That 2nd Inning, the Stros was too unfocused and too laxed. The Rockies were just trying to get a run with those sac bunts instead the Stros gifted them more runs than they should. The Rockies stole a base because no one was covering 2nd. Joey needs to change the batting order, it hasn't worked the last 2 games. The next series will show one team will be revived, or both teams continue their descend.
Second base uncovered was wild. Fielder was playing right behind the bag next play too. Where was he the pitch before? Then, the multiple wild pitches advancing runners. The offense really disappointed. Two straight one run games At COL. Stros had plenty runners. So now, Daikin is the launching pad, while road games are all bad batter's eyes. Stros could really REALLY use Arrighetti's playing well -- not too worried about the offense. The most glaring difference past 2 games vs all others, maybe coincidence but.... Spoiler
It's been 3 years of this. There's no Ronel Blanco from the minor leagues to bail you out with a CY young season. Blubagh isn't going to suddenly turn into a 3 ERA pitcher with time.
3 years of what, exactly? One of those years, they made it to ALCS game 7. Two of those years, they won the division. All of those years, their pitching was excellent. As far as Ronel Blanco - probably not. But he was a literal nobody when he was called up. No one knew there was a Ronel Blanco in the minor leagues then either. You and i have no idea what any of the Astros' minor league pitchers will do. And if all your major league pitchers get injured, you're probably going to suck no matter what. No team can afford to invest money in 7 or 8 proven starting pitchers when they have needs everywhere else too.
Feel free to watch the games.. it was clear the Astros only made the playoffs those seasons because of Seattle collapsing and how weak the division was. They were never serious contenders. This team has 1 proven starting pitcher. That's where their pressing needs have been -- period. We've managed to delay the inevitable with a 42 year old Verlander, minor leaguer's overachieving and short term trades like Kikuchi, but everything reverts to the mean and you're a hardy fool if you think progress has been made. The regression was evident from 2023. Patchwork doesn't fix leaky dams long term - you need a solid foundation. The time is now to leverage the value of Pena or Smith and bring in a marquee SP.
It's still early, but dam this was a horrible series, I feel like we have 1-2 SP who I trust and I am not sure what we will get out of Lance. We could not afford to lose Hunter and not having Hader since last year concerns me, we just don't have the horses in the BP and our SP is iffy at best. Seattle is 4-9 so there's that, but if we continue this stretch, we will be sellers at the break and IMO Joe will need to go, it may not be all his fault, but he is not inspiring any type of "hope"
Go ahead and place your bet with Vegas the Astros finish bottom 5 in pitching. You can profit off your keen observations. If the Astros have 15 injured pitchers/season, the ERA might suffer.
Did Detroit lose Skubal? Mariners lose Woo and Munoz? I don’t care about our record right now but you’re lying to yourself if you aren’t worried about the state of this pitching staff right now. Besides Hunter and two of our best bullpen arms being out, Abreu is averaging over 2 mph less on his fastball. And as shitty as Framber was yesterday, he still pitched into the 6th inning. Our guys aren’t eating innings.
I think they need to put Weiss in the rotation. One of the reasons I liked signing him was because he has a better chance of providing length than McCullers, Javier, and Burrows. He threw 178 innings last year. I have some confidence that Imai will be solid and consistently avg 6 innings once he gets established. And I still think Burrows will at least become viable. I am deeply worried about Javier’s viability and of course will never be fully confident in McCullers. Arrighetti could be a godsend or could be another guy who eats into the bullpen every start. Houston is in a serious pickle between Brown being out, Imai requiring them to field a 6 man rotation (and thus always be down a RP), Burrows/Javier being ineffective, and McCullers’ history. To me the solution is to pull Javier from the rotation for somebody who provides a little more stability (Weiss would be my choice, but Gordon and Alexander would also be in consideration). The other thing they should do that they aren’t doing is ensure they ALWAYS have 2 fresh pen arms for every game by rotating guys between AAA more aggressively. Blubaugh, Roa, Teng, Alexander, Gordon, and Murray should be on a rotation from AAA with one being optioned every 2 days until the rotation proves they can keep the pen out of the red. This would be my staff until things stabilize: SP: Imai, Burrows, Weiss, McCullers, Arrighetti, Gordon RP: King, Okert, De Los Santos, Abreu, Javier, 2 fresh optionable arms (Blubaugh, Roa, Teng, Alexander, Murray, France, Lambert)
Completely agree with rotating guys between AAA more aggressively. We’ve already been caught with our pants down multiple times this season because we didn’t do this. I’d be surprised if we see Javier soon given it was his shoulder but tend to agree with you - unfortunately because of his contract they will continue to start him once he returns.
Trammell is also coming up so Meyers must be going on the IL. I actually am excited to see how Trammell does.
For someone who tells others to watch games, you seem shockingly clueless. In 2023, the Mariners weren't even the primary competition in the end - it was the Rangers. Beyond that, the Astros finished with the 3rd best record in AL. The division wasn't exactly weak given that the Rangers and Astros were in the ALCS and the Rangers won the WS. In 2024, the Astros led the Mariners the entire 2nd half the season. The Mariners never collapsed - they just weren't all that good. They made a little run the last 2 weeks of the season but they were a 0.500 team most of July-Sept. And in 2025, the Mariners never collapsed - they dominated September. Literally none of the 3 seasons played out the way you remember,.
No, those teams are sucking despite being healthy. Imagine the panic here if we were 4-9 with Brown and Hader. Which is better? I dunno. And yes, the Astros have pitching problems. They also have a decade long track record of solving them. If they can't do it, they'll suck. Does the fact that that they haven't figured it out 2 weeks into the season concern me? Not in the slightest.
To add to this, losing Brown is obviously a big deal - but whether it's 2 months or 6 months is still unknown. Arrighetti could be decent enough to tide us over for a few months. Javier was terrible as it was - so you might replace him with another another terrible player, or you might end up actually improving as a result. So that's not a huge concern to me. It would be helpful to know a timetable on Hader, though. The talk this offseason was that the AAA pitching depth was way better than last year, and they managed through a ton of injures last year and found hidden gems like Alexander. Hopefully they can find a couple again.
I don’t care about the panic from the people here - I would rather be healthy. We have a long track record of having at least one, if not two, aces leading the staff. People here underestimate the impact Framber had by eating 200+ innings every season. Both the rotation and bullpen are the most questionable they’ve been in a long time. Could Sousa and Hader return shortly without issue and solve the bullpen issues? Sure. Could Imai step up and be that ace? Sure. I’m not saying the season is over - we are in a weak division. Maybe we even sneak into the playoffs. Without Hunter, this team isn’t making it past that.
I think that's all fair. I'm curious to see who replaces Brown/Javier. To me, Javier and Lance are kind of good/bad - you have to start them if you have them, but if you don't, you get a potential shot at finding a nice upgrade. I still think it's way too early to be concerned, though. I don't think we've gone from consistently one of the best pitching staffs in baseball to one where everyone in the rotation and bullpen sucks (as they do right now). So I assume people will find their footing and improve. Just as the offense will regress. No idea if Alexander can be decent, for example, but last year he was going 5-6 innings pretty regularly for us with decent numbers. That's a huge upgrade over Javier and would help takes some pressure off the bullpen.
You have a lot of faith in Sousa, a career journeyman with lots of injuries. He probably won’t make a difference and will probably hurt himself again.
