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To say the Houston Astros have been bad since arriving in the American League West is an understatement of Texas-sized proportions.

In 2012, the year the Astros ditched the senior circuit, they lost 111 games. It was their third consecutive 100-loss season. 

Last year, Houston finished 70-92, enough to avoid the cellar but still 28 games off the pace.

Almost a month into the 2015 campaign, these Astros are suddenly looking like contenders.

Sure, it’s early. Baseball history is littered with scalding Aprils that evaporated in the heat of summer. But the standings don’t lie: After defeating the San Diego Padres 9-4 Monday night, Houston sits at 12-7, three games ahead of the defending division champion Los Angeles Angels.

Really, it’s not so shocking. The Astros are laden with young talent, a team on the rise. But many, myself included, didn’t think they’d rise so far so fast.

While there’s ample time to crash back to Earth, there are reasons to believe these ‘Stros are for real.

Let’s start with the pitching staff, which sported a 3.18 ERA entering play Monday, second-best in the AL.

The rotation is anchored by Dallas Keuchel, who is looking to build on a breakout 2014 season that saw him post a 2.93 ERA in 200 innings and toss an American League-leading five complete games.

Through four starts, the 27-year-old southpaw owns a 0.62 ERA and 0.828 WHIP. 

In his most recent outing on April 24 against the Oakland A’s, Keuchel twirled nine shutout innings but got a no-decision, with Houston ultimately prevailing 5-4 in the eleventh. After the game, Keuchel was still stewing on the two free passes he surrendered. 

“It was just real spotty command,” he said, per MLB.com‘s Alex Espinoza.

So spotty command equals nine scoreless frames? Sleep tight, opposing batters. 

Speaking of batters, reigning AL batting champ Jose Altuve has picked up where he left off. Entering play Tuesday, the All-Star second baseman was hitting .325 with seven stolen bases.

Then there are the unexpected contributions that fuel every surprise run. Like, say, center fielder Jake Marisnick, a former third-round pick acquired from the Miami Marlins last July. 

Entering play Tuesday, Marisnick sported a robust .990 OPS and was leading the team with a .362 batting average.

“Just coming up here and starting to be consistent every day, I think it’ll start to show up more and more,” the 24-year-old told Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. 

Other Astros are still waiting to launch. Outfielder and 2011 first-round pick George Springer, who blasted 20 home runs in 78 games last year, is hitting .183 with 28 strikeouts in 71 at-bats. Overall, Houston is hitting .229 as a team.

The point is, there are already noticeable chinks in the armor. Pleasantly surprising as they’ve been, the Astros have flaws. On the other hand, who doesn’t?

No other squad in the AL West presently sits above .500. And from the underperforming Angels and Seattle Mariners to the perpetually reshuffling A’s to the injury-bitten Texas Rangers, everyone’s got question marks.

Does that make Houston the new favorites? Not yet. This hot start, though, has accelerated the Astros’ relevancy timeline and nudged them from pretender to contender.

Here’s an interesting note from ESPN.com‘s Buster Olney:

Two hundred sixty-three hitters had at least 300 plate appearances in 2014, and five of the hitters who appear poised to start in Houston’s lineup finished in the top 19 in the majors for highest strikeout percentage… The Astros will be the latest team to test the theory that all outs are created equal, and it really doesn’t matter whether you slap a ground ball to second base or strike out.

It’s a boom-or-bust offense, in other words, destined to either wow you or leave you sorely disappointed. There will be highs, there will be lows.

But to say this squad is intriguing is an understatement of Texas-sized proportions.

All statistics current as of April 27 and courtesy of MLB.com.

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Outfielder Josh Hamilton held a press conference Monday to discuss being traded from the Los Angeles Angels to the Texas Rangers, his drug and alcohol relapse and his future with the Rangers and beyond baseball.     

Hamilton played for the Rangers from 2008 to 2012 and seemed excited about his return to the Lone Star State, per Fox Sports: MLB:

Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com passed along some quotes from Hamilton indicating that he will be more comfortable back with Texas than he was as a member of the Angels, while Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that Hamilton expects a warmer welcome from Rangers fans than those in Los Angeles:

Hamilton’s time in Los Angeles did not go according to plan, as he struggled both on and off the field. He only played in 89 games in the 2014 season and hit .263 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI. Off-field concerns also contributed to the Angels’ decision to trade him. He relapsed in his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction during the past offseason. 

Angels owner Arte Moreno suggested in early April that certain language in Hamilton’s contract protected the team in the face of a relapse. Hamilton responded to that claim at his press conference, per Wilson and Gonzalez:

Ideally, Hamilton’s attention will now turn back to the field with the Rangers. Hamilton was a five-time All-Star in Texas, winning the 2010 American League MVP. He also helped the team reach back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011. 

Gonzalez passed along Hamilton’s encouraging words for Rangers fans:

T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com noted that Hamilton is on the disabled list while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, and he is expected to go to Arizona for a rehab program at the Rangers’ spring training facility. From there, he will likely go on a minor league rehab assignment for several games before realistically reaching the major league level.

Texas could certainly use him, considering the team is dead last in the majors in team batting average entering play Monday. 

There is also life after baseball to take into account with Hamilton, which he addressed during the press conference, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times and Gonzalez:

There are plenty of people who hope Hamilton is fine after baseball is over.

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The Oakland Athletics have had a surprisingly strong start at the plate this season, but they will be without one of their top offensive contributors in Ben Zobrist after it was revealed he will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Continue for updates.

Zobrist Placed on 15-Day DL with Knee Injury

Saturday, April 25

According to the Athletics’ official Twitter account, the 33-year-old utility man has been placed on the 15-day disabled list:

Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today noted that Zobrist has a tear in his left meniscus.

Joe Stiglich of Comcast SportsNet California confirmed Zobrist will have surgery though the date is still to be determined. Stiglich noted the recovery time is roughly four to six weeks.

John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group provided a comment from Zobrist: “hoping I’ll be back June 1 and will have four months to help this team the way I can.”

Although he will be out of action, it appears as though he avoided serious damage to his knee, per Lee:

Zobrist’s versatility and experience have served the A’s well early in the 2015 campaign. This marks Zobrist’s first season in Oakland after spending the initial nine years of his MLB career with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The two-time MLB All-Star is currently hitting .240 with one home run, eight RBI and eight runs, and he has already played three different positions.

Replacing a player of his ilk is no easy task, but look for do-everything backup Eric Sogard to take many of Zobrist’s at-bats during his absence.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Hisashi Iwakuma was one of the Seattle Mariners‘ better starting pitchers in 2013 and 2014. The 34-year-old has gotten off to a rocky start in 2015, though, and now he’s headed to the disabled list.

Continue for updates.

Iwakuma Diagnosed With Grade 1 Lat Strain, Expected to Miss 2-4 Weeks

Saturday, April 25

The Mariners announced that Iwakuma is expected to miss two-to-four weeks with a grade one strain of his right lat.

On Friday, The Mariners announced that Iwakuma will go on the 15-day DL. Seattle called up Lucas Luetge from the Tacoma Rainiers to replace him.

Through three starts this year, Iwakuma is 0-1 with a 6.61 earned run average. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times noted that Iwakuma’s velocity has been down a bit, which might help explain his early struggles. Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon doesn’t buy into that theory.

“I’m not overly concerned with velocity,” McClendon said. “I’m more concerned with command than velocity right now. He’s leaving too many balls in the middle of the plate and working behind on too many hitters. And that’s what we have to get straightened out. The velocity will come.”

Once Iwakuma returns to full health, he might retain the command that helped make him so effective in the past.

Seattle will certainly have a big hole in its starting rotation with him out.

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In light of Nelson Cruz not only having led Major League Baseball with 40 home runs in 2014 but also having gotten off to a fast start in which he’s already mashed a league-leading eight more this season, could the Seattle Mariners slugger dare to go where so few have gone in recent years?

Could Cruz, who many expected would drop off in the power department now that he has to hit at pitcher friendly Safeco Field half the time, reach 50 homers?

Let’s start with this: With eight home runs in the first 15 games entering play Friday, the 34-year-old Cruz is on pace for—get this—86 long balls. Obviously, we know that’s not happening, but it at least provides some context (albeit of the rather ridiculous variety).

Keeping with the context idea, there’s also the simple fact that, as pitching has taken over baseball and power has declined across the game recently, hitting 50 home runs in a season has proved to be both extremely difficult and incredibly rare. How much so?

Well, in MLB history—that is, going back to 1901—there have been 43 50-homer campaigns. Or about one every two-and-a-half years.

Even more context? The big five-oh has been achieved by only 27 different players. So, yes, extremely difficult and incredibly rare.

If we limit the sample to the past decade (2005-14), however, then it’s happened seven times with no repeat performers. In other words, about once every one-and-a-half years.

That at least bodes slightly better for Cruz—or any other power hitter—that 2015 could bring another 50, particularly since Chris Davis was the last to get there with 53 in 2013.

Of course, that no hitter broke the barrier last year has exactly zero impact on improving Cruz’s chances in 2015. It’s not as if the “we’re due” argument applies here.

Remember, Cruz’s career high came in 2014—and even then, he was 10 homers away. And that was when he brought his boomstick to Camden Yards, a notorious launching pad, as a Baltimore Oriole.

Prior to that, Cruz spent eight seasons enjoying the warm weather and homer-happy park in Arlington, where the Texas Rangers play, and he reached 30 homers but once, with 33 in 2009.

This is the first season of Cruz’s decade-long career that he isn’t calling a hitter’s park home. That’s going to make things a lot tougher.

Plus, Safeco Field is not only one of the hardest parks to hit ’em out of, it’s particularly deadly for right-handed hitters, like Cruz.

According to StatCorner—a site that pulls three-year park factor splits for various outcomes, including home runs—Safeco sports a righty home run park factor of 87 (league average is 100). Translation? It’s about 13 percent harder for right-handed swingers to reach the seats at Safeco Field.

That jibes with the revelation that the most balls ever hit over Safeco’s walls by a right-hander since the park opened full time in 2000 is…21, by Richie Sexson in 2005.

What’s more, no other hitter—lefty or righty—has managed even 20 at Safeco in a single season. The most by a righty since ’05? Sexson’s 17 and Adrian Beltre’s 16, both in 2006.

Put a different way, if Cruz is going to have a shot at 50, he’s likely going to have to smash at least 30-32 on the road. Again, we remind you: He has hit more than 30 in a season, total, just twice. 

Another pertinent factor here is how Cruz has fared in his career at Safeco, where he played often while with the AL West-rival Rangers.

Here are Cruz’s stats at Safeco for his career before this season: .234/.309/.440 with nine home runs in 204 plate appearances across 52 games.

And here are his numbers there so far in 2015: .289/.289/.474 with just two of his eight homers in 38 plate appearances over nine games.

Neither of those stat lines—nor any of the other aspects covered above—inspires much, if any, confidence that Cruz can approach 50 homers this year, much less last season’s 40.

Even with an impressive eight-homer head start.

Statistics are accurate through Thursday, April 23, and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11.  

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When an opponent hits a home run, sometimes the fan who catches the ball will throw it back onto the field. 

It looks like this young fan had no idea what was happening and just wanted to throw a baseball.

During Monday’s game between the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros, the ball girl gave a young Seattle fan a foul ball off a Robinson Cano hit. The youngster immediately tossed the ball back onto the field.

You can see the people he’s with react in awe and shock.

The ball girl gave him another chance, and this time, he kept it. 

[MLB]

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The Houston Astros weren’t the favorites to win the AL West for this year’s MLB season. However, with the acquisition of Evan Gattis and Colby Rasmus during the offseason, Grantland.com projected that the lineup would generate a little more pop than in 2014.

Gattis, who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves in return for three Astros prospects, hit 20-plus homers for the Braves in each of his last two seasons. Match that with a healthy star outfielder, George Springer, who belted 20 homers last season during his rookie campaign for Houston, and Chris Carter, who was tied with Giancarlo Stanton for second in the league in home runs in 2014—that’s a formidable lineup. 

But that hasn’t been the case for this season’s squad. The Astros are ranked 30th in batting average with a .202 mark, and their three star players in Carter, Springer and Gattis have a combined BA of .126. Carter alone is hitting an abysmal .071 in 42 at-bats with zero long balls.

Though it is still early and the Astros’ 7-6 record puts them at the top of the AL West, their offense relies heavily on those three bats to be their run producers. They will have to get going at some point in order for the team to remain respectable within its division. As Eric Huysman of FanSided wrote on April 17: 

While the Astros are 4-5 this season, it is not because of the bats of George Springer, Evan Gattis, or Chris Carter. They all have a strikeout percentage of over 40% in the early going. If the Astros are staying close to .500 with the with the heart of the order striking out a little less than half the time what will happen when they start hitting?

The Astros’ pitching staff, mainly their bullpen, was subpar last season. According to Bless You Boys’ Rob Rogacki, “The Astros’ bullpen had the highest ERA in baseball for the second consecutive year in 2014, allowing a 4.80 ERA in 468 2/3 innings. This was a stark improvement over the disaster that was 2013, however, as the Astros allowed a semi-respectable 4.11 FIP and threw 65 fewer innings in ’14.” 

But this year, the starting pitching staff and bullpen have hidden the struggles of the Astros offense by sporting a 2.81 ERA, third best in the AL and fifth best overall in MLB.

Moving forward, the Houston Astros aren’t too far off from being a respectable force within the American League. With Jose Altuve as their most consistent hitter, they will need Springer, Gattis and Carter, especially, to take their offense to another level. 

The Astros have a chance to make some noise, but it will have to come with the bat.

Statistics from ESPN.com

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Outfielder Josh Hamilton‘s future with the Los Angeles Angels is very much in question, but the two sides are in talks to reach some type of resolution.

Continue for updates.

Trade, Buyout Potentially on the Table

Saturday, April 18

Despite having yet to play a game in 2015, Hamilton has dominated headlines since it was revealed that he had a substance-abuse relapse during the offseason. Shortly around that time, Hamilton also filed for divorce from his wife, Katie, according to Naheed Rajwani of The Dallas Morning News. 

The 33-year-old slugger was not disciplined by Major League Baseball, but he is out as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury. Even when Hamilton is ready to play, though, the Angels may not welcome him back.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Los Angeles is looking into trading him:

That could be difficult due to Hamilton’s bloated contract, which is why buying him out is also a potential option, albeit a somewhat unlikely one:

Hamilton’s play dropped off last year, as he hit just .263 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI while missing nearly half the season, but the biggest concern may relate to his off-field issues.

With that said, Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson is confident Hamilton has moved past the relapse, per ESPN.com.

“I feel like he’s in a good place and he’s doing the right things,” Wilson said. “He’s going through the counseling stuff that’s good for him. I feel like he’s ready to go in that regard.”

There is no question that Hamilton’s lefty bat is a huge addition to the Angels lineup when he is healthy and playing up to his potential.

The organization seems to be hesitant to bring him back, though, which means it is possible Hamilton has played his last game for the Angels.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Texas Rangers first baseman and designated hitter Mitch Moreland is dealing with an elbow injury that forced him to get scratched from Friday’s lineup. He could miss a couple of weeks as a result.

Continue for updates.

Moreland Suffering From “Loose Body” In Elbow

Saturday, April 18

Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reported that Moreland originally felt a pop in his elbow Wednesday. It started to hurt more the next day and then prevented him from playing Friday. He wasn’t sure when the issue would subside.

Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Moreland is optimistic that he won’t need surgery and that he could be an option off the bench on Saturday.

“There is a possibility I could feel great tomorrow and there is a possibility it will still be inflamed,” Moreland said. “It’s a weird thing. It’s a freak thing. Obviously, it’s not something I want.”

TR Sullivan of MLB.com stated a decision about whether to get surgery to remove the “loose body,” which would result in a few weeks of recovery, should come over the next couple of days:

Moreland has posted a .382 on-base percentage with one home run and five runs batted in through nine games so far this season. An ankle injury limited him to just 52 games last year, but he tallied at least 15 homers in each of the previous three seasons.

The situation should become more clear by early next week.

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The critics came out in droves.

They slammed Billy Beane for dismantling a playoff team during the last offseason, and they questioned his commitment to keeping a winning team on the field since he jettisoned players like Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Derek Norris and Brandon Moss for lesser returns. They even retroactively bashed his trading of Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester.

All of those players were All-Stars. Without them, the detractors cried, the Oakland A’s were destined to find themselves near the bottom of the American League West and out of the postseason for the first time since 2011.

Except the moves actually appear to be working through the club’s first eight games.

Monday’s eight-run, 12-hit showing featured home runs from Brett Lawrie (acquired for Donaldson), Marcus Semien (acquired for Samardzija) and Billy Butler (a curious free-agent signing at the time of the deal, as Cliff Corcoran of SI.com noted), along with a 3-for-5 output from Ben Zobrist, Beane’s lone offseason addition that was actually praised universally, including by Ben Lindbergh of Grantland.

The team might be a modest 4-4 after Monday’s win in Houston, but there is no doubt Oakland’s offseason moves are paying early dividends. Noted A’s beat reporter Jane Lee of MLB.com:

The A’s had a total of three home runs in their first seven games. They had three by the sixth inning tonight.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) April 14, 2015

The A’s lead the American League in doubles (21) and are third in batting average (.306), OBP (.364) and OPS (.829). They have scored at least seven runs in five of their eight games, and the hits keep on coming. Lee also had this observation:

The A’s have reached double-digit figures in hits in six of their first eight games.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) April 14, 2015

Comparing departed players to new ones might not be completely fair with the regular season in its infancy, but neither was torching Beane’s plan after he had barely laid the first few bricks over the winter.

Lester was Oakland’s ace when he came over for Cespedes last July, and there was no doubt he would leave the low-payroll team once he hit free agency after the season. He got $155 million from the Cubs, and through two starts he has allowed nine runs in 10.1 innings (7.84 ERA).

Oakland dealt Samardzija for Semien, among others, a year before he could hit free agency. It was one of the deals that ignited Beane’s critics, but through Samardzija’s first two starts with the Chicago White Sox, he has allowed nine runs in 13 innings (6.23 ERA).

As for the hitters, only Cespedes with the Detroit Tigers and Norris with the San Diego Padres are off to good starts. Donaldson, who was an MVP candidate the last two seasons with Oakland, is hitting .192/.267/.269 with no home runs for Toronto. Moss is hitting .125/.300/.188 with one extra-base hit for Cleveland.

Meanwhile…

Butler is hitting .387/.441/.548 with a .990 OPS, a homer and two doubles.

Semien has a .323/.364/.484 line with a homer, two doubles and seven RBI, and he has played solid defense at shortstop.

“Watching him move around, you might not think he has the type of power that he does,” manager Bob Melvin said of Semien last week. “His position doesn’t usually come with a guy that has the potential to hit 20 home runs, which he has the ability to do.”

Zobrist is at .303/.343/.545 with a homer, five doubles, two walks and two strikeouts in a team-high 33 at-bats.

Lawrie is hitting .281/.324/.438 with a homer and two doubles on top of playing outstanding defense at third base.

Ike Davis, another offseason acquisition taken off the scrap heap, is hitting .318/.444/.455 with three doubles, five RBI, five walks and five strikeouts.

“One through nine, you never know what can happen, any given day,” Lawrie told Jane Lee and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com Monday. “We’ve been stringing hits together, and when you can do that you can be loose and just play and not worry too much. You know someone’s going to pick you up. It’s good to know anyone who gets in the box can do some damage.”

Those aren’t outstanding numbers in the molds of Miguel Cabrera or Adrian Gonzalez through Week 1, but everyone’s combined contributions make this a formidable A’s lineup. It has certainly been one more productive than critics foresaw.

The pitching has been solid as well. The rotation is 4-2 with a 2.32 ERA in 50.1 innings, and that ERA was helped none by rookie Kendall Graveman’s seven earned runs allowed over 3.1 innings last week. Still, they are putting up strong numbers without Lester and Samardzija and could get Jarrod Parker back in June as he rehabs from a second Tommy John surgery.

The bullpen, which suffered a big blow when closer Sean Doolittle had to go on the disabled list with a strained rotator cuff, has been effective too. In 24.2 innings, it has allowed eight earned runs (2.92 ERA). Again, that ERA is ballooned by one bad game in which Eric O’Flaherty and Tyler Clippard combined to allow four runs in 2.1 innings, which included Clippard giving up a game-winning 10th-inning home run to Nelson Cruz.

The extreme numbers for hitters and pitchers will correct themselves to more sustainable levels, but once they do, there is no reason to believe the A’s cannot hold them there and remain one of the better all-around clubs in the league. The offseason moves were not made in an effort to lose, and Oakland does not expect them to tank just because they are lesser-known names.

Ripping Beane’s retooled club was in fashion for much of the offseason. Trading five All-Star players in about half a year will spark such sentiment. It started to slow after he traded for Zobrist, one of the best all-around players in the league.

Now that Oakland’s new additions have produced to start the season, the critics can commence their silence, as these early-season trends are capable of lasting through summer.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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