Hinch's tinkering was likely mostly him and Astros staff trying to keep people healthy. I hope Baker tries to keep players rested and healthy as well.
The Astros announced they will resume their workouts tomorrow at Minute Maid Park. According to a statement, the team "performed all cleaning protocols as laid out by Major League Baseball and will continue to follow said protocols and steps recommended by team medical personnel". They won’t play an intrasquad game as previously scheduled, though.
Dusty Baker said Astros pitching coach Brent Strom was “part of that exposure” that canceled yesterday’s workout. Strom was not in attendance today. Baker said most of the team’s major league pitchers had to be tested again because of it. No major league pitchers were seen today. Dusty Baker said Brent Strom was not the staff member who the team announced was "potentially exposed" to COVID-19. Asked when Strom or the big league pitchers could return, Baker said "hopefully very soon." Dusty: "We're doing what we can do and we're doing it with the people we can do it with…" Not ready to look too far ahead, Dusty Baker said he wasn't ready to name an Opening Day starter but "if it was tomorrow, Verlander". The Astros are playing a nine-inning intrasquad game tomorrow, and bench coach Joe Espada said he'd like to have those for the next few days.
With Urquidy and James still out, who do you expect will take 4/5 slots if those 2 don't make it back? I think Abreu and Pruitt (with an opener). Not a big fan of Pruitt's, but he's the stopgap starter Javier would be an interesting darkhorse.
Brandon Bielak is in that mix. Wouldn’t be surprised at all to see tandem starters. Javier, Bielak, Abreu, Valdez, Pruitt, Sneed, Whitley, and Conine would be the guys I would guess are in the mix to take rotation slots. If James and Urquidy are out, Bielak and Javier would be my bets to take their spots on the roster.
The Astros have placed Jose Urquidy and Yordan Alvarez on the 10-day injured list, according to the transaction wire. Neither man has been in summer camp with what manager Dusty Baker termed a "condition that prevents them from reporting to the field."
Its likely the virus... until proven otherwise. Most teams are going to have at least 2 core players that have it (or have had it).... the only question with them is how symptomatic they may be or continue to be.
Meanwhile, the Astros just delayed their Monday workout. Reporters were going to be allowed in from 12-4. Now it is 4-8 p.m. The team was awaiting COVID-19 test results for its pitchers. The club planned to play a nine-inning intrasquad today.
MLB's lack of transparency about whats really happening in the form of gagging MLB personnel from talking I find appalling. How is having everyone say "condition that prevents them from reporting to the field" any better than just saying they got Corona? Is anyone not going to connect the meaning anyway? Isnt that what people will think even though it could be some other reason? What does it accomplish other than demonstrate a feeble attempt to hide the truth? A fish truly does stink from the head down.
There are HIPPA implications in place. If the players don’t explicitly want their conditions to be announced, they can’t say what they have. Technically, these privacy concerns also exist when they get regular injuries on the field, but they always have to obtain the players consent before announcing.
