Houston Astros’ batters looking to rebound - MLB Feature
Houston Astros had a forgettable 2012. They were, for a second year in a row, bottom of the table team in all of Major League Baseball. In both 2011 and 2012, the team ended up with 106 loses each.
Now Jim Crane, the owner of the Houston Astros is confident to turn it around. Some steps have already been taken in the direction to make positive changes in the team. A new manager in Bo Porter has been hired, a shakeup in the coaching staff has just been
completed and their 40 man roster currently is sitting at 31, with plenty of space to get some good names on board.
In order to understand what went wrong, there has to be a detailed examination of the team’s performance. It has to be pointed out that in which areas the team lacked and needs to improve. If we take a look at the batting statistics, we can see a lot of
problems right there. The team lacked consistency and appeared to have no one really leading the batting unit.
The team was 30th in runs scored, 29th in overall batting average, 28th in on-base percentage and 29th in slugging percentage during 2012. These numbers explain why the team ended up at the bottom. All of these
statistics are more or less the worst in the National League. Even Chicago Cubs, the only other team in the MLB to lose over a 100 games in 2012 had fairly better numbers then the Astros.
Jose Altuve appears to be the lone ranger in the batting unit for the club. The second baseman managed a batting average of .290 with seven home-runs and 37 RBI’s in 147 games. Jose featured in more games than any other batter for the club. The only other
player to feature in more than 140 games was Brian Bogusevic. The left-hander had an unimpressive average of .203 which is well below his career average. Altuve is one of the two Houston batters to feature in top 40 National League hitters and the only in
the top 40 Major League Baseball hitters in 2012 season.
Chris Johnson was the only other batter apart from Jose who had an average of over .250 in 2012 season with more than 300 at-bats with an average of .279. Johnson was traded during the season to the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he has performed rather well.
He is the other Houston batter to be a part of the top 40 NL batters, tough he spent a part of his season with the D-backs.
It is also a telling statistic that Jose Altuve was the only player in the Astros’ batting line-up to have over a 100 hits with 167. J.D. Martinez and Chris Johnson were joint second with 95 hits each. Martinez had 395 at-bats, second to Altuve’s 576. On
the other hand, Pittsburgh Pirates, who did not have the best season either with 83 defeats, had a far more consistent and settled batting unit. Four of their batters played over 140 games and five of them had over 450 at-bats.
The Astros will have to find form with the bat if they are to achieve any meaningful results in the upcoming season. A free-agent such as Nick Swisher can be useful, as he will bring experience with him and will be able to guide the young batting unit in
tough conditions. If this batting line-up misfires on the lines of 2012 season, even the best pitching and fielding unit will not be able to win games for the team. This is something that Crane will be looking to address and do so in a hurry.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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