The 30 Team/30 Day Report Cards: Day 9- Houston Astros

We're staying in the National League Central today, as we are heading south from Chicago to the Lone Star State. Today's report card will be issued to the Houston Astros!

Houston Astros

Record: 76-86 (Fourth place in NL Central, 15 games behind Cincinnati)

Batting Leaders

Batting Average: Jeff Keppinger (.288)

Home Runs: Hunter Pence (25)

RBIs: Hunter Pence (91)

On-base Percentage: Jeff Keppinger (.351)

Pitching Leaders

Wins: Brett Myers (14)

Strikeouts: Brett Myers (180)

Innings Pitched: Brett Myers (223.2)

ERA: Brett Myers (3.14). Bullpen- Wilton Lopez (2.96)

WHIP: Roy Oswalt (1.11). Bullpen- Wilton Lopez (1.06)

Saves: Matt Lindstrom (23)

Highlight of the Season: On August 3, the Astros blasted the Cardinals in St. Louis by a score of 18-4. Shortstop Angel Sanchez did most of the damage at the plate for Houston, going 4-6 with six RBIs.

Lowlight of the Season: On July 29, the Astros traded long-time staff ace and fan favorite Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies for Anthony Gose, Jonathan Villar and J.A. Happ. In Oswalt’s ten seasons with Houston, he would record a 143-82 record with a 3.24 ERA, including back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately, Oswalt would fall just one win short of tying Joe Niekro for the franchise record in wins with 144. Also worthy of mentioning is the departure of Lance Berkman, another long-time fan favorite, to the New York Yankees in a trade on July 31.

The Lowdown:

The Astros, who entered the season with a hefty $92 million payroll, featured a largely mediocre cast once again. However, the road the Astros traveled to reach mediocrity in 2010 was a wild one, to say the least. The team battled back from a horrible first two months to reach that status, beginning the season at 17-34, before recording a 59-52 mark the rest of the way. The Astros’ turnaround was surprisingly fostered by their pitching, as the team featured some solid performances from their starting rotation and bullpen. The performance of their pitching staff easily made up for their lackluster, punch-less offense, which is very uncharacteristic for this team, considering they play in one of the more hitter-friendly parks in baseball.

The 2010 season would also mark a significant changing of the guard with the team, as two long-time cornerstones would be traded before the deadline to get rid their hefty contracts. Long-time staff ace Roy Oswalt would be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies on July 29, while long-time outfielder and first baseman Lance Berkman would be traded to the New York Yankees just two days later. These two represented the last vestiges of the Astros from their glory years of 2001-2005, that saw the team win one division title, two Wild Card championships and a National League Pennant in 2005. With their departure, the Astros are becoming a considerably younger team, ready to move forward in the coming years.

Offense:

The usually potent Astros offense was anything but that in 2010, finishing in the bottom five of ML B in runs (28^th), batting average (26^th), on-base percentage (29^th), slugging (29^th) and home runs (29^th). While you would expect the Astros to put up relatively decent power statistics playing half of their games in the homer-friendly Minute Maid Park, their lineup consisted mostly of aging, over-the-hill veterans along with hitters who just are not all that great. The star of Houston’s offense in 2010 was the 27-year-old right fielder Hunter Pence, who put up virtually identical numbers as last year. Pence hit exactly .282 with 25 home runs for the second year in a row, while driving in 19 more runners this year with 91 RBIs. Even though the Texas native’s on-base percentage was only .325, Pence looks to become the centerpiece of this offense for the next several seasons, especially as Carlos Lee’s numbers gradually decline.

Houston also featured a dash of speed at the top of their order in Michael Bourn. Even though the 27-year-old Houston native saw his hitting number s decline a bit this year, he still stole 52 bases, tops in the National League. Unfortunately, the rest of the lineup besides the aforementioned two were not tops in anything, as the Astros featured underachieving stars such as Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman. “El Caballo” saw his power totals dip for a third consecutive season, as he hit just .246 with 24 home runs and 89 RBIs. This is very concerning for the Astros, considering that the team paid him $19 million in 2010, which makes it very unlikely that the team can trade him.

However, they were able to part ways with long-time fan favorite Lance Berkman, as they traded him to the Yankees at the deadline. The Astros were very fortunate to be able to move him and his $14.5 million contract, because for all of the good that Berkman has done for the franchise over the years, he wasn’t doing the team much good in 2010. In 85 games with the club, Berkman hit only .245, with 13 home runs and 49 driven in, a far cry from his prodigious totals from as recently as 2006.

Overall, the lineup Houston trotted out to the field was very sub-par more often than not. Even a homer-friendly yard like Minute Maid Park could not save this lackluster offense.

Final Grade: D

Pitching:

Believe it or not, much of Houston’s strength resided in their pitching rotation. The Astros featured a front two in their rotation that many teams would still like to have, as Brett Myers and Wandy Rodriguez anchored the rotation. While their peripheral numbers do not jump out at you, their reliability does, as Myers threw 223.2 innings this year, and Rodriguez fell just shy of 200 innings at 195. Myers was slightly better than Rodriguez in the rotation this year, going 14-8, with a 3.14 ERA and 180 strikeouts, while Rodriguez was 11-12 with a 3.60 ERA and 178 strikeouts.

A solid number three starter was quickly added to the rotation once the deadline hit, as lefty J.A. Happ came over from the Phillies in the Roy Oswalt trade. The 28-year-old still put up decent numbers in his second full big-league season, recording a 3.75 ERA in 72 innings pitched with the team. Even though Happ will likely never duplicate the outstanding numbers that Oswalt put up in an Astros uniform, he will definitely be a great addition to their rotation, as he should be able to improve.

Houston’s bullpen unfortunately could not duplicate the relative success of the starting rotation, as they finished with a 4.49 ERA, 27^th in MLB. The team sorely misses Jose Valverde providing a stable option at the end of ballgames, as they went with two closers this season, Matt Lindstrom and Brandon Lyon. While Lyon was serviceable as a closer, recording 20 saves and an ERA of 3.12 in 79 appearances, Lindstrom left something to be desired closing games, recording a 4.39 ERA in 58 appearances. Righty Wilton Lopez did a great job in the set-up role for Houston, recording 14 holds, with a 1.06 WHIP and a 2.96 ERA in 68 games.

When compared to the rest of baseball, Houston’s pitching staff falls in the middle of the road, finishing 17^th in ERA (4.09), 23^rd in WHIP (1.39) and 20^th in “batting average against” (.261). However, they do deserve some credit for keeping the ball in the ballpark, finishing 21^st in home runs allowed with 140.

Final Grade: C

Wild Card: Quality Starts

Surprisingly enough, the Astros tied for third in baseball in quality starts with 95, as they were knotted up with the Rays and Giants in this category, two postseason teams. If there’s something the Astros can build on in the future, it’s their pitching.

Final Grade: A

Overall:

Houston wasn’t a very good team this year, but you can see how improving the minor leagues can return this team back to prominence. For years, they have featured one of the worst farm systems in the game, largely because of the negligence brought on by owner Drayton McLane and his “win-now” philosophy. Houston would exert all of their time and energy into improving the major-league team, mostly at the expense of the minor league system, which was simply ignored. Now that players like Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are all gone, the team is discovering how important it is to have some capable hands ready to be called up to replace these players. When you are unable to lure free agents to your team anymore, it’s time to find a different organizational model.

Final Grade: D+

Check back soon for the report card on the Milwaukee Brewers!