On Deck: What to look for during Astros/Angels

The Astros begin their first road trip of the season out west, starting their tour out west against the other Los Angeles team, the division rival Angels of Anaheim.

The Angels are off to a slow start, dropping their first two series against the Athletics and Mariners. What's worse is that their star player and last year's American League MVP Mike Trout will miss an undisclosed amount of games due to the expected birth of his child in the coming days. While he's on paternity leave, there is next to no one that can come close to his level of production.

The Astros will hope to get themselves back on track against their AL West foes. Here are three things I'm hoping to see from the team as they hit the road.

1. The hitting core (hopefully) wakes up

While some Astros have gotten off to torrid starts to the season (Michael Brantley, Carlos Correa), the rest of the team has been sluggish. José Altuve and Alex Bregman are both hitting .174 a piece through six games. George Springer is off to an awful 1-21 start. The rest of the lineup regulars (Gurriel, Reddick, Tucker, and Maldonado) are hitting a combined average of .225. Obviously, the lineup isn't doing well.

Thankfully, the Angels' pitching core offers a chance to get back into the swing of things. The three projected starters the Astros will likely face (Matt Andriese, Griffin Canning, and Patrick Sandoval) all had earned run averages worse than 4.50 last year. Their bullpen last year was also in the bottom half of the league, with a collective ERA of 4.64.

This series presents a great opportunity for the Astros to get their timing down and get more comfortable at the plate. Teams can't hope to keep a great lineup like the Astros' down forever, and perhaps this is the series where they start to turn things up offensively.

2. Life without Trout

For the most part, the Astros have fared well against the consensus best player in baseball. Against the Astros for his career, Trout is only batting .254 with an on-base plus slugging percentage of .884, easily his worst against division rivals and fourth worst amongst all teams in baseball.

That being said, it's never easy against Trout, so having him gone even for a few games drastically changes things for the Astros and the Angels. For Anaheim, it places more pressure on two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and newly-acquired Anthony Rendon. Both are also off to slow starts -- Ohtani's batting .174, while Rendon's managed one hit in nine appearances since returning from an oblique injury.

For the Astros, it means the team won't have to worry as much when the third-hole hitter comes up to bat. It's hard to imagine Zack Greinke worrying about pitching to anyone, but for recently-returned Lance McCullers Jr. and Sunday's mystery starter, it's one huge bat taken away.

No one knows how long it will take for Trout to return (though he's obviously entitled to take as much time as he needs with the birth of his child on the way), but for the Astros, it represents one less thing to worry about heading into Anaheim.

3. James or Bielak?

Josh James was not good in his first start of the year. His stuff was there, but his command was off in addition to his composure. James, long-considered to be teetering on the edge of fifth rotation starter and permanent bullpen arm, didn't do himself any favors to start the abbreviated season.

Brandon Bielak, who filled in for James after he was pulled, had a much better outing. He pitched around a similar amount of innings to James (three and a third compared to James' three), with two less earned runs allowed and five less walks. Bielak would earn the win for his efforts, and showcase why he had impressed so many prior to the season's start.

Thus, the question for Dusty Baker is this -- who do you start? Bielak had an unquestionably better game than James, but Bielak is still young, while James has been around the ball club for nearly three years now. When James' stuff is located well, he's nearly unhittable. It will also be Bielak's first start away from Minute Maid Park, though it doesn't seem to matter much considering the league's circumstances.

My guess is that Baker finds a way to utilize them both. James has spent all year being stretched out as a starter, and to toss him in the bullpen now with such little options in terms of starting pitchers would prove costly for the team. I could envision Bielak working the first three innings, and James coming in to clean up three more, or vice versa. If James gets the first three innings, I imagine his leash is short.

Baker is known to roll with players when they're hot, and sit them when they're cold. It wouldn't be too hard to imagine he employs the same thinking with regards to this spot in the rotation.