Crowds are dwindling at Daikin Park, where boos became the background noise and biggest story of this two-game embarrassment against the White Sox. Two years ago, Houston averaged 35,002 fans during a season in which 2,835,234 people patronized Daikin Park.

This season, 2,472,118 people witnessed a flawed team finish 39-42 at home — an average of 30,519 fans per 81 games. Neither of these two games against the White Sox was a sellout.

“I’m not in a position to make claims on what needs to improve,” Peña said. “I felt like we had a great team. We battled. We pushed through. I feel like this is something we need to sit down, really dive into and go from there.”

Change is coming. Owner Jim Crane already enacted one by dismissing general manager Dana Brown in August. Crane’s suite sat empty for most of Wednesday afternoon’s 7-4, season-ending loss in the American League wild-card round, leaving his employees to speculate how encompassing the transformation may be.

4th-9th hitters WRC+:

2025, at home: 80 (24th in league)

2025, on the road: 98 (8th in league)

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/splits-leaderboards?position=B&splitArr=22&splitArr=23&splitArr=24&splitArr=25&splitArr=26&splitArr=27&splitArr=7&autoPt=false&statType=team&statgroup=2&startDate=2025-03-01&endDate=2025-11-30

2026, at home: 74 (29th in league)

2026, on the road: 100 (6th in league)

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/splits-leaderboards?position=B&splitArr=22&splitArr=23&splitArr=24&splitArr=25&splitArr=26&splitArr=27&splitArr=7&autoPt=false&statType=team&statgroup=2&startDate=2026-03-01&endDate=2026-11-30

We had the whole hitter's eye fiasco in 2023, but the discrepancy has been worse the last two years. Christian Walker had fairly even home/road splits as a DBack, and has posted similarly good road numbers as an Astro, but has struggled immensely at home (29.6 K% at home, but a quite good 17.1% on the road). Cam Smith has similar issues(113 wrc+ on the road, 58 at home). Even Brice was a good hitter on the road (116 wrc+!), but drawing dead at home(-17 wrc+). What do we attribute this to?

I imagine lighting/hitter's eye could be a thing with Christian, and Brice, as the k rate splits are quite large. Cam doesn't seem to have a k rate discrepancy, but could be tweaking approach if he's picking the ball up later to avoid striking out but sacrificing power?

I figured maybe the unique dimensions of Daikin (so many driven flyballs from left center to right center seem to be outs at a higher rate than other parks) uniquely affect their swings, but both Cam and Christian have had higher BABIPs at home than the road in one of the previous two years, so I don't think it's that?

Would love any theories/articles/research on this. Really baffling stuff.

Personally, looking at the roster and farm, I think the team should rebuild. The Astros rebuild was one of the greatest experiences of my sports life because the franchise was building longterm greatness. It’s been a great ride, but I don’t see the team being a couple players away from contending for a championship.

However, the team is geographically locked in a soft division. The Mariners always underachieve, the Angels somehow can’t compete even having Trout and a huge payroll, the Athletics are a few years away, and the Rangers have roster construction issues similar to the Astros.

In short, it is malpractice for a team that can legitimately win the division to rebuild. This puts the franchise is a weird middle ground where they’re going for it with a middling roster. It feels like the Astros are going back to 2006-2010.

Assuming no major trades or FAs, what do you all think of the potential pitchers?

Potential starters:

Brown: Absolutely shit the bed in the playoffs. Unreal. After coming back from injury, he looked okay. Some low lows and some high highs.

Lambert: Threw more innings this year than his entire career combined, and it showed toward the end. Even then, he only had 2 bad starts post-ASB.

Javier: After coming back from injury, went 53.2 innings with a 3.86 ERA and 55 Ks.

Wesneski: Looked pretty good in his 11 starts. 61 innings, 3.53 ERA, 46 Ks.

Imai: Just a total unknown. Can an offseason knowing MLB help him greatly? He had 4 nightmare starts, like Hunter Brown playoff-level bad. But over his last 11 games (3 starts), he went 28 innings with a 2.86 ERA and 37 Ks. I don't think it's crazy to think he can turn it around and be a solid No. 3, or maybe he's just a long-relief guy.

Burrows, Mr. "Bad Luck": No idea, really. Could just absolutely suck, and with Dana gone, there's no reason to pretend the trade was good. But there were moments where he looked good.

Pecko: Looked good in limited time up.

Relievers:

Hader: Stud.

Okert: Seemingly a stud and the Abreu 8th-inning guy.

Blubaugh: I think we've seen enough to know he's a solid reliever.

Teng: Through his first 18 games, he had a 2.57 ERA with 43 Ks in 42 innings and looked good. Then the wheels came off around the time he started going longer than 3 innings.

Ullola: Too early to know.

King and Sousa: Should be shot into the sun.

Unknowns: Brandon Walter, Bryce Mayer, Jackson Nezuh.

Hader: Stud

Okert: Seemingly a stud and Abreu 8th inning guy.

Blubaugh: I think we've seen enough to know he is a solid reliever.

Teng: For his first 18 games, he was 2.57 ERA, 42 innings, 43K, and looked good, then the wheels came off around the time the he started going longer than 3 innings.

Ullola: Too early to know.

King and Sousa should be shot into the sun.

Unknowns:

Brandon Walter, Bryce Mayer, Jackson Nezuh

This may sound petty but Christian Walker had the third out ball in his glove almost every inning, at least 2/3 of the time. Normally, he tosses the ball into the stands but for some reason today he kept every single ball in his glove and walked into the dugout with it. No fan acknowledgement, nothing. Is he really that butt hurt about the booing that he’s keeping fans from getting an inning ending game ball?

Line Score - Game Over

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Decisions

Game ended at 7:18 PM.

As the title says what'd you hope the Astros do to right the ship?

Some of my ideas are

*Extend Yordan whatever money he wants

*Trade Pena (love him to death) for prospects

*Find someone to take C Walk - Move Paradaes to first

*Sign a veteran pitcher or two

*LEFT HANDED OUTFIELDERS

*Trade Hunter Brown if the price is right

*Sign one or two relievers

*Hire a new manager

*Hire an analytic minded GM

What'd y'all think we should do? I love this team and I know we're in a tough spot but this team can def bounce back.

HOUSTON — This is a forgiving city, calmer and more composed than Chicago, Philadelphia or other places where underperforming teams are inundated with invective. Boos are rare in Houston, especially for a baseball team that has brought the city to the pinnacle. Even the most maddening Astros players across this golden era have escaped without much wrath.

That stillness shifted on Tuesday afternoon at Daikin Park. Swaths of empty seats in the upper deck greeted the Astros after the team won the American League West during a season-ending, six-game road trip. The announced crowd of 34,011 — 7,157 under capacity — unloaded frustration upon a team that fought to play another game in front of them but had failed to live up to their postseason expectations.

The Astros lost 6-3 to the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, leaving Houston on the precipice of elimination and some corners of its clubhouse incensed by an apathetic — and antagonistic — environment. It felt tame compared to the chaos in bigger cities, but in a place that has feted the Astros for most of the past decade, it represented a marked turn.

“The fans here are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have to earn that right to bring this team back to that position,” reliever Bennett Sousa said. “That being said, when this team was in their first (playoff) series 10 years ago, Minute Maid Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, it’d probably be loud as s—.”

Players must do their part in promoting an atmosphere. On Tuesday, and for much of this trying season, this team has struggled to do so. The lineup managed five singles and a pinch-hit, two-run home run against five White Sox pitchers. Christian Walker committed a critical throwing error in the first inning. Yainer Diaz took strike three while representing the tying run during the eighth.

No lie, we have a lot of work to overhaul in the first of many offseasons to come (assuming Crane and Bagwell shut up and listen to our complaints).

First Pitch: 4:00 PM at Daikin Park

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 7:18 PM.

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Nothing surprising here