Astros Stats

This is a new post I would like to introduce, where I take a look at the stat sheet for the Astros and post some interesting (at least for me) tidbits. If you guy like this, I will make it a weekly thing. These are not intended to be predictive or important, although sometimes they will be. Sometimes they will be positive, sometimes they will be negative. They are merely intended to be interesting.

1. After 18 plate appearances, two home runs and 14 strikeouts, Rick Ankiel's BABIP currently stands at .000. Home runs do not count as "in play," and his only other two non-k's were a line out and a fly out. Juan Uribe is right there with him, though only in 12 at bats. Uribe, however, has only struck out once and homered twice, meaning he really has hit into a lot of outs. As much as you can earn a 0 BABIP, Ankiel has done so.

2. Chris Carter has now struck out in 27 consecutive games dating back to last season. During that time, Carter has struck out 48 times. He is still over a week or so away from the position player record, set by Adam Dunn all the way back in 2012, with 36. The overall record was set by pitcher Bill Stoneman from 1973-1974 with 37. This is one to keep an eye on.

3. On a more positive note, Matt Dominguez's glove has been as good as advertised. He leads all third baseman in plays out of zone with 5, and is in the top ten for both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating.  Just by way of completely unfair comparison, Matt Dominguez's UZR/150 (UZR projected through 150 games) stands at 67.5, whereas Brett Wallace's stands at -83.8 after his one fairly disastrous start at the hot corner. Both unsustainable numbers, (with Wallace mainly because he would never get 150 games at 3B), but the result would be a 15 win difference based on fielding alone.

4.  Finally, after the outbursts in Seattle, the Astros are now roughly a league average offense, despite all the strikeouts. They have scored more runs than the Angels, Blue Jays and Rays. They are averaging more runs per game than the Rangers. At this point in the season, this is completely meaningless, but it is still very fun.