Houston Astros, Tie Marlins 10-10 in 10

by Stros Bro on Mar 24, 2008 8:11 PM CDT Comment 5 comments

One thing that can be pretty evident in after going through most of spring training for the Astros is that we can score some runs... but unfortunately... we give up a bunch as well.

The Astros started off good today scoring 7 runs in the first two innings, but then the pitching (starting with Chacon) slowly gave it away. Chacon went 5 innings today, but gave up 6 runs. Not really what we were looking for from who looks to be our 4th starter. Wright (who had been terrific in his last few outings), earned a blown save by giving up 2 runs in the 9th inning to send the game into extra innings.

Our leadoff man, Michael Bourn went 0-6 today with a strike out lowering his spring average to .258. Jose Cruz continued his good spring with a 2-5 day and his 3rd home run of the season.

Houston	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Bourn, CF	6	0	0	0	0	1	1	.258
Loretta, 1B	3	2	2	0	1	0	0	.271
Saccomanno, 3B	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	.500
Erstad, RF-1B	5	2	3	0	0	0	2	.313
Wigginton, 3B	4	2	2	2	0	1	1	.218
Moehler, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Borkowski, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a-Ash, J, PH-2B	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	.200
Blum, SS	2	1	2	3	0	0	0	.245
Perez, T, SS	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	.349
Cruz, LF	5	1	2	2	0	1	3	.357
Newhan, 2B	5	0	0	0	0	0	4	.245
Wright, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Gothreaux, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Towles, C	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	.400
Quintero, H, C	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.371
Chacon, P	3	0	1	0	0	1	2	.200
Abercrombie, RF	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.233

Next up, the Astros go up against the Tigers at 5:05PM CST tomorrow, sending Chris Sampson to the hill against Justin Verlander. This looks like Sampson's last chance to earn that 5th starters spot.

Astros spring record is 12-14-1

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only 4 of the runs....

were earned off Chacon. Not sure if that is reassuring or not. But it didn't seem like there were many hard hit balls. Apparently the field at Jupiter is in bad shape, and the fielding was bad on both sides.

by clack on Mar 25, 2008 7:31 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

i was going to say something to that effect as well

not a small portion of the runs piled up this Spring are due to poor fielding. one of Chacon's "earned" runs in the first came after what should have been an inning ending double play, but since it was a FC, no error is given. not saying that Chacon gets a free pass, but i don't think this is an outing that we write him off as a bad pitcher on. bloops and bad bounces really killed him in this one, but his GO/AO ratio was still good. maybe it's the eternal optimist in me, but i think Chacon will be okay.

a big question raised by Clack though, is with several of our guys being pitch-to-contact types, is our defense going to kill us this year? hopefully Wiggy and Miggy won't be this bad once the season starts.

by littlevisigoth on Mar 25, 2008 9:21 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

"contact" pitchers

I wouldn't describe Backe as a purely "pitch to contact" pitcher. (By the way, that phrase has always bugged me. I always thought the goal of pitching was pitching away from contact, but within or near the edges of the strike zone. I think "pitches to contact" = "he's lost his stuff".)

Over his career, Backe's averaged about .6 K's per IP, approx. 6 per game. Not Nolan-like, but not bad. And that includes both years when he was still learning to pitch & recent years when he was pitching hurt with reduced velocity. I'd expect .70 K's/IP or more this year if he's 100%.

But the point is a valid one with pitchers like Williams, Sampson & Chacon. Sampson has to get a high % of ground balls to be effective in MMP. So does Williams, and he can't, which is why his numbers were fine in Petco, but awful in MMP. And why he needs to go.

by maris61 on Mar 25, 2008 12:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think the Astros....

have a "pitch to contact" philosophy, which they try to teach to minor leaguers. Along the lines of..."don't try to be too fine with your location.; pound the strike zone and trust your fielders to make the outs." The Cardinals' pitchiing coach, Dave Duncan, seems to be an advocate of that approach. Roy Oswalt's declining K rate appears to be an extension of that philosophy, as he is trying to induce contact and finish the at bat quickly. In theory, it allows pitchers to keep their pitch count down and go deeper in games.

According to Hardball Times stats, Backe's K/G by year: 04, 7.1; 05, 5.7; 06, 3.7; 07, 3.5. I'll agree that 06 and 07 are hard to evaluate because of injury. But his K rate went down quite a bit in 05. I hope he can get it bck to his 04 level.

by clack on Mar 25, 2008 1:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can't get a definite feeling...

for what kind of team the Astros are going to be this year. It's probably my extreme uncertainty about the pitching. In past years, when I've had mixed feelings about teams in generals, it usually portends a .500 season - or worse. I'm trying hard to be optimistic.

It takes more than pitching to win a pennant, but not much!

by bwhite2323 on Mar 25, 2008 12:43 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

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