Tucker Gently

 

[I...I typically say I'm not proud when I hit a music pun like that, but in this case I am proud. It may not be in great taste but it fits.]

The 2023 Astros. Where five huge pieces of the team are down for the count and all of the sudden this actually might be enough to stop these guys.

I worried when the break ended that the Astros would capitalize on the narrow lead the Rangers had over them, but that did not happen. The 'Stros have been involved in some extremely close games recently, and while they have been getting wins, they also managed to lose 12 to 13 to the Angels, right before they beat the Angels 9 to 8. The Astros clearly are not the team to completely blow their competitors out this season; the other guys from Texas seem to have that covered. 

The Astros last shut someone out on June 29th. They've held a team to 1 point twice this month. Every other time, they haven't exactly had a handle on keeping other teams down. Part of this may be due to the relative inexperience of a lot of the pitching. Three rotation spots are filled by rookies this year: Hunter Brown, Brandon Bielak and J.P. France have been strong so far, but not perfect. Brown, after a promising start, is now 6-7 with a 4.26 ERA. Bielak, though strong lately, is 5-5. And while the 'pen still has Hector Neris, Ryan Pressly and Phil Eaton doing insanely well, a lot of the best pieces of last year's bullpen, namely Rafael Montero, Seth Martinez and Ryne Stanek, are struggling. And yes, the team ERA is the third-lowest in the bigs, but the pitching didn't go off a cliff like this in previous years.

I still get that quality from the lineup as well. Some of these new guys, like Corey Julks, Yainer Diaz, Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers, have settled in nicely and are playing decent roles in this team. But it's also making this more of an anonymous team, as a lot of the big stars have either left or are injured. They have employed a big star at 1st, but Jose Abreu is 36 and leaving his prime. Kyle Tucker's having another nice season, and leads the team in RBIs with 62, and Bregman is no slouch with 59 RBIs, but without Alvarez, at least for another week or so, and without Springer, Correa, Gurriel and prime Altuve, this team feels like it has a lot of holes, and can only sustain itself so successfully.

It's still very likely that the Astros are a playoff team this year, and given that they usually do something infuriating at the deadline, they may go far into October like usual. I just don't think they have the team to beat in the AL. We've seen plenty of great teams beat them this year. Even the Phillies took two from them. They don't feel like the alpha anymore, and I think they need to work with that rather than fight against it.

Coming Tonight: A fireballer who is being very, very careful this year.