At their best, the Astros are the best in the league
The Astros are the most well-rounded team in baseball right now
May 6, 2019, 6:50 am
Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images
Despite a tough 3-3 week where they dropped three of four in Minnesota against a tough Twins team, the huge display of power in Mexico over the weekend put things back in perspective; the Astros can beat anyone, anywhere. With the second full month of baseball underway, I took some time to break down what has been going right for the Astros so far in 2019:
Catching fire at the plate
Granted, the Astros just scored 24 runs over a two-game span against the Angels in Monterrey, but nonetheless, it's a sign that this potent offense is shaking off the early-season dust and finding their swing. If we would have been told going into the 2019 season that Jose Altuve would be hovering around a .250 average after 34 games, most of us probably would have considered that a symptom of the team at large struggling on offense. Instead, we've seen quite the contrary with other key players at the top of the lineup stepping up in big ways.
One of those key players is Michael Brantley. He has been nothing short of fantastic in an Astros uniform and currently leads the team in batting average at .336, which as of this writing was seventh-best in the majors. Pair that with his team second-best 24 RBIs and Houston's new cleanup hitter has fit in perfectly. Speaking of RBIs, the owner of first place on the team is George Springer, whose 27 RBIs and 10 home runs so far this year has him tied for eighth in the league in both categories.
Something that would pair well with these two guys getting hits is someone that can reliably get on base. Enter Alex Bregman. His .400 on-base percentage leads the team and is good for ninth-best in the American League. Much of that has to do with his patience at the plate which has led to 22 walks in 2019, tied for ninth-most in the league.
While the before-mentioned players come up with a lot of big hits, another noticeable part of this lineup that has had a surprisingly good start to the year is Josh Reddick. Reddick is not far behind Brantley in batting average, sitting at .330, and not far behind Bregman in on-base percentage, sitting at .380. After having his struggles at the plate last season he has had a hot start to 2019.
Throw all those bats in the mix with a rising Altuve and Carlos Correa, and it's no surprise that Houston's order has worked their way to the top of the league's leaderboard in team average at a combined .271, third-best in on-base percentage at .344, and third-lowest in strikeout percentage at 19.5%.
Don't forget the guys on the mound
Although the offense may generate most of the highlights on any given night, the pitching staff for Houston deserves a lot of credit for where this team is now and can go the rest of the year.
It starts with ace Justin Verlander, who I won't break down in great detail here since I did just that last week, but for argument's sake let me just highlight that he's 5-1 with a 0.87 WHIP (third-best in the league), 60 strikeouts (third-best in the league), and .176 average against (fourth-best in the league). His biggest fault so far has been giving up too many home runs.
Behind him, you've got the league-leader in strikeouts, Gerrit Cole, who currently sits at 65 and is a start behind most of the leaders since he'll pitch tonight for his eighth game of the year. He's had a big bomb to his numbers after that horrible start against the Rangers earlier this year, but his numbers are still great and have him near the top of the charts.
While the 3-4-5 guys of Collin McHugh, Wade Miley, and Brad Peacock may not be as high on the leaderboards or putting up the kind of numbers that Charlie Morton did for the Astros, they have done their job on the whole of keeping Houston ahead or close enough for the bats to get them back in it.
Behind these starters is an excellent bullpen. The two relievers leading the way and having the most impact are Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna. Pressly passed Astros-great Roy Oswalt on Sunday by recording his 33rd-straight scoreless inning, giving him a new franchise record. While the streak is historic in and of itself, it's the result of inning after inning of Pressly being in command and imposing his will against batters. He's just another great addition the Astros have made in recent years that compliment the rest of the team, making him one of the best eighth-inning setup guys in the league.
Osuna, Houston's closer they acquired in 2018, has been phenomenal with his new team since joining after his suspension ended last year. While his signing and the situation surrounding it is still rightly debated when you look purely at his work on the mound it has been electric. He has not blown a save since joining Houston, and in 2019 he's allowed just one unimportant run in his 14.1 innings of relief to go along with just three hits and zero walks and eleven strikeouts.
Again, when you put all these pieces together, you get a team ERA of 3.57 (fifth-best in the league), 9.44 strikeouts per 9 innings (eighth-best in the league), and 2.57 walks per 9 innings (best in the league) which if you want to summarize by WAR (wins above replacement), comes out to a 4.7, fifth-best in the league.
Looking ahead: is there even a ceiling?
While their play so far may not have them as the undisputed best team in baseball, all indications are there that they are without question in the conversation, and could easily win a series against any team. It will be interesting to look back at some of these points at both the half-way point of the year when many of these guys are likely named to the All-Star team, then again at the end of the season when they put all their effort into the playoff push and beyond.
With this Astros roster, the only ceiling we may be discussing in October could be Minute Maid Park's, and where to hang another World Series banner.
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Josh Allen has never said a bad word about Stefon Diggs. As the Buffalo Bills prepare to face their former star receiver in a visit to Houston on Sunday, he insists the two went their separate ways on good terms.
And the quarterback wasn’t changing his stance a week ago, not wanting to ruffle any feathers when asked about the early season success the Bills have enjoyed with their spread-the-ball motto on offense.
He later explained that he spoke out after reading comments on social media in which people were attempting to twist the “everybody eats” motto into something being directed at Diggs.
Allen understands why Buffalo facing Diggs for the first time since a blockbuster trade sent him to Houston this offseason is a big deal. He raved about his former teammate.
“I’ve got a lot of love for him. I still do,” Allen said. “The things that he did for me in my career, and the things that he did in a Buffalo Bill uniform won’t be forgotten anytime soon, especially from me … (but) going into Year 7, I understand the business, and the aspect of what this league is, and again, I’m just trying to focus on what we got going on in this building.”
Diggs, a four-time Pro Bowler, is second on the Texans with 25 receptions for 233 yards. He has two receiving touchdowns and had the first rushing score of his career last week against the Jaguars. He spent the last four seasons in Buffalo, where he had more than 1,100 yards receiving each year, highlighted by an NFL-leading and career-high 1,535 yards in 2020.
He didn’t address Allen directly this week when talking about his time in Buffalo. Diggs did say his tenure with the Bills was “amazing” but that he’s solely focused on his future now and not interested in rehashing the past.
“A lot of other people are going to feel a way or have a lot to say about X, Y, Z, and I’m not mad at it,” he said Wednesday. “Football is a very emotional sport. I go in there and wear my heart on my sleeve, and I won’t stop, but for me, I block out the noise.”
“Nobody is going to run the routes but me,” he continued. “Nobody is going to watch the tape but me. I try not to get back into the back and forth about the opinions or how people feel. I’ve got a job to do; I try to get it done.”
Diggs has helped the Texans to a 3-1 start and Allen hasn’t missed a beat without him. The Bills also are 3-1, though they’re looking to bounce back after a 35-10 loss to the Ravens last week.
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans certainly knew how talented Diggs was when he arrived in Houston but said he has been pleasantly surprised to see his passion for the game.
“He loves football … you see it in the way he practices, the way he plays the game,” Ryans said. “He loves ball, he plays with effort and that is all you want.”
The blame game
Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady was still kicking himself for calling a trick play that backfired, squelching any chance of a Buffalo rally in the loss to Baltimore.
After opening the second half with a TD to cut the deficit to 21-10, the Bills faced second-and-7 at the Baltimore 44, when receiver Curtis Samuel took a direct snap and pitched the ball to Allen. The Ravens weren’t fooled and forced a fumble, which led to a TD six plays later.
“I probably can’t say it on Zoom,” Brady said when asked to sum up the call in one word. “There’s no excuses. I can give the justification of why it was on the call sheet, but at the end of the day, the timing was not what it should’ve been and it was costly.”
Nico’s start
While much of the focus this week has been on Diggs facing his former team, the star of Houston’s offense so far this season has been another receiver. Nico Collins had a career-high 12 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown against the Jaguars for his third 100-yard game this season. He leads the NFL with 489 yards receiving and is the first player in franchise history with more than 450 yards receiving though the first four games.
“He’s a strong, physical, fast, and big receiver,” Ryans said. “That’s an easy target for C.J. (Stroud) and Nico has showed up every time that we needed him.”
Feeding Samuel
In the Bills’ “everybody eats” motto on offense, Samuel has had difficulty finding a regular place at the table. The eighth-year player who enjoyed his best season in Carolina under Brady as the Panthers coordinator in 2020 has been limited to eight catches for 48 yards. More curious is Samuel has been on the field for only 68 of a total of 230 offensive snaps.
“We’d love to get him going and whether or not Khalil is in or out this week,” Allen said, referring to receiver Khalil Shakir, who is nursing a right ankle injury. “So we’re going to be calling on his number, and he is going to have to step up, make some plays, which we’ve got no doubt in his ability.”
Update: Shakir has been ruled out (ankle) for Sunday's game.