Updated Projections - 80 of 162
A concerning win
Composition of Projections:
2023 Actuals: 49.4%
Preseason Projections: 50.6%
EDITOR NOTE:
I’ll be traveling to Arlington Sunday and Houston Monday for the games. Updates may be delayed. But I will have new pictures.
Season Projections
Jose Abreu in June: .292/.305/.517 5 HR 19 RBI 0.3 WAR 121 wRC+ and has the highest average exit velocity (including Yordan) on the team at 94.7 MPH.
Cristian Javier has been struggling. He struck out only 1 of 22 batters faced last night and, as we pointed out yesterday, his velocity is down. Last night his fastball averaged 92.5, which is a tick below his season average, and is way off from last season.
Last night, Javier threw 46 fastballs between 90.6 and 93.7 MPH. There were 26 swings, 7 whiffs, 3 called strikes and only 57% of fastballs were in the zone.
Astros 162
Click on the image for Episode 80.
or listen directly below:
Bullpen Usage
Four arms used, but Maton, Neris, Montero and Stanek are likely good to go, and perhaps, Pressly, too.
Today’s Pitching Matchup
No experience for France against Cardinals.
K Prop
The number for France is 4.5. you know the drill, no bet for me.
Odds
Astros -120 and +132 -1.5. Seems like a bit much to pay for an up-and-down team. I’ll stay away.
Projected Standings
Edge ahead of the Angels for the time being.
May not mean anything notes of the day
Chas McCormick leads the Astros in wRC+ in June with a 156 mark in 65 plate appearances.
J.P. France has 5 quality starts in 9 starts, including his last 4 (every start in June).
Jake Meyers is slashing .164/.292/.273 in June and outside of Cesar Salazar’s 4 plate appearances, has the lowest average exit velo on the team at 86.4 MPH.
I’m not here to defend Corey Julks’ OPS, it is what it is, but I will point out that walked 4 times in his first 139 plate appearances (2.9%), but since June 1 has walked 8 times in 76 plate appearances (10.5%) and now has a wRC+ of 104 and OPS+ of 89.
Thanks for reading!