Regarding the Astros’ Offense
The Astros’ offense has been bad. Really bad. That doesn’t mean they’ll continue to be this bad (and they shouldn’t be, with Lance Berkman coming back to replace someone who most certainly is not Lance Berkman), but still, have you realized how bad they’ve been?
If, for whatever reason, Houston were to continue this pace, they would be expected to score about 300 runs. Since 1980, two teams have scored fewer than 350 runs during a season, but both occurred in 1981 (the Jays and the Mets), which was a strike shortened season. The worst offense since 1990 scored 466 runs. The Astros can add an entire run to their per game average and still fall shy of topping that team, which happened to be the 1994 Pirates, who, as you probably aware, had the whole ‘league on strike’ thing to deal with.
Add a run and a half to the Astros’ per game average and they score 544 runs. That total would make them the worst offense of the 2000s, with the 2003 Dodgers, 2002 Tigers, and 2003 Tigers representing the only other teams to score fewer than 600 runs.
This is supposed to be about the Astros and inappropriately using prorating techniques to make something out of nothing, but I cannot mention the 2003 Dodgers without talking about them a little more. They won 85 games despite barely crossing the plate more times than a gluttonous atheist. How unusual is the Dodgers’ feat? Here are the win totals of the next nine lowest scoring teams of the 2000s:
2002 Tigers 55
2003 Tigers 43
2004 Diamondbacks 51
2002 Brewers 56
2004 Brewers 67
2004 Expos 67
2008 Padres 63
2005 Nationals 81
2008 Giants 72
2002 Pirates 72
Only the 2001 Mets, 2005 Padres, 2005 Twins, and 2005 Astros scored fewer than 700 – not 600 – runs and finished above .500. The 2009 Astros won’t be joining those teams, but at least Berkman is due back soon.
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You don’t mention it so I’m not sure if it was an oversight or implied, but 1981 was also a strike year.
good to know, because I was baffled
I resent that remark on behalf of all gluttonous atheists out there.
It’s an awful offense (especially without Berkman), but let’s not forget that they were trying to hit against Lincecum, Halladay, Wainwright, Cain, Happ, Zito, and Moyer in order of the skill of the pitcher. The only one of those pitchers who was below average last year was Moyer.
That’s a rough start to the season for any group of hitters.
Oh come on, Halladay is better than Lincecum ;-)
I could go either way. Should be one of the most interesting storylines this season, seeing which of the two performs better.
Yeesh. Alcohol sales are going to be off the charts in Houston this summer.
Presumably, though, not at the ballpark, as no one will want to the games just to get drunk on 7 dollar beer.
Actually they’ll probably be down. After all the 7th inning comes quickly if you go down in order every inning.
Houston’s basically a football town. By July, everyone will be looking forward to the UT, A&M, or even Houston Texans’ season and will have forgotten all about the Astros.
Don’t say these things about the Astros offense, my new neighbor’s brother is in it. Of course, he projects to be an Adam Everett clone, and I have nothing else positive to say about it. So, well, this is going to be ugly. And the news about Berkman seems to get worse and worse by the day.
I guess you’re talking about Manzella?
He’s actually hitting better than Carlos Lee right now… Yuck.
Yeah, and he hasn’t been bad, more or less. However, that isn’t going to help, his upside offensively isn’t exactly high, sort of a good Jack Wilson year. But he can pick it.
That ’05 Nationals team was severely underrated.
what in the world does that atheist reference mean????????
dont count em out after 7 games…theres still many to come. hunter pence carlos lee and even kaz matsui can go on a hitting streak every once in awhile. i know for a fact hunter and lee will get going and with berkman coming back it changes the whole team. blum goes to the bench which he is a very good person to come off the bench in a pinch hit situation and the astros will begin to produce runs in that situation. they have just faced very good pitching but they will be back. the astros went 0-9 to begin the season in 1985 and ended up winning 85 games. then when they made the world series they had two 0-6 streaks and one 0-7. they were 15-30 and came back to get to the world series. i dont think offense is what we should worry about…i think we should worry about pitching….
I don’t think the prospects for the Astros look so rosy. The more I hear about Berkman, the worse it sounds; Will Carroll’s recent report on BP was not encouraging. There is still no set timetable for his return and pretty much any activity still causes knee swelling. Now Wandy’s shoulder is sore. If those two miss significantly more time, things could get very ugly. If both are healthy, the Astros won’t be good, but they won’t be horrible.
Let’s not forget the 2009 Mariners scored just 640 runs and won 85 games…
Big time fail on the “crossing the plate” metaphor
Almost 24 hours after first reading it, and I just now got it. Yeah, it wasn’t a big success.
A truly horrible offense if I ever saw one.