Different GMs, but the Astros seem to hit well with that profile of layer beneath star. Paredes fits that bill. Ryan Pressly was that profile too when we acquired him. And yes... if you can get a .780 OPS with team control at a a non-premium offensive position like 2nd, it allows you to do a lot of different things.
I’m WAY more on board with LMJ than almost everyone else here BUT we are playing the one team with a legitimate chance to catch us and going with him in game 2 after Walter tomorrow If anyone should be getting a longer break it’s Lance No Hunter Brown in this series scares the **** out of me considering how much we lie and hide injuries My God we don’t need to lose the first two and have the lead cut to 3
I am just hoping we have a major league starting lineup. Meyers, McCormick, Pena, Alvarez - hopefully all back. DD
There is zero chance Meyers, Pena or Yordan are back tonight Chas should be, but it's obvious the organization or at the very least Espada isn't very high on him anymore, so even though he is fully healthy who knows
Under no circumstances can lmj start another game for the Astros. Jason Alexander is a much, much better option now.
Ofcourse we can't afford to blow up pen and give sizeble lead every 5th day with Lance but that's probably not gonna change. Kinda poison too for team morale. Team is fighting to stay in race and everybody knows Lance should't be close to MLB mound. No war stories of good old days or being close with Crane will nullify that effect of team signaling winning is not the first priority. It might even make it worse, others having to play along and talk crap how one or too mistake pitch here n there was the problem with start and otherwise ball was coming great out of the hand. Trade for Hendriks (LA) and put him on teaching duty with Lance how he use to get by with Cubs having no stuff. Stop Lance from playing with phone and brushing his mullet every 15minutes to do control and sequencing exercises.
Yea, Lance seems to be cooked, you can't keep running him out there. At this point he is a long reliever at best, shut him down or do something different but he is NOT a starting pitcher at this point. It sucks as I love the dude, but he just doesn't have it
I agree that Lance is not pitchable right now. The Astros are in a tough spot because they gave a 5yr contract to a FA (to be) starter. Now Lance had plenty if injury red flags, but this is simply an issue with any and all starting pitchers. I love Lance and thank him for all he's done for the team and happiness he has brought me but just like Keuchel, Correa, Springer, etc, they have to let him walk. But since they didn't, now they are stuck. MAYBE he agrees to go down to the minors and work, like Montero did but I doubt it. He is a family man in his 30s with an entire life in Houston. And, despite how much he is being paid, he has just worked his tail off for over 2 1/2 years to get himself back to physically able to pitch. He is still only 31. He is still owed $17M next year. He has MLB tenure so can't be optioned.* He has 10/5 rights so can't be traded.* The organization is great at fixing pitching. He has the talent to get Cy Young votes. *Technically "can" but only with his approval There is no way the Astros are going to DFA or waive him. The best they can hope for is making him an opener and pairing him with a guy like Gusto or Gordon but even that can't be done until another starter is brought in or returns from injury. They could hide him at the back of the bullpen but then they are using a 12 man staff.
Options: 1. Keep him in the rotation but shorten his leash, meaning always having Gusto or another SP on deck ready to throw 3+ innings if Lance doesn’t have it that day. This protects Lance’s ego while limiting the damage he does to the team, but it also prevents Houston from putting forth their best chance to win games this season. This option is probably best in terms of minimizing his chance of getting hurt. 2. Move him into the bullpen as a scheduled multi-inning reliever, announced as a temporary move to “limit his innings coming off of such a long layoff and get him ready to be a full time SP next season”; he can be prescheduled to come in for one of the SP who don’t usually pitch deep and throw 2-3 innings every 3-5 days. This puts Lance in the best position to positively contribute to the team, but would be a ding to his ego and would put him at greater risk of injury relative to a normal SP. 3. Move him into the bullpen in a traditional relief role, starting in low leverage and working his way up. This gives Lance the highest realistic upside imho, as he might be able to focus on his curve while maybe adding a mph or two to his fastball by pitching in shorter stints. But this would be a blow to his ego and greatly increase his risk of injury. 4. Convince him to go to the minors. I don’t see this happening, but it would be the only way to prevent him from hurting the team. He can get hurt pitching in AAA just as much as in MLB, so I don’t see any incentive whatsoever for Lance to agree to this.
