TCB Astros Hitter of the Week: June 11-16

This was a much better week for the Astros offensively than last week.  That will happen when you score 38 runs in a 5-game homestand.  But even with this uptick in scoring, our weekly awards list has not changed at the top.  The guy who was hitting in the bad times is still hitting now.  Hooray consistency!  Four of our regular starters batted over .300 for the week, and five had an OPS over 1.000.  That is a good way to win four out of five games.

Honorable Mention

Luis Valbuena

This guy, right?  Over this past week he is blowing away his season batting average, and it wasn't an outrageous number.  Over the past five game he batted .278, but the real numbers for him are home runs (4), and along with that slugging percentage (.944).  As a bonus Valbuena also had a very low K rate (just over 9% compared to his season rate of over 21%).  He had five hits and four of them left the yard.  I'm almost to the point where I expect him to hit it out on any given pitch.  Will his power keep up at this pace?  I'm not sure, but at the beginning of the season I also didn't see him matching his career high in homers by game 66 either.

Colby Rasmus

Rasmus played in four of the five games this week, but made the most of his time in the lineup.  He went 5-13 and had a big 3-run homer in the first game against the Rockies.  That was the second day in a row where he had a 3-RBI game, as on Sunday he knocked in three with two singles, going against the notion that we can only score on balls that go over the fence.  Rasmus is using his bat to show he should be in the starting lineup every day once he comes back from bereavement leave.  (This is my opinion...other opinions may vary.)

Winner

George Springer

Yes, I know he won last week, but that won't stop me from giving it to him again.  I don't have any rules! He has flourished since moving to the leadoff spot, even though that may have nothing to do with it.  Springer was tops on the team in runs scored with seven.  With his skills at getting on base the Astros were able to score early in many games on the homestand, which has been an issue for a good chuck of the season.  He also had one of the smoothest slides into home I have seen.  (Statcast clocked his max speed at 21.4 mph and his 2^nd-to-home time at 6.89 seconds.  In other words, kinda fast).

This past week Springer batted .400, with an OPS of 1.299 (just behind Valbuena's over the same timeframe).  He ended up with two homers and two doubles, and drove in four runs.  He started the season slow, but has really put up an All-Star level of offense over the past 2 months (.309/.413/.529), and especially in the month of June (.390/.438/.610).

Let me know if you agree with this group, or the order of this group, or if I was totally wrong.  If you disagree I won't hold it against you for long.