NEW YORK \u2014 With their pitching staff sputtering amid a playoff push, the Houston Astros are turning to a familiar face in search of a spark.<\/p>\n
Longtime Astros pitching coach Brent Strom will rejoin the organization as a pitching consultant for the season\u2019s final 29 games, manager Joe Espada announced Thursday. Strom is expected to be in uniform and in the dugout for Houston\u2019s series opener against the New York Mets on Friday at Citi Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrommy is one of the architects for this organization on the pitching side of things,\u201d Espada said before Thursday\u2019s game at Yankee Stadium. \u201cI\u2019m excited to bring him back, listen to his perspective, his experience. I feel like there\u2019s a value in having him around right now as we make this push here to win the division.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston entered Thursday with a half-game lead over the Texas Rangers atop the American League West despite a 4.68 ERA. Only five teams have a higher one. Dismissed general manager Dana Brown\u2019s inability to fortify the staff \u2014 especially Houston\u2019s struggling starting rotation \u2014 during the trade deadline frustrated many in the Astros clubhouse. That Brown\u2019s six major-league offseason additions have produced a 5.51 ERA didn\u2019t help matters, either.<\/p>\n
Who the Astros should hire as their next GM<\/p>\n
Keith Law<\/p>\n
Just two starting rotations have a higher ERA than Houston\u2019s 5.17 mark. The team has received just 10 starts of at least seven innings across the season\u2019s first 132 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, we can spend a lot of time looking at things that are not particularly important right now during this stretch,\u201d Espada said. \u201cIt\u2019s about competing, me against him, and my experience with Strommy has been that. It\u2019s something we can all use during this stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strom, 77, spent eight seasons as the Astros\u2019 pitching coach from 2014 to 2021, a stretch in which Houston separated itself as one of the premier pitching organizations in the sport. From 2015 to 2021, no American League team posted a lower ERA than the Astros, and only one \u2014 the Cleveland Guardians \u2014 had a lower WHIP.<\/p>\n
After his Astros tenure, Strom had coaching stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2023, Strom oversaw the Arizona pitching staff that captured the National League pennant. Pittsburgh did not renew Strom\u2019s contract after last season.<\/p>\n
Under Strom\u2019s watch, the Astros produced two American League Cy Young Award winners \u2014 Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander \u2014 and a runner-up in Gerrit Cole. Strom earned industrywide acclaim for his part in helping to turn around the careers of Cole, Verlander, Collin McHugh, Charlie Morton and Ryan Pressly.<\/p>\n
Strom has worked with multiple members of the Astros\u2019 existing pitching staff, including setup man Bryan Abreu, starter Cristian Javier and offseason trade acquisition Mike Burrows, whom Strom coached with the Pirates.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got this presence about him (to) connect with younger pitchers (and) older pitchers,\u201d Espada said. \u201cAlso, (he is) very simple in how he teaches things. He can go outside the box, but he also stays on, \u2018This is what you need to compete during the stretch.\u2019 There is that experience that I think is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strom left the Astros after the 2021 season. At the time, he described the decision as an opportunity for him to reset and for Houston to enjoy the work of his two proteges \u2014 Josh Miller and Bill Murphy \u2014 who had assisted him throughout the season. Miller remains the Astros\u2019 head pitching coach. Murphy left the organization this winter to become the Pirates\u2019 pitching coach. Ethan Katz replaced Murphy and now assists Miller.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fresh (set) of eyes. He\u2019s going to be in our meetings. He\u2019s going to be helping in the throwing programs, video analysis,\u201d Espada said. \u201cI just feel like this is something we will benefit from having around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 With their pitching staff sputtering amid a playoff push, the Houston Astros are turning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[733,27],"class_list":["post-42949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-houston-astros","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}