Astros Pitchers Struggle Throwing Strikes
Houston ranked near bottom of league in strike%, walks per 9 innings and walk percentage
Earlier this week I published a post that included the Astros pitchers’ MLB rank in walks per nine innings pitched.
After that post, I realized I hadn’t included specifics - who is responsible - which I almost always do as a matter of principle.
Not everyone’s guilty. Right?
Turns out the answer is nearly everyone — at least nearly everyone still on the 40-man roster.
Here’s the data for everyone who faced 50 or more batters in 2024.
First, those still on the 40-man roster:
Kaleb Ort is lonely (as we’ll see shortly) and only he, Ryan Pressly and Framber Valdez are below the MLB average of 8.2%.
The most troubling part for me is seeing Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti, two starters, in double figures.
And here are those no longer on the 40-man, who faced at least 50 batters:
This cuts both ways, of course.
There is the addition by subtraction with Montero, Mushinski and Ferguson no longer on the 40-man1, but the losses of Kikuchi, Verlander and Neris have the opposite effect and the first two of those three faced a significant number of batters.
On balance, more good was lost. The players no longer on the 40-man combined for a 7.6% BB rate, while those that remain combined for a 9.5% BB rate.
While the tables above serve their purpose, the chart below really tells the story: Only 3 of the 13 pitchers listed are below the MLB average of 8.2% walks.
As a team the Astros walked 3.42 batters per 9 innings, 25th in the league as mentioned in the previous post.
That works out to 9.0% of all batters faced, which is 27th in a 30-team league.
All of this interested me in the percentage of pitches thrown for strikes, hoping to find a clue somewhere.
Turns out the Astros were 25th in that metric, too.
The margins are small. The difference between No. 1 Seattle and No. 25 Houston is about 2.5% or 3.7 balls per game for the Astros, who averaged 148 pitches per contest.
The Mariners averaged about 138 pitches per game, 10 less per contest, which doesn’t sound like much, but when multiplied by 162 games means more walks, appearances and need for down days, which contributes to the slew of roster moves we saw in 2024 (with injuries being a major factor, of course).
That and this is an ugly trend.
Throwing strikes is not the be-all and end-all, after all the Dodgers were 22nd and the Yankees 24th.
But when you struggle to score (11th in runs scored) and struggle on defense, it’s difficult to overcome consistently giving up “free 90s”.
Rafael Montero is still part of the Astros organization, but is not currently on the 40-man roster.