Astros Stats

Look guys, the reality is, when faced with a conflict between Bo Porter and the official rules of MLB, the umpires will side with Bo every time. I think Porter should convince the umpires that a strikeout is worth half a run. That would improve our prognosis considerably.

This will be a very Philip Humber heavy week in Astros Stats, and for that I am deeply sorry.

- If you are curious as to why Humber is struggling this year, I think I have the answer. He cannot get lefties out. Like, at all. For the season, lefties are hitting .459/.521/.729 against him, good for a .529 wOBA. Essentially, facing Humber, every lefty batter morphs into 1931 Babe Ruth or 1946 Ted Williams (both with .525, so actually a little bit better than those two seasons). Despite only 35 IP on the season, Humber has faced the 18th most lefties in the American League. Its almost as if other teams are aware of these splits, and are stacking the deck against him. That hardly seems fair, so I'm sure its just a coincidence.

- If you want some glimmer of hope for Humber in the bullpen, it will have to found against righties. He has limited them to a .183/.233/.333 line, good for a .248 wOBA. If the top lefty comp for Humber this season has been Babe Ruth, the top righty comp has been 2002 Neifi Perez, which, I think you'll agree, is much preferable. Sure enough, in his first relief stint,  Humber faced 6 batters, 5 righties, and got 3 K's, a fly out and a should have been ground out. It worth a shot to see whether Humber can be an effective reliever in right handed heavy spots.

- This is probably the least important stat I've ever posted, but I will still note it. Chris Carter did not strike out on Tuesday and Wednesday night. That marks the first time he has gone two starts without striking out since August 29 and September 1, 2012.(It was actually three games, as he did not strike out in his one pinch hit PA on August 30.) He hasn't struck out more than once in game in his last 6 (5 starts), tallying only 3 total k's during that run. He hasn't had a similar stretch since July 13 to July 25 2012, where he appeared in 9 games (8 starts), and struck out only 4 times. Lo and behold, all of sudden, Carter's K-rate is below 40% for the first time this season. He has hit .313/.353/.688 over this mini-stretch.