All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PVP that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on Root Sports unless otherwise noted. 4-25 Doug Fister, RHP (1-2, 5.94) vs. Taijuan Walker, RHP (1-0, 1.50) 9:10 4-26 Dallas Keuchel, LHP (2-2, 3.71) vs. Nathan Karns, RHP (1-1, 5.28) 9:10 4-27 Collin McHugh, RHP (1-3, 7.56) vs. Hisashi Iwakuma, RHP (0-2, 3.81) 9:10
Schedule makers really dropped the ball on this one. A night game in Houston... that ends up going long, followed by a flight to Seattle? They have get-away games (games that start early) for piddly road trips to Arlington/KC, but they have no clue how to not have the Astros fly cross-country for a game that will start a few hours after all these guys probably wake up?
Tough turn around, but grateful for another opportunity. Tough matchup against Walker. His WHIP has always been low, but this season his ERA is reflecting it better.
LWW Sooner or later we need to start winning series consistently. Also it was around this time last year when the Astros won 14 of 15 games...
I no longer have expectations. Just hoping they figure it out eventually. Hard to say they will with this pitching, but we'll see.
Outside of Keuchel, who seems to have regressed since last year so far this year, you can't go into a game feeling confident about the Astros winning so it's going to be difficult to expect this team to win many series until changes in the rotation occur. If Devenski is not in the rotation on the next turn and Feldman is sent back out there, that tells me the organization wasn't as serious about contending as they were letting on. It was irresponsible going into this season with this rotation.
Well, this is exactly how rotational changes evolve. You have underperformance... which leads to unexpected chances from some unknowns (Feliz, Devenski), which may lead to some exceeded expectation performances (which Devenski has certainly shown)... which leads to change. If you're suggesting that Feldman/Fiers/Fister should never have been in the rotation to begin with... with Devenski starting the year there... that's a little bit too rich of hindsight to buy. They all need to be better... mainly McHugh, who wasn't thought of as a question mark, but has been just as bad as the rest of them.
About half of the Astros of the Astros pitching staff is a dumpster fire. I've included Feldman and Keuchel on the "strength" of their last start. We have too many pitchers "to send to bullpen". Keuchel 3.71 ERA Feldman 4.58 ERA Fiers 5.73 ERA Fister 5.94 ERA McHugh 7.56 ERA Giles 8.31 ERA Fields 8.64 ERA Please provide a link to your post forwarning us of this disaster, before the season started.
I'm not getting paid the big bucks to distinguish the strength of a roster. I'm not a beat writer for the team or anything like that (although Drelich the former beat writer complained all winter about the lack of moves from front office). I'm just a fan on a message board. The front office is paid to see these things and be prepared. This is a failure so far by the front office imo. I admit I was caught up in the hype train of this team coming off of the first playoff run in over a decade but this team hasn't been all that good since the beginning of last year. The pitching did have a consistent year last year but tbh, looking back on it all, expecting a pitching staff of Keuhel, McHugh, Fiers, Feldman and Fister as being trustworthy enough to take the next step in contention was unwise. The front office I believe banked too much on the young arm of McCullers instead of getting more proven solid starter help instead of rotation filler like Fister.
How was anyone to expect the failure of the rotation? Every starter has been a disappointment. We could have expected a step back from some guys, but this has been several leaps backwards. Of course, David Price has an ERA of 7.06, Grienke is at 5.25, & Gallardo 7.00. Maybe we didn't need to go chasing FA starters. Ian Kennedy has been great, and if he hadn't received a qualifying offer, he was a guy I would have wanted them to sign, but I can't complain about it in hindsight.
I'm not saying it should have been expected that the rotation overall would suck like it is currently but come on, the current rotation couldn't have been what the front office felt would be enough to be in serious contention. I truly believe again they banked to hard on a young arm balancing out the rotation in McCullers. If they knew McCullers would be injured I'm thinking there would have been more urgency to do more then sign Fister. Sometimes bad luck happens but the more I look at it putting so much hope into a young arm balancing out the rotation on a team expected to contend for a world series seems unwise to me. I'm just tired of drinking the Kool Aid of the front offices in this town. I'm tired of the excuses.
I think that is exactly what they though, after seeing how well the starters performed last year. A Cy Young winner, a 19 game winner, and a young stud who pitched his butt off. Get a couple of innings eaters for the 4 and 5 and go to battle. I don't think we can fault the FO for the failings of the rotation so far. The track record should've been enough to go on for the guys they picked for the rotation. The FO can predict a lot of things, but they couldn't predict that half of the 25 man roster would all struggle at the exact same time...which is what we are seeing right now.
A lot of the national pundits were questioning the team's pitching along with the former team beat writer. It appears these pundits were dead on. I know us Houston fans are sensitive to national pundits criticism of our ball clubs and I admit I feel Houston team are pooped on more then most but mainly because Houston teams haven't accomplished much. Anyway, I was thinking just like you. I was the typical optimistic fan thinking, hey maybe the pitching can be good again this year, but I want to give a FO more credit then thinking like a fan. I would think they would take into consideration some slippage in performance and solidify the rotation accordingly. And like I keep saying depending so heavily on a young arm that they had on pitch counts all last year as being a key component to steadying a rotation with some question marks just doesn't seem wise. McHugh was really the beneficiary of a lot of run support last year so this year's fall is not surprising to me. I don't know. I just don't think the FO fully thought this through. It happens.
