Houston Astros: Injury bug beginning to bite offense now

The Houston Astros have the best record of any team I’ve seen have this bad of luck with injuries in recent memory. All season the rotation has been infected by the injury bug. But in the past week, the offense is the one that’s been bitten. Since July 18th the team has lost all-star shortstop Carlos Correa, prospect on the rise Colin Moran, all-star outfielder George Springer, and the recently red hot Alex Bregman.

The Houston Astros are in the best position of any team to sustain what would normally be season threatening injuries.  But having a 13 game lead over the entire American League makes it easier to swallow these losses.

Especially considering when A.J. Hinch says things like this in regards to Alex Bregman’s hamstring feeling tight:

"He could feel it. He stretched a little bit. We thought it knocked the wind out of him at third base. He had a couple of issues at third base, and he scored easily on the sac fly. He got back to the dugout and complained a little bit of some tightness, and nowadays [that means] an immediate removal with the way the situation is and our depth. So he’s day to day."

“And nowadays that means an immediate removal with the way the situation is” is a telling part of the quote. Hinch, quite wisely, is saying any injury sustained hereto forth will be treated with the highest of caution. The Astros are now at the point in the season where they can do anything and everything with an eye towards October.

Whether it is resting players sustaining minor injuries or in a blowout game having a long reliever throw four innings and 70 pitches even if he’s getting lit up to give the rest of the bullpen a night off if they need it since one loss won’t hurt the Astros in the standings. This team is officially in “Win Later” mode with that sizeable lead on the rest of the AL.

And we’re not talking the “Win Later” mode of 2012 and 2013 where the team won 55 and 51 games all year respectively. We’re talking the we’ve won 67 out of 100 games and if we finish the rest of the season on a .500 pace we’re 98-64 “Win Later” mode.

The pace the Boston Red Sox or Cleveland Indians would have to be at to equal that record? 43-17 for the Red Sox (.716 winning percentage) and 45-19 (.703 winning percentage) for the Indians.

These injuries still have costs though. While Springer is day-to-day as is Bregman, they can break a hitter’s rhythm. Bregman especially was on a tear finally getting it together in July. Here are his first half numbers by month compared to July:

• March/April: 21/84 (.250 batting average) five doubles, no triples, no home runs, six runs, six RBIs, 18 strikeouts to nine walks, .650 OPS
• May: 27/98 (.276 batting average) five doubles, one triple, six home runs, 15 runs, 14 RBIs, 21 strikeouts to five walks, .838 OPS
• June: 17/79 (.215 batting average) four doubles, no triples, two home runs, 10 runs, six RBIs, 11 strikeouts to 14 walks, .682 OPS
• July: 22/65 (.338 batting average) 10 doubles, one triple, two home runs, 20 runs, four RBIs, 10 strikeouts to 10 walks, 1.050 OPS.

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July is where Bregman was putting it all together and hopefully he is only out a couple days and can continue to hit at the rate he was from July 1st until yesterday. But Hinch will not rush any of these guys back. If they need to sit five days to be 100 percent sure they’re healthy instead of coming back in three days feeling 99 percent sure they’re healthy, the Astros will take those extra couple days.

Getting to 100 wins would be nice, but only if we need to get to 100 wins to make the playoffs. The Astros of 2017 are not like the Astros of 2015 that struggled so mightily on the road and were terrific at home. By comparison of those two years and their splits:

• 2015: 53-28 at home. 33-48 on the road.
• 2017:30-21 at home. 37-12 on the road.

A lot of that has to do with Jose Altuve hitting .429 in all the ball parks he visits, but the point is this is a team that can win anywhere. If on the off chance the Astros are in danger of losing the overall top seed in the American League playoffs at the end of the year and the trade off means having the team wholly healthy going into the playoffs, that 37-12 record is reassuring that the team is doing the right thing resting any ailing players before October.

We enter the playoffs with the second or third best record in the American League because we rested players in the regular season, no worries if they’re all healthy going into October. Home or road doesn’t matter with a team this good as long as the team is at full strength.

Next: HOU Vs. TEX: A renewed battle for ultimate pride

At this point it’s all about getting to October with the roster in tact.  A.J. Hinch is taking the proper approach seeing the long game.  These hitters are good enough to take some time off and get their rhythm back. What matters now is the playoffs. Hopefully the injury bug will go into hibernation as we continue on with the second half of the year.  But if it does strike again, proceed with caution in preparation for baseball in autumn.