Lance looked very sharp against a good lineup today. I really think this could be the season where he puts everything together.
I think Chisek went 1 inning and struck out the side. Other than his 1st game, he looks good. Going to be tough if it's between him and Scrubb. Does Scrubb have the advantage because of his salary and Chisek only on a minor league contract?
What does he expect? The Astros have never fully disclosed any of his medicals. They even kept his COVID status from being disclosed. Then he plays two games and has to have season ending knee surgery...
Hopefully this is about the timeframe and healing point for consistency s/p TJ surgery. I remember thinking the same thing in last year’s tuneup against the Royals.
Tough call. Could say Chisek has the advantage since Scrubb still has minor league options. May need 4-5 strong arms in AAA too get through the year.
Yeah I was thinking because the main issue with Scrubb was his control so he could go to the minors and work on that. Plus lets say you choose Scrubb over Chisek and at the deadline you decide you want to add a veteran relief pitcher. If you kept Chisek, you could have saved assets/use those assets on someone else. But keeping Chisek, do they go over the luxury tax or just get closer to it? On a unrelated note, I saw an article saying Diaz as a utility man makes $3 million. But Toro and Siri can also be the utility man and make alot less. And the article, they were wondering if they would trade Diaz. So maybe trade Diaz and choose Chisek and Toro/Siri.
Interesting note on Whitley from Kaplan. Even though he was on the 40 man roster and injured he was able to be optioned to the minors because he did not accrue any MLB service time last year, and because he was injured before a certain date during Spring Training which is March 16th this year. Had he been injured after March 16th he would have gotten a year of MLB service time and a MLB salary. However, he has to remain on the 40 man roster. You can't move him to the 60 day IL. The Astros could call him up later in the year and add him to the 60 IL as a move to make a spot on the 40 man roster but his service time clock would start.
I think Chisek comes down to how much faith they have in Straw and how much salary they believe they would need to eat in a trade for a veteran OF should Straw be a blackhole in the lineup.
I don't see the link between Cishek and Straw. There are a lot of things that can and will go wrong, and Straw makes up only a small fraction of that. Maybe they don't keep Cishek because of all the things that could go wrong, but odds are of all the things that could go wrong, they will likely need pitching. If Cishek shows he can plug that hole (even partially), and Astros aren't already over budget, he will make the team regardless of how worried Astros are on Straw.
With how close the Astros are to the luxury tax threshold, I’m betting the decision on whether to put Cishek on the OD roster depends on whether they value him higher than either Diaz or Raley, since Cishek’s salary if he makes the team is 750K less than Diaz’s and 250K more than Raley’s.
I can see this though it would be very hard to part with Raley on his contract. If Astros have to cut payroll, Diaz is the one I'd try to deal if they want to keep Cishek.
