Alan Truex: Counting on Brent Strom to refine Astros’ pitching
Updated Thursday, March 28
HOUSTON — It must feel strange for the two-time champions of the American League West to begin the baseball season two wins down. But these are strange times, the sport of 20th-century virtues – persistence, patience, fortitude – searching for relevance in the instantly gratifying 21st century.
So the Houston Astros lost ground to the Seattle Mariners who last week opened the season in Japan. We’ll see how that goes for them. It didn’t go so well for the Arizona Diamondbacks after they opened 2014 in Australia. Players complained of jet lag and physical pains for weeks thereafter.
Not that the Mariners, rebuilding from stem to stern, will be difficult to catch. Oakland, the team they thumped twice in Tokyo, is more of a threat. So is that eternal ballclub of the future, the LA Angels.
The Astros have less pressure on them than any defending division champion I can think of. They don’t need to invest $20 million in Dallas Keuchel to return as No. 3 starter. They can try out the much less expensive Collin McHugh, Wade Miley, Brad Peacock and Framber Valdez.
Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole are glorious starters, and if the rest of the rotation wobbles, the Astros won’t need to correct it until the July 31 deadline, which really is a deadline – no more waiver blockbusters. By then, they may be ready to promote Forrest Whitley, 21, rated by many scouts as the No.1 pitching prospect in the minor leagues.
Whatever they lack in arms, the Astros’ lineup is so well stocked in bats and gloves that a division title seems all but certain.
The downside of the division’s non-compete policy is that complacency could creep into Houston. But manager A.J. Hinch was not just being self-serving when he said recently, “I don’t think anyone prepares better than we do.”
Indeed, what’s so adorable about the Astros is that they never stop trying to be better athletes and better teammates.
A year ago, they were anything but complacent following a World Series championship. Third baseman Alex Bregman showed up in camp speaking Spanish. “So I can communicate better with the rest of the infield,” he said, referring to Carlos Correa at shortstop, Jose Altuve at second base, Yuri Gurriel at first.
This spring Verlander has been beaming about a new-found changeup. The 6-5 righthander is one of the game’s greatest power pitchers – five times leading the AL in strikeouts. But at 36 he recognizes the need to adjust to inevitable decline of velocity. The Astros are so confident in Verlander’s durability that last week they signed him to a 3-year contract extension for $66 million.
This team is constantly tinkering with its pitching staff. Most of the arms they acquire improve under the guidance of Brent Strom, 70-year-old pitching guru who combines the wisdom of experience with the most modern of analytics.
Two years ago Strom elevated Charlie Morton’s performance, focusing on spin rates and movement of the various pitches through geometric planes.
Last year he put the polish onto Cole. Strom wanted high fastballs as well as low ones. The objective is to force batters to cover the entire strike zone. Strom worked with Cole to turn his knuckle curve into an out pitch. Cole had his best season ever (15-5, 2.88 ERA), and Baseball America named Strom Coach of the Year.
It will be interesting to see what Strom does for Miley, who put up a 2.57 ERA with Milwaukee for the second half of last season. Miley had his first big-league success at 32 when he developed a cutter. Look for Strom to expand the repertoire of a lefty who’s designated No. 4 in the rotation behind McHugh, who’s succeeded as both a starter and reliever.
The 5th starter is, for the time being, Peacock, who’s better as a reliever with his swift but limited repertoire.
The Astros wanted Valdez in the rotation after he flashed a 4-1 record late last season. But the 25-year-old stepped back this spring: last man on the 25-man roster.
Valdez throws a 95 mph fastball and a 92 mph sinker, but the persistent complaint is that “he doesn’t know how to pitch.”
He’s the team’s only lefthanded pitcher, so there’s a role for him in a bullpen that falls short of stalwart. It will miss the rally-deadening curveballs of McHugh and Lance McCullers, who’s out for the season with elbow reconstruction.
More troubling: The postseason exposed closer Roberto Osuna. He had a 7.70 ERA. But he’s been untouchable this spring. And on Thursday afternoon he closed out Verlander’s 9-strikeout 5-1 win at Tampa Bay with a perfect 9th inning.
Forgive me, but could we be seeing a perfect Strom?
Anyway, this is a team that will hit and catch better than it pitches.
General manager Jeff Luhnow made an under-the-radar upgrade in left field when he signed Michael Brantley, 31, for two years. He’s an above-average hitter, fielder and base-runner. In fact, Brantley, who bats left, was +3.6 last year in the all-defining Wins Above Replacement metric. Consider it an omen that he homered and singled Thursday in his first game as an Astro.
The Astros were much impaired in the 2018 postseason by injuries to four prominent batters — Bregman (elbow), Altuve (knee), George Springer (wrist) and Correa (back) — that required surgeries. All are healthy now, though there’s concern that Correa may never be the day-in day-out super shortstop they hoped he’d be.
ESPN’s Brian McTaggert, who’s covered the Astros for a couple of decades, observed a change this spring: “They’re running more and pushing the tempo – getting max leads and making the pitcher and catcher uncomfortable.”
The Astros in most of the Vegas books are rated about even with the Yankees and Red Sox at 6/1 to win the World Series. Houston’s payroll of $156 million is $50 mil less than theirs – and luxury-tax, which is as close as Major League Baseball gets to salary cap. So Luhnow and owner Jim Crane have room to maneuver without tripping on whatever bottom line they imagine they have.
As long as the A’s, Angels, Mariners and Texas Rangers hang around .500 or worse, as they usually do, the Astros can wait on any additional roster improvements.
