{"id":25364,"date":"2013-08-03T07:14:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T14:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seamheads.com\/?p=25364"},"modified":"2013-08-03T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T21:03:20","slug":"astros-hit-bottom-in-july-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/03\/astros-hit-bottom-in-july-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Hit Bottom in July"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Astros picked up their first July win on July 3 and closed out the month with an 11-0 win over Baltimore on July 31.&#160; However, they only won four games in between resulting in a 6-18 record for the month, the worst in the major leagues. The Astro finished the month with a record of 36-70, five games behind the Miami Marlins in the &#8220;race&#8221; for the worst record in baseball and the first pick in the 2014 draft.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\n<p>Despite the overall poor performance, there were some bright spots.&#160; Three of the prospects obtained in earlier trades achieved some success in the majors.&#160; Pitcher, Jarred Cosart, one of the prospects in the Hunter Pence trade, was promoted in July and made 3 strong starts. (1-0, 0.86 ERA).&#160; Pitcher, Brett Oberholtzer, obtained in the Michael Bourn trade, made his first start on July 31 in the 11-0 win over Baltimore.&#160; Jonathan Villar, obtained in the Roy Oswalt trade, has become the regular shortstop since his promotion after the All-Star game, and has added some excitement with his defense and speed (5 stolen bases including a steal of home).\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\nThe Astros rank near the bottom in most offensive and defensive categories as shown below:\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Offense<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">Astros<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">MLB Rank<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Runs per game<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">3.82<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">26th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Batting Average<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">.236<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">29th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Slugging Pct.<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">.377<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">29th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Strikeouts<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">995<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">30th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Pitching<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Runs per game<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">5.28<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">30th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">ERA<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">4.89<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">30th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Defense<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Fielding Pct.<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">.961<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">26th<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"103\">Double Plays<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"72\">\n<p align=\"center\">122<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"60\">\n<p align=\"center\">1st<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\nThe numbers above suggest that the pitching has been worse than the hitting but not by much.&#160; The Astros are not considered to be a strong defensive team but they rank first in turning double plays.&#160; This is at least partially due to having so many runners on base.\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\nThe Astros picked up several more prospects by trading Bud Norris, Jose Veras and Justin Maxwell prior to the July 31 deadline.&#160; While this trade could be helpful in the future, it will likely further weaken the team for this year with the loss of their best starting pitcher, their closer and a productive outfielder.\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<strong><\/strong><\/ul>\n<ul>\nThe Astros&#8217; minor League teams continue to do well.&#160; All four full-season teams are at least 13 games over .500 and the three short-season teams are also over .500.<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Astros picked up their first July win on July 3 and closed out the month with an 11-0 win over Baltimore on July 31.&#160; However, they only won four games in between resulting in a 6-18 record for the month, the worst in the major leagues. The Astro finished the month with a record [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[2057,20501,631,20500,20499,9598,6559,1014,1771,3243,20233,827,10313,16567,3241,42,1364,19111,3242,717,3078],"class_list":["post-25364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-statistical-analysis","tag-all-star-game","tag-astro","tag-batting-average","tag-cosart","tag-defensive-categories","tag-defensive-team","tag-double-plays","tag-five-games","tag-four-games","tag-hunter-pence","tag-jose-veras","tag-majors","tag-maxwell","tag-miami-marlins","tag-michael-bourn","tag-mlb","tag-outfield","tag-poor-performance","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-shortstop","tag-starting-pitcher"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}