"We're at the intersection of disappointed and optimistic. We're optimistic because we'll turn it around. 2 starters coming back. 138 games to go. We just gotta get on a roll." - Astros GM Dana Brown with us on @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered @SSalisburyShow

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

"We gotta have more quality at-bats. We gotta catch the baseball. We have guys off to slow starts and we have to address that but this club is still good. We need to be more fundamentally sound." - Astros GM Dana Brown on with us right now on @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

"We have quality players. Part of the derailment has been 5 starts spending time on the IL before May 1. We really have to step it up. We still have to address a few things but the team is still good." Dana Brown on why he thinks the team is close @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

"When you play 97 postseason games in 6 years, that's gonna lead to some break down in some guys. It also makes a statement that guys have been there before. We're 5.5 back, have to turn it around but we can't keep saying it every week. We have to get it done." - Dana Brown

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

Dana talking about getting 2 of 3 wins in a row now before going on a run. Expectations have been tempered. Too bad this has been the reality for weeks, not the expectation of winning 8 or 10 straight. Gotta put it together before that can happen, and they haven't done that yet.

Here comes the excuse about playing so many postseason games.

*Obviously they need to get healthier as well but should still have enough to be closer to .500 right now.

Quote:

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"We're 5.5 back, have to turn it around but we can't keep saying it every week. We have to get it done."

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And yet, here we are

I'm at a crossroads of optimism and giving up and buying a baseball simulator to fix this myself

"That's a Joe question. I think he'll make a lineup change. There's a chance that could happen but I think Joe is looking at the same thing we're looking at. Joe will juggle things around until we hit a stride." - Dana Brown asked about moving Bregman out of the clean up spot

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

"I know we have a sense of urgency. We have a sense of urgency to run off a couple games in a row. 3, 4 or 5 games in a row. There's urgency there. Bottom line, we gotta get hot." -Astros GM Dana Brown with us on @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

EastCoastAgNc said:

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"I know we have a sense of urgency. We have a sense of urgency to run off a couple games in a row. 3, 4 or 5 games in a row. There's urgency there. Bottom line, we gotta get hot." -Astros GM Dana Brown with us on @SportsTalk790 @SeanUnfiltered

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

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team is certainly not showing it

"It's more cautionary. We got all these days off coming up. Let's make sure Javier is ok. He'll miss 2 starts. We have to treat this like a marathon. We can run him back out there in cold Chicago, that's not smart." - Astros GM Dana Brown on Javier's neck soreness @SeanUnfiltered

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

"I think we're still determining how tough this team is. I personally think they're tough but some things need to happen for us to see the grit in this team. The fans will see it & how much grit we have. These guys will get hot & things will turn around." - Astros GM Dana Brown

— Brian LaLima (@BLima790) April 24, 2024

Yeah at this point that's pretty much what I expect Dana to say.

He is right though that this team just needs some little momentum. Even if it's winning 2 in CHI to win a series.

Just the slightest bit of momentum to get the confidence up and hope it snowballs into something that resembles a turnaround. Then go from there

iBrad said:

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We still lead the AL in BA and OBP. Our offense is not that far off. We need better situational hitting. We also need contract year Bregman to show up. And, of course, we have to get the automatic out of Abreu out of the lineup.

Our pitching is dead last in the AL. That's a more difficult fix, because it's going to require guys getting healthy and our 7-8-9 inning guys figuring it out. Guys like Brown and France need to cut down on the walks. Walks are killing this staff right.

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And that's WITH Abreu's miserable, pathetic and horrendous .065 BA and .132 OBP.

I wonder how much Chas would bring in a trade at the deadline?

This season has really taken me back to covering high school baseball and what a disparity there was bewteen the haves and the have-nots when it came to good pitching. When you didn't have 2-3 guys who could throw strikes and throw outs, every game devolved into a blowout or a slugfest with walk after walk followed by groove pitch after grooved pitch.

Most don't like the theory because it feeds into one of 2 scapegoats from the last few years, but Carlos Correa once said that Martin Maldonado's ability to know what pitch to throw and what every hitter's weaknesses were was worth multiple runs per game, as detailed in this lengthy SI article from last year.

It obviously isn't a 1:1 narrative. Framber fell apart late last season while working with Maldonado and Rafael Montero was the human gas can early in 2023. But across the board, excluding Blanco and Verlander, most of these pitchers seem to not be making the right call A LOT and getting torched for it.

Keep chasing after that pig Dana...

Question as a non-expert - how much of this is on the catcher and how much is on the staff? It seems like with all the analytics available these days, a staff should be able to put a game plan together and that a veteran catcher would just be a nice-to-have.

Cromagnum said:

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Keep chasing after that pig Dana...

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Maybe my most quoted Simpsons episode. "It's a little airborne, but it's still good, it's still good!"

We are riding similar wavelengths this morning

Jake and Chas to me are just both extremely average. But Chas has been really scuffling this year so I'm okay with riding the hot hand in Jake for a few games.

Lost in all the losing, we're forgetting about what a great start TED is having.

170 wRC+

His last 3 seasons WAR: 5.0, 4.9, 4.9.

He's on pace for 8.8

His expected stats show he's slightly underperforming.

Pay the man his money, Jimmy.

Anyone order another HR? pic.twitter.com/sTISHQS7o2

— Houston Astros (@astros) April 13, 2024

BQRyno said:

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Question as a non-expert - how much of this is on the catcher and how much is on the staff? It seems like with all the analytics available these days, a staff should be able to put a game plan together and that a veteran catcher would just be a nice-to-have.

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Definitely not an expert, but the psychology of sports is something I took a fierce interest in as a sportswriter. My experience is that while plenty of pitchers to their homework and study the data, they still have to combat their own worst enemy - their ego. It's the daily interpretation of the great scene with Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner in Bull Durham were Robbins wants to keep using his fastball and Costner has got a whole sequence of pitches in place to get the guy off balance.



I think it really comes down to who the pitcher is, how committed he is to studying the available data, and then how well he remembers it day by day and batter by batter. Maldonado's massive failings at the plate notwithstanding, he came across as a film room / analytics savant when it came to finding a batter's weakness and pairing it to the current pitcher's strength. In essence, the catcher doesn't worry about the ego of which pitch am I going to throw, he's just trying to win the chess battle with the weapons at his disposal.

Years ago, SI ran a brilliant article written by Greg Maddux breaking down one of his games where he threw like 85 pitches in a complete game and his sheer knowledge of every single batter, way before all the advanced analytics, was just astounding. I wish I still had the issue. This isn't the story I was looking for, but it is pretty riveting about how Maddux worked.

Altuve going yard on the first pitch of the ALDS last year is a great example of pitcher ego getting the best of him. Correa said he told those guys all week not to throw him a high fastball. Over and over again. And he did it anyways because I think they admitted they didn't want to show weakness or something stupid.