The Pecan Park Eagle

Francisco Liriano
Newest Houston Astro
July 31, 2017

“Disappointment” is the first word that comes to mind.

Not disappointment in Jeff Luhnow, or the Francisco Liriano trade. “Hopeful” is the word for that one, followed quickly by “relieved” that the Blue Jays settled for an older outfielder like Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez, an uncanonized minor league outfielder, in exchange for a 33-year old “probably seen better days” lefty who could help with our needs for both starters and relievers this year.

“Disappointment” is anchored to the rumor that Luhnow had a better, more expensive deal going to the deadline with another club, possibly the Orioles, but that ownership of the other team stepped in and killed it with no time left on the clock for either recovery in the deal – or for working something else out – elsewhere. On a larger scale, “disappointment” floats to the fact that, given the way our roster pitchers lately are either busy getting hurt, too complexly getting lost in finding their delivery mechanics, or too young to be ready this early in their careers, or too over the hill to be restored to be of service to actually helping the Astros win the World Series in 2017.

Now the pressure shifts even heavier upon the birds in hand. (1) The young pups are going to have to get better now and (2) they are going to need exposure to pitching strategies that can help them skip a few grades on the shorter road to an aggressive grasp of what they each can do to help the club win now. (2) Keuchel, McCullers, and McHugh need to get well, stay well, recover from whatever mechanical glitches that are now getting in the way and start eating some innings with aggressive low run yield starter innings. (3) Any of the older established relievers who’ve been having trouble with keeping the ball in the park or holding big leads need to either find something in themselves from yesterday and deliver now – or else – get the bad vibes out of the way. Give the younger teachable guys those same shots at stringing some muscle and intelligence into the relief phases of most games. The starters need to go longer, 6 or 7 innings, if possible, and the relievers need to pitch smarter and stronger. (4) We need Springer (early August) and Correa (early September, if possible) both back in the lineup, and (5) we need Jose Altuve and the rest of our lights-out offense to keep crunching the ball as though there was no such truth to the old wisdom that “good pitching stops good hitting.”

Maybe it’s coincidence, my foot! You know we’ve got a real rivalry going between the Astros and the Rangers when you look at what the boys from Arlington did at the trading deadline. The Rangers threw in their 2017 towel by trading ace starter Yu Darvish to the Dodgers, the NL team that could stand as the last and only team that could beat the Astros, should they both survive all that it takes to reach the World Series.

Nobody ever said it’s going to be easy. Keep the faith. We can do this thing.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THROUGH GAMES OF MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST SCORES

GAMES OF MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017

ASTROS 14 – RAYS 7.

MARINERS 6 – RANGERS 4.

ATHLETICS 8 – GIANTS 5.

ANGELS (had a one-night wing rest)

AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE

THROUGH GAMES OF MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017

NR * = NEEDS MORE “AB”S TO QUALIFY FOR RANKING.

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