HISTORIC FIRST HALF
Best start in franchise history has team positioned for bigger things
In 1998, when Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were in the primes of Hall of Fame careers, the Astros arrived at the All-Star break with a .609 winning percentage. They had the National League’s best offense, and after acquiring another would-be Hall of Famer in Randy Johnson on the last day of July, they only improved their division-leading pace.
Those Astros, who failed to advance beyond the first round of the postseason, are the franchise’s gold standard for regular-season performance. They scored the most runs in the NL and allowed the second-fewest. Their 102-win campaign still signifies the franchise’s best by five games.
That the 2017 Astros are on pace to blast that record into oblivion is a testament to their historic first half, which will come to an end Sunday at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Win or lose in the finale of their fourgame series against the Blue Jays, the Astros (59-29) will have topped the previous franchisebest record at the All-Star break (53-34, .609 by the 1998 team) by at least 54 percentage points.
For a franchise still searching for its first World Series title, this year’s Astros represent as good a chance as any. The 100-loss seasons that began sixth-year general manager Jeff Luhnow’s drastic teardown and
rebuild have made way for a potential 105-plus victory campaign.
No team will be better represented at Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game in Miami. Second baseman Jose Altuve, shortstop Carlos Correa and outfielder George Springer were elected by fans to start the game, Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr. were named to the pitching staff, and reliever Chris Devenski was added as an injury replacement to give the Astros six All-Stars.
Elite production
With 74 games still to play, these Astros already have run away with the American League West. At this rate, they could wrap up their first division title since 2001 by mid-September.
“I don’t worry about contentment for our team,” said third-year Astros manager A.J. Hinch. “When you go to a man in our clubhouse, they want to be elite. They want to be really good. We want to lead the league in wins. Our aspirations are as high as they could possibly be. But everybody’s are who feel like they have a chance.
“I think the next level is actually putting in the work and the attention and the effort to be elite. You can talk about it all you want, but you do have to go out and prove it on the field and play an entire schedule.”
The Astros learned that lesson in 2015, when they narrowly held on to a playoff spot after a mediocre July and August and a losing September. After last year’s team missed the postseason altogether, Luhnow set out in the winter to complement the roster’s elite position-player core and make the moves required to take the team to the next level.
Luhnow significantly lengthened a once topheavy lineup with the offseason acquisitions of outfielder Josh Reddick, catcher Brian McCann, designated hitter Carlos Beltran and last July’s signing of Cuban third baseman-now-first baseman Yuli Gurriel. The progressions of returnees Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Marisnick have made for the deepest position-player group in baseball.
But most importantly to the Astros, their linchpins have either maintained their already elite production from previous seasons or emerged with the best years of their careers. Simply put, Altuve, Correa and Springer have all been among the 15 best players in baseball this season.
For the 27-year-old Altuve, it’s merely a continuation of last season, when he placed third in the American League Most Valuable Player voting. Correa, 22, and Springer, 27, have elevated their games compared to last season as they’ve matured as allaround hitters.
Springer in particular has made drastic strides. He already has slugged 27 home runs, second in the majors and just two below the career high he set last year. Bagwell and Lance Berkman are the only play- ers in Astros history who hit more homers before the All-Star break.
“(He’s) one of my favorite players in the league,” Altuve said this week. “He’s a superstar.”
League leaders
Teamwide, the offensive results are staggering. Through Friday, the Astros were leading the majors in batting average (.288), on-base percentage (.353), slugging percentage (.497), runs (506), homers (142) and doubles (192). Incredibly, while producing the most power, they also have struck out the least of any team, a statistical anomaly rarely seen throughout baseball history.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 1948 New York Yankees and 1995 Cleveland Indians were the last two teams to finish a season with the best slugging percentage and the fewest strikeouts. (The ’48 Yankees had a 9460 record yet placed third in the American League. The ’95 Indians were 93-51 and lost the World Series to the Atlanta Braves in six games.)
“The magic we can create from top to bottom is just spectacular,” said Reddick, who’s producing at a career-best pace in the first season of the four-year, $52 million deal he signed in November. “We don’t really ever have a feeling that we’re out of a baseball game.”
The Astros’ offense, which has been particularly unstoppable in road games, has helped the team overcome injuries to five of their six best starting pitchers at times this season.
Keuchel, the resurgent ace who posted a 9-0 record and 1.67 earned run average over his first 11 starts of the season, hasn’t pitched since June 2 because of a neck issue. McCullers, their up-andcoming No. 2, missed two recent starts because of back soreness. No. 3 starter Charlie Morton didn’t start for six weeks before Friday because of a strained lat muscle.
Joe Musgrove missed two starts in June because of shoulder inflammation. Collin McHugh has yet to pitch this season because of an elbow injury.
The most prominent Astros story line for the next three weeks will regard Luhnow’s efforts to bolster his roster before the July 31 trade deadline. Although no equivalent to Johnson in ’98 exists on the pitching market, the Astros have long been expected to pursue another starter to slot in among the top three in their rotation and also to consider reinforcements for their bullpen.
High aspirations
Despite all of the young players who have matriculated to the majors in recent seasons, the Astros still have a strong minor league system from which they can trade. While dealing away touted prospects comes with obvious risk, teams of the caliber of this year’s Astros don’t come along too often. Considering the lack of a clearcut rival in the AL, their chances to win might never be better than this year.
But postseason play, as the Astros were reminded two years ago, is a different animal than the regular season. Losing to the eventual champion Kansas City Royals in the 2015 AL Division Series — after blowing a four-run eighth-inning lead in what could have been a Game 4 clincher — still fuels many of these Astros.
“That wasn’t a comfortable feeling coming off the field feeling like we should have advanced,” Hinch said. “We want to make sure that we finish what we’ve started and keep our aspirations high, and that’s what will keep us humble.”