In the big picture, there is not to complain about with the Houston Astros. They're one of the best teams in the sport and are playing that way consistently this season, even if they do not currently sit in first place in the division. Call it a hot take, call it whatever, I am still not a long-term believer that this run the A's have been on can hold up, as I believe we will see the cream rise to the top like we normally do in a 162 game regular season. That being said, you have to give them credit for amassing the record they have, when the advanced numbers tell you they are completely playing over their heads based on a lot of numbers that they have put up this season.
Back to the task at hand, as I am sitting here on this Monday with nothing , it got me thinking about some of the things that I am concerned about. For this practice, WE ARE LEAVING THE BULLPEN OUT OF THIS. I am putting that in bold and all caps so you clearly remember that I am excluding the bullpen. That's an issue we will address later on. Now to the three things that concern me.
1. Alex Bregman
He's having a fine season, but nothing spectacular. The reason for concern is pretty simple for me, I am concerned that he might not physically be close to being all the way healthy. I really do think you can see that hamstring issues might still be around. He has gone from a true power threat to basically a singles hitter this year. While it's never a bad thing to be a guy that gets hits, he's just not doing much at the plate with any thump and the Astros have him in the three hole because of the normal thump he brings. I feel while watching him that he is starting to chase his normal numbers at the plate, while compensating for whatever might be bugging him. He's not walking like he normally does and he's piling up the strikeouts. While he's nowhere close to being a bad player by any means this season, he is just not that MVP level threat at the plate. With just 21 of his 67 hits this season going for extra-bases this season, his OPS is in danger of dipping into the 700's. Will the real Alex Bregman please stand up?
2. Pull Heavy Jose Altuve
Now complaining about anything Altuve is just silly and this is absolutely a little bit nit picky. He's actually having a really solid year, despite that average being down a tad from where we all are used to seeing it. The only thing that really bugs me is that he's basically only getting hits to the pull side. At times I get a bit concerned that he sells out a bit too much on trying to yank the ball over the fence down the line and forgets that he can hit the ball anywhere he wants. I just want to see him hit .300 plus this season and I just think if he continues to remain as pull heavy as he has been this season, that won't happen.
3. Bye Bye Yordan's Walks
It has been a strange year for Yordan as despite a couple of shutdowns, he has overall been very good, despite not hitting the ball over the fence as much as we thought he probably would by this point of the season. I am not worried about the power not being as prodigus as we expected to this point. The only thing I do not like is the fact that he has only walked eleven to this point and he's over 200 AB's in now. It very well could be that he is just not timed up the way he was in 2019 and that is very possible. The guy played two games last year so he basically went over a year without playing many games. It might just take some time.
Again, complaining about much is basically nitpicking with this team and I do get it. They're the best offensive team in the league and that is not changing at any point soon, those are just three things that I feel are worth monitoring as we move forward. And again, we will go in on the bullpen soon, I have plenty of thoughts there. Now let's enjoy watching the Astros kick the Rangers butts the next two games.
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