I’m leaning towards no he will not. He still hasn’t begun throwing. Maybe he will be ready by August to help with a playoff run?
My thoughts: 1) the team is being extra careful because it's still April, Lance has never been durable, and they just signed him to a long extension. 2) Lance has said this injury is totally different than any one that might require TJS again. 3) no way the Astros designated Ivey for assignment if there is any chance they expect this to last into June so they could just put him on 60 day IL and save an arm in the organization. That leads me to conclude that Lance is pitching for the Astros by June.
Great post I expect him to be pitching after the all star break. Hopefully his arm is fresh for the playoffs. He's a 150 inning pitcher.
I have no idea because we just went through something that was thought to be minor with JV and he ended up needing TJS 5months later. The Astros are secretive as hell when it comes to injuries so who knows whats true and what isn't coming out of camp.
I don't think Jv's injury was considered to be minor. Tjs was recommended but Verlander thought he didn't need it and thought rehab would do the trick. Assuming he felt fine until September/October when he had to ramp it up. Unfortunate it didn't work but when Osuna did the same, it worked out for him. Unfortunately he was a free agent when he got healthy so it did Houston no good. As for McCullers, this is good news but I want to see how he feels after he ramps up his throwing.
So to the pen? I’d guess Odorizzi is the odd man out should Lance come back to start. Probably trade Odo somewhere for a couple low level prospects…unless he continues to pitch well. All assuming Lance comes back at all. Personally, I’d put him in the pen at least for this season.
Will we see a 7 man rotation Honestly, I think the future of baseball will be more and more 6 man rotations. Today's game is less about numbers and more about longevity. Especially when teams are paying outrageous contracts, they want to see their pitchers not overworked. We may see the 20 win season almost non-existent in the near future.
They need to revamp qualifiers. Having half a dozen qualifiers for the entire league in some categories is ridiculous.
6 is an exaggeration, but only 15 pitchers qualified for the ERA title in the AL last season, which is kind of ridiculous.
about a week ago, the qualified SP list was around there. Verlander was the only Astro on it and that was just because he pitched the night before.
