I am not sure if anyone on the 13 man pitching staff could be optioned down, the only one that might be able to is Dubin. So that left the choice between Dubin and Bielak. Is Dubin pitching that much better than Bielak? This does take the 40 man to 39, so one open slot right now.
Bielak was a very valuable piece - a guy who is very limited in stuff/ability but grinds and can fill in and save the rest of the staff when unexpected issues arise (injuries, games out of hand) But in the positive- He had hit his ceiling and it was a 'tweener who would never stick in a rotation or pitch leverage innings. Those guys are easily found and the ones who must be able to go between MLB-AAA if a staff wants to keep fresh arms so the team is better off w/ someone else in that spot. I'm thinking there is a 40 spot open for Blubaugh? The bottom line is that as SP get healthy it was going to be harder and harder to keep Bielak on this team. And he's simply not good enough to give up on anyone else in order to keep him.
Bielak was a JAG. Seriously don't understand the love affair with all the JAGs on the 40 man roster. Not everyone is going to perform, Bielak was given plenty of time to show that he's not a consistent MLB caliber pitcher
Actually no but he does have 2 vs Col His 1st was 8/17/2020 vs Col and 2nd was 7/4/2023 vs Col both in Houston. There was a quality start in Toronto last year I missed, so he has 3 in his 21 starts. My bad The game you are thinking of last season was 7/19/2023 where he had a scoreless, 1 hit outing in Colorado, but only pitched 5 2/3 innings. In fact, in his 21 starts, he has only pitched 6 innings 4 times and gave up 4 runs in the other one. And that's part of the issue with Bielak being a #6 starter. W/ 6 starters there are only 7 guys in the bullpen not 8, and Bielak averages less than 5 IP per start (98 IP in 21 gs)
Brown doesn’t seem to care about having average mlb players, he seems to only look at a players perceived ceiling and if it isn’t high he isn’t interested Great teams always have several solid, average players around the roster
He was DFA'd That means Astros have a week to try and trade him then put him on waivers if it doesn't happen.