Ronel Blanco is the Houston Astros’ first half MVP

It’s been a long time since Houston Astros fans have had to endure a season like the one the team has had in 2024. A 7-19 start led to a 12-24 start, and just about a week ago, after a 2-0 shutout loss to the woeful Chicago White Sox, the team appeared to have hit rock bottom at 33-40 and 10 games behind the Seattle Mariners for the AL West lead.

But what a difference a week can make! Since that loss to the White Sox, the Astros have not lost a single game, winning seven straight and outscoring their opponents by a cumulative margin of 48-20. The Mariners, meanwhile, were reeling and the Astros were up 5.5 games in the standings, placing themselves just 4.5 games behind Seattle and 3.5 games out of the wild card race. AL.

In short, what seemed like a summer of frustration and discontent, now all of a sudden Astros fans are screaming “We’re back, baby!” There’s still work to be done, but at 40-40, we’re essentially halfway through the season (we’re one game short), so on a Friday after a day off, why not hand out some superlatives for the season, so far?

Here we go…

Most Valuable Player: RONEL BLANCO, SP
It’s been a fascinating first half of the season for Blanco, whose budding starting pitching career dates back to a suggestion from general manager Dana Brown that he be groomed for this season as a starter. That decision paid off with a performance that should be All-Star worthy. (We’ll get to that in a moment.) Blanco started the season with a bang, throwing a complete game, no-hitter against the Blue Jays in the home opener, and so far he’s 8-2 with a 2.34 ERA, the sixth-best in baseball. Along the way, he endured a 10-game suspension for a sticky substance in his glove in a May start, but he’s overcome that adversity with flying colors. It’s unclear where the Astros would be today without Blanco. The team is 11-3 in 14 starts.

Biggest Disappointment: JUSTIN VERLANDER, SP
To be fair, there are a lot of candidates for this spot, with the mere existence of José Abreu dragging the team down for the first three months of the season. Additionally, Alex Bregman, Ryan Pressly and Josh Hader, among others, had a poor start to the season, not to mention season-ending injuries to Cristian Javier and José Urquidy. Verlander is therefore not the only one. However, when he has pitched this season, his ERA has been close to 4.00, and he is currently nursing his second injury of the season that landed him on the injured list, a neck injury that left him made him unable to throw for several days, with no end in sight. That’s what happens when you turn 41, I guess.

Turning point: Nine points in the 6th inning against the ORIOLES on June 21
The starting point of the Astros’ seven-game winning streak was actually the 6th inning of the season opener against the Orioles last Friday, in which they turned a 5-3 lead into a 14- 3, and did so with exactly zero home runs. They had five doubles in the inning, including two from rookie outfielder Joey Loperfido, and since that game, they have outscored their opponents by a margin of 25-5. This 14-11 victory in this game was the opening salvo of the best series of the season, a sweep of a very good Orioles team.

Should be All Stars: JOSE ALTUVE, YORDAN ALVAREZ, KYLE TUCKER, RONEL BLANCO
If the vote holds up in the fan ballot, which will be held in the second round next week, Altuve, Alvarez and Tucker should all start, and all three deserve to start. Altuve is back to hitting over .300, Alvarez has rediscovered his power shot and has an OPS near .900, and Tucker was an MVP candidate before fouling off his shin on June 3. As noted, Blanco deserves to be selected to the All-Star Game, but the American League is loaded with good starting pitchers.

The most important plot of the second half: The return of LUIS GARCIA and LANCE McCULLERS
The Astros are currently paper thin in the starting rotation, with only four healthy and experienced starters, and honestly, using “experienced” to describe Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti is a bit of a stretch. The Astros had a ton of off days in the latter part of the schedule, so they were able to work their way through, but soon the schedule will be a lot less forgiving. The Astros will therefore be forced to make some decisions regarding trades or minor league call-ups. Meanwhile, Garcia and McCullers inch closer and closer to returning. Garcia, in fact, is pitching at their rookie complex this weekend. How this team handles the back of the rotation over the next two weeks could tell us a lot about its confidence in getting Garcia and McCullers back at or near full strength.

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