Drunken Overseas Bettor said:
Offensively, this team reminds me a lot of the late 90s teams. A couple of monsters in the lineup, but even those guys are mostly making their money off of the caiber of pitchers they're not going to see in the playoffs.
In 97, the Astros scored: 1, 3, 1 in the playoffs = 5 runs (1.67 /game)
In 98, it was: 1, 5, 1, 1 8 runs ( 2 per game)
In 99, it was: 6, 1, 3, 5 (15 runs (3.75 per game)
In 01, it was 4, 0, 2 (6 runs, 2 per game)
So 99 is sort of the outlier, although they lost that one game 7-5.
We saw the weak-ass playoff offense back last last year with 3 total runs vs Detroit. I hope I'm wrong, but the Astros' MO the whole season on offense has been to swing early in counts at pitches that the pitchers obviously want them swinging at, making a lot of soft contact, and being forced to play station to station, but doing so with a very inconsistent commitment to their running game, which is pretty essential if you're having to play small ball by default because outside of Paredes and Caratini, nobody works the count consistently - Yordan gets a free pass for now if he can regain that form, great.
What really concerns me the most is that outside of Jake and Paredes early before their injuries and Walker here lately, the Astros' two biggest offensive improvements didn't happen by managerial strategy or by hitting coach prowess, but by total accident! Pena moved to leadoff on a whim of a suggestion by Altuve, who was having to run in on his stubby little legs from left field and getting tired. Altuve moving to third was because he sucked so hard hitting 2nd and then couldn't hit leadoff again because Pena was killing it.
The last game I was at, the extra inning win over Baltimore when they retire Wagner's jersey, was the case in point of why I think they have little to no shot of making a playoff run. Espada manages like he's a 12 year old playing a video game. Once it's late in the game, he's hitting all of his buttons and going for every pinch hitter, every strategy, every - everything with no regards to how it might impact the game later. In that game, he had a pitcher stuck in the middle of the lineup who they were going to have to bat or burn if Baltimore wasn't a bunch of morons. The other day, they burned Caratini for a single AB and didn't leave him to DH, then Diaz took one on the hand. If that thing is any more serious, you're about to have Dubon playing catcher for the first time ever.
It's just really infuriating and with Hader out indefinitely, the margin of error late in close is just that more razor thin.
The biggest problem with this team is the guy managing it. He looks completely lost at all times and his decisions show it daily. I don't think this club has any confidence in him at all. And when that happens, players will never play to their capabilities or beyond. It's so much easier for a team to play loose and free when they trust the guy making the decisions. And that doesn't mean they don't like the guy. Hell, I'm sure most are tight with him after he was "best friend" and confidant on the bench in his assistant days. He may have been the best bench coach ever, but he is no manager at all. But nobody trusts him at all as a decision maker.
