Astros’ 3 shocking surprises to begin 2024 season

The word “surprise” has been miles away from the Houston Astros over the past several seasons. In fact, the most stunning thing about them is their ability to normalize dominance.

Few franchises can leave baseball fans feeling numb to consistent excellence, but after coming back from a cheating scandal and overcoming the departure of multiple superstars, underestimating Houston seems quite foolish.

Horror movie junkies know better than to let their guard down when a killer ostensibly falls to their doom or explodes in a fire. Presuming the Astros’ demise after a rocky start to the 2024 season is akin to thinking that Jason Voorhees died after plummeting to earth from outer space.

Sure, the end of their prolific run could be on the horizon, but nobody should be jumping out of their seat in terror if this perennial World Series contender takes control of the American League West by summer’s end. That being said, it is still jarring to see Houston in this position, even in April.

Baseball is a game of peaks and valleys more than any other sport– the 2020 Stros can attest to that– but a last-place standing is reason to at least take pause. Maybe this is just another red herring designed to lull everyone into a false sense of security before the squad re-emerges in October to deal a punishing gut punch to all rival fan bases.

We’re going to take a closer look at this unexpected development and more as we break down three shockers in the early portion of the Astros’ 2024 season.

Astros’ slow start transports fans back a decade

Since we have already begun dissecting this topic, we might as well cut a little deeper. At 7-15, Houston owns the third-worst record in the AL this season. Context is important– opponents have a combined 71-49 record thus far and there have been costly injuries— but it is also the manner in which the team is losing that warrants at least an iota of concern.

The offense is leaving far too many runners on base and the bullpen is blowing leads late in games. The top of the lineup is loaded with big bats, so the Astros should substantially improve with runners in scoring position. The unpredictability towards the bottom, however, could conceivably be a problem throughout the year.

The pen, which we will discuss more in-depth later, also has the firepower to work past its early troubles and should be better than the bottom-five relief unit is has been to this point. This is not about the future, though. Even in a 162-game season, starting off cold can have negative consequences. Playing in stressful conditions before the All-Star break can be mentally exhausting.

But the good news is that the Astros are only three games behind the AL West-leading Texas Rangers despite their subpar showing.

Josh Hader looks out of sorts in his new home