MLB Rumors: Braves reinforcements, Shohei Ohtani suitor, Astros concerns
By Mark Powell
MLB Rumors: What’s wrong with the Houston Astros?
Something is off with the Houston Astros, that much is for sure. Houston lost a series to the Texas Rangers over the weekend, and they’re a couple of defeats away from spiraling to start the season.
World Series hangovers are definitely a thing, but one would expect a club full of veterans to avoid such a conundrum. Perhaps the Jose Altuve injury has hurt Houston more than they let on.
The Astros pitching remains a concern as well. As FanSided’s Marty Coleman pointed out over the weekend, the average fastball velocity of several Astros pitchers is down significantly.
"“A four-seam fastball (from Luis Garcia) that averaged 94.0 MPH in 2022 is coming in at 92.7 this season. A pitch opponents hit .281 on is now being smashed for a .421 batting average, .842 slugging and .562 wOBA. That may be why Garcia is throwing his cutter more often this season, but that’s getting lit up, too. The bad news for Houston is it’s not just Garcia. Javier’s four-seamer is down from 93.8 MPH to 92.6 MPH. Urquidy’s is down 93.5 to 92.7 and Brown’s 96.6 to 96.1.”"
As for the Houston hitters, they haven’t delivered at a consistent enough clip. Team leader Alex Bregman knows this, but assumes it’s only a matter of time.
“I think obviously we haven’t played very good baseball up to this point,” Bregman said. “We’ve got a lot of things we need to correct. I believe in our guys and I believe we will correct those things.”
Bregman kept it vague, but as FanSided’s Tim Boyle pointed out in this week’s MLB Power Rankings, there’s only so many weeks we can give Houston the benefit of the doubt.