Insider Says Sell Stock On Houston Astros Struggling Young Pitcher

After major expectations were placed upon this youngster, he has not delivered and that is a concerning sign for the Houston Astros going forward.

Apr 30, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown (58) / Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

This has not been the Houston Astros that fans and all of Major League Baseball has gotten to know during the last decade.

The normally unflappable, mistake-free, machine-like roster has turned into legitimately one of the worst playing teams in all of baseball.

After their extra-innings loss on Wednesday, the Astros are now 10-20 and sit in last place of the AL West, 6.5 games out of first.

By now, everyone knows about the pitching issues that have plagued this team during the early part of the year, but with Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez back in the mix, they are hoping they can put these struggles behind them.

They also got some good news when two of their other starting pitchers who are on the injured list made some important progress.

However, there is one glaring weakness in their rotation that could present an issue throughout the remainder of the year.

In his second full season of Major League Baseball, Hunter Brown has been a huge disappointment after looking like the organization's top pitching prospect he was ranked as early in 2023. Prior to the All-Star break last year, he had an ERA of 4.12 with 111 strikeouts across 94 innings pitched before a second half struggle put him at 5.09.

So far in 2024, the 25-year-old has an 0-4 record with a 9.78 ERA over his six starts.

Because of that, Chandler Rome of The Athletic says that it's time to sell stock on Brown going forward.

"... [his] six-run outing [on April 30] did little to settle concerns about his long-term viability in Houston's rotation ... Brown isn't missing many bats — his 23.4 percent whiff rate is below his career average — and hitters aren't chasing any of his secondary pitches. According to Baseball Savant, Brown's minus-8 chase run value is the lowest of any qualified pitcher in baseball and his 91.3 mph average exit velocity is in the ninth percentile among pitchers," he writes.

Those are not positive indicators that this is going to get turned around anytime soon.

If it was just a case of being unlucky, then there might be some confidence that things would even out for Brown, and he'd return to being a solid starting option.

That's not the case, though.

His WHIP is at 2.217, and while his FIP of 5.70 is well below his 9.78 ERA, there are too many things going wrong for him to think things will rapidly improve.

There's a good chance that Brown gets sent down to Triple-A and joins J.P. France after both players who were expected to take steps forward this season have struggled.