Houston Astros: Max Stassi leads the team in this important stat
The Houston Astros have been up and down as of late as they try to avenge the obvious World Series hangover from last season. They did sweep the Oakland A’s this week though. By the way, Max Stassi has been tearing it up at the plate! What’s going on?
The Houston Astros are still the same team that we’ve come to know to love with a few different parts that have been added to make things better. It’s damn near impossible to duplicate the success this team had last season so us fans have to roll with the punches as they come front and center.
It’s still a terrific time to be a Houston Astros fan as they do the utmost in trying to stave away the Los Angeles Angels and the Seattle Mariners, who are breathing down our backs in the division. It will honestly be a dogfight all the way to the finish and I just don’t see this team taking such a lead because of their inconsistency at the plate.
To contrast, the team isn’t doing as good of a job converting opportunities when runners are in scoring position. That has to change and improve in order for this team to start tearing things up. I long for a nice, long winning streak to start piling up the W’s.
Who knows if it will happen but I’ll be here to tag along on this bumpy ride we’ve experienced in the 2018 season thus far.
But let’s talk about improvements to the guys we already have on the roster and their production. Particularly, I want to talk about the great things Max Stassi is doing at the plate. I never dreamed of myself actually ever having to pen this piece but he has made a strong case for himself to be a mainstay of the Houston Astros catching rotation from this point forward.
Either that or he’d be trade bait for what Jeff Luhnow may think is more important to help this team provide consistency up at the plate.
But try this on for size…
Stassi leads the team in OPS — albeit narrowly — but the fact that we’re admonishing such a feat just goes to show how well he’s done in the opportunity he has so far.
His OPS is at a sterling .864 just tenths of a percentage point from Carlos Correa (.863) and George Springer (.862). It’s also important to know that his batting average on balls in play is at an amazing .353 demonstrating his ability to perform soundly in the plate. These aforementioned stats are — for the most part — correlated to each other and it’s good to know that he’s getting the job done.
His defense isn’t quite bad on the days that he does have to catch as well so I think it’s worth keeping the former 2009 4th round pick that we acquired from the A’s in 2013. He has been one of the few bright spots on the hitting front and I certainly hope he continues to do so.
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Lest we not forget about his 2-for-4 performance against the A’s this past Wednesday that included a homer, his third on the season already.
Stassi has slash line of .273/.355/.509 along with 15 hits, nine ribbies, four doubles and three home runs has been nothing short of amazing as far as performance.
Keep up the good work Max!