Carlos Correa had the best case. Composite image by Jack Brame.
Baseball Is a Funny Game was a book written by the late player then broadcaster Joe Garagiola. He was right. How else to explain the Astros ripping off an 11 game winning streak, and then just days later getting swept out of Minute Maid Park by the pathetic Baltimore Orioles? That had the Astros hit the midpoint of the 162 game regular season schedule at 48-33. Offered 48-33 before Opening Day the Astros would gladly have locked it in. Matching that record in the second half would make for 96 wins (duh), almost certainly at least a Wild Card spot and probably the American League West title.
The Midsummer Classic
As voted by the fans, it's zero All Star Game starters for the Astros. It's the first time that's happened since 2014. That was the last bad Astros team. Still, while the 2021 Astros are quite good, nobody was "snubbed." Carlos Correa had the best case to start, in fact on the merits he is the most deserving American League shortstop. However, Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox is also having a huge season making him a reasonable choice. Likewise at second base Jose Altuve would have been a fine pick, but the Blue Jays' Marcus Semien has been a little bit better.
At 37 years old Yuli Gurriel would be a worthy first time All Star at first base, but that likely requires the AL going with at least three first basemen because fan pick Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the obvious right guy to start, with Oakland's Matt Olson the second best at first in the AL to this point. The injured Mike Trout won't be playing, so it's possible Michael Brantley could be added as a reserve outfielder and elevated to the starting lineup. Designated hitter Yordan Alvarez has not been up to his Rookie of the Year level (darn near impossible) but is having a fine season. Alas not close to as good as fan choice Shohei Ohtani, and not as good as J.D. Martinez and Nelson Cruz.
The All Star reserves and pitchers are named Sunday night. Closer Ryan Pressly deserves a spot. Since starting his season Framber Valdez has pitched like a Cy Young candidate, but not starting his season until Memorial Day weekend functionally disqualifies him. Zack Greinke is having a very solid season, but not of All Star quality, unless he is tapped to fill a spot opened up by injuries to several would be All Star hurlers.
After his grand slam Thursday night Altuve enters the weekend as the Astros' home run leader with 18. Correa has 15, Alvarez connected Thursday for his 14th. Kyle Tucker has hit 13. Who do you think leads at season's end?
NBA playoffs
What an injury ravaged NBA postseason it has been. Currently, the best player on the Bucks and Hawks are both sidelined from their Eastern Conference Finals matchup. Kawhi Leonard missed the entire Western Conference Finals. In prior rounds Anthony Davis, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Mike Conley all broke down. That list doesn't include Ben Simmons who was shattered mentally.
Meanwhile Chris Paul stands healthy and tall, and in his 16th pro season is finally to play in the NBA Finals. How thankful is Paul that James Harden demanded the Rockets get rid of Paul two summers ago? After a one season stopover in Oklahoma City Paul has the Phoenix Suns in the Finals for the first time since 1993, while the Rockets count the days until the Draft hoping to jumpstart a makeover of what was the worst team in the NBA this season. The Suns have never won the championship. They wait on the Bucks or Hawks. Milwaukee last played for the title in 1974. Atlanta has never been in the Finals.
If the Bucks close out the Hawks in game six Saturday night, it will mark the end of the legendary broadcast career of Marv Albert. Here's hoping Marv gets a game seven on which to go out.
Have an excellent and safe July 4 weekend.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. With all due respect to Dusty Baker, it's flat out silly to EVER bat an Abraham Toro or Robel Garcia second in the same lineup that has Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker slotted fifth and sixth.
2. What a punk out playoff exit by Patrick Beverley.
3. Funniest baseball books: Bronze-Ron Luciano, The Umpire Strikes Back Silver-Sparky Lyle, The Bronx Zoo Gold-Bob Uecker, Catcher in the Wry.
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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