The Houston Astros have the best record in most, and that’s not exactly a surprise. After all, that famous Sports Illustrated cover in 2014 declared them winners of the 2017 World Series.
After winning the wild card in 2015 and losing the difficult division series against the Kansas City Royals, the Astros could not recover from a slow start in 2016 and finished 84-78. That lack of improvement led to questions about how good the 2017 team would be and so things the Astros entered the season more or less as co-favorites in the division alongside the Texas Rangers.
“The team we have now is a lot better than the team we had in 2015,” pitcher Dallas Keuchel told reporters in April. “I think we played above our potential in 2015 and that was demonstrated in 2016. In essence, honestly, we were not that good.” We played a little with the method of playing hide and seek, and no one found us. Good and we know it coming into the season, and that’s why we’re so confident in every game we play, that makes it even more fun. ”
What makes them so good? When one is in this rhythm, one is basically good at everything. Look at the Astros rankings in the American League as of this week:
• Races per game: First
• Foursquare: First
• Average batting: First
• Percentage of base: First
• Slugging Percentage: First
• Per Game Runs: First
• Openers Effectiveness: First
• Relief Effectiveness: Fifth
• Relationship of strikeouts: First
• Average allowed batting: First
• Defensive races saved: Seventh
The Astros are not a great defensive team, but with a +5 in salvage defensive races (DRS), they are solid enough. The only defensive fault has been third baseman Alex Bregman with a -5, but he has made just four mistakes and the former short field has the tools to improve with more experience. Other than that, that seems to be a flawless team. Let’s analyze the components:
Offensive
The Astros continue to connect home runs, but these are not the Astros to make full swing to everything they have been in the past two seasons. This is possibly the most impressive change. Look at the ranking in the major leagues in their strikeout relationship:
• 2015: 22.9 percent (seconds)
• 2016: 23.4 percent (quarters)
• 2017: 17.9 percent (29th)
In a dead season, the Astros have gone from being one of the teams more vulnerable to the punches to become one of the most difficult to strike; Only the Boston Red Sox have struck less this season. Part of that has to do with the players that general manager Jeff Luhnow has brought:
He replaced Colby Rasmus, a good defensive defenseman who is susceptible to strikeouts, with Josh Reddick, a good ranger who has become one of the best contact hitters in the league.
The designated hitters were struck 166 times in 2016, the third-highest in the American League. Luhnow signed Carlos Beltrán, a better contact hitter (although his strikeout ratio has increased compared to 2016).
The Astros receivers struck out 181 times in 615 plate turns in 2016. Luhnow made a change to Brian McCann, who struck out 99 innings in 492 plate appearances.
The Astros claimed Norichika Aoki, a contact hitter, from the waivers list in Seattle.
Among the players who stayed, Evan Gattis has cut his strikeout ratio from 25.5 percent to 14.4 percent, and Carlos Correa has lowered his relationship a bit too. This has helped the Astros to be a team from the pack offensively. They are scoring more than one race per game more than last season.
The Astros have potentially three of the best players in their senior position in Jose Altuve, Correa and George Springer.
Weaker players in their positions – Yuli Gurriel in first base and Bregman – are still average and both players have been improving their batting after slow starts. Marwin González’s warm start has helped mitigate the overall ranking in left field, where he has been playing a lot lately, sharing time with Aoki.
Rotation of openers
Entering the season, this was an area of concern, as Keuchel and Lance McCullers were both recovering from injuries. Both have pitched as All-Stars, however with Keuchel at 9-0 with an ERA of 1.67 and McCullers with 6-1 with ERA of 2.72.
They are fourth and sixth, respectively in the American League in FanGraphs WAR and first and 15th, respectively in the Baseball-Reference WAR. The rest of the rotation has not been as strong with Mike Fiers, Charlie Morton and Joe Musgrove with ERAs over 4.00.
More importantly, Morton and Musgrove are currently on the minor injury list, and that has led to some emergency exits for Brad Peacock and David Paulino. Fiers is the most obvious red flag having allowed 18 homers in 57.2 innings and has a FIP of 6.52. If the Astros make a change, it would probably be to add to a starter who can enter as the number 3 of the rotation.
If Keuchel and McCullers continue to pitch like this – in the case of Keuchel, one can surely expect a regression in ERA – the rotation will be fine. Right now, they are third in majors in tight ERA (behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals). Is it good enough to challenge teams that have established brands. Here are the cumulative ERAs of the big Fan Graphs teams (100 is average, less than 100 is good):
• 2017 Astros: 85 (third in MLB)
• 2016 Cubs: 71 (first in MLB)
• 2001 Mariners: 88 (MLB quarters)
• 1998 Yankees: 85 (MLB seconds)
• 1995 Indians: 88 (seconds in MLB)
The Yankees and Indians both finished seconds behind the rotation of the Atlanta Braves, but as you can see, the Astros are in favor of this group. If there is a key to greatness, however, that is staying healthy. Look how many outings these teams received from their first five starters:
• 2016 Puppies: 155
• 2001 Mariners: 144 (rookie Joel Piñeiro joined the late rotation and recorded a 2.03 ERA in 11 starts)
• 1998 Yankees: 142 (Orlando Hernandez went up to the majors on June 3)
• 1995 Indians: 118 of 144 (they acquired Ken Hill late in July to strengthen the back of the rotation)
See the point: These rotations were healthy. For the Astros to maintain this pace, they will need Keuchel and McCullers to make 30 starts, they will need Morton and Musgrove back soon … and they may need to make a change in July.
Relief Body
As we saw on Tuesday with Ken Giles, this group has had a couple of problems, although it was just the second salvo lost to Giles. Luke Gregerson, so good in recent seasons, has an ERA of 5.32. Still, the depth here is impressive.
Chris Devenski has become a relieved valued multi-entry and could be a candidate for rotation if the Astros decide to lengthen their performance. Entering Tuesday, Devenski had 51 strikeouts in 33.2 innings, Michael Feliz had 35 innings in 25.2 innings, Will Harris had 27 strikeouts and three walks in 24.1 innings and even James Hoyt, who is like the sixth reliever, has 31 strikeouts In 17.2 entries.
Given those numbers, it comes as no surprise that the Astros lead all bullpens in strikeout races. They are fifth in batting average allowed and quarters in base allowed percentage. If one wants to become technical, Tony Sipp is the only left-hander and Giles does not close with other high caliber seals.
Still, it remains a good body of relievers. The biggest question is whether Giles is the pitcher who will close the games of a race in October, and we will not know that answer until we get to that point.
We knew the Astros were going to be a fun team, now we know it’s a good team – and potentially a legendary team. Its rhythm that inspires greatness will make this summer a fun one in Houston.
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Definitely, Houston Astros are the Best Team in MLB this year. A look at how the Astros are performing this season that have them at the top of all stats.
