why can't feldman start? straily against the rangers lineup is a little worrisome. hope he pitches an ok game. i'll take it.
OBP is not the strong point of either of those 2 players, thats why i hope to see Springer hit leadoff when he comes back from injury.
Feldman would be pitching on 3 days rest. They could have moved Kazmir up to pitch tonight and then had Feldman pitch tomorrow, but I suspect they don't want a short term issue to affect their long term plans.
This. Want to avoid a domino effect. Feliz and Olber pitched recently and moving up Kazmir and getting a poor performance would cause a domino effect. We can weather 1-2 loses as a result of the short start of McCullers but not a 4-5 game skid because the rotation is off kilter. I am sure he will be sent down after his start tonight and can decide to go with Feliz or VV.... Feliz has been very good, and would probably be my choice.
Kazmir last pitched on Thursday, so he'd be on full rest if they wanted to pitch him tonight. Now, they may already have it set in stone that they want "extra" rest for the starters going forward. Kazmir also probably has a set routine as well to get ready for his starts, and if its already in motion to start on wednesday, he may have just preferred to keep it there. Kuechel on track to pitch over 240 innings (with more in the playoffs!). Kazmir had the arm issues a few weeks ago, so they may be playing it safe with him as well.
And yet we still have a pen that is 2 men short of what it has been all year Just doesn't make sense to me
We'll see how/if they reset the rotation after the funky Bay Area trip. 4 games with the A's, then a day off, then 2 with SF, then another day off. They're spending the whole week in the same hotel in downtown SF. Back home for a 10 game homestand after that, then 3 games at NYY before they get another day off.
I figured Straily is being pulled up to be the long reliever in case we need one, and Kazmir would start tonight. I wondered who would be the long reliever once Fausto was released. Doesn't seem like there was a plan; almost seems like Hinch/Luhnow were hoping we wouldn't need a long reliever in August, and would just pull up another pitcher when the roster expands in September. But heck, we might need another long reliever tonight, so they had to pull up a pitcher. As far as options go, the two most likely candidates for being sent down were McCullers and Marisnick.
Does Carter have any options left? If not, then I would agree. But even as bad as Jake has been, at least he brings defense to the table. Carter brings . . .nothing really
Fairly certain that Carter is out of options. I guess they could option Tucker, but they seem to be relying on his bat more than they are relying on Marisnick's defense.
The implied question here is whether Marisnick's defense saves more runs than Tuckers offense generates. Given the offensive drought we suffered for a bit, Tucker made sense. When the offense finds its stride, or we start giving up more runs, then Marisnick makes more sense. Depends on which way the wind is blowing.
I just re-read Ortiz's tweet; I guess Straily is starting tonight, if the tweet is accurate. If he does well, will be interesting if they keep him around to be a long reliever or for spot bullpen duty. It's tough to have six "starters," as one of those starters eats up a spot that could be used for a bullpen arm.
They really weren't using Fausto all that much.... last game the starter imploded was Obie's game against the Yankees. And Thatcher (I presume that's the other guy) was really a situational guy. Fiers can take the long relief role if they really need him to, and keep it as a 5 man rotation.
Agree, and if they were just removing the long man and going with a 7 man pen, that would be ideal. They removed the long man AND another bullpen arm though. Was at 8 almost all year, and didn't remove the long man and go to 7, they went to 6. That is the part that I don't like. Hinch has done a good job mixing and matching the pen this year, but if he has a 6 man pen he is going to wear them out
No way they would even consider optioning Tucker. Tucker has been hitting very well vs RHP, heck he is the cleanup man vs RHP right now
Honestly, I think the Astros are just waiting to see what shakes out of trade waivers here in the first couple of weeks for bullpen help. They likely already have a player or two targeted, if it pans out they make the trade and if not, then they'll make other roster moves to bolster depth of the pen from within.
I think we are too low on the waivers pecking order to expect any kind of real help to emerge through all those teams in front of us. Especially those that stand to gain by keeping someone from us.
