This is a reasonable take. The Astros pitching staff has been such an unpredictable mess for the last 2 seasons that it’s logical to argue that a 6 man rotation (standard of 5 days rest) is just the norm for them now because that’s how they’ve chosen to address the uncertainty across various factors, not just to accommodate Imai. The main reason I don’t believe that is because I just find it very hard to understand why they’d stick to that while their season tanks. Once they lost 7-8 in a row because of crummy pitching and a shallow bullpen, it was obvious they needed to shore up the rotation in the short term to win some games and keep from destroying the bullpen. If there wasn’t a concrete reason (like they’d promised their most expensive pitcher that they’d keep him on 5 days rest), they surely would’ve pivoted to a 5 man rotation to keep from having to throw multiple bullpen games in a single turn. If I’m wrong it means Dana Brown is a supreme dumbass. He might be a supreme dumbass anyway, but it will be because he put far too much faith in Imai. I totally agree that the GM really screwed up not bringing Gordon into the rotation and managing the staff more aggressively to ensure they had a cohesive rotation and enough fresh arms in the pen to mitigate the risk. Going back to look at who has started each game reveals they had no plan.
Yep, Teng had no business starting that game yesterday. I want to be angry at Joe for sending him out for the 4th inning, but at the same time, it's ridiculous you're asking him to manage a bullpen when they are consistently being overexposed because of stupid management decisions.
Bolton pitched well on 5/3 and had looked serviceable in 3 of his 4 starts. I don’t understand why they didn’t just keep stretching him out. It’s like they have continuously changed their mind about who they want to roll the dice on and it has just caused all their pitchers to be out of rhythm and ineffective.
True, but it feels like we've been doing a bullpen game for one of the 6 anyways . All in all , I don't think the problem is 5 man or 6man. The problem is our pitchers have been sucking
Yeah, don't get me wrong, we've made those decisions in the past because the team was good enough to warrant them. They ran that 6 man rotation with those guys last year in June when we were up in the division. I agree with the season tanking that they're probably not going to make that same decision but now having Imai might force their hand. When they signed Imai, they obviously didn't think it would be an issue because they were used to giving their guys 5 days rest regardless, but given who was in the rotation, they should have considered this risk given they had no one in the rotation outside of Hunter that has proven the ability to consistenly go deep in games at the MLB level. If I recall correctly, they made sure Hunter and Framber were spaced out during those 6 man stretches so that you weren't going 4 straight starts without one of them pitching. We can definitely blame Dana for not adjusting and having a plan, but at the same time, I'm not sure Imai would have been his first choice without Crane pushing to get into the Japanese market. Also, given the financial restrictions, I'm not sure he could have even afforded to sign someone like Suarez or King instead of Imai.
100%. Bottom line for me is that once Houston committed to Javier and McCullers as SP for 2026, adding somebody like Imai should have been off the table. They’d have been MUCH better off going with a lower ceiling higher floor (and most likely less expensive) free agent SP. They had a lot go wrong that was mostly unpredictable. Brown, Pecko, Pearson, and Javier getting hurt. Imai melting down. Burrows taking 6 starts to click in. Weiss being completely unviable. Gordon, France, and Bolton not fully stepping up. Ullola not being ready even for a spot start. Abreu sucking. Even if they’d managed their roster construction a lot better they’d still have an issue. But it wouldn’t be as devastating as it’s been. The only things that have really gone right are Arrighetti and Lambert. Making assumptions about their offseason projection for SP depth in the first half of the season: Brown (hurt) Imai (weak) Javier (hurt) Burrows (delayed success) McCullers (predictably inconsistent) Arrighetti Weiss (horrible) Pearson (hurt) Gordon (meh) Ullola (not ready) Pecko (hurt) France (meh) Lambert Bolton (meh)
You're still missing the fact that they are on a 5 man rotation. Calendar dates and game dates are not the same thing. Mike Burrows has pitched Games #2, 7, 12, 17, 23, 28, 33, and 39 for the Astros. Only twice has there been a spread of 6 games - 17-23 (when they inserted both Arrighetti and Lambert into the rotation) and 33-39 when they had a rainout and it bumped everyone back. He's had more 5 days rest because of other players' injuries mixed in and a ton of off days for the team, not because they were rotating 6 pitchers. Brown, Javier, and Imai pitched every 5th game when they were healthy. Arrighetti and Lambert have also pitched every 5th game outside of the recent rainout bump since they've joined the rotation. McCullers has as well outside of some injury issues. The rest have been randos filling in the TBD roles. Again, you simply have no clue what you're talking about. They are rotating 5 pitchers. Who those pitchers are has been in flux because of injuries but the healthy ones generally have pitched every 5th game. That may change with Imai coming back, but if you had done an ounce of research, you could have figured out that this has not been the issue. So yes, the fact that you based massive complaints about the organization on something they aren't doing and based on one player that wasn't even part of the rotation for most of that time makes you pretty ignorant. Doubling and tripling down when it was repeatedly pointed out as incorrect makes it just willful stupidity.
You are one dense *******. Like I said, your entire argument is based on the semantics of 5 days rest vs 6 man rotation, but even that argument holds no water. It was widely discussed in spring and thru opening day that the Astros planned to utilize a 6 man rotation but wouldn't need a 6th starter until a few weeks into the season due to off days. Peep this article from the official astros site when it was announced that Arrighetti was optioned: https://www.mlb.com/news/spencer-arrighetti-optioned-won-t-be-on-astros-opening-day-roster. The money quote: "The Astros are planning on moving to a six-man rotation once the season gets underway, which means that Arrighetti, who is apparently not being considered a bullpen candidate at this time, could certainly find himself in the big league rotation soon. Sending Arrighetti to Triple-A to begin the season there as a starting pitcher would enable Houston to have him stretched out to the point where he could be inserted into the rotation in mid-April -- when the Astros have a stretch of 13 consecutive games -- without a hitch." The most recent full turn thru the rotation was: Burrows (5/1) Arrighetti Bolton Okert/Weiss Lambert McCullers (5/6) HEY THAT'S SIX ****ING STARTERS!!!!!!! Why in the blue ****ing **** would Houston have used Cody ****ing Bolton and Steven Okert in consecutive ****ing starts if they weren't committed to holding on to a 6 man rotation? The obvious reason is because they expected Imai to be back for that 2nd bullpen game and when he pussed out they scrambled to backfill his spot, but couldn't move Lambert up because it was too late and because they still expected Imai back on his next turn thru the SIX MAN ROTATION. Lo and behold, that's exactly how it is playing out. The current turn thru the rotation is set as: Burrows (5/8) Arrighetti Teng Lambert Imai McCullers; Burrows is already listed as the next starter. HOLY ****ING **** THAT'S ALSO SIX ****ING STARTERS!!!! Prior to that, the Astros had off days that allowed them to use 5 starters over 6 days, as I acknowledged in previous comments. Do you want even stronger evidence that the schedule for ensuring 5 days rest was put in place primarily to accommodate Imai? The first turn through on the season, Brown and Burrows pitched on 4 days rest; so clearly the astros had no issue throwing those 2 guys on a 5 man rotation schedule, so its almost like the 5 day rest schedule was put in place for someone else....The first off day was 4/2, which put Javier, Imai, and McCullers on 5 days rest that time through. The next turn thru the rotation, Javier pitched on 4 days rest, and by some miraculous coincidence, there was an off day on 4/9, which again, let Imai stay on 5 days rest. So now we've eliminated Brown, Burrows, and Javier as the reasons for the 5 day rest/6 man rotation schedule. Brown was then hurt, with Bolton taking his spot. Then Javier got hurt. Then Imai got..."hurt". The next turn through the rotation (starting on April 12th), they proceeded to use SEVEN DIFFERENT STARTERS IN 7 GAMES. Yet somewhere, Major screams into the void "THEY'RE ON A FIVE MAN ROTATION HURRR DURRRRRRRR". On April 19th, Burrows started on 5 days rest. The off day on 4/23 allowed them to only use 5 guys that turn. The next turn through, starting on 4/25, they again had an off day on 4/27 to assist. That brings us to where I outlined the 6 man rotation they are currently using. You are not just a dumb****, you are a rude dumb****. We've both embarrassed ourselves at this point and this dog-walking is as far as I'm willing to go. So if you want to have the last word, have at it. But also, **** you.
