The Pallilog
Charlie Pallilo: Interesting week for Astros, on and off the field
Aug 3, 2018, 7:17 am
Jeff Luhnow was in the spotlight this week. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images
Interesting week for the Astros on and off the field with the top headline grabber being General Manager Jeff Luhnow’s trade for relief pitcher Roberto Osuna. Luhnow has done masterful work in building the Astros to World Series Champion and continued elite status. His justification for the Osuna deal is not part of that masterful work. Some of Luhnow’s words were self-serving and of questionable merit. Now, I am not vehemently disgusted with the Astros acquiring Osuna. Once his MLB suspension for violating the collectively bargained domestic violence policy expires this weekend and any debt to society is paid, should Osuna not be allowed to pursue his livelihood? But this remains an active criminal case. Luhnow functionally pronounced Osuna guilty in stating he believes Osuna is “remorseful, has willfully complied with all consequences related to his past behavior.”
Osuna ultimately may be found not guilty or have the charges dropped or plead out. The legal system is often about victory and tactics more so than absolute truth and justice. Osuna not contesting a 75 game suspension that cost him about two and a half million dollars in salary basically renders a belief in his innocence somewhere between naive and absurd.
Luhnow’s explanation of “zero tolerance” of domestic violence only applying from when a player joins the Astros’ organization? Come on. Wonder what Jeff’s position would be if say, his daughter had been the victim. It would have been more honorable of Luhnow to say “we have real concerns about our bullpen, we get a talented young guy in Osuna on the cheap, and we’ll deal with any fallout.”
By Luhnow’s rationalization, he should have already signed convicted child molester Luke Heimlich. Heimlich is the Oregon State All-America pitcher who pleaded guilty to actions committed when he was 15 years old. Heimlich went undrafted in June, and remains unsigned. Hey, his transgressions occurred before Heimlich would be in the Astro organization.
Doesn’t it seem morally askew that a player can get a 75 game suspension for domestic violence and be eligible for the postseason, but a player who ingests the wrong supplement gets 80 games and a postseason ban? That’s how it is. Crimes against baseball are treated more harshly than a crime against humanity.
To the much lighter side, while anything can happen in a couple of baseball games, the Astros taking the last two games of their series in Seattle was a nice boost for them, and had to be a dispiriting blow to the Mariners. Monday night the Mariners shutout the Astros to close within three games of them in the American League West. With two more games left in the series, no Jose Altuve or Carlos Correa to face, then in the first inning Tuesday George Springer was lost for the rest of the series, the Mariners had to be thinking sweep this baby and get within one. Instead the Astros won the last two to re-boost their division lead to five games. The Astros’ starting pitching overall remains phenomenal. It is amazing that more than two-thirds of the way through the season they still have only used five different starting pitchers. Lance McCullers is just 24 years old but has not yet gone healthy start-to-finish through a big league season. Charlie Morton has spent time on the disabled list each of the past six years.
The Mariners meanwhile led the A’s by 11 games in mid-June. The last Mariner loss to the Astros coupled with Oakland winning for the 30th time in its last 40 games wiped out the last bit of that lead. The Mariners last made the playoffs in 2001. Their 16 year drought is the longest active in North American major league sports. The Astros could sag and see the division title slip away, but I strongly doubt that, so the more compelling AL West race is to see who plays the Yankees in the AL Wild Card game. The Astros are on course for an AL Division Series with the Cleveland Indians.
Big move
I’m not wildly optimistic re: how well Carmelo Anthony will mesh his game with those of Chris Paul and James Harden, but it certainly will be interesting to see how it plays out. Even if it doesn’t go great, it’s not as if he can shoot worse than the 0 for 12 Trevor Ariza did in game seven against the Warriors. Ariza was a solid pro but simply not good enough to be indispensable. Ditto Luc Mbah a Moute. At minimum the Rockets should be a top five NBA team again.
Buzzer Beaters
1. If Urban Meyer did what it is alleged he did, what a despicable power-sick man. 2. Smart move Texans GM Brian Gaine not giving Jadeveon Clowney a megamillions extension. 3. Best synonyms for steal: Bronze-pilfer Silver-purloin Gold-filch.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
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 YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.