Current expected return timeline of injured players: April: Sousa: on rehab, should be back next week Early May: Pena: should rehab over the next 2 weeks and be back early May Hader: faced live BP, should be back in 3-4 weeks Imai: TBD, injury seems phantom to this point Late May: Brown: resting for 2 weeks then will need buildup, best case late May Pearson: threw live BP but being built up as a SP so should take a month Meyers: injury comes with 4-8 week recovery, factor in a rehab stint and late May is best case scenario, more likely sometime in June June: Javier: same injury as Brown but a week behind August: Blanco Wesneski Walter
When I look at Houston’s season so far, 2 moments stand out for me: April 5th against Colorado, bottom of the 5th, Astros up 3-0. Bolton allows 3 straight baserunners. Instead of using De Los Santos to put out the fire, which would have allowed Weiss to come on in the 6th starting clean, Espada goes with Weiss, his only available bulk RP. Weiss then melts down and Espada is forced to ride him into the ground because he has no other bulk options. This moment was a failure of both Espada and Brown. It’s a failure of Brown for not bringing up another fresh arm to give Espada more options. It’s a failure of Espada by not understanding Weiss’s weaknesses and not managing his staff more wisely. April 11th against Seattle, bottom of the 5th, Astros up 7-2. After starting with a groundout, McCullers allows 3 straight baserunners. Espada lets McCullers face another batter who drives in 2 runs. He then goes to Okert, who had just pitched the night before, instead of Teng who was on 3 days rest. Okert gives up 3 runs to tie the game. Then Espada turns to Abreu in a tied 9th instead of getting another inning out of Blubaugh, who’d only thrown 17 pitches. Abreu predictably blows it giving Seattle the walk off. Reverse those 2 outcomes and Houston is 9-9 and all is pretty much well, aside from Houston scrambling to settle their rotation.
Having zero dependable starters...tis but a minor problem. Starting pitching never has been very important in this sport.
I know its hard with all the injuries and short outings by starters But in the past, there has always been a guy designated to come in with runners on to strand them and guys who always come in for clean innings. It feels like Joe is just throwing darts at a board to choose who comes in when.
Really hope Brice Mathews pans out abd becomes a star. Detroit just signed McGonigle to an 8year contract. I wonder if he was in consideration for the stros at draft time as he was available to be selected
Yeah, bad look for Dana for passing in favor of Brice given the hole Bregman left. It's still too early, but I'm not seeing much brilliance out of his 3 draft classes so far.
So was Luke Keaschall Dana doesn't seem to value the hit took nearly as much as strength and speed. I know Power is the most expensive talent to buy in free agency or through trade, but the chances of failure of the high swing and miss guys is just so high Brice is a great young man and I hope he makes it, but McGonigle and Keaschall both have multi All Star looks about them
Yeah, without multiple miraculous developments on the pitching front this team is just ****ed. Second in fWAR on the position side but next to last on pitching (with an overall negative fWAR to boot). How is that much mismanagement even possible?
Both Burrows and Arrighetti could improve the outlook pretty rapidly if things click for them. Both guys have ToR potential, just a matter of consistently putting it together. I would really like to see what Weiss or Lambert could do as a SP.
I am ready to option Yainer Diaz and bring up Carlos Perez. Diaz is a negative at the plate and not that much of a plus defensively.
I can't imagine how hard it is to live in a country where you can't effectively communicate with the folks you deal with daily and your daily routine has to change dramatically but come on man, your making $18 million per year and we need you to get your act together. I am not going to call him soft, but I am going to say you need to sack up young man, you have a job to do and stop giving out so much information, so your dinner habits have to change and things aren't perfect, I get it. I don't remember another pitcher that came over from another country and we hear he is homesick, the videos I saw of him playing in his home country he was a fire ball and I have seen ZERO of that "attitude" and I personally welcome it, get fired up and go be "that guy" We're rooting for you young man
The bullpen could be getting fixed pretty quick. Abreu looked usable last night, although I don't think I want him closing games anytime soon. Sousa should be back next week. Teng and De Los Santos have been effective. Okert is usable, although probably not consistently in leverage. King is nails. That's 6 guys. If you go with a 6 man rotation plus another starter available in the pen, the pen is set. This would be my staff: SP: McCullers, Burrows, Arrighetti, Weiss, Gordon (goes down when Imai comes back), Lambert RP: King, De Los Santos, Abreu, Teng, Okert, Roa (goes down when Sousa comes back), France (goes down when Hader comes back) Optioned: Blubaugh, Ullola, Alexander, Murray IL: Hader, Brown, Bolton, Imai, Walter, Wesneski, Blanco, Pearson, Javier, Sousa
