A lame way of just not doing it after the fact. I would think a year later pretty much shows he didn't care if he promised to or not. I wouldn't believe him about anything now. All hype.
He's not really wrong. He got a bit of a later start than those 2 guys, and only time will tell if he has their longevity, but his numbers aren't all that different right now.
Boras would have been better off pushing for an extension after 2015. And had the Astros bit, they would have gotten diminishing returns from it. All in all, both parties got as much as they could from each other. Astros got peak Keuchel at an affordable price. Keuchel gets to be a free agent after a relatively healthy year where he threw 200 innings + playoffs. That will get him some money, but everybody knows the best years are behind him.
Someone may buy that he's a better version of Jamie Moyer, in that he figured things out before age 34. [Separately, Jamie Moyer's career stats are amazing -- more wins after age 45 than before age 30. To me, you could tell which Keuchel you would get based on his fastball velo in the first inning -- if he was hitting 90-91, he'd be great. If he was topping out at 87-88, he'd get shelled. Despite being more of a control pitcher, I don't think he's going to have exceptional longevity like Glavine/Pettitte/Moyer.
Using not shaving a beard as evidence is dumb. It's an incredibly difficult decision to shave. I've been with my wife for 20 years. She's seen my chin 1 time. Whatever it is that causes you to not like Keuchel is more than him not shaving his beard...and what is a marketable look for him.
LOL, him saying he would shave it was just a load of BS. He probably knew he wouldn't, because as you say, he likes the attention of having that long thing on his chin. Who cares. It was all just meaningless banter he spouted off to get attention probably.
