Houston Astros Top 5 Offseason Moves
Jun 17, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros second round draft pick Andrew Thurman greets fans against the Chicago White Sox during the fifth inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
1. Brent Strom
Hired this offseason as the pitching coach, Brent Strom is the most important offseason move the Astros made. It wasn’t made with much fanfare, but it will be the move that adds the most wins to the Astros going forward.
Strom comes to us from the Cardinals, where he was the minor league pitching instructor. It seems like almost every one of the Cardinals’ homegrown pitchers throws in the high 90s. That is either an incredible string of drafting or a trade secret they use in the minors.
His effect on the Astros can already be seen in the velocity bump seen in Andrew Thurman this spring. Thurman, the Astros 2013 second-round pick, came out of college at UC Irvine with a fastball that sat at 90-91 and occasionally touched 93. He was drafted with the impression that his stuff was not overpowering, but he knows how to pitch and that would carry him to the Major League. This spring, both Jeff Luhnow and Jon Heyman reported that he was throwing 97. A four MPH bump in velocity is huge. If any of that can be attributed to Strom, then we should all be on the phone with the Edible Arrangement people.
Another way that Strom, who is most widely known as the second person to ever have Tommy John surgery, is affecting the Astros is his effect on Michael Foltynewicz. Strom is of the thinking that TJ is preventable. This spring Strom suggested to already hard-throwing Foltynewicz that he stop throwing his slider and two-seam fastball, instead focusing on his four-seam and a new spike curveball, for fear of them causing him elbow damage.
If Strom’s only contributions to the Astros going forward are causing pitchers to throw harder and remain healthy, then he is going to be the cause of many, many Astros wins going forward, and that is why he was the most valuable offseason move.