Alex White had an impressive start. 7IP 2H 2ER 2BB 7K That follows Woj posting 7IP 3H 2R(0 ER) 1BB 7K on Friday.
If they finish well, I think they will. I'll bet they move Peacock, you can always get something for an arm like his, even if it's not much. They will probably try to force a Feldman trade, even if they have to eat a lot of money. I think we also cut bait with Martinez, Owens and Clemens. It wouldn't shock me to see White get some starts in Houston this year if Peacock has another bad start or 2.
as I recall, White's already had some starts at the ML level over the last few years...seems like it'd be soon they'd be giving him another shot up here. I think he pitched for the Indians???
He had half a seasons worth or starts, but it was with the Rockies. Coors field seems to blow up some pitchers, even their road starts suck. That's no guarantee of success here, but struggles in Colorado always come with a grain of salt. He was on track to be in the rotation last year before he needed tommy john surgery. Takes a full year and half to recover from that. He seems to be rounding into form so i expect to see him at least out of the pen. He's already on the 40 man.
I have a close friend from the Denver area who has come to the conclusion that it's IMPOSSIBLE to sustain a good team in Coors Field. He's arrived at this after years of being very defensive about how the park plays...and he's a huge Rockies fan. The kind of fan that travels to see them play Spring Training games. I thought about starting a thread on it in the Other Sports forum. He cites to an article that listed the toughest jobs in sports...and pitcher in Coors was one of them. But his contention is that it's the hitters who actually suffer the most...that they don't see breaking balls really at home...and they they get blitzed by them when they go on the road to places where the air isn't so thin.
With all the depth and current cusp talent the Astros have, it's inevitable they'll lose some guys in the rule 5. White and Wojo have upside, but I find it tough to believe that they'll realize it in Houston. BA covered the 40-man crunch again this year. New 40-man protections include: DDJ, Folty, VV, Feliz, Trope and possibilities include: Danry Vasquez, Jandel Gustave, Chris Lee, Guduan, Torreyes. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of White/Wojo/Clemens/Owens/Martinez not protected.
His home OPS is .400 points higher than his road OPS. Most hitters in colorado have massive home/road splits. You expect the big home numbers, but hitters do seem to hit worse on the road than you would expect. Dexter Fowler is a good example, the world just assumed his numbers would fall off leaving Colorado, but they haven't. Same with Matt Holliday.
This is kind of how I have felt for awhile. Coors can OVERALL give players better offensive numbers but when push comes to shove, they are playing half their games in a stadium that has a style of play vastly different than what they see on the road.
Teoscar Hernandez is the 3rd player in the system to hit 20 home runs. With his homer in the 3rd inning of yesterday's Corpus game against Arkansas, he's also achieved a 20-20 season.
While that makes some sense, and I have also wondered about the home/road disparity, the fact that these guys still play 81 games a season in parks with normal air would make one think that they would see enough breaking stuff to stay adept.
I hear ya...I think the argument back is that you're usually at home for long homestands...for 6-12 games or so...then you go on the road for 6-12 games or so...then back home..and so on....so difficult to build consistency. There's little doubt that the ball doesn't break as much there as it does elsewhere...most hitters are seeing those pitches all season long...Coors hitters aren't.
