MLB Spring Training: Houston Astros Full Preview
By Turner Smith
The Houston Astros managed to turn themselves into a contending team in the 2015 season, but aren’t satisfied with the success they had in making it to the ALDS. They’ve made moves in the offseason, and their developing youth has their eyes on the prize for the 2016 season.
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Are they World Series contenders? Well, MLB spring training might be an early indication of whether they are, or not. Here are some things that you should be looking at.
Key Offseason Additions: RHP Doug Fister and RHP Ken Giles
Key Offseason Subtractions: LHP Brett Oberholtzer, LHP Scott Kazmir, and 1B Chris Carter
The Rotation: The ‘Stros are bringing back the reigning AL Cy Young award winner in Dallas Keuchel, who carried the rotation last year. The obvious question is: will he be able to repeat the season he had last year, and what will happen if he can’t? Both are valuable questions.
Here’s the thing, though: the Astros had an underrated, youth-driven staff. Collin McHugh, which was only one less than Keuchel. A young Lance McCullers posted an impressive 3.22 ERA, and the team registered a solid 3.71 ERA.
With the addition of Fister on a one-year deal, and the experience that he brings to the table, the Astros’ rotation looks even more formidable.
The Lineup: The Astros’ offense in the 2015 season was dominant. Well, dominant on some days and silent on others. It was a literal hit-or-miss situation, hitting three home runs in a game while struggling to scratch a run across on other days.
The ‘Stros ranked sixth in all-encompassing team batting stats last season. They struck out 1,392 times, but hit 230 home runs and registered 1,363 hits on the season. The team also accumulated a batting average of .250 as a whole.
The team is likely to be more consistent now that they’ve replaced Chris Carter, who had the second most strikeouts on the team and a .199 batting average, with high-ceiling prospect Jon Singleton. Here’s what the Astros’ everyday lineup will likely look like:
- 2B Jose Altuve
- RF George Springer
- SS Carlos Correa
- CF Carlos Gomez
- LF Colby Rasmus
- DH Evan Gattis
- 1B Jon Singleton
- 3B Luis Valbuena
- C Jason Castro
Not much has changed in this year’s offense from last year’s, but hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This lineup has potential to produce the same power as last year, but with the one change in the lineup with the addition of Singleton, they should be a little more consistent.
The Bullpen: Everyone who follows baseball remembers what happened to the Astros in Game 4 of the ALDS. The catastrophic bullpen meltdown, as some may call it. It’s not that the Astros bullpen was terrible; they had a 3.27 ERA, which isn’t bad. It’s just that it wasn’t as good as it should have been. It wasn’t good when it needed to be. It wasn’t good enough to win the World Series. And that’s the goal, right?
So what are the Astros doing to fix the issue?
Well, they kept the guys that were pretty consistent in 2015. They’re bringing back guys like Luke Gregerson and Tony Sipp that were instrumental to their bullpen success last season.
But they’re also bringing in a new arm. With the addition of the powerful arm of Ken Giles, the Astros’ bullpen could have a new star. Giles stands to lock down those late innings, and is a much-needed addition to the pen.
The X Factor: The Astros are young. They’re really young. And they’ve tasted something that a lot of players never get to taste in their career. They’ve tasted the postseason.
This may fizzle out and actually have little impact on their upcoming season, but that postseason run is the kind of thing that can drive a young player to go above and beyond. The experience that those young guys got is incredibly valuable.
They know what it’s like to be there, and they learned that early. They might just do whatever they can, and whatever it takes, to get back there. And when they do, they could be dangerous.
It may have only been last season that they made the playoffs, but these young players are a world more mature now because of that experience.
This is a team that will be hungry. This is a team that will be driven. Look out, AL West.