Could This Be The Year Of The Houston Astros Ascent?

Can you feel it?

Feel what, you may ask?

The mysteriousness of the Houston Astros early success!

Before I start belting out the lyrics of classic funk single of the same name by The Jacksons in reference to my ‘Stros, we’ve got to talk about what they’re doing.

After a bumpy start, the Astros have won four of their last five games, they hold a 7-6 record and are proudly perched at the top of the American League West, our division!

They’re not doing it against the litter of the competition, they’re beating quality opponents in the American League such as the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners.

For the first time in awhile, I can safely assert that my favorite baseball team is not the worst in baseball.

Believe me, for seasons on end, this was to be expected as the team was in a slow but steady rebuilding mode and I was fully aware that I had to be patient in regard to progress.

During those seasons of triple-digit losses, if the team would win, it would call for a celebration but now I can expect that the Astros can now go out and compete with anybody.

This team has been in every game this season and the majority of those six losses were attributed to miscues late in the game that caused it to let it slip through the fingers.

With as young as this team is, it’s going to happen.

With the Astros facing the Angels early in the season boded well for them.

It was a true test of their mettle as they passed their test with flying colors.

With all of the star power the Angels possess, our team still found a way to grind hard to win the series this past weekend at Minute Maid Park.

Despite the Astros hitting woes — only three players are hitting .275 or better — they are still finding ways to get on-base.

Who are those three guys you may ask?

They are: Marwin Gonzalez (.333 in part-time duty), Jake Marisnick (.324) and Jose Altuve (.296).

Altuve had a rough start as far as his offense but is starting to look like his old self again, gaining some traction in some of the stats that he’s known to excel in.

He has 16 hits on the season, far behind the Los Angeles Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez (23 hits) but I have no doubt he’ll catch up with the rest of the pack.
He’s currently ranked 24th in that category. He has 14 singles which is good enough for 2nd in the AL with a 1.000 fielding percentage.

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So how are these Astros winning without hitting the ball all that well?

They’re finding ways to get on-base. The Astros have six players — four starters — who have a on-base plus slugging percentage of .730 or greater.

Those guys are: Gonzalez (1.000), Luis Valbuena (.938), Marisnick (.881), Jed Lowrie (.792), Hank Conger (.778) and Colby Rasmus (.773).

They’ve had extremely solid pitching for the most part. Our pitching staff has a collective 2.98 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 105 strikeouts on the season through 121 innings pitched.

Five pitchers have a strikeout rate (K/9) of 10.0 or better.

Those guys are: Chad Qualls (12.71), Collin McHugh (11.57), Will Harris (10.57) and Pat Neshek (10.50).

Luke Gregerson is in the hall of very good with a 9.0.

Dallas Keuchel also leads all pitchers in ERA with a whopping 0.90.

With all of these guys wheeling and dealing and the team playing consistent, hard-nosed defense this team has continued to find ways to fight and stay in games.

I’d like to add that Valbuena’s big-time two home-run performance last night in their 7-5 win over the Seattle Mariners is representative of the reason why he got him, he makes heady defensive plays in the infield and can hit for power in spurts.

I’m still holding out hope for Chris Carter as far as his offense, he has been horrid!

He has three hits, no home runs, 19 strikeouts with a .071 batting average.

This is similar to how he started off last season so let’s hope he can find some discipline at the plate and start to produce.

And there’s George Springer and Evan Gattis — they’re both in a huge slump, both batting .170 and .130 respectively.

It happens to the best of ballplayers but their rise is needed in order for us to excel even more as a team.

Just think if everybody on the team starts to join the party?