There is really no reason to trade for Quintana. Devo has the potential to be a very good SP eventually, plus we have Martes waiting in the wings. I'm very comfortable with the top 3 we have right now. There is still a chance McHugh comes back in 6 weeks and is very good too.
I haven't posted much in this thread because I don't feel strongly either way. Martes and Tucker could be stars for us, maybe as soon as this year for Martes. However they may never be anything, while Quintana is a proven stud. More so than most deals, I'm really torn on this one. Despite my neutral feeling on the possible deal, there is always a reason to trade for a great pitcher. You need 5, and possibly 4 in the playoffs when their value skyrockets. Even if we have an awesome top 3, an awesome top 4 is even better.
Who said we don't have an awesome top 4 currently? Astros haven't had a bad outing from a SP yet. With a few more runs from the offense and Gregerson's blunder of a game. This team could have a few more wins right now.
The concern has never been about the performance of the top 4 when healthy.... its simply their health that's the biggest question mark. Dallas and LMJ are coming off injury plagued years. Morton has been habitually injured. Musgrove has also had multiple injuries in the minors, and he (along with LMJ and Dallas) will be on game to game pitch/inning restrictions. Obviously, all teams are going to be dealing with injuries at some point... and depth and flexibility of the staff will never be a bad thing. Yes, Devo could be the next to step up... but you also do weaken the pen with his promotion. I'd actually keep Devo where he is and consider Feliz (who doesn't really have a clear-cut role in this bullpen.... he's the 6th inning guy, or the backup setup to Harris/Greg).
There will come a point, assuming he dominates AAA, where calling up Martes becomes a better option than trading for Quintana. And maybe that's what Houston is counting on.
if you're saying that at some point this year Martes will be a better ML pitcher Quintana then that's just not true.
I doubt Astros expect Martes to be a better option this season. Astros likely think they can get a better deal at deadline when more than Quintana is on the trade market and/or that the CWS just want too damn much. Astros also likely want to see starters pitch for half a season before devoting too many more resources to this season.
Really? Because there had been a lot of talk on here about Keuchel not being good anymore. Really LMJ is the only one that people haven't said much about performance wise.
Keuchel pitching thru an injury last year was problematic. Certainly it could happen again... and he withholds it from everybody till after the season again, and in the mean-time everybody simply points out its due to his natural regression, or just him being closer to his career numbers than the Cy Young numbers. I did feel there was regression expected going into last year, but I also expected him to still be very good (and not close to the Keuchel of 4 years ago). At this point, he's looked solid in his first 2 starts. Velocity is consistent, control/command is back, and he's utilizing all his pitches again. Safe to say, he's feeling good. Its also safe to say that if he starts sucking or being more inconsistent, there could be another concern for injury.
"solid" ? Over his 2 starts, he has arguably been the best starter in the AL and if he had won Saturday, he would be a lock for pitcher of the week.
Pretty solid? Spectacular? Dominant? "Vintage"? Plenty of possible adjectives that all can describe similar performances.
Would you trade a healthy Alex Reyes for Quintana? Because with a dominant April-May, that's what kind of prospect Martes will be.
I agree. I think Q would be the target if we didn't have injury concerns. If we are going to trade Martes, it needs to be for a dominant ace IMO. Q is solid but not a guy that can carry a team.
Erroneous to me. I'm not arguing that Martes' upside in a single game at the ML level COULD be better than Quintana's best, even this season. I'm saying it'd be foolish to prefer a prospect who hasn't pitched above AA to a seasoned veteran who's consistently pitched like a weak #1/strong #2 over the last four years in any one game, much less an extended amount of THIS season or the playoffs. TBH, i'm pretty much writing off any of the young starters besides McCullers pitching significant innings in the post-season. Martes if he's on the playoff roster will likely be way past his innings numbers from last year and only pitching out of the pen.
To me (and I think to most people), "solid" is not in the same realm as "dominant" or "spectacular". Solid implies workmanlike, steady. Perhaps a 3.00 ERA and a 1.2 WHIP rather than the numbers Keuchel put up over his first 14 innings. He has been outstanding thus far.
Nope. His FB velocity is 88.9 compared to 89.6 in 2015. FB velocity also typically increases into the summer.
MLB changed the way they report velocity as they are transitioning to statscast such that 2017 velocities are reported about 1 mph faster than previous years on average (i.e. from set point in space a certain distance from plate to point of release). Edit: If you are using corrected data, I will retract my statement.
I'm not comparing current Martes (who hasn't pitched above AA) to Quintana. I'm comparing a potential June Martes who has 10+ dominant AAA starts under his belt to Quintana.
Sorry... guess I'm not as free-dealing with my superlatives. He's been very very good... and most importantly, efficient (something that he had trouble with last year, mainly due to poor control/command). Also, while I'm cautiously optimistic that things are magically going to be like 2015 again... it wasn't till games 4-6 last year that the wheels truly came off (after he had a vintage 8 inning, 0 ER game against the Tigers in game 3). Lastly, he also suffered from the "one bad inning" phenomenon last year... usually around inning 5-6.
