It just doesn't look to be in the cards for Whitley. The Astros are in position to call up a starting pitcher for the 2nd time this season (2 of them last time) and he gets hurt right then both times. Who is next on deck? Blanco or Dubin? Looking at rosters and stats, I think it has to be Blanco. Or Arrighetti or Gordon from Corpus. And that tells me that Dubin should become a full time reliever or traded.
On the team's pregame radio show, Astros general manager Dana Brown told @raford3 that Lance McCullers Jr. is "still (throwing) flat ground, light toss and we're going to see how he responds to that and circle back." On the team's pregame show, Astros GM Dana Brown told @raford3 that "it's tough to put a timetable" on Forrest Whitley until he rests for a week or two. Brown said the team was "really starting to consider" Whitley for the major league roster as a six-man rotation looms. On the team's pregame radio show, Astros general manager Dana Brown told @raford3 that they've discussed going into a six-man rotation during this stretch of 17 games without an off day. Ronel Blanco is the obvious — maybe only? — option to get into the rotation. —@Chandler_Rome
Just some early season observations: Yordan is really a franchise player in baseball, which is almost unheard of. It’s no coincidence we’ve been in the World Series every year he is healthy, he can carry a slumping offense. Jake Meyers has bounced back, part of it me finds it badass and bittersweet that Click bet his career on him when he wasn’t healthy. Hunter Brown is the best rookie pitcher we’ve had since Roy O, should run away with ROY. Maton, Neris, Abreu is a nasty bridge to Pressly.
I was looking at the AL ROY race, Brown is def in the lead but there’s some good competition so far. Ryan Noda, Josh Jung, Zach Neto, Esteury Ruiz, and Jose Caballero are all currently in the top 100 in MLB in position player war. I do think Brown will win it if he stays healthy and maintains his current production. But Jung especially could jump him if he takes off.
While that's disappointing, I get it. They don't want to risk rushing anything and having him be unavailable for the part of the season that matters. So long as he's back with the main club by August and pitching well, I am not concerned. Honestly same goes for Brantley, if he is ever going to recover, I just want him to be back by August so that they have a chance to be in regular season form by the playoffs.
They weren't taking it slow as is? I'm guessing the arm is never going to be right at any point... without him having surgery. If he's this touch/go with throwing off flat ground (or doing any sort of arm work), we're really exepecting him to go 5-6 innings in games every 4th-5th day? Let alone what kind of stuff he'll be bringing...
At this point, I think they have to proceed as though he's not coming back this year. Even if he does come back, the odds of him not re-injuring himself are really low if he keeps having problems in rehab.
Which likely means surgery given that the last two off-seasons of rest and starting the season later hasn’t necessarily prevented a flare-up, which will likely take him through next year as well. I actually think their excuse that it got “hit” during a champagne celebration was actually just the tendon getting re-injured after 2 post-season starts. Which means they had to have some sort of insight into his situation going into the off-season (not saying they should have matched the JV offer… but still go into it knowing he wasn’t a sure thing by any means).
I still have faith that Brantley will return and be productive, but a MLB playoff run and post season needs more than faith. This team will need a LH run proving bat for the best chance to repeat. If Brantley, Dirden, or Gilbert aren't ready by the deadline then a trade should be made. I have no faith in Lance. I love him and have hope, but that's all. This team needs another starting pitcher to get through the next 110 games. After Framber-Javier-Brown the rotation simply isn't playoff calibur. Furthermore any additional injury could be season ending. Then if Lance comes back, maybe he can piggy back w/ France to cover 7-8 innings.
At this point he is almost 7 months out of throwing his last meaningful pitch. It obviously isn't getting better with rest. Just shut him down for the year and have the dang surgery and start the recovery process. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over. This is the second year in a row we have tried rest and it hasn't worked. Just get it over with.
Last 14 days / 12 games= 8 different Astros have OPS of .796 or better. Yordan 1.087 Meyers 1.036 Altuve .903 Julks .860 Tucker .851 Dubon .810 Maldy .804 Bregman .796 Others Pena .694 Chas .567 Abreu .548 Diaz .429
The recovery is 9 months for the surgery. They are jeopardizing next season as well. Just shut it down and get the operation. He still has 3 more years on his deal. Get it fixed.
So he would be ready by March of next year. Just shut it down this year already. He has already done 7 months since his last pitch.
I agree... but LMJ may be the one trying to avoid it. He did as much after the UCL tear and did end up pitching in the 2018 playoffs (albeit, questionable results). And then he came back last year and was very good at the end of the season but either had a setback and crashed in the playoffs (or just crashed altogether). And obviously its not bouncing back after an off-season and current rest regimens. I'd expect we'd hear something soon as they should probably have a timetable of when he'd likely be unable to to be useful for this year even with partial recovery.
The possibility of Lance returning for the 2nd half is the only possible reason Brown doesn't bring in another starter. But how can he have faith in it? If Lance doesn't pitch in 2023 then Urquidy, France, and Bielak are the 4th starter options in the playoffs. I guess Urquidy isn't the end of the world, but the team already showed how they feel about him last year in the post season.
Crane has and will likely authorize a trade for a starting pitcher… which was the only way this era of the Astros got elite pitching, before the homegrown guys started showing promise. This last setback probably has Brown evaluating those options now. Prior to that, I’m sure lance was giving enough optimism that things would eventually get there… but I don’t see how they’re going to be complacent for now (albeit they are holding it together… especially thanks to Hunter pitching better and better).
Yeah- you have enough guys there to have a bullpen game if Urquidy is healthy. Any game he starts is going to be a bullpen game at the first sign of trouble.
