The Pallilog
Charlie Pallilo: Astros, Yankees and Red Sox are on historic pace
Jun 22, 2018, 6:48 am
Jose Altuve and the Astros are on a roll. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
It should be a tremendous summer-long race among the Astros, Red Sox, and Yankees to see who winds up with the best record in Major League Baseball. The Mariners are showing that while plucky, they are just not good enough to keep up with a pace looking more and more likely to produce an unprecedented three teams in the same league with 100 or more wins in the same season. Only six times have three teams between the American and National Leagues won 100+. The Dodgers, Indians, and Astros did it last year. The Astros should again cruise to the AL West title while the Yanks and Bosox slug it out trying to avoid facing one game elimination via the Wild Card game.
Before 1995 there were no Wild Cards. 1993 was the last postseason before the Wild Card (the 1994 strike forced cancellation of the playoffs). The Giants finished 103-59 and got nothing for it, finishing one game behind the Braves in the NL West. Before 1969 there were no Divisions meaning you either won the pennant and went to the World Series, or you went home. The 1942 Dodgers finished 104-50, two games behind the Cardinals.
Little big man
On May 14 Jose Altuve was one out away from seeing his batting average dip below .300. He singled in his last at bat that day to keep his average above his personal Mendoza Line (in the 70s there was a crappy hitter named Mario Mendoza whose batting averages over five straight seasons were .180, .185, .198, .218, and .198. So .200 became a reference line for awful hitting). In 33 games played since that hit Altuve is batting .403 with an OPS of 1.078. Last year Altuve won his third American League batting title and first AL MVP award with a batting average of .346. He starts the weekend at .347. Context alert: Altuve is astoundingly good, pretty much on top of his game (still down a little overall from last season), and on a clear Hall of Fame track. His OPS this season is closer to waaaaay over the hill Albert Pujols’s than it is to Mike Trout’s.
Draft stock falling?
The NBA Draft just isn’t as big a deal as it used to be. It’s still hugely important and will produce All-Stars and probably Hall of Famers. It’s just reality that with the top selections dominated by one and done college freshmen the players are much lesser known, are more boys than NBA men, and with few exceptions are ill-equipped to enter the league and be standouts early on.
Judging it from the greatest players in the class, the 1984 NBA Draft has to be considered the best ever. How about four-fifths of a starting lineup comprised of John Stockton, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon. We need a small forward for that quintet so the nod goes to second round pick, the late Jerome Kersey. All of those guys played at least three years of college basketball.
Another mention-worthy draft class, especially since generously Rocket-tinted, the class of 1970. Your starting five : Nate Archibald, Pete Maravich, Rudy Tomjanovich, Dave Cowens, and Bob Lanier. For a sixth man how about Calvin Murphy? Rudy-T is the only one of those six not in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Rudy’s non-election remains an annual disgrace.
Top of the list
Picking first overall for the first time in their franchise history the Phoenix Suns hope they got a franchise center in DeAndre Ayton out of Arizona. His career production probably comes in somewhere between that of Olajuwon and Michael Olowokandi. Back in 1969 the Suns could have had the number 1 pick, but they lost a coin flip for it to the Milwaukee Bucks. At number two the Suns took center Neal Walk, who had a few solid seasons. But the grand prize the Suns lost out on was Lew Alcindor, soon to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Suns still have yet to win an NBA Championship. Kareem won six.
In 1983 the Rockets won the coin flip that got them Ralph Sampson. The second pick was Steve Stipanovich. The next year the Rockets won the flip again and took Olajuwon. Portland made Sam Bowie the second selection. Pick three, Michael Jordan. Trail Blazers fans who were alive back then, are sick about that to this day. Portland has blazed no championship trail since. Jordan won six.
The next year, the NBA ditched the coin flip system for the draft lottery.
Buzzer Beaters
1. Lame as Dwight Howard’s career arc has become, if Dikembe Mutombo was deemed Hall of Fame material, then isn’t Howard? 2. The World Cup means more globally than any other sporting event. But soccer simply has too many ties and 1-0 games to ever really breakout as a mainstream sport here. 3. Best “Summer” songs: Bronze-DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince “Summertime” Silver-Bananarama “Cruel Summer” Gold-Don Henley “Boys of Summer”
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
If the Astros were going to win one series and lose the other on their six-game road trip out of the All-Star break, they got it right in taking two out of three games at Seattle then losing two out of three to lousy Oakland. Had they inverted those results, the Astros would not be alone atop the American League West starting this weekend’s series against the Dodgers at Minute Maid Park.
By the schedule the Astros’ sledding now gets tougher. The Dodgers are rolling toward their 11th National League West crown in 12 years, despite their pitching staff having been battered by injuries every bit as much as the Astros’. The Astros will face three rookie starters this weekend. National League Rookie of the Year candidate (non-Paul Skenes division) Gavin Stone goes Friday. Saturday it’s Justin Wrobleski making his fourth big league start, Sunday River Ryan makes his second. 325 million dollar addition Yoshinobu Yamamoto last pitched June 15. Tony Gonsolin is out for the year without throwing a pitch. Clayton Kershaw’s first pitch Thursday marks the first of his season. Tyler Glasnow’s Wednesday return from the Injured List means the Astros won’t face him this weekend.
Aside: Astros’ fan favorite Joe Kelly is back in the Dodgers’ bullpen. He was activated from the IL out of the break, so the opportunity to welcome him back to Minute Maid Park looms!
After the Dodgers, the Pirates hit town with Skenes slated to pitch Monday opposite Jake Bloss. Gulp. Hey, in one game, you never know. Skenes has been the most electric rookie pitcher since Dwight Gooden with the Mets in 1984.
Sleepless in Seattle
The Mariners’ unraveling has reached historic proportions. It’s not easy losing six straight matchups with the lowly Angels but the Mariners were down to the challenge and pulled it off. The M’s have stumble-bummed their way to a 9-20 record over their last 29 games. That’s actually a better winning percentage than the Astros’ had after staggering from the starting gate to a 7-19 mark. Like the Astros did, the Mariners can right their ship, though if they don’t add quality offense before Tuesday’s trade deadline it seems unlikely. Seattle has scored more than two runs in one of its last eight games, the only win among those eight when the Mariners got to Ronel Blanco and Seth Martinez Sunday to avoid an Astros’ sweep. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers whipping up on the laughingstock Chicago White Sox this week has their World Series title defense very much alive and a threat to overtake both the Astros and Mariners.
The trade deadline is this Tuesday
Tick-tock toward Tuesday’s 5PM Central Time trade deadline. General Manager Dana Brown is on the clock. Let’s start with starting pitchers. Tarik Skubal! Garrett Crochet! Jack Flaherty! Any would be a fabulous addition. If Brown acquires one, he will have done phenomenal work cajoling the trade partner into thinking the Astros’ offer the best. Frankly it seems impossible. The Orioles are in the starting pitcher market. Their farm system runs laps around what the Astros have. Numerous other teams on the hunt for pitching have higher rated minor league talent. The Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys are having a fabulous season, but until the Astros Thursday moved up soon to be 24-year-old Jacob Melton (who was batting just .248 with a .307 on-base percentage at Double-A Corpus Christi) there was not one non-pitcher of any consequence younger than 25 on the roster. Pedro Leon, Shay Whitcomb, Will Wagner, and include Joey Loperfido: it would be shocking if any of them can be the best player in an offer good enough to land one of the potential big trade fish. All four of them wouldn’t be enough to land a Skubal or Crochet.
On the hitter side, if the Blue Jays shop Vlad Jr. and/or the Rays take offers for Paredes, of course Brown better try. Either would be a sharp upgrade over Jon Singleton, and Guerrero can’t become a free agent until after next season, with Paredes under team control through 2027. Reality check time. Seattle’s offense is in dire straits. The Mariners have four prospects rated higher than any Astros’ prospect. If the Mariners didn’t make a winning offer over what the Astros proposed, Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto would look like a timid clown.
That said, there will be several second and third tier starters and relievers moved who would boost the Astros. If Spencer Arrighetti and Jake Bloss are both still in the Astros’ starting rotation after the deadline, Dana Brown will have failed. That said, the Astros could well stand pat and win the Mild, Mild West. They could also finish third.
Go for the gold!
With the Olympics underway, a medal podium-style ranking of the Astros’ greatest trade deadline acquisitions:
No medal but cannot be omitted: Randy Johnson. It was a brief fling with “The Big Unit” in 1998 but it was spectacular. It elevated Houston as a baseball city. In 11 regular season starts Johnson went 10-1 with a 1.28 earned run average. He threw shutouts in his first four Astrodome starts. He spiked attendance like no other player in franchise history. Even though the San Diego Padres beat Johnson twice (Johnson pitched fine, the Astros scored two runs total in the two games) and bounced the Astros in a National League Division Series, and prospects Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen included in the deal both went on to have excellent careers, it was a trade that in hindsight you make 100 times out of 100.
Bronze: Jeff Bagwell. Reliever Larry Andersen was outstanding in helping the Boston Red Sox win the AL East in 1990, but the BoSox got swept in the ALCS and Andersen left as a free agent. Bagwell has the greatest offensive resume in Astros’ history (I know, I know, postseason aside) and is quite arguably one of the 10 greatest first basemen of all-time.
Silver: Yordan Alvarez. He has longevity to prove but to this point in his career, while not the all-around player Bagwell was, Yordan is clearly the more destructive force in the batter’s box. Throw in his three monstrously significant home runs in the 2022 Astros’ title run, and his awesome 2023 postseason, and what could still lie ahead for him and the Gold could be his if we revisit this topic 10 years from now. Imagine the Dodgers if they hadn’t gifted Yordan to the Astros for Josh Fields.
Gold: Justin Verlander. Astros’ World Series championships pre-JV, zero. With him, two. Even though his World Series resume is terrible. The finishing piece to the Astros’ initial championship winner in 2017 with a 1.06 ERA in five starts ahead of winning the 2017 ALCS MVP, a second crown in 2022, two Cy Young Awards and a Cy runner-up. Interesting decision to make for the cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. Much more body of work with the Tigers but the championships and legend cemented with the Astros.
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.