Astros Takeaways: influence of Isaac Paredes, moved outfield at the end of the game and the role of Chas McCormick

Houston – Seventeet Inning are not a size of the sample to lose sleep, so Joe Espada has been encouraged. His new training has remained the only one in sport without an extra-base blow but has achieved a goal.

“Look back (A) last year and tell me when we walked nine times in two days,” he took Espada after the 3-1 defeat on Friday against New York Mets.

The response, appropriately, is that the Houston Astros took exactly nine walks on a stretch of two games nine times last season. They also had 10 other two -games spans that had more than nine walks, adapting to a training that attracted the fourth number of free passes plus children in sport.

The races, not the walks, are necessary to overcome the games, so some of the espada excitement have fallen unheard. Eighty-three apparitions of dishes passed before his Houston Astros had their first extra-base blow of the 2025 season-a solo race at home that Jeremy Peña unfolded on the high-level wall of 19 Dikin Park on Saturday.

A chassis later, Yordan Alvarez provided the second high cursor of Griffin Canning, annihilating 416 feet from the facade of Houston’s Bullpen. Isaac Paredes flew from first at home on the double. No player felt more suitable for marking a decisive race in series.

Paredes is generating the slightest fanfare between an army of new arrivals of Astros, but has brought a new dimension this desperately necessary formation. Through the first three games of Houston, Paredes personified the out of season lens of the front office: to face a training that grew too aggressive last season.

Paredes saw 65 shots through the 12 appearances of plates he took against the mets. He has collected only a success in the series – a single in the loss of Friday – but has provided plates appearances that can be contagious for a training that tries to reverse his trends.

“He saw more shots than I did in the middle of last season,” he joked the Utility Mauricio Dubón after the victory of the Saturday series. “Peña and I were talking about it, it makes the pitcher work and helps us a lot. That’s who he is.”

“He is a boy who can put 40 (run at home) in the boxes (crawford), but at the same time he can take his walks. We are grinding in Battite. We are seeing shots. I don’t know how many shots I have seen today, but I probably saw a maximum of the career.”

Dubón saw 13 during his three -dishes appearances, a huge amount for a player who has an average of 3.51. On Friday, Prospect Cam Smith saw 23 apparitions in four dishes, while the new first baseman Christian Walker saw 28 during his first eight apparitions like an star.

Production remains a main priority of a baseball team. Houston marked only six heats in three games while it ends 1 out of 17 with the runners in a score position. Thirteen of the 15 strokes of the formation were single. The hit 23 times makes it difficult to be proud of the discipline or patience, but Espada has left the series more encouraged than the numbers can suggest.

“That stuff is important,” said Espada. “If you do it during a season, you will find yourself getting on the base and give your teammates the opportunity to hit with people on the base and you will get good shots to hit.”

Chas McCormick went 1 to 2 with a walk on Saturday. (Troy Taormina / Image images)

The transport of Cam Smith to the opening day roster has removed any possibility for Chas McCormick to carve out a daily role.

“But, all my career here, have I been an everyday player?” McCormick asked before not playing during the 3-1 defeat on Friday. “Maybe for a month or two of my five years I was here.”

It is a relevant question of a player whose role has always been discussed. Also during the McCormick Breakout 2023 season, the former manager Dusty Baker refused to label him a “big boy”, sharing worries internally on McCormick’s weight while measuring his game time.

McCormick took 457 apparitions of dishes that year. Seven Astros has accumulated more, even if McCormick fought a back injury at the beginning of the season. McCormick has not taken more than 407 in any other season, allowing him at least a little comfort while he moves to his new normality.

A poor spring sank all hope that McCormick should take over the work on the right. When asked if Smith’s inclusion on the opening day roster surprised him, McCormick replied “No, not really”.

“Obviously, I wanted to start the opening of the day. It’s a great honor. And I want to be able to play (and see them) give me the opportunity to play every single day. But I know they will still give me a chance, even if I’m not playing every day and I have already had this role previously,” said McCormick, who started at Center Field on Saturday and I reached the base twice.

“Was it difficult individually? Yes, of course, you want to play every single day. But at the same time, I know where I am and I know where my role is.”

McCormick is opening his position in the hope of doing more damage against high shots or those in the middle of the strike area. The strong discipline of the dish he showed in the spring remains intact-he took a five-throw walk on Saturday-but McCormick’s journey for the game time must involve damage more damage.

McCormick’s decision to establish a bunt of sacrifice during the opening of the Thursday-Counter season a relief for Mancini, no less-sidelined at the moment, but could speak of what is still looking for his swing.

“My job is to play defense, move the runners,” McCormick said. “I will have the opportunity to play, hit and oscillate, but my swing certainly feels better from the start of spring training so far. I have done some things. We’ll see, but I certainly feel better.”

Spencer Arrighetti has obtained 12 swings and is missing against the Mets in his first beginning of 2025. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)

On Saturday he offered the first test in the pressly post-de Houston world. The appetizer Spencer Arrighetti has launched six impressive innings, hitting his club ahead. The Bryan Abreu and tightest configuration man Josh Hader were available for the launch, which means that Espada needed an arm to build a bridge.

The skipper has chosen Southpaw Bryan King, a former quick choice of Rule 5 that can now hold the title as a third more trusted relief of Houston. King requested 13 shots to retire in the middle of the New York order, Brandon Nimmo’s Sandwich Strikeout and Starling Mars around Mark Vientos’ flyout.

“It’s just super confident,” said Espada. “That 92-93 (mph) plays. It has a really good cursor. That fast ball sneaks.

Evoc King seemed logical since two beats were looming for Mancini, but all the others are espada-and in the Houston-Houston bench should have known the manager of the mets Carlos Mendoza who would have deployed one of the four steed hits on the bench.

When Mars arrived, the king joined him with three four semi-semi well positioned on the external half: a key to neutralize the advantage of the platoon.

“Coming through minors, I have never been told that I had a good fast ball until I arrived and they are not like,” Hey, there is something special there, “King said, who uses an extent higher than the average to allow his fast ball to play.” It is definitely something we used. I think helps to play with the other shots: the cave, two seams. It is a good combination that greatly freezes the blows. “

Distributing such an inexperienced outdoor field could present daily dilemmas for Espada, a manager without fear of using his bench when a victory is at hand.

“Once you enter the eighth or ninth inning and I am bringing two of the best rescuers of the game, I feel that the game should be finished,” said Espada, “then I will protect that advantage with the defense”.

And so, Thursday and Saturday, he did it. With Abreu and Hader ready to protect the thin cables, Espada made a burst of end -of -game replacements that could soon become the norm, underlining Houston’s logic in building its list of opening days.

Thursday, Espada removed Smith from the right field in the eighth ining in favor of McCormick. McCormick started in the central field on Saturday, but he moved to the eighth inning so that Jake Meyers could play in the center.

A frame later, Espada raised the altu from the left field. Mauricio Dubón, who started the game at the second base, replaced altuve in the external field while Brendan Rodgers played the second.

Dubón on the left, Meyers in the center and McCormick on the right is the best defensive field of the team, but it is worth asking how many times Espada will be able to build it.

That there were five seats in the order of batting in view of the decision on Saturday of altuva a little easier, even if it is not a luxury that he will often find. However, as Espada pointed out, he did all these moves with two lethal bats still seated inactive on the bench: Smith and Catcher Yainer Diaz.

“I have the best of the game on the way,” said Espada. “Jose understands the situation in which we find ourselves – we are trying to get three outs.”

(Top photo of Isaac Paredes and Jeremy Peña: Tim Warner / Getty Images)