THE PALLILOG
Cracks over pings, 71s & 17s, and the impossible Astros record Altuve is chasing down
Feb 29, 2024, 10:19 am
Josh Hader will become the 4th Astro to wear number 71. Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images.
Growing up, I was never a fan of aluminum baseball bats. I refused to use one throughout my Little League days, since “Big Leaguers” didn’t use them. It wasn’t like the extra power of an aluminum bat was going to turn me into a slugger anyway. Plus, the “ping” of bat meeting baseball always sounded fake to me, certainly relative to the great sound of the crack of a wood bat making sharp contact with the ball (great sound for hitters anyway). In less than a month now the Astros’ highly potent batting order will produce many a loud crack of the bat. This weekend however “ping” is the thing as the Astros play host to their annual College Classic at Minute Maid Park. As always the six team field is excellent. It’s not a tournament. Each team gets in three games. The best atmosphere of the weekend no doubt occurs at the Friday night 7:05 matchup between Texas and LSU. The Longhorns are 14th ranked (via Baseball America) while the reigning National Champion Tigers are number three. On Sunday UT plays Vanderbilt which checks in at number nine. Houston, Texas State, and Louisiana are also in the field.
An Astros number game
New Astros’ closer Josh Hader wears number 71. That’s a number one would more typically associate with some minor league prospect getting a look in spring training than with one of the premier closers in the game. When coming up with the Milwaukee Brewers Hader wanted number 17 but was told no can do. The Brewers haven’t retired number 17 but no one has worn it for them since a second baseman named Jim Gantner in 1992. Gantner played in 17 big league seasons all with the Brewers, and was a below average offensive player in 16 of them. Former Astros’ manager Cecil Cooper played 11 years with the Brewers that fully overlapped with Gantner’s tenure. “Coop” had a six-year stretch over which he was an absolute stud, three times finishing fifth in American League Most Valuable Player Award voting. 15 different players have worn number 15 for Milwaukee since Cooper did. Gantner is a Wisconsin native (Cooper grew up in Brenham and went to Prairie View A&M) but still seems an odd choice to have his number de facto retired. Anyway, since Hader couldn’t get number 17 with the Brewers he inverted it to the available 71, and has stuck with it. Incidentally, the Astros didn’t give out number 17 for a decade after Lance Berkman was traded. Jake Odorizzi then David Hensley have worn it over the last three seasons.
Hader will become the fourth Astro to wear number 71 in a regular season game. In a perfect Astroworld that appearance comes when locking down a victory over the Yankees on Opening Day. You are scary good on Astros trivia if you can name two of the three prior wearers of number 71. One would be impressive. If you can name all three, you almost certainly looked them up.
TIME’S UP! In reverse chronological order…Peter Solomon pitched in six games in 2021. Carlos Sanabria pitched in two games in 2020, J.C. Gutierrez pitched in seven games in 2007, the last four of them for then interim manager Cecil Cooper who had taken over from Phil Garner.
Hader supplants Ryan Pressly as the Astros’ primary closer. He has a tough act to follow in entry music. Pressly’s use of the Johnny Cash classic “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” has been pretty epic. With the Padres last season Hader entered to D.J. Khaled’s “Every Chance I Get.” An upgrade seems in order. When a Brewer Hader used “Renegade” by Styx.
Catch me if you can
In falling down a rabbit hole while researching a couple of things one can learn some pretty arcane stuff. Any Astros fan of even middling caliber should know Craig Biggio is the franchise leader in regular season games played (and several other categories) with 2850 which ranks 18th all-time in Major League Baseball. That’s fully 700 more than runner-up Jeff Bagwell. Jose Cruz is third with 1870. Jose Altuve is fourth with his 1668 regular season games. Under contract for six more seasons, Altuve would have to average 197 games played per season to catch Biggio by the end of 2029. Given a regular season is 162 games, Biggio seems rather safe atop the games played mountain.
More Astros, please!
A mention that our second season of the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast is off and running. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics weekly. On our regular schedule the first post goes up Monday afternoon. You can get the video version (first part released Monday, second part Tuesday, sometimes a third part Wednesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available at initial release Monday via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
We have so much more to discuss. Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
The MLB season is finally upon us! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday!
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