Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The Sad State of the Astros

When looking at the rosters of teams in Major League Baseball, there are some standouts when it comes to poorly constructed offenses. The Athletics seem to be a poor offense. The Royals always seem to shine in the OBP anti-race. The Cubs look old. The White Sox look like a weak hitting team. But none of them seem more inclined to score less runs than the Astros. Man! What happened? Where is Biggio and Bagwell? This used to be a franchise that was always in the mix of things. How did they get this bad? Well, here is their lineup and each players historic OPS+:

Remember that less than 100 is lower than league average

Pedro Feliz - 83
Humberto Quintero/J. R. Towles - 58/61
Jeff Keppinger/Kaz Matsui - 89/85
Tommy Manzella - No relevant data, but his OPS in the minors was .694. Umm...
Chris Johnson/Geoff Blum - No data but a .736 OPS in minors / 81
Carlos Lee - 116! Yay!
Michael Bourn - 78
Hunter Pence - 114! Yay!
Any pitcher - nevermind

That adds up to a lot of outs. It's understood that Berkman is out. But isn't he always? It seems so lately. But no matter how good Oswalt and Wandy and friends can be, they just won't score enough runs to turn them into wins. It's going to be a long...long...long season in muggy Houston.

2 comments:

Anthony K. said...

Believe me, as a die hard Astros fan, I know just how sad the state of the Astros is.

How much I hate to think about it, the 'Stros need to unload Lee and Berkman and get as many prospects/picks as possible and build towards two years from now (especially with a LOADED free agent class after this season.

Oh yeah, and OPEN THE DAMN CHECKBOOK (aimed at ownership there ;) ).

Josh Borenstein said...

Agreed. I would unload Lee and Berkman while you still can. They're getting old. Time to rebuild. What's really hurt the Astros in recent years is their farm system. Their scouts have done a piss poor job.

Chris Johnson has a nice swing. But he needs to be more selective.

Jordan Lyles has shown a lot of promise. And he's still just a pup.

I was surprised the Astros didn't open the season with Jason Castro as their catcher.

Samuel Gervacio looks like Carlos Marmol with a slightly more funky delivery. Definitely has closer stuff.