Houston Astros
80-73, 2nd NL West, 1/2 GB
1972 Outlook: For the past three years the Astros were the constant bridesmaids in a division that saw the Braves and the Reds advance past them. Following a... let's just say controversial trade of Jaden Weaver, a move that was done, according to the pundits, to drop a bad attitude from the roster, they believed that they were in a better-than-ever position even if the fans didn't exactly agree. For one thing, they'd replaced the 37 HRs of Weaver with 42 from Justin Jensen. What wasn't to love!
1972 In Review: This year wound up being perhaps the most agonizing season in Astros history. They actually sat up on top of the division in June, 4 games ahead of the Braves at one point, but you have to play the entire season and a 28-29 record between July and August got the Braves not only back into the race but a little bit ahead of them. They still could have salvaged things with a relatively light 24 game schedule in September but they won only 10 of those games, including going 1-5 vs the Dodgers (2-2 against the Braves so call those 2 series a push) and finished just a half-game back at the end of the year.
To be fair (TOO BEEEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAIR) the Braves lost their final game of the season because they chose to rest starters so it wasn't really a scheduling glitch that left them behind. Blame this on... it's hard to evaluate exactly because of the park. Is the 6th best offense good for the Astrodome or not good enough for a contending team? Was only 90 HRs playing to their park? On the other hand, is 4th in runs allowed good or kind of not?
1973 Outlook: Those questions carry into 1973. It's clear that they now have a gaping hole in the lineup where Jaden Weaver used to sit and one has to assume this team will try and do something about that. I personally thought they bolstered their rotation going into the season by adding Ernie Alvarez and Jason Gilmore and (maybe most of all) jettisoning The Mullett. The numbers seem to disagree with me.
Pitching
Tony Rivera
LHP No. 13
LL, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1943-07-31
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 HOU MLB 19 11 0 2.72 38 38 14 290.2 240 93 88 108 208
1971 HOU MLB 25 9 0 3.20 42 42 13 328.2 307 124 117 128 207
1972 HOU MLB 23 13 0 2.57 41 41 20 328.2 275 99 94 106 189
Rivera has been a real workhorse for the Astros over the past three years, a lot like Tracy Mosher was with the Yankees a couple years before. Perhaps that should be a cautionary tale, as Mosher has not looked at all like the staff ace that he once was. Rivera has been 1, 1, and 2 in games started over the last three seasons and 3rd, 1st, and 2nd in innings pitched. Nobody works more than he does, although maybe a couple people work about as often. And he did have a pretty rough September (3-4, 3.16) right when the team needed him to carry the load the most. That said, Rivera was if anything more effective over the course of the entire year than he was in 1971; he dropped his walk rate a bit without sacrificing much in raw stuff. Indeed, his curve looked as as impossible as ever to lefties.
Am I burying the lede here? Rivera also completed a monstrous 20 games with 9 shutouts. The 20 CGs are a high water mark since Matt Pippin completed 23 in 1958 (18-14, 3.01 that year) and the shutouts tie the league record. When he was good, he was unstoppable. His September is a pretty decent microcosm of both his greatness and his problems:
September 2: (NYM) 9 IP, 3 ER, L
September 7: (@SF) Complete game shutout, W
September 11: (@LAD) 7 IP, 2 ER, L
September 15: (LAD) 6 IP, 3 ER, L (the old "technically this is a quality start" game)
September 19: (@ATL) 7 IP, 4 ER, W
September 23: (CIN) Complete game 2-hit shutout, W
September 27: (SF) 4.1 IP, 7 ER, L
Just very up and down and of course two of those complete game performances came against last place teams. I haven't run the old algo on the NL Cy Young yet but my non-stathead brain says he doesn't deserve it.
Ernie Alvarez
RHP No. 7
LR, 6'4" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-07-02
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PIT MLB 3 3 0 3.72 8 8 2 58.0 61 25 24 15 23
1971 STL MLB 16 18 0 4.40 39 38 6 263.2 286 140 129 81 139
1972 HOU MLB 14 9 0 3.04 37 37 9 272.1 246 94 92 92 138
Houston was Alvarez's 3rd stop in 3 years but based on his 1972 numbers he seems to have found a home. His biggest issue in St. Louis, arguably, was a propensity to lose focus and give up dingers - 27 allowed, 7th most in the NL - but the roomy confines of the Astrodome meant that even when he did have a mental lapse it often just resulted in a loud out. Alvarez used to be one of the biggest workhorses out there, completing 13 games in back to back seasons in '68 and '69, but might have lost that stamina on the operating table when he missed most of the 1970 season with a biscuit meniscus.
Although Alvarez has the reputation for being a groundball guy. Maybe that's just people looking at the numbers and assuming. In reality the 50% grounder ratio was his highest since 1968 and even then he induced a not-outstanding 17 double plays, well off of his career bests. Speaking of career bests, though, even with the Astros monitoring his usage game-to-game somewhat, Alvarez set a new career high in innings pitched, finishing 5th in the AL in that category.
The big thing the Astros would love out of him is more decisions. I really think that comes more down to the offense not supporting him and a shaky bullpen but hey, we like to blame these things on the starters in 1972 so I will.
Jason Gilmer
RHP No. 4
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-08-08
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 DET MLB 4 8 0 4.00 17 17 3 121.1 128 59 54 50 80
1970 SD MLB 7 6 0 3.28 14 14 8 109.2 114 45 40 43 67
1971 SD MLB 14 16 0 3.69 31 31 13 231.2 233 104 95 93 116
1972 HOU MLB 12 13 0 3.48 38 38 6 271.1 270 115 105 129 141
Speaking of starters bouncing from team to team... Gilmer came up in the Detroit system and looked like he might be The Guy early, making the All-Star Game in 1965 and leading the league with 3 shutouts that year. He never quite came through on all that promise and eventually he was sold to the Padres in midseason of 1970. The Padres just let him pitch without caring about what he might do and as a result they had helped to restore Gilmer's confidence enough - and the league's confidence in him - that they were able to ship him off to Houston for a boatload of prospects.
It's easy to look at the San Diego end of that haul, especially Steven Tyler, and complain about what might have been. In this case at least I think Astros fans should be happy with what they got. There was a terrible, terrible trade in the offseason but this wasn't it. Gilmer had his control troubles last season and wound up 2nd in the NL in walks but even this was an improvement over what they used to get out of Josh Mullett and the reality is that Gilmer was a perfectly decent middle of the rotation guy.
Caleb McDonald
RHP No. 22
SR, 5'8" 189 lbs.
Born 1941-05-24
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 HOU MLB 14 7 0 2.92 40 26 3 209.0 187 74 68 60 112
1971 HOU MLB 16 10 0 4.06 37 37 8 243.1 241 120 110 106 103
1972 HOU MLB 10 14 0 3.82 29 24 4 176.1 183 81 75 68 85
Houston was pretty injury-lucky when it came to their starting rotation last year. McDonald, who missed the last 3 weeks of the 1971 season, missed starts not because of any injury but because he just wasn't all that good for large chunks of the year. He was downright awful in May, for example - 2-4, 6.04 - and he found himself pitching in long relief in July and August before picking things up in September - well, being the 4th starter with all those days off, he only pitched in 3 games but was 2-0, 1.88 in that time.
McDonald is a pure fastball guy who is sometimes guilty of throwing instead of pitching. He's been guilty in the past of giving up dingers, although weirdly enough, even though he was awful on the road this season (2-9, 5.83) it was because of control issues (32 BB in 66.1 IP), not homeritis. As the native of Hurst, Texas gets into his 30s he'll need to prepare himself for the times when the heater doesn't hit the low 90s on the radar gun anymore. McDonald was largely ineffective as a relief pitcher this year (0-2, 4.91 in 11 innings over 5 appearances) but he's been useful in that role in the past.
Vince Bump
RHP No. 36
RR, 6'5" 202 lbs.
Born 1945-07-05
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 ELM AA 0 0 0 1.03 6 0 0 8.2 6 2 1 6 5
1970 OMA AAA 4 4 10 3.64 29 0 0 42.0 41 19 17 23 48
1970 KC MLB 1 1 0 4.15 7 0 0 13.0 11 6 6 9 8
1971 OMA AAA 2 1 9 0.90 26 0 0 39.2 24 4 4 25 33
1971 KC MLB 3 2 2 4.08 31 0 0 39.2 41 20 18 20 28
1972 OKC AAA 2 1 5 5.09 13 0 0 17.2 19 10 10 6 17
1972 HOU MLB 4 5 3 2.06 33 0 0 52.1 35 14 12 19 36
It is very premature to anoint the 27 year old Bump as the reliever of the future but it's also easy to understand why Astros fans are so soon to do so. It's really less about Bump than it is about Jon Douglas (more on him in a second!), though at that Houston baseball fans should be at least a little bit wary of the 2 blown saves in 5 opportunities (also 1 hold) and the over-5 ERA he had in AAA prior to joining the big league club. On the other other hand, 36/19 is practically a 2-1 K/W ratio and that's very nice and I personally enjoy sinker-slider relievers even if they are classic 3/4 delivery guys like Bump instead of sidearmers.
Jon Douglas
RHP No. 29
RR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1942-05-29
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 HOU MLB 4 11 30 3.72 70 0 0 89.1 73 38 37 37 74
1971 HOU MLB 5 11 28 3.25 62 0 0 91.1 68 39 33 33 78
1972 HOU MLB 4 9 18 4.33 56 0 0 72.2 62 37 35 34 53
If you think the Astros pulled the plug on Jon Douglas the closer too early, you clearly have not been paying attention the last few years. Even when he was pitching well, Douglas lost a combined 28 games in relief between 1969 and 1971 and last year he'd have surely gotten to double-digit losses for the third straight season if I hadn't switched him into lower-level situations. Indeed, even with that, his average pLi was 2.04, the 2nd highest of his career, and he blew a total of 10 saves last year.
Douglas' biggest issue is giving up bombs on the road - 8 HRs allowed in 39.1 IP outside of Houston - and while part of me says "okay, just have him be a home closer then", bullpens don't work that way and besides I would forget. Douglas also had a bit more issues with the bases on balls. The totals look consistent but bear in mind that he threw 19 fewer innings in 1972. I'd call him a trade candidate but let's be honest: Douglas seems like he'd flop anywhere that doesn't have a gigantic stadium to pitch to.
Adam Eastin
RHP No. 34
RR, 6'0" 202 lbs.
Born 1939-12-03
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 STL MLB 5 1 9 2.00 27 0 0 40.1 31 11 9 19 21
1970 HOU MLB 1 0 3 0.74 6 0 0 12.0 6 2 1 4 7
1971 OKC AAA 0 0 0 0.00 3 0 0 3.0 1 0 0 1 1
1971 HOU MLB 1 1 1 4.82 7 0 0 9.1 11 5 5 2 4
1972 HOU MLB 3 3 5 2.86 42 0 0 53.1 44 17 17 20 26
Eastin tore his flexor tendon in his elbow in September of 1970 and as a result barely played at all in 1971. The former White Sox and Cardinals closer needed to prove that he still had something left last year. Results were... mixed, I'd say. I like the ERA but the walks and Ks aren't super fantastic and he pretty well imploded down the stretch for this team - 1-1, 5.56 in August and 0-2, 4.82 in September -when they really needed someone to step up in place of Jon Douglas. Eastin's biggest issue might be that his sidearm throwing motion leaves him too vulnerable against lefties: he allowed them to hit .270 against them with only 9 strikeouts in 74 at-bats. He really needs a guy like Roberto Escobar out there to help him and this is kind of not the era for single-inning relief specialists.
Roberto Escobar
LHP No. 20
RL, 6'6" 200 lbs.
Born 1946-12-28
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CBS AA 6 7 0 3.46 15 15 3 101.1 86 41 39 49 86
1970 OKC AAA 2 2 0 0.81 14 0 0 22.0 14 2 2 15 39
1971 HOU MLB 3 2 0 2.99 45 0 0 51.0 45 20 17 26 59
1972 HOU MLB 3 3 2 3.19 38 3 0 56.1 40 23 20 33 47
I have an internal rule with these write-ups to limit myself to 7 pitchers - 4 starters, 3 relievers, generally - but Escobar is too big a part of this team to leave off. He's their lefty specialist. I'd call him a LOOGY but he's rarely in to get just one out, this being the early 70s and all. In fact, Escobar was a starter in college (probably like most pitchers but I don't have feeder leagues on) and really only transitioned into relief in 1970 with the AAA team. He even pitched in 3 games as a starter this year. To be fair (TOOO BEEEE FAAAAAAAAIR) all those 3 starts really did was cement the fact that Escobar helps the Astros best as a relief pitcher (he was 2-1, 5.60 with 14 walks allowed in 17.1 IP). As a reliever, he throws a lot of forkballs that are tough to hit but also tough for Escobar to control. Lefties hit just .179 against him. Batters as a whole only hit .199.
Infield
Dan Rigdon
C No. 46
RR, 6'3" 211 lbs.
Born 1943-08-23
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.247 126 457 40 113 31 3 4 52 40 74 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.268 128 496 58 133 36 3 6 52 33 81 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.193 119 378 27 73 14 1 3 38 30 64 0
What happened to Dan Rigdon this year? Sure, it was the Year of the Fielder but above and beyond that, Rigdon's average dived by 70 points and his runs scored and doubles fell to less than half of what they were in '71. In the course of one season he went from All-Star to no-star.
Rigdon's still a good, solid defensive catcher. He's maybe not the All-World type guy you'd need to be to justify a lineup spot with a sub-.200 average but he did throw out 36.4% of attempted stealers, good for 4th in the NL. Houston really just has to consider 1972 a year-long slump. If this is permanent... the Astros do have 1972 year old first round pick Steven van Zandt (who, I just learned this week, was Silvio Dante in The Sopranos) but he's at least a couple years away.
Nate Williams
C No. 15
SR, 5'12" 204 lbs.
Born 1946-01-23
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OKC AAA 0.272 118 412 41 112 22 2 2 43 26 52 0
1971 OKC AAA 0.241 54 170 14 41 9 0 1 12 7 14 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.267 6 15 2 4 1 0 0 2 2 0 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.197 55 132 9 26 4 0 0 10 7 18 0
Nate Williams is the non-McDonald's hamburger from that bit in Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy special "Raw" where young Murphy said he wanted McDonald's and mom said she could make him McDonald's at home. Even there though there was a sense that adult Eddie Murphy would have loved that burger; Nate Williams is just disappointing to everyone. He might have hit .272 in the minor leagues in 1970 but that's pretty much the only place he hit that well. As a defender he's also just not that good. Mostly he was just there. The Astros do have former Cardinals backup Jose Medina, acquired in a trade last November; it seems like a much better idea to use him in the future even if he is a couple years older.
Justin Jensen
1B/OF No. 33
RR, 6'3" 202 lbs.
Born 1935-07-21
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB 0.226 138 460 84 104 12 1 42 96 101 147 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.206 106 326 29 67 8 1 7 33 58 103 0
Of course Jensen was a big disappointment. In fact, maybe the biggest issue with him, in fact, is that he underperformed so badly that one forgets how terrible the trade to acquire him was in the first place. One year in, here's the deal:
Houston gets:
------------
Jensen
Nick Miller
Bobby Beaulieu
Cincinnati gets
-------------
Jaden Weaver
LF Javy Perez
SP Josh Mullett
RF Fred Grandy
1B Justin Richens
Locker room cancer or no, trading Weaver for those 3 guys alone would have been a bad deal. The logic, such that it was, was that Jensen would be their new right fielder and even if for some reason he'd lost it in the entire year he'd missed with injury, they had a new outfielder and first baseman from Cincy anyway. Mullett and Richens were both salary-cutting / "we don't want to cut a fan favorite so we'll leave another team to do it" moves. Grandy isn't really expected to do a whole lot.
This wound up teeeerrribly and the Astros lost the division by half a game. You do the math.
Okay, so what about Jensen? Does he have anything left in the tank>? He was a big strikeout guy who made up for it with power when he was healthy, which is already not a good fit for a team that plays half its games in the Astrodome. Scouts think he still has that power potential. Does it matter at this point? It seems very, very doubtful that Houston will find a trade partner for Jensen and that means either giving him another year to possibly be a giant suck on the team's chances or admitting that the trade stunk and cutting him loose altogether.
Nick Miller
1B/OF No. 19
LL, 5'9" 178 lbs.
Born 1945-05-25
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB 0.266 98 169 31 45 5 4 3 19 26 19 14
1971 CLE MLB 0.278 14 18 4 5 2 0 0 2 2 2 0
1971 CIN MLB 0.269 106 301 37 81 11 3 6 33 33 50 16
1972 HOU MLB 0.250 108 312 35 78 12 1 5 38 34 47 16
Miller's really the one part of the above trade that did work out for the Astros... all right, getting out from underneath the locally popular Mullett and the aging Richens were probably fine as well, but in terms of actual on-field production for Houston, Miller turned out to be a pretty decent player, all else being said. He doesn't have prototypical first baseman power but his profile probably suits the Astrodome a bit better than that. He was a bit wasted being used in the 4 and 5 slots in the order, where he had 196 of his at-bats in 1972.With his ability to draw walks and his speed, he's probably more of a top or bottom of the order guy.
It'd be, in fairness, hard to put him in the 2 hole because he strikes out an awful lot. The walks are nice but I'd be afraid of him getting into bad counts if he had to protect base stealers too much,. Miller himself could probably steal 20 or so bases if he was given a full season of at-bats to do so. In the right setting, he's a guy who will, once he gets on base, convert those opportunities into runs pretty often. He'd really help himself out by learning to bunt for a hit or, really, bunt at all: he's had a grand total of 1 sacrifice since joining the NL. You'd also expect a man with his speed to excel in the outfield but in reality he often looks lost out there and as such first base might be his ideal position.
Jordan Green
2B/SS No. 1
RR, 5'11" 203 lbs.
Born 1945-10-22
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.275 63 236 25 65 12 1 4 23 24 26 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.277 140 527 64 146 23 1 9 60 48 87 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.258 144 551 71 142 20 0 10 57 58 65 0
Green was moved late in the season from leadoff to cleanup. No offense to the 26 year old but he's not a good fit for either slot. As a cleanup guy he hit .279 but drove in just 19 runners in 147 at-bats; as a leadoff man his on-base percentage was .317 - above average but still not actually good - and he failed to finish in the top 10 in runs scored in spite playing for a full year. The former #26 prospect in all of baseball has turned into a decent but not hitter who can play in the middle infield. It's fine but it has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment.
Green has a really, really good arm and would probably be one of the best 3rd basemen in the game if he was moved there. The Astros already have a good hot corner guy though so Green will likely stick where he is. He's just straight up not a good baserunner, like, at all, which further makes the question of where to put him problematic.
Jon Sherron
PH/2B No. 24
RR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-02-14
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OKC AAA 0.345 86 328 43 113 19 4 4 38 26 47 3
1970 HOU MLB 0.000 7 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.286 36 98 12 28 2 1 1 12 3 13 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.340 54 97 13 33 3 1 3 17 7 10 0
Sherron is a real enigma. It's easy to watch him take batting practice and see why you'd want him in your lineup, and if you aren't convinced by that you can look at his play in Oklahoma City in 1970. One look at him in the field and it becomes easy to see why he's not: he is a singularly awful second baseman who "contributed" -3.7 runs via zone rating in less than 80 innings at the position. He's such a good hitter, though, that maybe he could slot in at first base. He wouldn't be the worst pairing with Nick Miller there. As it stands, in 1972 he was the team's #2 pinch-hitter to Nate Ringstad and could be their #1 for '73.
Pete Little
3B No. 43
RR, 5'10" 188 lbs.
Born 1944-11-14
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.262 139 543 66 142 28 3 10 74 52 81 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.230 138 499 64 115 19 1 15 69 58 92 1
1972 HOU MLB 0.283 143 519 45 147 25 1 6 62 63 78 3
1972 was a very tough year for several third basemen in this game. The same cannot be said for Little. His age-27 season wasn't the off-the-charts age-27 year you sometimes see, it's true. He hit for a solid average, his best since '69's .299, drew a fair number of walks, and while the loss of power is a concern - Little has hit as many as 21 HRs in a season - this was nevertheless a year where Little really seemed to come through on the potential that had him as the 3rd overall pick in the draft in 1966.
Little has got one heck of an arm. He'd be a shortstop if he had just a little bit more range. He doesn't, in large part because he just doesn't have a lot of speed out there. He does enjoy hitting line drives but his career high in triples is only 3 and he's had a grand total of 2 in the last 2 years. I'm sure Strat-o-Matic players replaying this season will put him at 3rd in the order instead of his customary 5th. I should note though that SOM doesn't handle CLUTCH and Little hit just .244 in RISP situations.
Nate Ringstad
PH/3B/1B No. 21
RR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1935-11-09
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.233 91 163 17 38 6 0 6 24 9 30 0
1971 HOU MLB 0.292 112 195 24 57 15 0 3 42 15 14 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.245 104 159 17 39 6 0 4 17 12 25 0
Ringstad, a 12 year veteran and putatively the top clutch hitter on the team, evaporated right when the club needed him the most. After going 1-3 on July 31 his average stood at .304 and he looked to pretty much everyone like the top pinch-hitter in all of baseball. Then he went 0-25 in August with 9 strikeouts and 1-13 in September. He was working through back spasms in a lot of that but still... as much as the bullpen meltdowns, the inability of Ringstad to produce anything whatsoever was a huge part of why they fell just short.
He's 36. His days of playing with any regularity in the field are behind him. Lately the local papers have been roasting him pretty hard for his poor play and he even demanded a trade late in the season. It's hard to see how anyone else could love him as much as Houston has over the past half-decade; at the same time, that love affair is clearly over.
Masanori Hattori
SS No. 6
RR, 5'12" 203 lbs.
Born 1945-10-19
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OKC AAA 0.260 85 339 51 88 18 2 10 40 22 87 24
1970 HOU MLB 0.240 51 179 12 43 8 2 2 13 5 34 1
1971 HOU MLB 0.290 78 252 31 73 9 1 7 41 20 34 3
1972 HOU MLB 0.223 126 376 44 84 14 7 9 26 42 59 3
As a .290 hitter, Masanori Hattori is a guy the Astros wanted to get in the lineup as much as possible. As a .223 hitter, it's another story. Hattori has legitimate power for a middle infielder and also walks a lot. All told, even his slump-ridden 1972 (Hattori hit .194 for June and then .203 for September) was pretty close to league average, which, again, is nice for a shortstop.
The problems come when you look at the defense. Fine, last year nobody committed errors. Hattori would have had a rough time of it if that were the case, as he lacks great hands. He also cares too much about his own future - and specifically his future earning power - to hang in on the pivot when a runner is charging at him on a potential 4-6-3 double play. Shortstop requires a certain attitude and Hattori doesn't have it. He does have the ability, in theory if not used last year, to play at any position in the field, so if he can't recuperate his average then maybe utlity-man is Hattori's future job description.
Alejandro Chairez
2B/SS No. 3
RR, 5'8" 160 lbs.
Born 1939-02-19
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.296 124 486 81 144 24 12 12 52 24 81 3
1971 HOU MLB 0.210 88 314 38 66 8 3 6 25 20 46 8
1972 OKC AAA 0.293 50 191 22 56 13 1 3 26 9 37 7
1972 HOU MLB 0.190 36 84 9 16 1 1 2 9 7 16 1
Chairez opened the year in AAA and didn't join the big league club until June. Then the guy who as recently as 1970 flirted with .300 in the major leagues couldn't hit in the sporadic opportunities that he got. At age 33, it might be finally time to cut ties with the 7-year Houston veteran (that's veteran with Houston; he played another 5+ years in Baltimore). He's got an All-Star Game, and, unbelievable as it might seem now, a Gold Glove under his belt. Time comes for every man though, and rumors abound that Chairez doesn't even want to be here anymore.
Outfield
Jesse Lockhart
LF/RF No. 32
RR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-10-23
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.325 155 628 91 204 33 4 16 84 47 43 15
1971 HOU MLB 0.293 105 416 52 122 27 0 6 47 31 56 3
1972 HOU MLB 0.231 142 571 59 132 21 4 8 49 45 68 9
Nobody felt the sting of losing Jaden Weaver more than Jesse Lockhart. The 5th year veteran had previously never hit worse than .300 since joining Houston; without Weaver hitting behind him and protecting him from breaking pitches and the like, Weaver's average tumbled 62 points and he set a new career high in strikeouts. Also conspicuously absent was his power; sure, the Astrodome exists but even when it comes to hitting line drives in the gaps, Weaver's raw numbers have fallen from 37 non-HR extra base hits in '70 to 27 in 1971 to 25 this year. Batting 3rd in the order for most of the season, the 28 year old drove in just 49 runs. That's baaaad.
Lockhart is not going to wow you with the glove. He's ou there every day because he's a .300+ hitter - well, he was before this past year. He lacks burner speed but does surprisingly well for himself on the basepaths, with 9 steals in 2 tries in '72. I'd say hey maybe hit him higher in the order - and he did have 136 at-bats as the #2 man (he hit .257 - still not where the 'Stros want him to hit but better). What he needs to do is get back to that .287 career average of his.
Tommy Scott
LF/RF No. 30
LR, 5'9" 184 lbs.
Born 1940-06-13
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OKC AAA 0.220 130 455 62 100 22 2 14 59 60 101 4
1971 OKC AAA 0.245 60 204 28 50 9 0 5 27 37 27 1
1971 HOU MLB 0.357 32 28 4 10 1 0 1 5 2 7 1
1972 OKC AAA 0.368 12 38 7 14 0 1 1 4 8 6 0
1972 HOU MLB 0.240 60 125 14 30 6 1 1 12 16 18 1
Tommy Scott is the baseball equivalent of a can of mushroom soup. You added it to your pantry for some probably good reason way back when but you never ever actually used and now, years later, you're looking at cleaning house and you're wondering why you have a can of damn mushroom soup in your pantry. Scott was 8-28 as a pinch-hitter, which is nice, but that also means he was 22 for 97 doing everything else, which is not so nice. He's flashed 20 HR power in the distant past in the minors and does, for the most part, walk as much as he strikes out. This is not a fully formed hitter though, and he is an adequate at best outfielder.
George Foreman
CF No. 31
SR, 6'4" 225 lbs.
Born 1949-02-08
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CBS AA 0.280 84 321 50 90 14 3 4 31 43 61 16
1970 OKC AAA 0.189 21 74 13 14 3 1 0 3 12 17 7
1971 OKC AAA 0.309 94 320 61 99 23 9 5 45 73 29 14
1971 HOU MLB 0.380 56 208 42 79 16 5 9 39 24 27 8
1972 HOU MLB 0.313 144 553 90 173 33 3 19 76 74 54 20
Obviously, Foreman was never going to hit .380 again this year. Once you get past that and past the fact that he couldn't carry the team all by itself, it becomes clear that Big George is now the clear backbone of this lineup and the cornerstone of this franchise for the next decade or more. It took the team 2/3rds of the season to figure out that he's not a #2 hitter, he's a #3 hitter; credit, however, is due to Big George for hitting .350 in that role and .303 for September when everything around him was falling apart. He wound up leading the league in doubles and finished 2nd in both average and on-base percentage (.399).
Foreman's a solid if not spectacular centerfielder. He shouldn't have to move off the position any time soon. Although he has the reputation in his boxing side career for being something of a big lummox, Foreman is one of the smarter Astros players in a baseball sense. He's also fast enough to hit leadoff should Houston want that. He has a reputation for pushing his luck when it comes to advancing on base hits. That aggressiveness led him to finish 3rd in the league in runs scored but also created a fair few outs.
John Lopez
RF/CF No. 9
LL, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1940-10-19
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.290 154 639 116 185 17 10 18 59 74 55 28
1971 HOU MLB 0.269 148 605 89 163 15 3 8 57 66 52 31
1972 HOU MLB 0.201 63 209 20 42 4 2 4 23 20 25 3
Moving Lopez out of center in favor of Foreman was supposed to free the 31 year old "Little John" up to concentrate more on his hitting, which had taken a dive in '71. Also, he gave up a whole bunch of doubles into the gaps. However, what happened in '72 was that Lopez had an iffy spring, was shunted out of the lineup altogether as the team broke camp with Justin Jensen in right field, and then, when he was finally given the job back in August, hit .197 and .190 in the last 2 months.
Right field suits Lopez much better than center; he's got a nice arm (no assists last year, come on, OOTP) and the amount of territory he's comfortable covering is fine for a corner guy if not an up the middle one. He's maybe not the same baserunner he was when he stole 38 bases in 50 tries in 1966; he did steal 31/41 in '71 though and the 3/6 showing he made last year could be chalked up to never getting settled in enough.
Lopez has as good a chance at anybody at being the starter in right this year. He'll need to show he can at least hit how he hit in 1971; I guess that's a thing everyone competing for the RF job has to show though.
Bobby Beaulieu
RF No. 11
SR, 6'0" 195 lbs.
Born 1946-10-25
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 IND MLB 0.214 9 14 1 3 0 0 1 2 2 6 0
1971 IND AAA 0.314 45 156 26 49 5 4 7 22 28 20 3
1971 CIN MLB 0.266 83 278 46 74 15 8 8 44 38 55 6
1972 OKC AAA 0.246 31 114 12 28 7 3 3 21 10 29 4
1972 HOU MLB 0.178 72 197 20 35 9 5 3 19 28 58 8
Beaulieu could have saved the Justin Jensen trade and therefore the season if he'd have hit anything like the way he did for the Reds in their lost 1971 season. He did not. Ks were an issue in '71 but Beaulieu seemed to be able to overcome that with speed down the first base line when he did make contact. All that speed was still present in '72. The hits seemed to leave his bat like New Yorkers going to Florida for the winter. He also didn't show the power he'd had the year before but at this point it feels like mentioning that is ading insult to injury.
Beaulieu was finally kicked off the roster more or less for good until OKC's season ended and he got his callup back. I'd love to tell you that he went back to hitting well after that but I'd be lying: he was 2-7 in 7 games with 1 double. I guess that looks good on paper if you ignore the fact that it's 7 at-bats. When in the minors Beaulieu actually kept his batteries charged by playing in center instead of right; at the very least, he should be able to back up both in the majors.
Right is going to come down to which player out of the 3 candidates can actually hit. You hate to see actual spring training competitions like this but... it is what it is.