I don't know what you do with Feldman/Hernandez though. Hernandez has pitched well, and it's hard to give up on pitching this early in the year (they don't have much ready to step in when someone inevitably gets injured or struggles). I'm all for McCullers staying up as long as he merits it, but he or Obie may get caught in a numbers crunch for a bit until things settle out in July. McCullers could go to the pen too. Luhnow has his work cut out for him.
Assuming McCullers continues to pitch well, I would think Obie has to go to relief or the minors until something changes. Whatever they might think of Obie, there's no reason to swap them out in the hopes that Obie does what McCullers already is doing. Someone's going to get injured or start sucking, so he'd almost certainly get another opportunity.
Pretty much what I'm thinking, assuming Lance has another couple of good starts in the interim, like you said.
McCullers could take Deduno's spot and be the long-relief guy/spot starter (or 5th starter) If Oberholzer is ready to go and can stay healthy, let him take Thatcher's spot. That gives us a rotation of: Keuchel Feldman McHugh McCullers (or long reliever) Hernandez Oberholzer (5th or long) then big trade package in the summer for Hamels and bring up Correa.
Feldman right now is the long reliever on that rotation. Yes, he makes a lot of money, but, the way the others are pitching, that is the way to go
what is feldman's trade value? maybe another contender might want him. I never liked the signing, someone convince me he will pitch great again.
Would be awesome if our highest paid player is our long reliever though. That would be ground-breaking.
There's no way that you send Lance down. Don't mess with a young kid' s psyche by sending him down after he's had 2 great starts. Obie is not entitled to a spot in this rotation. I think Hernandez eventually regresses tho, and that is when Obie would fit back in the rotation.
Tough first 2 games, but the Astros can save face with a split against a good DET team. Yesterday's win puts us halfway there. In the series finale, Stros are facing a struggling pitcher in Sanchez (ERA 5+).... get the win and improve our stats.
Altuve gets a day off. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> lineup for series finale vs. Tigers. Altuve gets day off; Springer leads off. First pitch 12:08 pm CT. <a href="http://t.co/mlWfJnPGHj">pic.twitter.com/mlWfJnPGHj</a></p>— #VoteAstros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/602480279454789632">May 24, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
feldman eats a lot of innings. He does that consistently game to game and year to year. That is valuable and helps the bullpen. Obviously I'd be ready to move him out of the rotation as needed, but just saying guys like him have value also.
