The Launch Angle

Whoever the Astros hire as its new general manager in the offseason, I hope one of the first decisions is to revamp the outfield.

Nelson Velázquez, LaMonte Wade Jr., Daulton Varsho, Cam Smith, and Taylor Trammell all received at least one plate appearance in this game. Wade had a pinch hit, RBI single in the eighth, but he didn’t take the field this time around. The rest of the group? 0-for-10 with six strikeouts. Simply abysmal.

Oh, Jake Meyers is only trusted for his defense late in games.

By FanGraphs’ WAR, there hasn’t been a team to receive less value from its outfielders than the Astros. Offensively, by wRC+, there hasn’t been a worst position group in baseball, with Houston’s outfielders posting a 74 wRC+. While former general manager Dana Brown did attempt to address the pitching staff last offseason, any efforts to improve the outfield were too little, too late. Even with Brown gone, the front office decided to claim yet another outfielder in hopes of improving even in the slightest measures.

Needless to say, the Astros had a hard time against Eduardo Rodriguez and the Diamondbacks’ bullpen. Two runs on seven hits and two walks isn’t exactly an encouraging display. And 12 strikeouts to boot, with half of those coming from your outfielders. On the plus side, Jose Altuve had three hits in a game for the 225th time, tying him with Craig Biggio for the most in franchise history.

The pitching staff fared better, although it wasn’t quite enough. Peter Lambert has recently scuffled, but he bounced back with seven innings of three-run ball, striking out six in the process. A perfectly fine quality start. Miguel Ullola and Bryan Abreu each threw scoreless innings. Again, it wasn’t a pitching problem for the Astros on Sunday.

Alas, both the Rangers and Mariners won on Sunday, trimming one game from Houston’s AL West lead. A tough six-game road trip to Philadelphia and Tampa beginning on Tuesday looms large.

Feature photo from Astros on X