Houston Astros: What Should The Team Do With Mike Fiers?

The Houston Astros have been grinding themselves into a 19-10 record through nearly 30 games, a mark that has set a precedence in the franchise’s history.

The moving parts are finally coming together and they’re looking like they did in 2015 with a tad few more weapons.

The signings of Nori Aoki, Carlos Beltran, Yuli Gurriel, Brian McCann and Josh Reddick are all making a difference in terms of the Houston Astros performance from behind the plate.

The team is batting a collective .276, which is good for 1st in the American League and 2nd in majors behind the Washington Nationals.

We don’t have to rely on the timely hitting anymore because we’re hitting the baseball on a regular basis.

That may not necessarily always translate to a ton of runs on the board but the hits they generate usually result in a win.

That’s a hefty contrast from 2015 and 2016 seasons where we were tracking among the bottom of barrel in terms of the averages.

But let’s talk about the pitching.

Yes, this must be addressed.

Our pitching staff is putting out a collective 3.38 ERA which is good for 3rd in the AL but 28th in the majors.

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Now many will say that as long we’re tops in our respective league, that’s what matters but in the terms of sheer competitiveness, it better to aim for the lofty goals of being the best.

In that case, the Houston Astros have a lot of work to do.

Outside of the Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr., the team has myriad of question marks through the rest of the rotation.

However, I have one caveat, Joe Musgrove is new to starting in the majors and his time on the mound has not been bad but there were moments that fleeted away from him.

That’s going to happen as he acclimates.

I still see Joe being a valuable part of the organization, even while he gets his feet wet.

But let’s talk about our 4th guy in the rotation.

You know who I’m getting at.

I’m talking about Mike Fiers.

Since his beautiful, career-defining no-hitter that he pitched in mid-August 2015, Fiers has been up and down on the mound.

He hasn’t necessarily been shattering the earth on fire but doing enough to get the job done and grab the outs when they’re needed the most.

But what’s alarming is the amount of home runs that he has given up so far this season.

With 12 HR’s given up, he’s already at nearly half of what he gave up last season, which was 26.

This has resulted in his ERA to skyrocket to 5.68 through 25.1 innings pitched which is trending toward the highest of his career.