And so with the conclusion of the first month of the season, we can hand out our Employee of the Month awards. Award recipients get the CEO's parking spot and 10% off in the Astros County Team Store.
Hitter of the Month: What do you possibly want here? A decent batting average? That would be Jose Altuve, who at .276 was the only player in the starting lineup last night with an average over .242. A better OPS? That would be Jason Castro, leading the team with a .757 OPS but a .220 average.
Screw it, congrats Jason Castro.
Pitcher of the Month: Do you go with the guy who has blown you away twice, or the guy who has performed really well over the course of the entire month? Because our choice is between Collin McHugh and Dallas Keuchel. McHugh has been ALMOST LITERALLY UNBELIEVABLE for two starts (next start: Sunday). Keuchel looks as though he's putting together one of those seasons where he'll have a sub-4.00 ERA and lose 13 games.
Let's give the monthly award to Dallas Keuchel, who made five starts - four of them Quality Starts - struck out 30 batters in 30.1IP and has a 3.75 K:BB ratio.
Minor League Employees of the Month coming up later today.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
