Burrows and Imai will be in the rotation unless they’re hurt. Imai requires a 6 man rotation so that’s that. 1. Brown 2. Arrighetti 3. Lambert 4. Teng 5. Burrows 6. Imai
With the way the pitching is coming together, there is a lot of hope that the Astros have a very good chance of making a realistic play run. The offense has slowed down a bit from their extremely hot start; even with the injuries I think there is enough offense to make this a super competitive team.
The offense is going to have major issues so long as Altuve and Correa are both on the shelf. At this point they have 3 quality hitters in Yordan, Walker, and Paredes and then 6 guys who are barely playable. They got some luck with Shewmake having a hot streak. They really need Pena and at least one OF to be consistently elite hitters. They have finally been able to sort through all their pitching lotto tickets to get 3 guys who are pitching like playoff caliber starters in Arrighetti, Lambert, and Teng. Arrighetti is due some regression but still should be viable as a #4. But their bullpen is very shallow. King is a decent 7th or 8th inning option but is not a viable closer for any team that has playoff aspirations. If Brown and Hader come back fully productive to their standard, the pitching staff should be pretty good. The bottom line is that the Astros have put themselves in a huge hole even thought they’ve gotten huge help from their division rivals sucking along with them. They currently sit with about 10% chance of making the playoffs. Until they string together a 6+ game win streak, no one should expect this team to make the playoffs. And if they don’t put together such a streak before mid July they will probably be deadline sellers. You never know, a win today followed by a sweep of the Rangers would have the whole world singing a different tune about the Astros.
Yes, the playoffs are a long shot - one that they shouldn’t expend any assets on unless they get hot like the Braves did a handful of years ago and went something like 40-20. Still - the Astros clearly haven’t give up when I think most teams would have. I’ve been very critical of Espada, but he has to get some credit for that. Still there is no way that at home Dana doesn’t have a notebook where he is thinking of jotting down ideas to move Walker and others… unless he has been told his future rides on this season. I don’t think that is the case because I would have heard of it… Crane told Click his job was resting on some deadline deals he wanted that the rest of the organization didn’t want. Let’s see what happens when Brown and Hader come back. Does Arrighetti keep pitching to a 3.5 era the rest of the year? Is Hader still Haderade and an elite closer. Does Abreu comfortably slide to 7th or 8th inning duties? Astros actually have some pretty talented relievers from a stuff perspective. Tatsuya has the stuff, he just has a little too much Dylan Cease tendencies. Burrows only need to be around .500 and go 5-6 innings.
This has been the funniest talking point of the season , dumpster fire as it has been . All in all , we are feeling OK with a sweep now . ? Big series vs rangers coming up . Lambert is fun to watch pitch . I feel like he could also be an elite multi inning reliever in the playoffs. When he can control his tilt he gets some pretty nasty movement on his breaking stuff and is deceptive enough with the cutter . Blubbaugh imo is trade bait , kinda like bloss Our OF is stacked with youngish guys that all profile ok . Dezenzo Matthews Smith Meyers Cole Loperfido With Zach and brice getting bonus points for having some infield versatility With allen and shewmake stepping up , you feel OK with altuve and to a lesser extent Correa going down. Pena , walker , yordan , and paredes will need to step up their consistency. But this has the markings of a good couple week run imo . Last year the no-names played above water for an unexpectedly long period of time . You have to credit the clubhouse atmosphere for hanging tough and for guys being able to move all over the place . Shout-out Cole , Matthews, allen , and shewmake. I don't think I've seen Zach at 3b this year , but I haven't followed that closely. I won't elaborate on pitching much more in this post , as others have already mentioned how much it's stepped up . But , of course , it's been an enabler of our recent over .500 showing over the last 10 which is notable considering injuries and how we've been floundering .
If Houston were to somehow sweep the Rangers and win the Brewers series 2-1, they’d be 29-32, ~2 games out of the division, and sporting a 9-1 record in their last 10 games. At that point they’d need to go 58-43 to finish 87-75 which is very likely good enough to make the playoffs in the AL this season. That could break down something like: 16-11 in June 13-10 in July 15-12 in August 14-10 in Sept Even that is unlikely, but it’s far more reasonable than what they’re staring at right now. They’ve got to have a good long stretch of heavy winning in the next 45 days to dig out of the hole. This Cubs sweep is a good start but it’s less than half of what they need to start generating some real playoff hopes.
get this y'all, the tigers are worse than the astros wth is happening in detroit? had no idea they were that bad. is hinch on the hot seat?
It’s of course because Hinch is a ****ing moron……no it’s actually what’s happens when you get the dreaded Strovid 25. That’s when you lose a ridiculous amount of your starters to all kinds of “how is this happening and why” injuries. They signed Paul DeJong to help out and the dude pulled a hammy going from 3rd to home ramping up in the minors. maybe the baseball gods are indeed wreaking havoc for 2017 who knows.
Astros with Imai pitching 6 strong innings, just pitched the franchise number 18th no-hitter; moving them into a tie for 3rd most franchise with no-hitters. Great showing by Imai tonight!
Great game!! I kept waiting for someone to mention the No hit on the broadcast, but I guess that's taboo which is silly IMO but oh well, great game.......I had fun watching the Stros all weekend and at t the end of the day that's what I want......3 hours of fun
