Pitching - Are we concerned?

No way way too early, give it two more weeks for everything to settle. Still early April grass just started turning green.

 

Yes. I've written off the season like the Rockets season. Looking forward to 2017.

 

No. A 7.02 ERA that is 2 runs below the next worst AL club and 3 runs below the AL median isn't going to be the standard. Nor is Keuchel going to become a bad pitcher after 2 spectacular seasons.

As you said, the season is young. I would guess this ends up as one of the 2 worst 6-game stretches of pitching for the season.

 

The addition of a healthy McCullers will do wonders for the rotation.

 

I'm still of the opinion that last year's success will be hard to duplicate. I think this season is going to be the sophomore slump. But, predictions are worthless speculation so. Last season, we were picked to finish 25th out of all teams and one spot below the rangers by some publication.

I don't think we should be too concerned about slow starts to the season. We need enough games under the belt to see what patterns develop.

 

"Healthy" is the key word here. Hate seeing a young pitcher start the year on the DL, doesn't bode well for the season. McCullers' health and whether McHugh can repeat last year (at least the good parts of last year) will go a long way to determining how far this team goes.

 

While not concerned, I will say my tune has changed quite a bit from where it was this offseason, when I was a bit perplexed why the team (reportedly) was targeting TOR pitchers. Everything after Keuchel is a crapshoot - McCullers because of his age and experience; everyone else because, frankly, they're just not consistently good pitchers - they have flashes, and overall, they are beyond competent BOR starters. But, IMO, performance-wise, a tad too unreliable to be a team's 2nd or 3rd best starters...

 

McHugh repeated 2014 when he was solid last year.

Do you also ask if Carlos Carrasco can repeat last year, or do you trust that he'll be good even after a rough start to the season?

 

Very true, but I am just hoping that the Astros are just being extra cautious with McCullers, and that this is mainly being done to limit his innings. In addition to this start to the season for him, I can see a start or two being skipped around the All-Star Game as well.

 

[sarcasm]I sure am glad they didn't waste money on Greinke.[/sarcasm]

 

Keuchel's ERA is only 3.55, not exactly bad.

I think the rest of the rotation is somewhat concerning, but I think the odds of Fiers, Feldman, Fister, & McHugh all failing badly are slim.

 

I tend to agree; I have heard - and respect - all the advanced metrics that pointed to the Astros underachieving last year... but it still felt like they overachieved. I mean, the team didn't expect to be a playoff team last year, for heaven's sake.

You see young teams take that first step, often ahead of schedule, and then slip the following year, for a variety of reasons. I ran into resistance this winter trying to caution the many "if"s I thought a lot of fans were taking for granted and now, of course... Giles is off to a bad start; Gomez continues to struggle; McCullers is hurt...

Man, baseball is such a grind. I think the Astros will be OK this year - and they're certainly primed for a bright future - but a small setback before they set-out on yearly domination wouldn't at all be surprising to me.

 

There's actually room for them to regress in the pitching, and still improve upon their overall record from last year.

I mean, they had the best starters ERA all season... along with the best bullpen ERA for a large majority of the season. Anybody who expected all of that to be duplicated when factoring in this year's potential success would be very presumptuous.

The factors that could/should allow for overall improvement is if they get a full season of WAR from Springer/Correa/Gomez (which even with his struggles, still exceeds Marisnick), less platoon time for Rasmus, and more consistency from the 1B/DH positions (already seeing some of that)... along with the added WAR of Giles.

They obviously can't be scraping the barrel with starting pitching (as they are now), and I don't expect that to be the case... even if they aren't league best again.

 

I would think that starting off with all those games on the road had an effect, no?

 

I'll wait till they get back home for a stretch.


I think the weather's effect on our arms is underrated.


You go from 70-80 to 30-50, and it's going to disrupt you.

 

McHugh had four fairly terrible years before 2014, so yeah, I do question whether he can repeat last year. It was about June of last year, IIRC, that many fans were calling for McHugh to be cut. So he had an up and down year last year that ended fairly well.

I don't pay close enough attention to Carlos Carrasco to answer your question.

 

Why does everybody blame the weather in Milwaukee? It was 72 in that dome all weekend.

Unless we think the cumulative effect of NY and the time they spent going between the hotel/bus/stadium in Milwaukee did them in?

 

Its not too early to reasonable agree our pitching has started off awful. But I agree its too early to assume it will stay this way.