Carlos Hernandez should be about ready to come back by now, right? If not, we know Cy Backe is good for a couple of solid October starts.
If Arrighetti needs TJS the Astros will already be up to 4 SP on the 40 man roster expected to miss most if not all of next season. Something’s got to give.
We have let him call his own pitches before - he doesn’t poorly. He gets to caught up in the moment. He needs to trust his catcher and he didn’t. I’m sure Valdez will claim Salazar distracted him (and he did) - but the pitch choice was **** against someone that hits velocity well. Valdez thought he was sending a message to his new catcher, don’t distract me or question me- but it just made him look like a loser. I love Valdez - I know he probably feels a rookie shouldn’t question him, but he also has to realize that his success is when the catcher and bench are calling the game.
These pitchers are being “made” by the Astros, Dodgers and Brewers. Arrighetti for example puts forth a tremendous amount of effort and energy into his delivery- same with McCullers… the payoff is low eras and pitchers that exceed expectations… the downside is half your staff on the DL at all times…. Go look at the injuries that the Dodgers have had on the pitching side the last few years. This isn’t all bad luck for teams like the Astros and Dodgers, this is a biproduct of engineering these guys. John Smoltz and Kip Gross have been very critical of it. The Astros have had a lot of success with this philosophy. However it means having 8-9 potential starters to have 5 healthy. It is also why Brown has been so aggressive trying to trade for starters BUT not sign them as free agents long term.
So basically pitchers should want to come to the Astros to learn how to maximize their output, do well and put up numbers, and the go elsewhere to get paid without blowing out their arms.
I wonder if Salazar on the step off attempt saw a signal come in from 2B and was trying to set up a conference with Framber before the pitch.
Total guess but he is entering his age 32 season, hasnt been great defensively, and has been a backup almost his entire career. So even though he is coming off 2 really productive years as a hitter, I think he will still be looking at 2 years, somewhere between $14M/2yrs and $19M/2yrs. I think he represents a decent value even at the higher number. But I don’t expect Houston to sign him.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cristian-javier-is-back-but-at-what-cost/ Decent article about Javier. Huge start for him tonight. With Arrighetti getting hurt Javier is basically their only hope of having a legitimate Game 3 SP in the playoffs. They have a lot riding on him. I expect Alexander to get rocked if he pitches in the playoffs and Garcia still has to prove himself over the next 3-4 starts for me to think he’ll be viable in the playoffs. Otherwise we will be looking at a Blubaugh bullpen game, which I’m actually fine with in a game 4 but not in a game 3.
Separate topics... Lance will end up in rotation if 6-man rotation is maintained, but it's crunch time... For rest of regular season based on current rotation: SP1 - Brown SP2 - Garcia SP3 - Valdez SP4 - Alexander SP5 - Javier For wildcard: SP1- Brown SP2- Valdez SP3- Javier/Alexander piggyback?
Garcia seems to have taken his most sweet time in rehab and was effective in Sugar Land... even though the 'stuff' was not as great, the results were better. The potential game 3 wild card starter if all goes well would be your ALDS game 1 starter.
