State of the Houston Astros: Springer, Singleton, and a Shot
By Ryan Simmons
State of the Houston Astros: Springer, Singleton, and a Shot
Our boys have been playing well as of late. Even though we’ve dropped a few games in the last week, we’re showing signs of… competing. Competing is something we haven’t really done since 2008 so some of you might not be familiar with the term.
Compete: strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same
I’m thrilled that we’re asserting dominance over other teams utilizing all aspects of the game.
Dallas Keuchel, Collin McHugh, and Jarred Cosart, are all performing like major league pitchers.
Dexter Fowler is getting on base with hits and walks which is exactly what a lead-off hitter needs to do.
Jose Altuve… well.., he leads the league in hits and stolen bases. I seem to recall a certain afternoon AM radio host saying something along the lines of, “Jose Altuve?! I mean he’s good, but that he’s our starting second baseman is nothing to write home about.”
Yeah, about that.
That brings us to the two newest additions to our Houston Astros lineup:
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
I’m indifferent on his whole contract situation. I mean, I’m really glad that Bud Norris decided to weigh in on the state of the Houston Astros contractual business. I’m pretty sure he got overpaid for what he did for us here, but I digress.
Houston should be very excited to finally have a player in the lineup that could potentially man first base for the long run. He’s got 13 H, 4 HR, and 10 RBI’s in 17 games. He’s not on a tear. He’s still finding his way. It does show potential though. We’re lucky to have him signed to a five-year deal at a relatively low price.
When he starts performing at a higher level (that’s right… when), we’ll have a monster bat and a plus defender at first I’d like to say this one more time… he looks way better at first than Brett Wallace did. Anyone does, really.
Let’s get to who’s becoming the heart and soul of our Houston Astros: George Springer.
This guy…
Let me tell you, I’ve been a fan of the Houston Astros for a very long time, and I’m sure the majority of you reading this have been as well. It’s not a contest. Moving on.
George Springer has ignited this clubhouse. I’ve got to a good number of games this season and watched quite a few more. Each time I see our players, regardless of the score or game situations, they’re having a good time. When is the last time you can recall our players outwardly expressing genuine fun while playing the game?
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
All I’ve seen prior to this year is 162 days and nights of misery on a rating of mild to moderate to extreme. We’ve seen franchise players come and go. We’ve had players come up that were supposed to perform and didn’t quite cut it.
We all hoped that Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane would quit playing with our emotions and sign Masahiro Tanaka, or Jose Abreu. We hoped they would bring up Singleton and Springer for Opening Day. We hoped.
When they didn’t, everyone immediately decided we were headed for another downward spiral, and our season started off accordingly. And then?
And then Springer.
George Springer has played 56 games (as of this moment) for the Houston Astros.
In those 56 games, he’s had 53 H, 13 HR, and 38 RBI’s. He’s also made some top ten plays in right field. I’ll never complain with him patrolling right. I love watching him and Dexter Fowler out there egging each other on. It’s about time we have some visible camaraderie coming out of that clubhouse.
It’s all due to Springer… well, Springer and winning, which is also because of Springer.
Our record doesn’t in any way reflect how well we’ve been playing lately. I will say that last season, we finished 45 games back of first place. 45 games back. That’s rough, ladies and gentlemen. As of right now, we’re 13.5 games back and we’ve heard murmurs of a mid to late season push to the last Wildcard spot.
To the WHAT?!
Yeah. It’s not an impossibility this season. That alone speaks volumes as to how far we’ve come since last season and the season before.
We’re a little under a month away from the 2014 MLB All Star Game. At the break last season, we only had 33 wins. Currently, we’re sitting at 33 wins with 21 games left before the break. We’re playing some tough teams, but so far this season, we’ve proven we can play better ball after we’ve made some call-ups. We definitely have a fighting shot to get our record up.
Regardless as to how you’ve felt about our Houston Astros up until this season, you’d better start paying attention. They’re not going anywhere but up from here, and they know it as well as we do.
Oh, and someone needs to call Mattress Mack. He’s about to shell out a few bucks again when the Astros win more than 63 games this season.
I’m wishing I bought some furniture.