1972 Houston Astros - 84-69 (10.5 GB)

1972 Houston Astros - 84-69 (10.5 GB)

The offseason saw the Astros engage in a blockbuster trade with a divisional foe, the Cincinnati Reds.  Houston sent Joe Morgan, Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo and Denis Menke to the Queen City for Lee May, Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart.  That trade helped the Astros into contention, while locking down the pennant for the Reds.  As late as June 24th the Astros were in 1st place in the NL West with a 38-25 record.  From that point on the Reds heated up and the 'Stros played .500 ball.  That decline cost manager Harry "the Hat" Walker his job in September.  Houston brought in recently fired Leo Durocher (by the Cubs) and hoped to catch lightning in a bottle.  Leo the Lip had the same success his predecessor had since late June, as the team went 16-15 and finished a distant 10.5 games out. 

STRENGTHS:  Shockingly the Astros led the NL in runs, came in 3rd in homers and 2nd in OBP, while playing half their games in the pitcher friendly Astrodome.  Four players hit 20 or more homers:  Lee May (29), Jimmy Wynn (24), Cesar Cedeno (22) and Doug Rader (22).  Bob Watson (16) was 4 away from making it a 5th.  21 year old Cesar Cedeno blossomed into a superstar hitting .320-22-82, while swiping 55 bases and playing a gold glove centerfield.  Durocher might have jinxed him by calling him "the next Willie Mays".

  

WEAKNESSES:  Too many strikeouts by their power hitters plus an uncharacteristic off year by their starters.

PITCHING:  The Astros finished 10th in ERA, which would be fine if they played in Wrigley.  Since they played half their games in the Astrodome this did not bode well for them.  Don Wilson (15-10, 2.68) and Larry Dierker (15-8, 3.40) make a good 1-2 combo.  The rest of the rotation was batter friendly.

BULLPEN:  The pen was solid.  Fred Gladding (5-6, 2.77. 14 sv) is more or less the closer.  Gladding, who threw 48 innings in 42 appearances was used more like a modern day closer than a typical 1970's reliever.  George Culver (6-2, 3.05, 2 sv) is the setup guy.  The pen did not have a lefty, which will make for trouble late in games vs a big lefty hitter.

BENCH:  Jesus Alou (.312) is the late inning pinch hitter.  Norm Miller (.243) and Jimmy Stewart (.219) were supposed to compliment Alou from the left side of the plate, but neither panned out.  Backup catcher Larry Howard struggled to hit .220

I added 13 new cards to round out the team set.  Special credit goes to Jeff for supplying me with most of the photos.  This was the first season the Astros went "orange" as their primary color.