2023 Houston Astros Thread

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

So was the seventh starter just going to hang out in the bullpen for long relief?

*Sixth.

And there were six guys last year.

1 hour ago, Guadaloopy said:

GTFO with this hindsight BS.  This is what farm systems are for. 

There was plenty of discussion around potentially adding rotation depth. Fair point regarding the farm system, but Brown kinda is that guy this year, no? Hopefully there is another that can plug in and perform reasonably well. 

[David Dennison 18,860]

4 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

*Sixth.

And there were six guys last year.

There was plenty of discussion around potentially adding rotation depth. Fair point regarding the farm system, but Brown kinda is that guy this year, no? Hopefully there is another that can plug in and perform reasonably well. 

LMJ, Framber, Javier, Urquidy, Garcia, Brown. 

Another arm would have made seven. Lance didn't get injured until after spring training started.

Which starters were available in mid-February?

Edited May 2, 2023 by David Dennison

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Some no names about to see a spot start. His time to shine 

Edited May 2, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

7 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

LMJ, Framber, Javier, Urquidy, Garcia, Brown. 

Another arm would have made seven. Lance didn't get injured until after spring training started.

Which starters were available in mid-February?

I guess our disagreement stems from the idea that LMJ should have ever been counted on as a reliable starting pitcher. I’m of the opinion that he isn’t. 

[David Dennison 18,860]

1 minute ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I guess our disagreement stems from the idea that LMJ should have ever been counted on as a reliable starting pitcher. I’m of the opinion that he isn’t. 

So you're of the opinion we should carry seven starters?

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

Just now, David Dennison said:

So you're of the opinion we should carry seven starters?

No.

[David Dennison 18,860]

4 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

No.

How many pitchers would the rotation have had if we signed another starter in the offseason?

[kevwun 15,788]

If you have 5 starting pitchers and LMJ is one of those 5, you actually have 4 starting pitchers and 1 who is extremely likely to miss significant time.

Edited May 2, 2023 by kevwun

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

5 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

How many pitchers would the rotation have had if we signed another starter in the offseason?

I wouldn’t have counted on McCullers. I thought I made that clear.

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

What are whitley’s cy young odds ?

[David Dennison 18,860]

18 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I wouldn’t have counted on McCullers. I thought I made that clear.

Which is fine, but if they had signed another arm in the offseason, we'd have seven starters when everyone is healthy.

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

3 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Never one to miss an opportunity to shit on this team...

 

They have Bielak and then Whitley as a prospect and France. Those are the 8th, 9th and 10th starters in your organization. That is depth imo. Nobody goes 10 deep (or even 7 or 8 ) in proven big league starters.  That's sort of bullshit. 

If LMJ is fine we still have a better 4 starters than anyone we are likely to match up with in the playoffs.  We have enough depth to get to the finish line if we don't lose anyone else internally, I think, but depth for the situation where you need a 10th starter to play an integral part doesn't exist on anyone's ML Roster- nor in most anyone's minor league roster- that kind of depth starts the season and the KC Royals #3 starter and comes over if and when you need it.  He might go by the name Jake Odorizzi or something like that. You don't pay that guy 8 or 10 M to be your insurance policy. You trade for that 8 or 10 M.  And to that point- Odo was essentially free last year when we traded him away.  He should be free this year if we have to trade for him (and not actually him- using him as a stand in for whatever JAG we get if we need to get a JAG). 

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

Damn that’s impressive. 
 

I wouldn’t be shocked if Garcia is done for the season 

It's his elbow. That usually means tommy john. I'd look at it the other way and say I'd be surprised if he wasn't done for the season.  At least with an elbow you are 90% likely to be as good as new after the surgery.  Shoulders that are fucked up if it's bad can stay fucked up forever. Longterm I'm more worried about Urquidy than Garcia but we might want to assume anything we get out of either for this season is a welcome bonus.  
Call up France and Whitley.  Both those guys should have more upside than Bielak. And I don't hate on Bielak. He's a perfectly acceptable dude to take the ball two or three times while a guy is going through a minor thing and not be a clown or embarrass you. He shouldn't be a stand in for any more than that. 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Throw the hell out of the young arms !

they get roughened up ? Tough shit, get back out there 

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

10 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Which is fine, but if they had signed another arm in the offseason, we'd have seven starters when everyone is healthy.

I tend to disagree with Hank and didn't want to sign another starter in the offseason and agree with your point.  Playing Devils Advocate though- LMJ always needs to be babied and it would be really good if Hunter Brown through no more than about 125 innings during the regular season before throwing another 25 or so in the post season as he's a rookie with relatively low use.  You could just short hand it and say- LMJ and Hunter Brown only count as 1 starter- we've only got 5 guys in that sense- we can use another proven veteran.  That's not a crazy proposition even if I don't agree with it necessarily.  

[David Dennison 18,860]

4 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I tend to disagree with Hank and didn't want to sign another starter in the offseason and agree with your point.  Playing Devils Advocate though- LMJ always needs to be babied and it would be really good if Hunter Brown through no more than about 125 innings during the regular season before throwing another 25 or so in the post season as he's a rookie with relatively low use.  You could just short hand it and say- LMJ and Hunter Brown only count as 1 starter- we've only got 5 guys in that sense- we can use another proven veteran.  That's not a crazy proposition even if I don't agree with it necessarily.  

Is there any way we get through May without seeing France and/or Whitley start some games?

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

1 minute ago, David Dennison said:

Is there any way we get through May without seeing France and/or Whitley start some games?

I wouldn't think so. LMJ won't be back.  So- even counting Bielak that's only 4 starters. I guess you could skip them all with the off days and only use 4- but why put the extra innings on any of your front line starters arms, and why would you want Bielak pitching every 5th day when you could see what you have with France and Whitley. I guess maybe Garcia says- haha- just kidding- my elbow feels great and goes back out there.  But I have to think Saturday is France or Whitley day.  And maybe it's actually Saturday one and sunday the other and Bielak gets sent back down. That could have always been the plan to have him ready in the bullpen until Urquidy's spot came up and then he was there to finish what Garcia started.   

Who knows.  

Interesting times. 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Dusty on 790 just now ….

Garcia - no new news. He’ll know more when he gets to the stadium shortly. Everyone has to step up. 
 

Enough depth to temporarily cover things 

Prayers for everyone staying healthy

brantley is close

Altuve just had a major check up, updates later 

dusty told bielak pre game - you never know when your opportunity will pop up, be ready and focused ha 

we need all the players. Everyone needs playing time, like Hensley wants to get him going 

tread water until everyone comes back, then we go swimming 

 

 

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

 

8 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

LMJ always needs to be babied and it would be really good if Hunter Brown through no more than about 125 innings during the regular season before throwing another 25 or so in the post season as he's a rookie with relatively low use.  You could just short hand it and say- LMJ and Hunter Brown only count as 1 starter- we've only got 5 guys in that sense- we can use another proven veteran.  That's not a crazy proposition even if I don't agree with it necessarily.  

This is/was my thinking. You can say we went into the season with 6 starters, but there’s context:

1. LMJ is oft-injured, coming off a season in which he made 8 starts, with no real timetable. He’s thrown more than 130 innings exactly once in his 6 seasons (excluding 2020).

2. Brown is a rookie who threw 126 innings between AAA/MLB last year - a career high for a single season.

My perspective is that if these are 2 of your six starters, you lack depth.

Now, if the club had reason to believe that anyone they could have signed to a 1-year deal was unlikely to be significantly better than Bielak or Whitley or someone else, fine. They may be right. I’d just feel more confident in that if they, you know, had a general manager/front office leadership making that decision. 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Roof open tonight. It’s damn hot and humid out there 

Edited May 2, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

8 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

 

This is/was my thinking. You can say we went into the season with 6 starters, but there’s context:

1. LMJ is oft-injured, coming off a season in which he made 8 starts, with no real timetable. He’s thrown more than 130 innings exactly once in his 6 seasons (excluding 2020).

2. Brown is a rookie who threw 126 innings between AAA/MLB last year - a career high for a single season.

My perspective is that if these are 2 of your six starters, you lack depth.

Now, if the club had reason to believe that anyone they could have signed to a 1-year deal was unlikely to be significantly better than Bielak or Whitley or someone else, fine. They may be right. I’d just feel more confident in that if they, you know, had a general manager/front office leadership making that decision. 

Same with catcher.  If the plan is - lets ride Maldy into the ground and dabble in either DIaz or Lee then so be it- but that wasn't what they did and they were in on Contreras. Nothing this offseason looked like there was an overriding plan but rather lurching from thing to thing to thing seemingly disconnected from any other move you make.  

I hate the depth thing- go get a good pitcher if you are going to do it. If I was going to do anything it would have been using the 20M you didn't spend at all and not bringing Montero back and going and buying an ace level guy for 30M.  

I'd have started with Rodon at the top of the heap and then moved on to Bassitt or Manaea if couldn't get him done.  

Rodon hasn't thrown an inning yet and Bassitt and Manaea are both negative WAR guys- so glad that didn't end up happening.  

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

who just called into 790 ? 
 

you predicted 15 starts for Whitley and an era under 3.50 

[Planet Houston 4,930]

Haha I just heard the same. 

[Chuckie Finster 22,694]

8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Roof open tonight. It’s damn hot and humid out there 

Would love to get the inside story of what really is going on with this shit.  A weekend of the most glorious weather we've seen in years, and not even a consideration of an open roof.  Yet this is now the second time this season that I've seen the team publicly announce an open roof with rain potentially in the forecast.  Fuckery is afoot.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Chuckie Finster

[Hank Chinaski 6,315]

16 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

who just called into 790 ? 
 

you predicted 15 starts for Whitley and an era under 3.50 

Whitley last posted an ERA under (or anything remotely close to) 3.50 in 2017 between (mostly) A and AA. It is currently 6.00 (7.22 FIP) in the PCL.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Hank Chinaski

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

5 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Whitley last posted an ERA under (or anything remotely close to) 3.50 in 2017 between (mostly) A and AA. It is currently 6.00 (7.22 FIP) in the PCL.

[TexArcher 37,774]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

What are whitley’s cy young odds ?

220, 221, whatever it takes.

[TornACL 7,698]

39 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Roof open tonight. It’s damn hot and humid out there 

I am in town for this series, just saw the roof was open at the park. I figured maybe they leave it open during the day and then close it before game time.

At least it feels better (cooler) outside than it did an hour ago. 

[UTexasFight 9,450]

1 hour ago, Wulaw Horn said:

It's his elbow. That usually means tommy john. I'd look at it the other way and say I'd be surprised if he wasn't done for the season.  At least with an elbow you are 90% likely to be as good as new after the surgery.  Shoulders that are fucked up if it's bad can stay fucked up forever. Longterm I'm more worried about Urquidy than Garcia but we might want to assume anything we get out of either for this season is a welcome bonus.  
 

This.

Elbows are season enders

shoulders are career enders.

Really nervous with Urquidy and him saying ‘this time it’s different.’

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

who just called into 790 ? 
 

you predicted 15 starts for Whitley and an era under 3.50 

Not me. If you listen to the best new sports podcast of the year- Breathing Orange Fire- Available on Spotify and Amazon but not I-Tunes yet b/c apple hates me- you would know that wasn't me.

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

22 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

This.

Elbows are season enders

shoulders are career enders.

Really nervous with Urquidy and him saying ‘this time it’s different.’

That's a really good way to put that. I'm totally stealing it for the podcast. And not attributing it to you.  

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

23 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

This.

Elbows are season enders

shoulders are career enders.

Really nervous with Urquidy and him saying ‘this time it’s different.’

I missed all the Urquidy stuff on Monday night- what did he say?  Just heard "inflamation" in the shoulder.  

Now might be a good time to offer him a 5 year 15 million extension and Garcia a 6 year 20M extension. even if they both go tits up that's only half the money we are lighting on fire with Abreu.  If either of them come back to where they were before their respective injuries it's wildly valuable.  If not- it's a nice parting gift for them to toiling for minimum wage and being an important part of a couple AL championships and a world series. 

[Rimbo 25,935]

14 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

0.60 ERA - 0.27 WHIP - .063 OBA
1 BB / 16 K ( 15 IP)

facial expressions: 1.000

[Gourmand 7,774]

2 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Damn that’s impressive. 
 

I wouldn’t be shocked if Garcia is done for the season 

this is my expectation

[henrygandorf 29,191]

Quote

JOSE ALTUVE 2B, HOUSTON ASTROS

Jose Altuve (thumb) fielded ground balls on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park.

It's an encouraging sign that Altuve has resumed baseball activities as he continues to recover from mid-March surgery to repair a broken right thumb. The 32-year-old second baseman is targeting an early-June return to Houston's lineup.

 

[UTexasFight 9,450]

29 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I missed all the Urquidy stuff on Monday night- what did he say?  Just heard "inflamation" in the shoulder.  

 

Not a lot of detail. Just:

Urquidy was on the injured list twice in 2021 with shoulder issues, including a two-week stint with posterior shoulder discomfort. He said Sunday’s injury didn’t remind him of the injuries he dealt with two years ago.

“Nothing like that,” he said. “I got a test and everything was OK.”

[Storm the Field 5,294]

18 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

 

 

[Gourmand 7,774]

Fortunately JP France has been excellent at AAA and Whitley decent despite his ERA because overall the Space Cowboys have sucked ass the first month of the season. 

Their offense is dead last in the PCL by a wide margin in team OPS (.692), runs scored (104) and OBA (.326) and uncharacteristically they are 3rd-worst in striking out. Justin Dirden has a whopping .576 OPS with 1 HR and 4 RBI in 20 games. It's impossible to overstate how much he's sucked and how big of a disappointment he's been since getting sent back to AAA after spring training. 

On the pitching side they are slightly better but not by much with a team ERA of 6.09 (6th in the PCL), 1.72 WHIP  (7th), and a league-low 206 Ks. But at least the staff is 2nd in fewest walks allowed.....

In summary, the Space Cowboys fucking suck as reflected by their 8-18 record. Hopefully France and Whitley are up to the task because the task just got a lot harder. 

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Gourmand

[TonyTexas 10,513]

Is the honeymoon over for Dana Brown?

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by TonyTexas

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Let’s win this series today

[runthebone 7,982]

22 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

Fortunately JP France has been excellent at AAA and Whitley decent despite his ERA because overall the Space Cowboys have sucked ass the first month of the season. 

Their offense is dead last in the PCL by a wide margin in team OPS (.692), runs scored (104) and OBA (.326) and uncharacteristically they are 3rd-worst in striking out. Justin Dirden has a whopping .576 OPS with 1 HR and 4 RBI in 20 games. It's impossible to overstate how much he's sucked and how big of a disappointment he's been since getting sent back to AAA after spring training. 

On the pitching side they are slightly better but not by much with a team ERA of 6.09 (6th in the PCL), 1.72 WHIP  (7th), and a league-low 206 Ks. But at least the staff is 2nd in fewest walks allowed.....

In summary, the Space Cowboys fucking suck as reflected by their 8-18 record. Hopefully France and Whitley are up to the task because the task just got a lot harder. 

 

Any team that loses 22-2 has got some issues.

 

 

Seeing Altuve makes me irrationally happy.

[Rip76 4,928]

Garcia on IL.

 

[TonyTexas 10,513]

I would think that the Gage call up is very temporary and France will be called up this weekend when a starter is needed. 

[Limp Brisket 546]

8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Abreu in 4 hole.  Again.

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

37 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

 

 

 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

32 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Is the honeymoon over for Dana Brown?

 

 

 

[kevwun 15,788]

At least there's no mention of forearm tightness.

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

41 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Is the honeymoon over for Dana Brown?

 

That seems dumb to lose two starters and call up Gage and Bielak, but whatever.  It could just be that neither France nor Whitley are ready to go yet and they aren't needed for another start until the weekend, and Gage is up for 3 days. I sort of doubt it though. 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Without looking, I’ll guess gage can throw tonight and France / whitley had recent starts