He makes consistent contact, he brings speed to the basepaths, and he covers ground in the outfield. So, what’s the problem with Myles Straw? According to a Houston Astros suit who should know (better), “we’re trying to get him to turn on the ball more and focusing on hitting line drives and having some of those turn into homers.”

UPDATE: Congratulations, Myles, on your Houston call-up, September 15! Go get ’em!

Really? So, despite the fact that Straw leads the known universe in steals (43 of 50 at press time), is 5’10” and 180 pounds, and has only hit three home runs in about 350 games, the Astros want to turn Maury Wills into Boog Powell?

Previously covered, at length, is the recent revelation that up and down the Houston minor league system is a seemingly pervasive focus on power and an effort to increase launch angle on virtually every player.

Insidious? Productive? Effective? Only time will tell if this sweeping obsession with power will, ultimately, result in a muscle-riddled, perennial World Champion Houston Astros, or more destructively, produce a scrap heap of would-be baseball players whose natural talents were hijacked and twisted to conform to an ill-advised, cyber-driven power grab.

Related: ‘Stro Wars: The Phantom Menace: Myles Straw’s 2 Legs Have One Job

Faster Than Flash

The Houston Astros’ 20th-ranked prospect has been plying his speed craft for Triple-A Fresno since mid-June, after triumphing over the AA challenges at Corpus Christi.

He was voted in as a starter for the recently played Texas League All-Star Game, but his promotion prevented his appearance. Straw batted .327 with a .414 on-base percentage in 65 games with Corpus, ranking in the top five in the Texas League in both categories.

It was actually an injury that prompted Straw’s recent promotion, although his Double-A numbers were certainly ready for acknowledgment. When Fresno center fielder Drew Ferguson hit the DL with a wrist injury on June 13, Straw’s numbers, both batting and on the basepaths, together with his defensive ability made him the easy choice to replace Ferguson on the Fresno roster.

Though it’s only been 12 games (through June 28), he’s been easily duplicating his prowess at the minors’ highest level, going 17-for-51 (.333) with eight-of-nine steals, and a .393 OBP in that small sample.

Myles and His MVP Mentor

The Straw tinkering, if not before, began in Spring Training this season, as his tutoring session with Houston’s reigning AL MVP, Jose Altuve, revealed a decidedly insistent power pitch from the Astros’ perennial hit king: “He was talking to me about my seasons and we went over the numbers,” Straw remembered. “He told me, ‘You want to hit more home runs than doubles.’ He said my on-base numbers were there; I’m good enough, I’m quick enough.”

“[Altuve] was telling me, ‘I used to have no power,’ and then, he said, he talked to guys like Miguel Cabrera, and they told him he has more in the tank and can be better,” Straw said, eager to share his time with Altuve to anyone who would listen. “He told me it’s not hard to hit 10 good balls in the air out of the ballpark a year. For me, it meant a lot.”

Sam Dykstra, in his recent “Toolshed: Straw Dashing, Slapping” for MiLB.com, put it succinctly: “Here’s the thing that’s different about Straw’s hitting in the current age of baseball. While most of the game — the Astros front office included — has stressed a focus on launch angle and getting the ball in the air to make better use of a hitter’s power, Straw’s offensive game is very much a ground campaign, and that appears unlikely to change any time soon.”

And, why should it?

Dykstra: “The California native hit 55.8 percent of his balls in play on the ground during his time at Double-A — the exact same percentage he put up over 114 games at Class A Advanced Buies Creek in 2017. That ground-ball rate was second-highest among qualified Texas League hitters. Unsurprisingly, only 11 of Straw’s 82 hits during his time with Corpus Christi went for extra bases, and his .064 isolated slugging percentage was fourth-lowest on the Double-A circuit.”

Altuve, having never played at the AAA level, totaled 30 home runs in his five-year minor league career in Houston’s system (2007-2011). His highest single-season total, 15, came in 2010, but four of those were in the homer-happy California League (Lancaster).

Altuve’s first four MLB seasons were decidedly bereft of four-baggers, always in the single digits, averaging around five per year. Not until his fifth year, 2015, did he put a purpose behind lifting the ball, and including more core work in the weight room to help launch balls in the air.

Home run totals of 15, 24, and 24 followed, with slugging percentages rising, as well. Altuve’s chase rate –percentage of swings at pitches outside the zone– fell from 38 percent to 25 percent, from 2015 to 2016, an indication not only of a hitter destined for a higher batting average, but of a player, now, who’s able to competently introduce power into his game.

The Astros should allow Straw the same gradual growth into a power game that Altuve enjoyed, and not “strongly encourage” him to force the round peg of his “slap and speed” game into the square hole of the endless search for round-trippers. That power chase may lead to unnecessarily high strikeout and chase rates, lower contact rates, and essentially, ruin a talented player’s game even before his MLB debut.

The Bat vs The Clipboard

“He really just needs to start turning on the ball a little bit more, and looking up the middle instead of the other way,” director of player development Pete Putila said during Spring Training. By the way, he’s the aforementioned “suit,” who perfectly parrots the company line on how Straw should be coached during his continued progression.

“He does have bat speed. He just doesn’t always tap into it during the game. That’s something we’re stressing with him to improve the offensive production. The contact is great. He’s going to be a productive Major League player. But in order to maximize that, we’re trying to get him to turn on the ball more and focusing on hitting line drives and having some of those turn into homers.”

But, at what cost?

When Harry Met “Clank”

Longtime Astro fans will remember Harry “The Hat” Walker, former hitting instructor and manager for Houston, 1968-1972. The Astros traded the memorable lefty screwball pitcher Mike Cuellar to Baltimore, in 1969, for 6’2″, 195-pound Curt “Clank” Blefary, a noted power-hitting outfielder/first baseman. Having averaged 20 home runs the four previous seasons with the Orioles, Walker, nonetheless, took Blefary aside during a slump and attempted to convert him into a slap hitter.

FanGraphs explains: “He wanted Blefary to cut down his swing and hit the ball to all fields. Blefary disagreed with that approach and asked for a trade. Fortunately, the Astros found a match; they sent Blefary to the Yankees, his original organization, in a straight-up deal for outfielder/first baseman Joe Pepitone.”

Houston’s newspaper sports columns were rife with charges that Walker was too heavy-handed in trying to change a hitter’s natural tendencies, thus, effectively ruining a natural power hitter, when any slump could’ve been handled with a tweak here and there, rather than install a complete process overhaul.

Myles Apart

Back to MiLB’s “Toolshed”: “Straw said this week that he’s had some discussions with the organization about changing his swing path to add some power, but as a player who has gone deep only three times in 342 career games, he doesn’t think a radical change would do much good.

“They’ve mentioned it, but not as much with me as they would with someone who has the chance to hit 30 homers or something like that,” Straw said, perhaps soft-pedaling what may, indeed, be an organizational mandate he’s too nice a guy to bad-mouth.

“They kind of just let me hit line drives and don’t talk to me too much about all of that. I want to take advantage of my speed best I can, and this is working for me.” Are you listening, Mr. Putila?

“Straw’s tendencies toward slap-hitting extend beyond keeping the ball on the ground, however,” Dykstra explains. “In fact, there’s another category in which Straw leads full-season Minor Leaguers — opposite-field rate.

“As of Thursday, June 21, the right-handed hitter has put 46.6 percent of his balls in play toward right field, a higher percentage than any other Minor League hitter with more than 300 plate appearances this season. He’s pulled 26.5 percent of his balls in play and sent 27.4 percent up the middle. Straw insists, however, he’s aiming to make contact and put the ball toward center as his primary goal.”

To his credit, Straw sounds like he’s staying true to himself, with a clear understanding of his talents and, more importantly, his limitations.

The “Say Hay Kid” and His 2 Cents

“I’m just looking to stay in the middle of the field,” he said. “Trying to go to right or trying to pull the ball, neither one of those is the best idea for me. If I’m just trying to stay middle, I can get to the inside pitch, [or] I can get to the outside pitch and go from there.”

Straw’s approach, then, might just be flying right in the face of Putila’s and the Astros’ apparent player projection and their perceived area of need for Straw. Not to mention that his approach, alone, points toward the origin of his lack of power –his desire to put the ball in play as much as possible.

Straw’s simple desire, and more to the point, his talent to do that shouldn’t be discounted, ignored, or even changed… especially changed.

“With strikeouts on the rise across the game,” Dykstra explains, “Straw has still struck out in only 14.7 of his plate appearances at both Triple-A and Double-A this season. That’s great, but on a philosophical level, Houston and probably every other organization would be willing to see a player accumulate a few more whiffs if it meant more long fly balls.”

Putila’s final word: “We try to stress actual offensive production. You can explain it any way you want, but runs are runs, and they come from extra-base hits and doing damage and whatnot. I think players around the game are starting to realize that.

“Every team has an analytics department. Every team talks about OPS. They see the guys that are getting paid. It’s a little less of a challenge getting through to players on that, but fearing the strikeout is a big thing for guys. They tone it down a bit. But the power production is definitely huge for us.”

Now at AAA, Straw still has a chance to prove he can be more than just a “speed guy” at Fresno (or Houston, eventually), where the likes of actual power producers JD Davis, Derek Fisher, AJ Reed and even top prospect Kyle Tucker all have to find their own ways to stand out and be noticed (and promoted).

Related: Myles Straw Promoted to Houston Before Kyle Tucker? Why It Makes Sense

“The Curse of the Champions”: The Roster Crunch

Whether or not Myles Straw can, will, or even wants to bend himself into the kind of improved power producer Houston presses him to be remains to be seen. And, if he can’t, won’t, or refuses to aim for the fences, will it hamper his career, even to the point of being traded?

Another challenge, though, awaits: The AL West leaders’ crowded major league roster. “Straw’s speed may separate him from that pack,” Dykstra asserts, “but he might need to do a little more if he’s going to be something other than a bit player come September.”

“It’s not really talked about here,” Straw recently revealed about Houston’s big league roster crunch, and the impediment it brings to promotion. “Maybe guys know deep down in their heads that they could play for other [major league] teams right now. There’s plenty of them that have been up and down, and everyone here is obviously super-close. But it’s something we all can’t control. We can just compete as we all do, and it’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to.”

Myles Straw has performed at a level that earned him a spot on an All-Star team this season, and he continues to perform to the point where an MLB call-up seems imminent. He’s surrounded, though, by equally qualified players… and all those players possess the ability to hit a home run at a rate acceptable to their bosses.

Houston should simply let Straw be Straw, delay the urgency to have him swing for the fences, and just stand back and watch a talented player do what he does best.

Do that, Astros, and you’ll be Myles ahead.