No idea on if Crane likes it - but I would think he has some interest. Gausman is a fairly big name. No - heard nothing on Alonso. Heard something on Guerrero a bit ago but not this time. Also - Baltimore, Atlanta also teams ready to do deals now if others cooperate
I would be so pissed if they trade dubon. Also if we had to depend on a pressley montero bullpen without Abreu would be stressful as ****
Abreu has been very inconsistent as well and has caused a **** ton of stress. But agreed, they aren’t going to trade a young high leverage arm without a suitable replacement.
Would rather keep Bryan Abreu and relocate Pressley who would likely have a chance to close again on the right team. Also prefer to keep Loperfido over Chas, but I'm likely in the minority there. He looked good in his limited time up.
The bottomline as of now is that the Astros are playing like an also ran, a .500 club at best. We are used to a champion, definitely a top tier club. At present they are nothing like that. They look very, very ordinary in all aspects of the game. This is a shocker for most fans who have been riding the "wave" for several seasons. Big changes in leadership would be a start. The season will soon be lost if action isn't taken soon.
It's June 3, and Spencer Arrighetti leads the team in pitching WAR. Imagine if someone had told you that on April 1? LMAO
It seems fitting that the year in which every other pitcher has been snakebit, Montero has been playing like he shoved a rabbit's foot up his ass in Spring Training.
Alvarez hitting .160 w RISP is astonishingly bad 1/3 through the season. If he was hitting a very pedestrian .250 would probably gives us 3-5 more wins alone, yesterday being a prime example. Just crazy to see our big boys not carrying their weight when we’ve needed them most which explains the abysmal record in close games.
Now imagine that he had an ERA of nearly 6...... Arrighetti is a prime example of why I was so critical of how Espada handled the pitchers early in the year. The 1st outing and the Brewers game are the two that really stand out. The 1st game is inexcusable to me. The Brewers game, I think that he went to the well too often, but the Astros had a big lead and Espada thought he would go to Abreu if Arrighetti faltered. The issue is that Abreu only made it worse. First game of the year for Arrighetti was 4/10 - He pitched a scoreless 1st and 2nd inning. In the third inning Espada let him give up 7 runs. I don't know that it is ever acceptable to let a pitcher give up 7 runs, especially a rookie in his first start. His second game, Espada let him go 4 innings. Interestingly enough he threw a scoreless last couple of innings. He was at 87 pitches through 4 innings. He could have possibly tried to get him out there one more inning, but it was probably the right call to pull him after 4 innings. It built confidence in the Arrighetti and the game was competitive after 4 innings against the Braves. His third game was against the Cubs. He gave up 4 runs in the 1st. He ended up going 3.2 innings and had a PC of 90. I didn't have an issue pulling him after 3.2 because the game was close and Arrighetti was tired. His fourth start was against the Guardians. He went 92 pitches and 5.2 innings. He got in trouble in the 5th but the pen bailed him out. His 5th start, he fell behind early, gave up runs almost every inning but not more than 2 runs in any inning. I can understand why Espada kept him in as long as he did. His 6th start, he faced Oakland. He gave up a run in the 4th and 5th but got out of it and the Astros were ahead. His 7th start was against the Brewers. Arrighetti was brilliant for 6 innings, up 4-0. Espada brought him out for the 7th inning and he gave up 4 runs. The pen let him down. His 8th start - he went 5 mediocre but competitive innings. His 9th start, he went 6 innings of shutout ball. He was already at 90 pitches after 6, so he did not start the 7. So if we look at his overall numbers...... 29 earned runs in 44 innings........ if we assume that Arrighetti gets pulled after giving up 4 runs in his first start, and doesn't go out in the 7th of the Brewers game......... that is 7 manager error runs in 7 starts, and his era still wouldn't be great, but it also wouldn't be nearly as ugly. FWIW it is hard to quantify how many of these "mistakes" actually lead to a loss. At most one, and that is even debatable. I am sure some of this is also on the organization - as they want Espada to get the starters used to not think 5 innings of work is enough.
But he’s on an uptrend in quality, stuff, and length of outings… Espada’s managing certainly hasn’t stifled his improvement. Same for Hunter Brown. Those two continuing to get better has served as optimism for not just this season but the future rotation prospects post JV/Framber. If full credit goes to the pitching coaches, so be it… but improvement is certainly there and deserves to get accolade.
Yeah, I don’t want to put all of their struggles on Espada, but I wouldn’t complain if they made a move. I think I’ve seen enough.
Agree with you that there is an uptrend in quality and performance. Also - the decision to keep the pitchers out there longer came from above - so it isn't as simple as Espada being stubborn. Arrighetti is essentially Frankenstein. The Astros front office and scouts identified him as a possible guy that they could "rebuild", and then Arrighetti put in the work. The Astros played up his stuff by modifying his delivery and focused on improved velocity and movement, at the expense of control and command. Arrighetti at times struggled with it in the minors as he moved up the ladder, but he did not give up or revert back to his old pitching style. As a result, Arrighetti can walk too many guys at times, and runs a high pitch count - but he has good big-league stuff and the hope is with experience he becomes better at command and control (which he already has to a degree).
All of the struggles are not on Espada. He isn't the reason Javier is injured. He didn't handle the pen great early, but he did not make Pressly give up runs. He didn't make the Astros hit poorly with runners in scoring position.
