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They are guarding whatever it is that they do rather carefully, but clearly someone in the Houston organization has come up with a way to make pitchers much more effective than they formerly were.
I won't claim to know the secret but I was hearing 5 years ago - when they were losing and rebuilding - that their data analytics model had them focusing heavily on strikeouts, finding pitchers who get them and hitters who avoid them. They also look for pitchers with high spin rates.
If the best thing you can do as a pitcher is to get strikeouts, the Astros do that better than anyone: Their 27.3% strikeout rate is the highest in baseball.
If a very good thing you can do as a hitter is to avoid strikeouts, the Astros do that better than anyone, too: Their 18.4% strikeout rate is the lowest in baseball.
I won't claim to know the secret but I was hearing 5 years ago - when they were losing and rebuilding - that their data analytics model had them focusing heavily on strikeouts, finding pitchers who get them and hitters who avoid them. They also look for pitchers with high spin rates.
These days everyone is aware of the considerations you list above, they all get the same data from the Chyron Hego camera systems which are in every park. The Astros have gone beyond the other teams in finding things in the data which they translate into an advantage. So far, no other team has shown that they can improve pitchers the way Houston can.
It won't remain a secret very long. With Morton in Tampa and Cole in New York, they will pass along what they learned in Houston to their new teams and soon everyone will be copying whatever it is that the Astros do.
Everyone else is now going to have to step up. And that includes Greinke, who was not very sharp yesterday.
Verlander is 37 and this is his first arm injury ever. This is one of the problems with players over the age of 35, they get hurt more often and are out for longer periods of time.
Verlander is 37 and this is his first arm injury ever. This is one of the problems with players over the age of 35, they get hurt more often and are out for longer periods of time.
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Astros now 13-10 with a 2-1 win today over the Rox. Greinke with eight shutout innings and Straw with the walk-off single in the 11th.
Verlander, meanwhile, is throwing again, as he got going yesterday from flat ground for the time since he's been on IL. Brent Strom sez that it went well.
But look at the guys who've picked up the slack while JV was out. Bielak, Valdez, and Javier have been very good in their starts.
Justin Verlander has to undergo Tommy John surgery and is unlikely to pitch again before 2022. That uses up the reminder of his contract, although Houston will be paying him 33 million dollars while he recuperates.
After that he will be a 39 year old free agent coming off TJ surgery. Verlander is already a fully qualified HoF candidate whether he ever pitches again, but between this shortened season and the arm injury, it probably means he will not reach 300 career wins if he does continue.
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