Justin Verlander shut down 'a couple of weeks' with forearm strain

Correction from earlier... 2004 was when we had Kent and Beltran but no Pettitte and Miller.

 

This may be the last time national media takes the Houston Chronicle reports as gospel

 

What is Tennessee Oiler columnist doing here?

 

Pettite pitched all of 2005 and the playoffs. That team doesn’t sniff the WS if it wasn’t for the phenomenal trio of Clemens/Pettite/Oswalt.

 

Correction - 2004 made it to the NLCS powered by that incredible lineup. No Miller and Pettitte for the bulk of that season.

 

Had both been there for 2004, they win the World Series.

 

I don’t know who, but someone is definitely getting suspended. Either Chandler Rome or one of the outlets for running with it.

 

Would have won with just one of those. Or at least Wade Miller in middle relief.

 

But still completed the season... albeit in limited capacity

 

****KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

 

So, multiple thoughts about this... it has so many potential implications.

1. If it's just a forearm strain that he can completely recover from in a couple weeks and is back pitching a little over a month from now that's ABSOLUTELY best case scenario. You can probably survive that long without him and still make the playoffs and then anything can happen even if you're not a top 2 or 3 seed in the AL.

2. Worst case scenario is that it's a forearm strain that inevitably leads to TJ surgery. Now, even if he needs TJ he could still tough it out in the playoffs/end of the year like LMJ did in 2018 (LMJ's forearm strain happened right around this same time in 2018). JV would then need TJ after the season which would guarantee he also misses all of 2021. Even if he got TJ surgery tomorrow he'd still likely miss the entire 2021 season. So, unless it really is JUST a forearm strain, there's a really high chance we don't see JV at all next season. Which leads to...

3. Let's say the Astros find themselves on the playoff bubble come the end of August. I know that seems really unlikely given how elite our lineup is (Yordan still not in it yet), but there's a very real chance that our pitching/bullpen depth leads to us being one of the few teams fighting for a playoff spot at the end of the season. If August gets here and you don't feel like you have a great chance to make a deep postseason run you all of a sudden have some really interesting choices to make. Do you trade some of these guys that are FA's after the season? Yuli? Brantley? Springer?

If you're confident that all 3 guys really do enjoy playing here and are serious about possibly returning for 2021 and beyond, would you maybe trade them for the remainder of the 2020 season to a contender to get as many quality prospects in return as possible? Then hope to re-sign one/two/three of them in the offseason? The Yankees did this with Chapman in 2016.

Or even yet, if you're on the outside of the playoff bubble, it would almost seem foolish (thinking long-term foolishness) to not trade at least one of those guys in the hopes of re-stocking the farm system.

4. If JV isn't able to come back this season (TJ surgery) and misses 2021, then we're talking about the end of the Astros reign as the class of the AL/MLB. That's not to say we would instantly be a terrible team. But losing a perennial Cy-Young candidate is going to hurt. Without JV in 2021 you'd have an aging Greinke, LMJ (think he has a great season this year) and then a ton of question marks to fill out the rotation/pitching staff. You could also theoretically be without Reddick, Springer, Brantley and Yuli. A team of Bregman, Altuve, Correa, Yordan, Tucker, Straw, Greinke, LMJ, etc. is still probably a team that competes for a WC spot, but probably isn't a realistic WS contender.

I know it's a lot, but I think all of us have similar kinds of thoughts running through our heads right now. We were so excited for the 2020 season, especially after the first 2 games. Now the future of this franchise (if JV does need TJ) is suddenly in flux. And a lot of decisions we thought were way off in the distance are now uncomfortably close.

And none of these points even take into account the personal aspect of it for JV. If he does need TJ that's a potentially career "ending" injury for him at his age. Which I think all of us can agree we really don't want to see for a guy who has done nothing but put this team on his shoulders every five days for the past 2.5 years.

 

I think we can still reasonably hope for ZG + LMC performing at an above average 1/2 clip. Most teams cannot lose their SP1 and still hope to have a league average 1/2 slot. That said, we really need both to stay healthy, now. Who knows...maybe Urquidy footholds himself into a legit SP3 option. He was almost there last year. I think this will hit the back of our rotation the hardest. Whitley would be a huge plus, but we’ll need Pruitt, James, and Peacock to log legitimate innings now and hopefully JV can come back by playoffs. If not, ZG, LMC, Urquidy isn’t exactly shabby even if it’s not top 3 material.

 

Well in all fairness, the rate of injuries + COVID could mean the season is 2 weeks.

 

Starter Josh James is about to become Gerrit Cole.

 

Its a long shot, but Urquidy, James, Whitley, Abreu, and Javier are 5 ready arms with high ceilings. Maybe this is the year the vaunted pitching farm bears serious fruit. Of course, hopefully Greinke and McCullers stay healthy and effective too.

 

Imo, he is out for the season. Given his age and the condition sensitive games. They revised it so that the Astros fans don't go !@%#@%@

 

Who the *** said he was out for the season originally?

 

Oh the backpedal lol.

Obviously the initial headline should have been "Verlander out, return uncertain." or something similar.