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Is it week Twelve? The Fantasy Season is more than half-over! That makes me sad. So instead, let's say that we have half the Fantasy Season ahead of us.
Looking Back
Sadly, the Astros hitters have not returned to their early-season fantasy value. This week, only Chris Johnson and J.D. Martinez provided above-average value at their positions. Given that it has been several weeks since either gentleman has provided their fantasy managers with anything more than one-category performance, one can make a general assumption that Astros hitters are not the most reliable or consistent fantasy option.
That said, continue to play Johnson, Lowrie, and Altuve because of the relative shallow depth of quality at their positions, and use the rest of the roster sparingly in your fantasy offenses.
| Player | Rank | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OPS |
| Chris Johnson | 48 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0.435 | 1.110 |
| J.D. Martinez | 123 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0.316 | 1.065 |
| Justin Maxwell | 262 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0.222 | 1.084 |
| Carlos Lee | 320 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.318 | 0.855 |
| Jordan Schafer | 353 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.133 | 0.678 |
| Brian Bogusevic | 356 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.250 | 0.896 |
| Jed Lowrie | 704 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.200 | 0.762 |
| Jose Altuve | 751 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.217 | 0.598 |
| Chris Snyder | 753 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.250 | 0.705 |
| Jason Castro | 860 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.250 | 0.583 |
| Matt Downs | 1219 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.167 | 0.334 |
In the pitching arena, the Astros showed vast improvement over the past two weeks, again illustrating how inconsistent they are. Most value was provided by J.A. Happ, Lucas Harrell, and Dallas Keuchel. Even Jordan Lyles contributed to two major fantasy categories. The biggest thing fantasy owners should be concerned about is that the Astros' starters seem to be unable to generate strikeouts. In either a head-to-head or roto league, the dearth of K's alone is enough to relegate all of the Astros' starters to "emergency inning eater" roles. It was a bad week to be Brett Myers.
| Player | Rank | W | L | SV | ERA | WHIP | K/9 |
| J.A. Happ | 42 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.08 | 0.85 | 5.54 |
| Dallas Keuchel | 92 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 | 0.78 | 3.00 |
| Lucas Harrell | 96 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.29 | 0.71 | 11.57 |
| Wesley Wright | 182 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.67 | 12.00 |
| Jordan Lyles | 196 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.57 | 0.43 | 5.14 |
| Fernando Rodriguez | 244 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.75 | 20.25 |
| Brandon Lyon | 289 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.86 | 3.86 |
| Wandy Rodriguez | 737 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.57 | 1.14 | 3.86 |
| David Carpenter | 825 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.50 | 3.00 | 0.00 |
| Brett Myers | 1339 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.00 | 5.40 | 5.40 |
Looking Forward
The Astros play the Padres and Cubs this week, so that sounds like a prime opportunity to give the Astros rotation another shot. Neither team has a good rotation right now, so if ever the Astros' bats were to awaken, this could be the week. On the flip side, with the last two weeks as a backdrop, it's difficult to trust any of the hometown hitters in one's lineup except as a daily space-filler. It's a quandary, no doubt.
TCB League Updates
The Crawfish Boxes - HMC Wrecking Crew extends his lead to 3.5 games with a strong 8-4 win over Fusion Fingers. Nobody in the league posted a dominant win, though Killer B's managed an 8-3 win over Cocamos, who was unable to meet the minimum inning requirement. Would have been 6-5 otherwise, but a win is a win is a win.
TCB Baseball Madness - Joe Morgan's a Fool's lead is now 4.5 games out in first after beating Team Mills 9-2. Win of the week was a 10-1 trouncing of last-place jello by Chks dig my Longoria. jello also did not meet inning requirements, though it would not have changed the outcome. (c'mon guys! 30 IP isn't that much!)
Boxes O' Crawfish - Astros don't suck is still in first (yay!) and tied for the strongest win with a 10-2 score over Killer B's. Rock Flag and Eagle is the other 10-win team this week after whooping human chorionic gona (don't want to know what that is). Hilarious sidenote: somehow, I managed to beat Farmer by a score of 5-1. With twelve stat categories, that meant we had to tie in six categories. Neither of us met inning requirements. I'm blaming Mat Latos, Chad Billingsley, and Tommy Hanson, none of whom who could get out of the fifth inning this week. Makes me sad.