I was in the middle of editing the Tucker part of the post as I agree with this. Tucker seemed to just miss the sweet spot a lot last year and still had a great year.
Small, silly thing, but I like hearing that Forrest Whitley is engaged and has bought a house in Houston with his fiance. I'm oddly excited about him this year. The transition from overhyped 21 year old to settled down no hype 25 year old is a big one - if he's really in a right frame of mind, the talent should still be there. Could be a breakout.
Whitley's stuff still appears to be there, and he certainly showed flashes last season. But how many times has a pitcher struggled for multiple seasons to simply pitch innings in the upper minors and then found success? Not even deGrom struggled this much as a minor leaguer to just say healthy and pitch. At this point I would be shocked if he has any success whatsoever as a starter in the majors, and that has nothing to do with his talent or ability.
He did pitch 70+ innings though in a season before his debut. I would be surprised if Whitley could even do that.
The stability of an unmarried man falls far short of that of a married man. A man with a fiance falls slightly below the middle of that spectrum. I have made a lot of hiring decisions where this weighed heavily when all else was relatively equal.
We all understand this view and opinion. However there is no doubting the talent. His head is what has held him back. Even many of his injury issues could be, in part at least, due to not accepting advice or coaching. I think "shocked" is a bit strong for me. He will be a 25 year old in 2023 and is saying all the right things. He has a fiancé and bought a house. People (sometimes, eventually) grow up. He still has time to prove himself this season and then be a contributor for 6 seasons (ages 26-31) before he gets old. I don't expect him to ever be a #1 or #2 like I did 2 years ago, but 600-900 league average innings over the next 6+ years still feels reasonable. If not: OH well, the team could do way worse than having a guy like Urquidy on the staff instead.
Whitley's "stuff" couldn't even get minor league hitters out last yr. He gave up 29 ER in only 40 IP and his WHIP was 1.575 Would it be great if he could turn things around? Yes. However until he can show that he can at least start getting minor league hitters out there's no reason to be remotely optimistic about this kid.
It is extremely difficult if not impossible to find an example of a guy following Whitley’s path and ending up as a good MLB SP: 1st rd pick out of HS>top pitching prospect in all of baseball 2 years later>5 years of progressively falling stock due to injuries and off field issues>MLB ace??? That said, I agree with you. At 25 he is just entering his physical prime and that is also the age that many late bloomers mature personally. We’ve seen evidence his stuff is still there. I contend that with how he was pitching at the end of 2017 he could have been successful in the majors even if they’d brought him up straight from AA that year; rumors are that Luhnow considered it. All the potential is still there, the only thing that has changed is that the odds of him reaching it have gone way down.
Based on that interview, I hold very little hope that he has "figured it out". Look at the way he worded everything. It is still I, I, I. From what we've heard from Nook on this board, Whitly's issue has always been he doesn't listen to coaches and fiddles with his mechanics even when told not to. From the sounds of that article, he spent the whole offseason fiddling with his mechanics outside of the Astros coaching staff. If he reports to camp and they tell him to start doing things differently, what will he do? Probably whatever the hell he wants, based on that article.
I think it is because we know the potential for Tucker and Bregman is higher than Altuve. But reality is, Altuve offensively was substantially better last year and they probably don't put as much weight on defense in the list. Interesting enough they were 28, 29, & 30 last year in the same order. Abreu was 45. Brantley & Gurriel were were 77 & 78 (whoops).
Glad Dusty isn't concerned about LMJ But I am sure glad we didn't trade away Garcia/Urquidy last year like so many wanted
Here at Channel 11 are now reporting that the sky is indeed blue. In related news, Lance McCullers Jr. is experiencing some kind of arm discomfort.
Or maybe they were happy to improve C at the right price, but didn't see it as pressing, so they were willing to let it go for a small amount of money. You can't simultaneously say the Astros were desperate to improve catcher and also they weren't willing to pay a small amount of money over their valuation to fix it. The latter tells me they weren't particularly desperate and were OK with the current situation if that's how it turned out.
