By Adam Spolane (SportsRadio 610)
Through the first half of their 2020 season the Astros have dealt with a myriad of injuries, an early five-game losing skid, and even more injuries, yet, they enter play on Friday 17-14 with a near lock on a playoff spot. Here are my five biggest takeaways from what we've seen so far:
Zack Greinke is a treasure
Through six starts we've seen Greinke sit in the stands, call his own pitches, lounge behind the mound as it gets worked on, and mix-in pitches that travel slower than freeway traffic, but we've also seen him carve up hitters to the tune of a 2.29 ERA, which drops to 1.69 if you take out his first start against the Mariners, and he's done it all despite just 5-of-522 pitches clocking in at over 90 MPH on the radar gun.
"This guy is just incredible to watch pitch," Astros pitching coach Brent Strom said last week. "His change of speeds and feel for things, throwing a BP fastball. He'll throw his changeup faster than his fastball sometimes. Figure that out."
It's clicked for Framber Valdez
Valdez was Strom's "pick to click" this season, just as he was in 2019, but this time the Astros lefty is making his pitching coach look very smart. Valdez has gone at least six innings in his last four starts, but his most important outing of the season might've come out of the bullpen when he backed up Josh James by tossing 6.1 of relief on August 2 in Anaheim, allowing just one unearned run when the Astros staff was in shambles.
His ERA stands at 2.35, but more important, his walk rate has dropped from 13.4 percent in 2019 to just 5.8 percent this season and his strikeout rate has jumped from 20.7 percent to 26 percent.
They really know how to develop pitchers
After losing Gerrit Cole, Will Harris, and Hector Rondon in the offseason and Justin Verlander, Roberto Osuna, Jose Urquidy, Brad Peacock, and Chris Devenski, and Josh James since MLB's shutdown the Astros have had to rely on a host of unheralded young pitchers in key roles.
Cristian Javier, Brandon Bielak, and Enoli Paredes were signed and developed by the Astros, Andre Scrubb was acquired last season, and Blake Taylor was added during the winter. Combined, those five rookie pitchers carry a 3.35 ERA into Friday's game against the Athletics.
"I think I have to give a lot of credit to the pitching development of the (Astros) organization," Greinke said August 19. "To be able to have as many young guys come up as we have and all of them are throwing multiple pitches and locating them. I haven't seen that very often, even one young guy come up and doing some of that stuff, and we've had a bunch that have all been able to throw multiple pitches in multiple counts and quality pitches. That's good for the pitchers, but they have to be teaching them properly for that to even be possible."
Dusty Baker is a lot different than A.J. Hinch
The new Astros manager is 25-years old than his predecessor. The day Hinch was born, Baker walked and stole a base for the Atlanta Braves, in his seventh big league season. Baker is doing fine as the Astros manager, but he's still figuring things out and he's having to do it on the fly in the strangest season imaginable.
It's tough enough to take over a team that narrowly missed winning a second World Series in three years, but Baker took over a club right before spring training because of a scandal and then after less than a month everyone scattered because of a pandemic. He seems to have finally settled into the job, and the Astros have picked his option for 2021, but there isn't the same feel.
Tactically Baker is fine. He has a great feel for the game, and while you may not agree with a decision or two, there's always a well thought out reason for why he made it, but the Astros miss Hinch's demeanor.
Hinch has an arrogance to him, and that rubbed off on the young players Hinch had playing for him during his early years with the Astros. That only grew as the Astros won more and more over the last five years, and the team played with a swagger. That isn't there anymore. It isn't Baker's fault, but it serves as a reminder just how valuable Hinch was to the Astros success.
The Astros are going to be in the playoffs
Even though they are just 17-14 with last week's four wins over the Rockies as their only wins against teams better than .500, FanGraphs puts the Astros playoff odds at 97.4 percent. MLB's expanded postseason guarantees the top two teams in each division make the playoffs, so while Oakland is firmly entrenched in the top spot of the American League West the Astros are 5.5 games up on the Texas Rangers for second place. The Astros are 6-1 against the Seattle Mariners, who aren't really trying to win, and 4-2 against the Los Angeles Angels, who are badly underachieving. They haven't played Texas yet, but as long as the Astros win at least 3-of-10 they'll play more than 60 games in 2020.
