Spencer Arrighetti gets his first start of the season.
The ghosts of Spring Training, good and bad, still haunt the Astros in this young season.
The Astros were among the worst teams offensively in the Spring, and although one would hope that would change once the season began, it hasn’t. In two games, the Astros have managed three earned runs and only ten hits, none for extra bases. Of course, it’s only two games, but the Astros are last in wRC+: 44, 100 being average.
Considering last year’s slow start, I wonder if the Astros coaching staff is doing something terribly wrong to prepare the team for the regular season.
Well, there’s good news. One of the worst Spring slumpsters, Jose Altuve, has three of the Astros’ ten hits and # 2 in team OPS is controversial rookie Cam Smith, although on any other team .629 would be nothing to brag about.
Smith has walked almost 30% of his PAs, and, so far shows a very mature, might I say Bregmanesque, level of plate discipline far beyond his years and experience. Let’s see how this goes. So far, he has only swung at 26.7% of pitches outside the zone but has also only swung at 38.5% of pitches inside the zone, a bit timid. But he has made contact with every pitch inside the zone he has swung at.
Except for a mental lapse in yesterday’s second inning and a home run to Juan Soto, Hunter Brown looked explosive yesterday, hitting 100 on the gun. And one of the big question marks on this iteration of the Astros, a group that shone in the Spring, the mid-relief, held a good Mets offense scoreless for three innings.
Yes, only two games. Too soon to draw conclusions either way.
One of the season’s question marks makes his first showing today: Spencer Arrighetti. Will he be first-half dumpster fire Arrighetti, or second-half stopper Arrighetti? The Astros made the playoffs last year due to a second-half starting rotation including Yusei Kikuchi which was arguably baseball’s best. Kikuchi’s gone, but the Astros will need similar performances from the remaining four if they hope to repeat as champions of the West.
Today, the Astros face an old friend, former Angel Griffin Canning, whose career ERA is 4.78, but last year posted a 5.19 in 171.2 innings. The Astros have had a good time with Canning, especially Yordan Alvarez , Christian Walker, and Yainer Diaz. This might be a good day for Yordan to break out. Here are some Astros career stats against him.
Game time 6:15. Catch you on the Thread.