Yusei Kikuchi, 0-1, 3.24 ERA vs Luis Garcia, 1-0, 2.79 ERA
Players to watch:
For Toronto this is a bit obvious that one of Houston’s favorites, George Springer, is back in town. In addition to George, Vlad Guerrero Jr. is worth the price of admission and so far is having quite the season as is Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. with his younger version of the pina power. Teoscar Hernandez is on the DL so we don’t get lament that we traded him away for almost nothing. Cavan Biggio while on the team isn’t an everyday player for the Jays at this point so not sure if we will see him. In general this is a dangerous lineup and should be fun to watch.
As for the Astros, three weeks ago we all were worried about the SS and CF positions. So far offensively and defensively I don’t think we have anything to complain about. Jeremy Pena currently leads the team with an OPS of 0.953 followed by Yordan and then Chas McCormick. In addition to the two new guys, so far it appears that cocky Bregman might be back with some additional room to continue getting better. The bad or maybe unlucky is Tucker and Gurriel so far haven’t provided a whole lot. Tucker has 4 hits 2 of which are homers that were in the same game and is currently batting less than 0.100. Yuli has 5 hits (4 of which are doubles) but not have been timely and has yet to get an RBI and has only scored 1 run himself. Some of these numbers must start regressing to the mean, which in total will be good even if we see Pena, McCormick and Siri all come down some.
It is time for us fans to relax and let’s settle into the season. At some point the batters are going to get to their norm.
As horrible as the team played the other night in the city uniforms we are going to continue to see them. I personally don't care for the uniform, the hat is fire (I have to wait until father's day as it was bought for me), the jersey is ok, the pants suck and the socks are fire. That being said I think the consensus is that they are great.
ICYMI, Carlos Correa was voted 2021 Houston Athlete of the Year
TODAY IS JV DAY!!!
Jake O, isn't going anywhere too soon. Adam Wexler the other day was saying he thinks Dusty is gonna go to a 6 man rotation soon to continue to give JV an extra day off. Thus Javier may join the rotation and Jake O stays as well. We will see soon. Personally I got to believe Jake's leash is getting shorter by the start.
Meet the newest Cuban to join the Astros family
Lastly if you haven't seen it yet, we are less than a week away from the opening of Al Capone's vault...errr...I mean the Yankee's letter. I do have some thoughts that it will be a big nothing but that doesn't make sense with how hard the Yankee's and MLB tried to keep it sealed.
