Houston Astros Trade Deadline Overview
By Jason Burke
After taking the baseball world by storm in 2015, the 2016 version of the Houston Astros had been struggling to string wins together until recently. At 25-29, and riding a five-game win streak, the Astros look to have turned a corner, but will their early deficit prove to be too much?
Injuries and a lack of production hurt the Astros over the first month of the season, with Lance McCullers, Evan Gattis and backup catcher Max Stassi all missing significant time in April. Stassi has since be sent down to Triple-A Fresno with Gattis assuming the backup catching duties, with McCullers racking up the strikeouts with 28 punch-outs in 20.2 innings.
The big move for the team was flip-flopping Jose Altuve and George Springer in the lineup with Springer acting as the leadoff hitter. In 35 at-bats from that spot heading into Wednesday’s game, the 26-year-old outfielder is batting .371 with an on-base percentage (OBP) of .436, up from his .260 and .354 from the two-hole. Altuve has seen his average slip slightly from .330 to .310, but his OBP has taken the bigger hit falling from .415 to .344. More importantly, the Astros are 8-1 since the switch against the Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Arizona Diamondbacks.[
We could have figured that a surge would be coming from Houston at some point this season, and their timing couldn’t have been better. With a late-May push towards .500, GM Jeff Luhnow should have plenty of time to properly assess his team’s chances this season before any hastily-made trades are put in play. In those nine games they have outscored their opponents 46-34 and have scored eight runs in each of their last three games.
While the team has been winning, they have still allowed 3.78 runs per game over that stretch, which is an improvement, but likely not enough of one to get it done should the Astros reach October for the second straight year.
Dallas Keuchel hasn’t been himself this season, holding a 3-6 record with a 5.58 ERA. The leader of the rotation thus far? Doug Fister. He’s 4-3 with a 3.86 ERA, which is nearly a run lower than the second-lowest starter’s ERA which just so happens to be McCullers at 4.79 in four starts.
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