Houston has traded away 30+ prospects over the last 5-6 years. Here is the list of guys who have put up more than 2 fWAR in the majors during that time (war since 2015): Enrique Hernandez 7.4 Ramon Laureano 6.8 Domingo Santana 4.9 Teoscar Hernandez 2.7 JD Davis 2.5 Brett Phillips 2.0 Mike Foltynewicz 7.6 Joe Musgrove 7.1 Vince Velasquez 6.4 Josh Hader 6.4 Trent Thornton 2.0 I didn’t include Martinez, Villar, Grossman, DeShields, Stassi, Lyles, or Straily because they either weren’t acquired via trade or they weren’t considered prospects at the time they were traded. There are no former Astros prospects among the current Fangraphs Top 100.
Laureano is like Marisnick, except he's got an uncanny accurate, strong arm at times, can't run routes, and is a pretty good hitter.
Laureano and Hader are the only star caliber players they traded away. There’s quite a few fringe regulars (Davis, Teoscar, Phillips, Santana, Musgrove, Velasquez, Thornton). Folty could have been a stud. There’s still a lot of guys in other teams’ systems who are not ranked highly but have significant ceilings (Beer, Bukauskas, Martin, Cameron, Franklin Perez, Celestino, Alcala, etc etc etc). It’s pretty amazing how much talent Luhnow developed during his tenure.
Javier has found a little too much of the plate a few times. He has been largely unhittable outside of homers.
Watching our pitching staff is a bit different to me these days. Last year, with Verlander and Cole starting 40% of games and the Osuna, Pressley, Rondon, bullpen, it felt like we were all smoke, all the time. This year, with Greinke, Framber, and Javier, it's a lot more craft and guile. Both are fun to watch.
I don't mind this early in games when his fastball is 94 with a ton of "rise" as it will lead to whiffs, pop ups, fly balls, and an occasional homer. When his fastball is 91mph, it doesn't have the same movement, and he has to rely on changing his pitches and hitting location better. I'm hoping as the season goes on, he gets more endurance such that his fastball is still dominant in the 6th.
Gotta say, the most fun watching any Astro pitch for me, has to be Cy Young Keuchel. Working the bottom of the zone, dotting corner to corner. He was magnificent and deserved a no hitter while here.
Would have been sweet if James had panned out as a starter. James and Verlander in with Greinke, Javier, and Valdez is an ideal mix of pitching styles.
Against the Twins....Javier's fastball was either swung under and missed, fouled off, or a harmless fly/pop. This is why he is a FIP-beater. Here are links to all the contact in play: Sano Launch Angle (LA): 56 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=6801784f-1f66-4d1a-b68b-a931f238dacd Marwin LA: 40 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=a46dac8f-fe4e-4733-b001-b46a5427e0b5 Jeffers LA: 43 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=eee365c0-b2ca-4784-b81f-498e4bece08b Kirilloff LA: 47 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=66875c94-b129-42af-b5f9-f1106a5309aa Arraez LA: 44 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=7a177a55-f7f0-43d0-a122-dfd1c9ab15a1 Kepler LA: 74 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=ceba7d73-8d9a-4626-8af9-5cf2b3c7af3d These are the best swings Twins batters had against Javier.
[Premium Thread Bump] Javier's deception (from his low arm slot) and lack of vertical drop on his fastball (perceived as rise by the hitter) are what make him so unhittable. The Astros appear to place a huge emphasis on movement and spin, ahead of traditional metrics like simple velocity. Take a look at this article from 3 years ago. You'll see many players on the movement leaderboard who were not in the Astros farm system and the Astros went out and picked them up (Pressly, Neris, Maton, Biagini, Osuna, Morton). It looks like pitch movement is an area where the Astros really focus on when prioritizing pickups and in development. Javier's no-drop FB would be a tough matchup especially the day after facing Framber's huge drop offerings. They are polar opposite pitchers in terms of movement. Very interesting article below. Javier would be in the top 5 of the four-seam fastball rise leaderboard if he were ranked in this article (from 2019). https://www.mlb.com/news/pitch-movement-leaderboard-new-at-baseball-savant
I believe he threw side arm so it was a different type of rising fastball. The typical rising fastball is thrown overhand and really doesn't rise except in relation to the expected downward arc.