Right, if there is any chance pitching in the next two weeks will cause longer term damage, he’s going to be shut down. He’d already be ruled out if it was something that’s going to keep him out next season already without further damage.
What you don't want to find is the midpoint point between illusion and delusion. That is the most clear representation of our reality on this earth.
How is that delusional? People said similar things regarding Cole and Springer. Correa is amazing. One of my favorite Houston athletes ever. He bleeds orange, and I love it. It doesn't change the financial dynamics of what he is looking for, and that's it. If he gets his mega offer somewhere else and leaves, I just hope it's after celebrating another WS.
I agree; in baseball it's more about the team as a whole than, say, basketball where one player can heavily swing the outcome of a game. Honestly, going into this season, I didn't think we were championship contenders because there wasn't a bona fide ace in the rotation. Scoring runs was never in question even with Springer gone but the confidence level in the pitching staff understandably lessened, especially when you went from a two headed monster in 2019 with Verlander and Cole to a rotation of LMC and young guys. But look where we're at right now--4 games from getting back to the World Series. That's a testament to the team and not to just one singular player.
If it was a retiring Mel Clark pitching for a pennant to answer a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt's prayers of a family? Sure. But a player that is in his prime with an injury history, absolutely not.
I had confidence that Strom would get something out of the young guys, but to what extent I didn't know. Last season was positive bc so many young pitchers got experience, but it was also a tiny sample size. Over the course of the season, the rotation outperformed expectations, and while I still don't know who to trust on a given night, someone (or multiple pitchers) seem to step it up when we need it. It's definitely a weird and sometimes unnerving feeling compared to having Verlander and Cole in 2019. The team this year definitely has a collective approach and the hero seems to be different every game. I hope we bomb the Red Sox to death and make everyone quickly forget about McCullers' injury.
I'm sure if they think there is anyway he could pitch without damaging things further they will consider it. That's why they were getting multiple opinions. I'm glad the Astros staff doesn't seem to share your opinion that it's worth sacrificing his long term health for a 5-10% increase in the chances of winning this series.
Imperative that Valdez, Garcia, and Urquidy average at least 4+ innings per start in games 1-3. If Valdez doesn’t go 5 innings tonight it will put the Astros in a huge huge hole.
