Saturday, August 29

NEW YORK -- Brent Strom, the well-respected pitching guru who carved out a reputation for taking pitchers to the next level during his eight years as pitching coach with the Astros, is returning to the organization as a pitching consultant for the rest of the season, manager Joe Espada said Thursday.

Strom, 77, lives in Arizona and is expected to join the team in New York prior to Friday’s series opener against the Mets at Citi Field. He will be in uniform in the dugout and will try to help get the Astros’ wobbly pitching back on track.

“Strommy is one of the architects for this organization on the pitching side of things, so I’m excited to bring him back and listen to his perspective and his experience,” Espada said. “There’s a value of having him around right now as we make this push here to win the division.”

The Astros’ pitching staff has been one of the worst in the Major Leagues this season, entering Thursday with a 4.68 ERA that ranked 25th in MLB, including a 5.17 ERA from its starters (28th). Strike-throwing has been an issue for the Astros all season. Houston’s staff entered Thursday with 550 walks, which was one fewer than the Reds, who had the most in the Majors.

The Astros had gone 13 consecutive games without a starter finishing six innings entering Thursday and have used more starting pitchers than any team in baseball. Injuries have played a big role, but several pitchers have underperformed. 

Espada called the decision to bring back Strom a “collective” effort from conversations in the front office about how the Astros can improve their pitching in the coming weeks. 

“This is someone who’s had some of our guys -- experience with young pitchers, veteran pitchers,” Espada said. “He’s been in the World Series with different organizations, and I felt like this is the right time to bring someone who can help us continue to move things forward and help us get our guys better and finish strong.”

Strom left the Astros following the 2021 World Series loss to the Braves, saying the Astros were in good hands with pitching coaches Josh Miller and Bill Murphy, who left to become the Pirates’ pitching coach after last season. Strom was the D-backs’ pitching coach from 2022-24 and spent the '25 season as the assistant pitching coach in Pittsburgh.

In addition to his pitching knowledge, Strom brings a big personality to the Houston coaches’ room.

“He’s got this presence about him, [a way of] connecting with a young pitcher and older pitcher,” Espada said. “Also very simple in how he teaches things. He can go outside the box, but he also stays on, ‘This is what you need to compete during the stretch [of the season].’ There is that experience that I think is needed. Sometimes I think we can spend a lot of time and look at things that are not particularly important during this stretch; it’s about competing, it’s about ‘me against him,’ and my experience with Strommy has been [that]. I think it’s something we can all use during this stretch.”

Strom was able to blend analytics with his teachings and turn the Astros into a pitching factory. They plucked Will Harris and Collin McHugh off waivers and turned them into solid big leaguers. He helped take Gerrit Cole’s career to a new level in Houston and coached Cy Young Award winners Dallas Keuchel in 2015 and Justin Verlander in 2019.

Miller, the Astros’ bullpen coach in 2019 and 2020, held the title of pitching coach with Strom in 2021, while still coaching in the bullpen during games. 

“[Strom] and Josh have worked together for many, many years, so it’s just another fresh [set] of eyes,” Espada said. “He’s going to be in our meetings, he’s going to be helping with our throwing programs, video analysis. I just feel this is something we’ll benefit from having him around.”

A former Major League pitching coach for the Astros (1996) and Royals (2000-01), Strom was with the Nationals/Expos for five seasons from 2002-06 as Minor League pitching coordinator before joining the Cardinals, where former Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow was vice president of scouting and player development. Luhnow hired him as pitching coach in Houston before the 2014 season.

Catcher Jason Schiavone, who debuted at No. 6 on the updated Astros' Top 30 Prospects list released two weeks ago, bashed two home runs each in two consecutive games for Double-A Corpus Christi on Tuesday and Wednesday in Amarillo. That gave Schiavone six home runs in a seven-game span and 29 for the season. That leads all Astros prospects and is second most in the Minors among primary catchers, behind only Mariners prospect Boston Smith.

An 11th-round pick in the 2024 Draft from James Madison University, Schiavone was once considered an underrated prospect, but no more. He’s squarely on the map now with a terrific work ethic, how he handles the pitching staff and his arm, which is his best tool. After hitting .289 with 17 home runs and a 1.218 OPS in 35 games at High-A Asheville, Schiavone has slashed .246/.373/.439 with 12 homers and 35 RBIs in 69 games at Corpus Christi.

Aug. 28, 2023

Only two weeks after becoming the third Astros player in history to reach 2,000 career hits, Altuve recorded the franchise’s first cycle -- a single, double, triple and home run in the same game -- in 10 years in Houston’s 13-5 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Altuve doubled in his second at-bat in the third inning, singled in the fifth inning and hit a two-run triple in the sixth. After popping out in the seventh, he blasted his 10th homer of the season, sailing a pitch from Kyle Barraclough over the Green Monster to complete the cycle. It was Houston’s first cycle since Brandon Barnes on July 19, 2013.

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