The 2016 Houston Astros just trolled everybody with a 7-17 month of April.
Buried in last place in the AL West at that time and 11.5 games back not too long ago.

Now they have a chance to enter the all-star break with some nice momentum. If they can play well in this upcoming four-game series against the Oakland Athletics at home, perhaps, they can enter the break with seven wins in a row and a decent 50-39 record.

The Astros are currently 6.5 games back of the Rangers for 1st place in the AL West right now.
Which isn't that bad considering they've gone 1-9 against the Texas Rangers this season.
There are still 9 games left between the Astros and Rangers this year. So you never know (Payback!).

But regardless, the two AL wild-card spots are up for grabs. The Astros have a good chance to claim one of those spots.

Jose Altuve is without a doubt the MVP of the American League for 2016 so far. Unbelievable numbers this year!

The second half of the season could be very exciting. I still feel the Astros have room for improvement.
They haven't even played anywhere close to their best baseball yet, but they're starting to show flashes.

Dallas Keuchel's cool pad: He's starting to turn his struggles around this year.



Richard Justice from MLB.com pointed it out a couple days ago.
The Astros' top two starters from last year are picking up the pace.

Richard Justice ‏@richardjustice Jul 5
Normalcy returns. Collin McHugh and Dallas Keuchel have 7 QS and combined 2.84 ERA in last 8 turns. @Astros 7-1 in those games.

Keuchel is now 6-9 with a 5.02 ERA: His last four games were all quality starts and a 3-0 record.
By the end of the season hopefully he has about 15 wins and an ERA in the low 4's.

I would still start Dallas Keuchel in Game 1 of any big playoff game if the Astros qualify for the 2016 postseason: Wild card game like last year, for example. I'm not sure if the Astros will make a trade to add another starting pitcher before the trading deadline in three weeks.

Ironically enough, Sonny Gray (3-8, 5.16 ERA), a Cy Young candidate like Dallas Keuchel last season, is also struggling this year. But Sonny Gray is a guy the Astros are scouting from the division-rival Athletics. If they acquired Gray, and Keuchel and Gray start to pitch like last year, it could be something fun to watch in the second half and maybe even playoffs.

I hope the Astros don't trade Alex Bregman, last year's #2 overall pick (shortstop from LSU), who's been on the fast track to the big leagues already. He was recently promoted to Triple-A Fresno and is already mashing there and playing elite defense. Soon the Astros will have to decide who to move to third base (Correa or Bregman).

But for now Luis Valbuena is playing a steady third base.

Also rookie first base slugger A.J. Reed has two home runs but is struggling.
Hopefully he'll pick it up soon: 4 hits in his 28 Major League career at-bats.
He has only played in 9 games. No reason to write the kid off just yet. Hitting .143

But this all goes back to potential and talent level. The Astros have the talent. Just a matter of putting it together.

What's scary is the Astros minor league system is still pretty loaded. And this is with all the mistakes we've made like not drafting Kris Bryant #1 overall instead of Mark Appel in 2013. And not being able to sign Brady Aiken #1 overall in the 2014 draft. Not to mention the numerous prospects we traded last year for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. And also the big trade package we gave the Phillies in the Ken Giles trade last off-season. The Astros dealt numerous prospects away in those two deals. Along with their only good catcher prospect in the Scott Kazmir trade.

You would think the Astros minor leagues would be depleted but they had a strong 2015 draft class (two top 5 picks, high picks in every round). And their 2016 draft class is looking pretty promising. They are still in a pretty good spot for the future.

If the Astros want to pull the trigger on any interesting trade at the end of this month they certainly can do so. Although I don't think they can trade any players from this year's 2016 draft class.

But they can now trade players from that awesome 2015 draft class. Which quite a few of them are making some noise in the minor leagues for the Astros. Headlined by Alex Bregman, who every scout is likely drooling over right now.

Great read on Alex Bregman here: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2016/07/05/alex-bregmans-call-up-should-be-looming/

Bregman is making a case to be a September call up for the Astros this year when the rosters expand.
When he was drafted #2 overall last year, I was thinking he'd be ready in three years at the earliest.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Jul 7 2016 03:29am

Keuchel is still the Rangers bitch.

Dallas Keuchel is going to likely face the Rangers twice in the second half of the season.
Those games will be more important. Unless they meet in the ALDS or ALCS later on.

Damn yo I thought they were about to blow that game last night and cost me 160$ lol

Tonight's Astros versus Athletics game will be our toughest of the series.
Rich Hill is 8-3 with a 2.31 ERA. Although the Astros did beat him 2-1 back in May.

I wonder if Rich Hill is the guy teams want to trade for? He's injury prone (missed all of June) and isn't an innings eater.
I'd still rather have Sonny Gray from Oakland: That kid can pitch. He's just having a down year like Dallas Keuchel.

I was looking at Sonny Gray's game-by-game stats. He's had three terrible outings (7 earned, 5 earned, 7 earned runs).
But then I see a lot of quality starts sprinkled around that. Those bad starts will inflate your ERA quite a bit.

Sonny Gray and Jay Bruce are two names that Astros scouts have been looking at recently while preparing for the trade deadline.

Astros are 31-11 over their last 42 games: I wish they hadn't let that game against Chris Sale and the White Sox slip away a couple series ago (coughed up a three-run lead), but they've been on a nice little roll overall. You can overlook a couple of hiccups every so often. This isn't like April and May when they were losing game after game. Nothing went right.

Altuve is having a monumental season to say the least. With the exception of Jeff Bagwell's 1994 MVP season during the strike-shortened year, I would rank Jose Altuve's 2016 season as the second best season all-time for an Astros player.

Springer, Correa, Gomez and Rasmus are all raking together. The bullpen is reliable again. Will Harris is an all-star and Keuchel and McHugh are pitching good again. While Doug Fister has been this team's best starting pitcher all year long.

Hopefully they sweep this four-game series with Oakland and enter the all-star break with seven wins in a row and a 50-39 record. That should put us in the first wild-card spot in the AL and hopefully 4.5 or 5.5 behind the Rangers.

I'm not expecting the Twins to do much against the Rangers in their four-game series starting tonight.
It's tough to gain ground in the division because the Rangers are so good. But it's motivation for the wild-card also.

The Astros look like a fun team to watch again. Even when they lose it's a nailbiter.

Altuvegod is carrying my keeper team. Wtf is up w Dallas cuccahole doe

The Athletics are playing the Astros very tough in this four-game series.
We're very lucky not to be down 0-2. Valbuena saved our season last night.

Leading 7-4 in the top of the 9th. Oakland put up a 5-spot to take a 9-7 lead.
But Luis Valbuena crushed a three-run, walk-off shot to right field to win the game 10-9 in the bottom half.



That win kept the Astros just a game behind the Blue Jays and Red Sox for the two AL wild-card spots.

Lance McCullers is pitching today and Dallas Keuchel is pitching tomorrow.
The Astros have to try and settle for three out of four but Oakland isn't making it easy.

Luckily the Twins beat the Rangers a few nights ago so we stayed 6.5 out in the division.

It's hard to gain ground on the Blue Jays and Red Sox lately.
But that AL East will beat up on each other in the second half.
The Orioles, Blue Jays and Red Sox, I assume, still play each other a lot more times. Somebody will lose.

I just want to reach the all-star break already. Re-focus on a good second half of the season.
The Astros have done "just enough" to remain in the playoff race going into the all-star break.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Jul 9 2016 12:41pm

Time to focus on a great second half of the season. It all starts tomorrow night.

The Astros are 5.5 games back of the Rangers for 1st place in the AL West.
2 games out of both the first and second wild-card spots in the AL. It's a dicey position right now.

It's hard to call the Astros "true contenders" when they just split a four-game series with a bad Oakland team.
What should have been an easy four-game sweep against a last place team turned into a really tough series.

I shouldn't let one bad series against the Oakland Athletics get me down but that was tough to watch.
We had to scratch and claw just to pull out those two wins. Oakland nearly swept all four games.

They were playing some good ball prior to that though. Are we buyers? Probably but I doubt Jeff Luhnow will be aggressive. I would like to see Alex Bregman called up for tomorrow night's game at Seattle even though it's not going to happen. Maybe by the end of this month he'll be called up.

I'd love to see the Astros catch the Rangers but 1-9 against them in 10 games so far this year.
We still have 9 games left against the Rangers to turn things around but they own us for some reason.

I think one of those two wild-card spots in the AL is going to be our only chance to make the playoffs again.

It will be interesting to see what trades, if any, the Astros are able to make before the non-waiver trading deadline in a few weeks. The Astros have several appealing prospects they can trade without having to give up their best prospect, Alex Bregman.

I'm hoping they can add another impact starting pitcher or a middle-of-the-lineup power hitter. They have been scouting the likes of Rich Hill (who just owned them recently and is 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA), Sonny Gray and Ryan Braun in recent weeks.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Jul 14 2016 07:16am