Keuchel McHugh McCullers Fiers Fister Feldman as depth That's a very solid group. A little righty heavy, but that can be resolved later. Also, I just realized that 4 of our starters are under control for at least 3 years: McHugh (through 2019) McCullers (through 2021) Fiers (through 2019) Keuchel (through 2018) Wow.
I've always enjoyed studying the origins and meanings of people's last names. I wonder how the "Fister" last name got its roots. Spoiler YOUR MOTHER? I'D "FISTER", TREBEK! /CONNERY
It's a must. Feliz, Martes and Musgrove will be knocking on the door. exciting stuff. Would love to see us bring in a Pedro Alvarez, Morneau or Steve Pearce to compete for AB's.
Keuchel (Age 28.027) McHugh (Age 28.223) McCullers (Age 22.118) Fiers (Age 30.227) Fister (Age 31.358) Feldman (Age 32.355) Not too shabby.
Fister has a career ERA+ of 117. While McCullers undoubtedly has the talent/potential to be our second best pitcher, we'll have to wait and see how he handles his largest workload and a new set of expectations/obstacles. That said, Fister is solidly in the mix as our third best pitcher. And he's going to cost$7-$12MM. That's a tremendous coup for Luhnow and the team.
Yeah, and he had several good years before last season. Astros pitching coaches have been doing a great job developing and maximizing talent. Chances are, Lister will be no different.
Scott Feldman was our opening day starter 2 years ago. Now, he may not even make the rotation despite 2 solid seasons.
Very little not to like here. I think he is a back of the rotation guy, but honestly, I would bet that his numbers will be comparable to Kazmir by the end of the season, and with much less long term risk. Very solid signing.
Wait a minute....didnt this guy win like 16 games in 2014 with an ERA close to 2.00? This is a great signing!
this is GD spectacular. His ERA slots in somewhere in the low to high 3's. With a move back to the AL, I assume it'll be mid-3's at best, but that's totally fine with me. Amazing K/BB ratio. Good track record. No draft pick comp. Moves Feldman likely (maybe Fiers depending on performance) to the bullpen while everyone's healthy, further strengthening the pen. And still money remaining for an infield signing or a trade should something come available. GREAT move Luhnow!
The part you deleted should've hinted otherwise, but that's your usual strategy responding to my posts. Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ak9VW04nluo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is a pretty good breakdown of Fister's velocity issues and his 2015 problems: http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/163065830/doug-fister-is-a-free-agent-fit-for-the-astros I came away a lot more encouraged after reading this, because there appears to be a very specific correlation between Fister's flexor strain in May and when things went south. In other words, it's not necessarily that he's just "too old" and/or lacking the velocity to succeed -- it seems a specific issue was the biggest reason behind his falloff last year. Assuming that's healed after an offseason of rest, he should be able to regain some of his prior form. The 2014 ERA was obviously a bit fluky, but I think an ERA in the high 3s isn't unreasonable.
Good signing. Low risk move with a high possible payoff this season. It means Straily, Musgrove, Feliz need to kick the door open to get on the ML team. Roster Spots will be hard to come by.
His velocity was down before injury. Injury cost him even more for 4 starts after injury, before returning to his 2015 pre-injury velocity. If you remove those 4 starts, his 2015 velocity for his sinker goes from 86.7 to 87.0. His sinker in 2014 was 88.61. Unless he was playing hurt prior to injury sidelined completely, I would think age still looks to be the biggest issue regarding his velocity.
Here's Fister's 2015 game log. Look's like he started well (April), then fell off in May perhaps due to injury. He pitches subpar after returning from injury (June), gets worse over the next 2 months (July-August), then goes to the bullpen and balls all September. Soooo, his most recent innings have been great! http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/30370/doug-fister Spoiler DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA Sep 27 vs PHI L 12-5 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 14 4 - - - 4.19 Sep 22 vs BAL L 4-1 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 0 26 6 - - - 4.24 Sep 17 vs MIA L 6-4 2.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 28 7 - - - 4.32 Sep 14 @ PHI W 8-7 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 15 4 - - Sv(1) 4.41 Sep 1 @ STL L 8-5 2.1 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 4 31 10 - - - 4.45 Monthly Totals 8.1 5 0 0 0 2 8 10 10 114 31 -- 0-0 1 sv 0.00 DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA Aug 30 vs MIA W 7-4 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 3 20 7 - W(5-7) - 4.56 Aug 26 vs SD L 6-5 2.1 3 1 1 1 0 2 4 3 36 9 - - - 4.66 Aug 21 vs MIL L 10-3 1.1 4 4 3 0 1 1 5 2 34 9 - - - 4.68 Aug 14 @ SF L 8-5 2.0 2 0 0 0 1 1 6 1 34 9 - - - 4.45 Aug 10 @ LAD W 8-3 1.0 1 3 0 1 1 3 1 1 26 6 - - - 4.55 Aug 3 vs ARI L 6-4 6.0 8 5 5 3 0 6 10 9 111 25 42 L(4-7) - 4.60 Monthly Totals 14.2 19 13 9 5 4 13 29 19 261 65 -- 1-1 0 sv 5.52 DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA Jul 29 @ MIA W 7-2 6.0 4 2 2 0 1 4 8 9 96 24 59 W(4-6) - 4.39 Jul 23 @ PIT L 7-3 5.0 9 4 4 1 1 6 7 11 99 25 38 L(3-6) - 4.50 Jul 18 vs LAD L 4-2 5.0 9 4 4 0 2 1 10 11 91 25 32 L(3-5) - 4.30 Jul 6 vs CIN L 3-2 6.0 8 2 1 0 1 2 9 15 86 27 51 - - 4.08 Jul 1 @ ATL L 4-1 6.0 7 4 4 2 2 4 11 10 98 27 44 L(3-4) - 4.34 Monthly Totals 28.0 37 16 15 3 7 17 45 56 470 128 -- 1-3 0 sv 4.82 DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA Jun 25 vs ATL W 7-0 7.0 4 0 0 0 1 4 6 14 111 26 72 W(3-3) - 4.15 Jun 18 vs TB L 5-3 5.1 9 5 5 1 0 3 12 9 87 24 33 L(2-3) - 4.80 Monthly Totals 12.1 13 5 5 1 1 7 18 23 198 50 -- 1-1 0 sv 3.65 DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA May 14 @ SD L 8-3 2.0 8 7 7 2 1 1 5 8 41 15 12 L(2-2) - 4.31 May 9 vs ATL W 8-6 6.2 6 3 3 0 0 3 9 14 92 27 53 - - 2.87 May 3 @ NYM W 1-0 6.1 5 0 0 0 0 3 10 11 89 24 66 W(2-1) - 2.61 Monthly Totals 15.0 19 10 10 2 1 7 24 33 222 66 -- 1-1 0 sv 6.00 DATE OPPONENT RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF GSc Dec. Rel. ERA Apr 27 @ ATL L 8-4 5.2 10 5 4 1 2 3 8 12 104 27 32 L(1-1) - 3.28 Apr 22 vs STL L 7-5 6.0 7 5 4 2 2 3 14 8 104 27 41 - - 2.37 Apr 16 vs PHI W 5-2 6.2 4 2 1 0 4 4 5 15 86 29 60 W(1-0) - 0.69 Apr 11 @ PHI L 3-2 6.1 6 0 0 0 1 1 14 10 95 26 61 - - 0.00 Monthly Totals 24.2 27 12 9 3 9 11 41 48 389 109 -- 1-1 0 sv 3.28 IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit BF AGS W-L S-BS-H ERA Totals 103.0 120 56 48 14 24 63 167 189 1654 449 46 5-7 1-0-0 4.19
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros' payroll is going to be right at $100 million for 2016.</p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/692812574593777664">January 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I meant velocity in a broader sense than just his pitches without contact. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fister's exit velocity before and after his flexor strain in May: Before: 86.27 aEVA, 81st percentile After: 89.71 aEVA, 17th percentile</p>— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJCassavell/status/692762582239739904">January 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Sure, the overall velocity leaving his hand was similar, but he was able to compensate by moving the ball pre-injury in such a way to limit hard-hit contact. That completely changed after the injury (81st percentile to 17th).
