Astros Update: Something is Broken Edition

 

Here are some facts about the Astros. In the past week, the Astros have suffered two different losses where they gave up 13 or more runs, both to the Tampa Bay Rays, they have lost two major organizational figures [Ronel Blanco and Yordan Alvarez] to injuries then immediately lost both Chas McCormick and Zach Dezenzo, meaning they're running out of outfielders as well, and have had to defend Lance McCullers from cyberattacks after ruining prop bets with a security brigade. This is a week's worth of team breaking crises, which the Astros are experiencing...as they proceed to what could be a first place berth. 

Yes. That's right. Even with everything that's been going wrong, including Altuve's awful left field experience, Brendan Rodgers' awful time filling in at 2nd, and the back half of the rotation caverning, has not stopped the Astros from being in position to lap the Mariners, who, while still winning games, are only a half game ahead. And while both teams are playing sub-.500 teams right now, the Mariners are playing the ones who are beginning to pick up [the Orioles]. Meanwhile, the Astros get to play the Pirates. I mean...come on now. 

It will never cease to frustrate me how consistently well the Astros can do while statistically not deserving to. It's the equivalent of a senator always getting elected and never getting primaried but never actually doing anything to deserve to stay in power. So much is going on behind the scenes to ensure that this current balance remains, regardless of whether or not it should be. The Astros have had multiple seasons now where they've clearly demonstrated a subpar, below-standard team, and yet they keep frigging winning. They've made the playoffs every year since 2017, and only one of those years wasn't a division win. There have been so many more deserving teams in that stretch. The 2010s A's teams. The 2023 Rangers team. Any Mariners team from the past few years. Right now, the Mariners are the better team, have the better pitchers, and have more power hitters doing what they're supposed to, and because they're the Mariners they ebb and flow more than most.

I will give the Astros some credit. They have a good amount of people playing well. Jeremy Pena, as much as he confounds me, is having a great season, hitting .309 with 9 homers and 30 RBIs. Isaac Paredes is still a fixture at 3rd, with 11 homers and 32 RBIs. Brown and Valdez are in excellent shape, the bullpen's pretty solid across the board, and Cam Smith is coming into his own. But this just doesn't feel like a first place team to me, and it pains me to see this organization continue to get out of every scrape imaginable. 

I just wanna go back to the early 2010s when the Astros were terrible, it was so much simpler then.

Coming Tomorrow- He flirted with greatness but struggled with consistency for Philly, and then for Boston. Yet something about how the Padres were ready to throw the vault at him just moved me to pick him up in fantasy this year. Probably one of my best gambles.