



1. The Houston Astros have only scored 4 runs over the past 4 games, after a sweep by the Tigers in Detroit.





2. Lance McCullers, one of the best pitchers on staff this season, left last night's game with elbow soreness. As I'm writing this, he has been placed on the 15 day DL. They've recalled Brad Peacock from the minors, though his stuff is not nearly to the same caliber as that of the resident Batman!





There were, however, two silver linings from the dark clouds that were last night's loss:





1. Joe Musgrove, another highly touted prospect, made his debut with the club last night following the injury to McCullers. In a nutshell, he electrified, going 4 and 1/3 innings and striking out 7, tying an Astros club record for most strikeouts by a rookie pitcher in MLB debut.





2. Your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis, drove in the club's only run off an RBI single to score Carlos Gomez.





On the continuing front and saga-like quest to find more evidence as to why El Oso Blanco needs to be starting catcher for the Astros, I came across THESE stat lists, courtesy of MLB.com:









As you can see from these charts, Evan Gattis is 1st in home runs among all active catchers throughout the league. In RBI, he ranks 6th behind only the other big name catchers in the biz right now: Wilson Ramos, Jonathan Lucroy, Buster Posey, Salvador Perez, and Yasmani Grandal. This is a clear indicator of how much more elite Evan can get if allowed to be a starter.





And what about current starter, Jason Castro? Well, his offense is some of the poorest on this list. While he is a very solid defender, among the best, this lack of bat is incredibly disheartening. Not only that, but Gattis is coming close to Castro's defense in some areas:





Framing:





1. oStr (Pitches outsides the strike zone called for strikes): Castro - 8.6%; Gattis - 8.0% (League average is 7.2%)





2. zball (Pitches caught in the strike zone and called balls) Castro - 11.6%; Gattis - 13.8% (League average is 14.5%)









AND exceeding him already in others:









Fielding:





1. Caught stealing ratio: Castro - 18%, Gattis - 47% (League average is 29%)





2. Overall Catcher's ERA, or CERA - Castro - 3.76, Gattis - 3.56 (League average is 3.91)





Folks, I can beat these stats until we're all black and blue in the face, but they don't lie. Evan Gattis is a much better catcher on both sides of the ball than is given credit for. The fact that he is nearly matching, and in some cases exceeding, Jason Castro on the defensive side almost always appears to get overlooked. He already has the skills, and now this Houston Astros organization need to give him the opportunity to flourish in his God given position in baseball.





Spend the money you would potentially spend on pending free agent Jason Castro, who while a strong defender will not be worth the money you will lose from lack of production with the bat, and use it elsewhere in the ball club. Let's make the necessary things happen to get H-Town a championship that they have long since deserved!





Photo Credit: Duane Burleson - Getty Images North America





El Oso Blanco definitely danced his way to get to this ball. Now the team needs to dance him towards the starting catcher nod!





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So the offense for the Houston Astros continues to remain stagnant, as the lost 2-1 last night to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays. Essentially, the script was flipped from Monday night's 14 inning walk-off win. Two other things to note that added insult to injury, or threw salt on the wound, to coin a phrase: