Man I just dont get the hate for Whitley. Has he become what we all thought he would be ?? No, but I'm an Astros fan and until he's wearing another jersey I will be pulling for him to figure it out. Some Astros fans treat him like he's Trevor Bauer. He had maturity issues. Most of us weren't our best in our early 20s. I know it's a long shot. I hope he figures it out and becomes a damn good starting pitchers for us.
There's not a single one of us that doesn't want him to be awesome for us. A minor league player doing stupid s**t off the field, and refusing to listen to coaches on the field and you don't understand why people are really aggravated?
Scott Rolen is definitely a Hall of Famer. Because I caught a foul ball off his bat at the Houston All-Star Game, and that ball is worth considerably more money if he is a Hall of Famer. So he is definitely a Hall of Famer. Also, he’s been voted in, so that also makes him definitely a Hall of Famer. @Rocketman95 knows what’s up.
I'm usually not so prickly about threads going off track. But get this Scott Rolen crap out of here. Start a Rolen in the HOF thread. Don't care about that dude or pages of comparisons. It's almost spring training!!!!!!!!!! Now get off my lawn!
Easily explained in two words. Wasted Talent. Those of us who never had a fraction of his talent cannot understand wasting it.
I have to respectfully but strongly disagree with you sir. McCullers is clearly behind both of them imho.
The idea that there is a legitimate discussion makes me happy to be an Astros fan. And FYI I love Lance and his talent. I think this is the year he pitches 150+ innings and blows us all away with a CY calibur season.
Saw on Lance Socials his velo was up... which is great. He really missed that 96 mph heater to pair with his off speed stuff.
I’d like to see Cy caliber from him but I don’t think he’s has it in him after injuries. I think 2022 was the high water point for him and it was damn good. All star. Maybe 5th best pitcher in the AL. I don’t think he has a other gesture beyond that even if he’s fully healthy which is something you’d bet against. I love LMJ- this isn’t a knock. Just think life has lowered his ceiling a bit.
Even last season his average FB velocity was within about 1 mph of his average FB velo in 2016, which is pretty great all things considered. I think he'll be fine and shouldn't be judged for his lackluster post-season performance last year as overall he did fairly well considering the late start.
Lance is easily my favorite pitcher to watch when he is on. Absolutely clinical with location via the off speed. Almost impossible to square up. Other then that, give me Christian Javier the other 99% of the time. Something so beautiful about throwing fastballs down the **** and nobody being able to touch it.
Just researched this and was interested. Astros position player salaries since 2017 (actual earnings) All players who have made $10M+ Altuve $99.794M Brantley $54.556 M Gurriel $54.100M Reddick $43.815M Bregman $37.853 Springer $35.678M McCann $23.0M Correa $21.198M Beltran $16.0M Maldonado $11.987M A. Diaz $10.413M Due to him signing as international FA and not making pre arbitration salaries, Yuli made a ton of money as a "young" MLB player.
9 million per year isn't much these days. I would say that list says a lot more about how efficient we have been with spending than anything else. Even when you include the next 2 seasons we will have gone 8 years of elite offensive baseball with only one guy making over 100 million.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=4417c6b9-c8c0-447c-8eed-cbd7fe1b3f6e For those wanting to cause themselves pain, here's a compilation of every hit Javier has given up in NY.
Reduced regular season workload is one reason why I want to continue a 6 man rotation. I believe there are benefits in the post season which may not be apparent in the regular season. I have personally penciled in Hunter the first game we play six straight days (4/19) and maybe even earlier. As usual, we adjust to the situation when required. I would personally like a strict 6 man rotation from the get go, but the large numbers of off days early in the season may prevent that.
I hope for hybrid that keeps Framber at 5 days rest; Garcia, Urquidy, and Hunter (mostly Hunter) bounce between starting and pen as needed due to off days to keep others fresh and healthy.
