There’s a reason why you’ve never heard of him. We better have someone really crappy to give them later, because giving up anything at all for Velasquez is probably too much.
Short returns have been better than I expected. Bullpen will probably regress some, but still be Top 10 provided Astros can get some innings out of starters. I am liking Blake Taylor so far. Need to see more. Paredes's stuff has the look of a backend reliever. Hope he can control it. He and Abreu both have a chance to be very good relievers if they can keep the walks down. Sneed looks to be a guy that will be able to give innings without completely sucking. Bielak, the same. Pressly and Osuna should be back as anchors for the season once they work out kinks.
Seems like the rookies are outperforming the veterans thus far... I wouldn't be surprised if the Rookie Brigade displace Devo or Biagani
Osuna is official on IL. If Humberto Quintana is Q-Bert, does that make Humberto Castellanos "C-Bert"?
We have been so spoiled the least few years with our deep rotation and pen, that the baseball gods have decided to massively over-correct. Just tread water and hope everyone comes back healthy for the playoffs. But this is nuts.
LMFAO, Castellanos (who I honestly had never heard of) has 12 innings above A ball. So for those keeping track Bailey, Bielak, Castellanos, Javier, Paredes, Rodriguez, Sanabria (whoever the hell he is), Scrubb and Taylor. 9 of our arms had 0 major league innings prior to this season. Abreu and Sneed, 2 of our veteran arms, have combined for 30 MLB innings coming into the year. Hell, most of them haven't even pitched in AAA. Simply calling them young doesn't begin to describe this group.
...and they've impressed the hell out of me. I got a laugh out of the game thread on Saturday where everyone all of the sudden decided that the bullpen just straight out sucks. They're the one bright spot on the team as far as I'm concerned.
This is invaluable experience for them all. In a season where it’s about 50/50 that it actually finishes, it makes sense not to devote huge resources to bullpens. As it is, these guys develop into roles fairly organically... rarely is anybody developed solely as a setup man or closer. And as they get more and more acclimated after a non existent spring training, along with getting used to big league life, I’d expect their comfort level can only go up.
So Osuna is out. We have Pressly likely closing. We are without Peacock and I really do not think he will be good if he is ever healthy. We have James in the rotation and McCullers.......... James can likely go to the pen, or if we decide we like some of the young arms for the rotation, we can move Lance to the back of the rotation. Devo and Biagini can go play somewhere else. A lot of question marks.....
...until he too goes down. 50-year old Fernando Rodney will soon be closing. ...until he too goes down.
Isn't Roger actively throwing batting practice in Sugar Land? If he plays one game, it resets his HOF clock...
Honestly, with the way things are going, if there are any questions about Pressly's arm I'd rather they just shut him down now.
James and Taylor as the setup men. Pressly as closer. All other non-starters just available to eat innings. Replace James in the rotation with Abreu or Valdez
Two Astros make Rookie Power Rankings 4. Cristian Javier, RHP, Astros (No. 6) After a spectacular 2019 campaign in which he led the Minors in ERA (1.74), strikeout rate (13.5 per nine innings) and opponent average (.130) while advancing from Class A Advanced to Triple-A, Javier broke camp with the Astros and made a scoreless relief appearance before sliding into the team’s injury-plagued rotation and fanning eight batters over 5 2/3 frames against the Dodgers in his first career start. The 23-year-old righty permitted just one run on two hits and a walk in the outing. Overall, he’s allowed three hits and sports a 1.35 ERA and 9/1 K/BB ratio through his first 6 2/3 big league frames. 8. Blake Taylor, LHP, Astros (No. 27) A breakout performer across three levels in 2019 whom the Astros acquired from the Mets in the offseason Jake Marisnick trade, Taylor parlayed an impressive showing in both Spring and Summer camp into a spot an Opening Day roster spot. The southpaw has been lights-out so far this season coming out of Houston’s bullpen, allowing just two hits while working 7 1/3 scoreless frames across five appearances. He’s racked up nine strikeouts in that span, seven of which have come using his mid-90s fastball. https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/2020-mlb-rookie-power-rankings