Deal or No Deal?
So the Houston Astros hit the skids this past weekend up in the motor city, losing 2 out of 3 to the Detroit Tigers. It's never an easy thing to see this team lose any series. Especially, when you consider that it was against a team that is pretty far out from any post season contention. The old saying is that great pitching wins games and championships. On the flip side, bad pitching can cost you both of those things as well. And this bullpen for the Astros lately has been, well, running out of gas, to coin a phrase. All of that being said, you would have thought this would be enough to convince General Manager, Jeff Luhnow, the pull the trigger on getting some pitching help before yesterday's non-waiver trade deadline across the league passed.
Well, he did get a pitcher. Lefty specialist, Francisco Liriano of the Toronto Blue Jays came his way to H-Town in exchange for Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez. Despite the growing fears of most in the fan base, Luhnow did make good on a move to get pitching help. The package sent back to the Great White North can be debated as to whether or not it was too big or a cheap bargain. Hernandez has put up solid numbers down in the minors, while Aoki's lack of power left something to be desired. Both players are solid, and I join everyone in wishing those two the best up there with our neighbors to the north.
Though a move was made, it raises a lot more questions than answers. First, Liriano is not having the best season, with an ERA just shy of 6. He also has some of the worst run support in the league, and is not that much of an impact arm. Of course, what do you expect from a team that has been down in the doldrums as much as the Toronto Blue Jays? That's the bad news. The good news: He has dominated left handed batters over the course of his career, having the lowest opponent batting average and OPS against him, right up there with the likes of Sean Doolittle and Brad Hand. Hand was another potential target, but the San Diego Padres asked for too big a package, so he remains down in SoCal.
Additionally, there has been talk that Liriano will be converted from starting pitcher to relieving pitcher, and be another piece to come out of the bullpen. With Brent Strom taking him under his wing, this can be the key to turning Liriano's season right around, and make him just the kind of threat from the pen that the Astros have been seeking to spot the overtaxed burden being put on the likes of Chris Devenski and Ken Giles, among others. Only time will tell if that becomes true or not, but there is already some fiery debate across the fan base and elsewhere. They fall into two camps: The Astros won't make it past the first round of the playoffs; OR They have a good enough team in the first place to be able to stand up to the likes of anyone they face up to, and including, the World Series.
I tend to fall in the latter camp, and here's why. Trades do not equate to guarantees. Just because the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers "won" the trade deadline by acquiring Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish, respectively, does not automatically solidify those two teams as being the World Series contenders come this fall. While I would give the edge in that regard to the Dodgers, you still have plenty of teams like the Astros, Nationals and Red Sox that will have a thing or two, or even three or more, to say about that. It is true that pitching wins championships, but what is pitching without run support? Honestly?
And if anyone out there thinks that this juggernaut of an offense that is the Houston Astros are slowing down anytime soon, you could not be more wrong. If anything, it has been the bats that have kept this team alive in the face of sheer adversity and a plague of injuries to the pitching staff and elsewhere. They proved just that last night with a 14-7 routing victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at home in Minute Maid Park. EVERY batter in that lineup got some kind of hit, and that hasn't happened just once this season. From top to bottom, the sticks remained stacked, for lack of a better saying.
A big part of the offensive stacking has been, no surprise, your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis, who as of this writing is slashing .284/.337/.500/.837 with 11 home runs, 45 RBI, 123 wRC+, and a 1.6 WAR on the season! He also got a chance to get a start at first base to allow the Great White, Tyler White, to pitch the bottom of the 8th inning of that horrible blowout loss to the Tigers in the final game of that series, 13-1. This only further proves just how versatile, reliable and valuable the bear really is to this game, AND this Astros' ball club. That proof should be indication enough that Luhnow needs to sign him long term, and keep him around to help this team win even more. He should also extend Brian McCann while he's at it to keep the #BearSquared tandem in place for a while.
So go ahead, mainstream sports media. Go ahead and count the Astros out, while kissing up to the Yankees and Dodgers. And when either or both DON'T make the World Series, and the Astros do, you all will be the ones feeling silly for it. They made not have made the big splash deals like the two aforementioned teams, but they are far from done this season, or going into the playoffs. Try as you or any opposing teams might, you cannot, and will not, keep this team down. As Richard Pryor would say, "They ain't dead yet!"
Well, he did get a pitcher. Lefty specialist, Francisco Liriano of the Toronto Blue Jays came his way to H-Town in exchange for Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez. Despite the growing fears of most in the fan base, Luhnow did make good on a move to get pitching help. The package sent back to the Great White North can be debated as to whether or not it was too big or a cheap bargain. Hernandez has put up solid numbers down in the minors, while Aoki's lack of power left something to be desired. Both players are solid, and I join everyone in wishing those two the best up there with our neighbors to the north.
Though a move was made, it raises a lot more questions than answers. First, Liriano is not having the best season, with an ERA just shy of 6. He also has some of the worst run support in the league, and is not that much of an impact arm. Of course, what do you expect from a team that has been down in the doldrums as much as the Toronto Blue Jays? That's the bad news. The good news: He has dominated left handed batters over the course of his career, having the lowest opponent batting average and OPS against him, right up there with the likes of Sean Doolittle and Brad Hand. Hand was another potential target, but the San Diego Padres asked for too big a package, so he remains down in SoCal.
Additionally, there has been talk that Liriano will be converted from starting pitcher to relieving pitcher, and be another piece to come out of the bullpen. With Brent Strom taking him under his wing, this can be the key to turning Liriano's season right around, and make him just the kind of threat from the pen that the Astros have been seeking to spot the overtaxed burden being put on the likes of Chris Devenski and Ken Giles, among others. Only time will tell if that becomes true or not, but there is already some fiery debate across the fan base and elsewhere. They fall into two camps: The Astros won't make it past the first round of the playoffs; OR They have a good enough team in the first place to be able to stand up to the likes of anyone they face up to, and including, the World Series.
I tend to fall in the latter camp, and here's why. Trades do not equate to guarantees. Just because the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers "won" the trade deadline by acquiring Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish, respectively, does not automatically solidify those two teams as being the World Series contenders come this fall. While I would give the edge in that regard to the Dodgers, you still have plenty of teams like the Astros, Nationals and Red Sox that will have a thing or two, or even three or more, to say about that. It is true that pitching wins championships, but what is pitching without run support? Honestly?
And if anyone out there thinks that this juggernaut of an offense that is the Houston Astros are slowing down anytime soon, you could not be more wrong. If anything, it has been the bats that have kept this team alive in the face of sheer adversity and a plague of injuries to the pitching staff and elsewhere. They proved just that last night with a 14-7 routing victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at home in Minute Maid Park. EVERY batter in that lineup got some kind of hit, and that hasn't happened just once this season. From top to bottom, the sticks remained stacked, for lack of a better saying.
A big part of the offensive stacking has been, no surprise, your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis, who as of this writing is slashing .284/.337/.500/.837 with 11 home runs, 45 RBI, 123 wRC+, and a 1.6 WAR on the season! He also got a chance to get a start at first base to allow the Great White, Tyler White, to pitch the bottom of the 8th inning of that horrible blowout loss to the Tigers in the final game of that series, 13-1. This only further proves just how versatile, reliable and valuable the bear really is to this game, AND this Astros' ball club. That proof should be indication enough that Luhnow needs to sign him long term, and keep him around to help this team win even more. He should also extend Brian McCann while he's at it to keep the #BearSquared tandem in place for a while.
So go ahead, mainstream sports media. Go ahead and count the Astros out, while kissing up to the Yankees and Dodgers. And when either or both DON'T make the World Series, and the Astros do, you all will be the ones feeling silly for it. They made not have made the big splash deals like the two aforementioned teams, but they are far from done this season, or going into the playoffs. Try as you or any opposing teams might, you cannot, and will not, keep this team down. As Richard Pryor would say, "They ain't dead yet!"
Original Photo Credits: Both by Michael Zagaris of Getty Images!
I'm actually REALLY excited to see what a Liriano/Gattis battery looks like going forward!
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