I say the Astros Organization develops the following pitches well 4S fastballs with rise due to magnus effects. Sweepers with a lot of magnus, but has SSW that causes even more horizontal sweep Curves with a lot of magnus, but has SSW that causes the ball to dive. Changeups with lots of tailing action. I think the cutter thing is still a new thing for the Astros. Garcia's cutter has a ton of seam shifted wake. France's does not (though it is low on active spin which usually creates SSW). While the final result is similar, how they get there is different (France's moves the way it should based on spin alone, Garcia's observed movement doesn't match the spin axis). I'd say Brown's slider is more likely a decedent of Garcia's cutter than France's. Framber's cutter moves more like the generic Astros sweeper, but with less movement. LMJ's throws differently than a lot of the Astros pitchers, but could be a decedent of the Garcia slider.
He has like 2 fans left here. The 2 guys who always slam Diaz and bring up his small sample size against lefties. one of em tried to slam Diaz last night after he struck out, but then Diaz got 2 hits, including a home run after that.
8/22/23 - Yainer back in bc Yordan hurt himself with a door. I wanted him back in the lineup but not like this.
...did we all collectively forget about JP France? How much should we count on him for next year...? Who comes back first: France, LMJ, Urquidy, or Javier?
France wasn’t very good even before he got hurt. He should not be factored in. Urquidy is extremely likely to be non-tendered or DFA this offseason. McCullers is probably the most likely to be the next of those 4 to actually pitch for the Astros, as he should be ready next spring, while Javier won’t be back until late next summer or even spring 2026.
JP France will be factored in as the 8th or 9th best starter like he was supposed to be this season when we're healthy. Him being under team control and optionable puts him ahead of most pitchers at his ability level. He'll hang around in AAA until he's needed like Bielak was, hopefully never.
I must say, as painful as this campaign has been, I am so grateful that we are still proper alive at this stage, given how many starters we lost. Tucker being out too obviously. Trying not to get too down about the losses in the overall context.
Our injured list rotation: SP1 - Verlander SP2 - Javier SP3 - McCullers SP4 - Garcia SP5 - Urquidy --- AAA - France
That's good enough to win a world series and people here still b**** that we didn't have a backup plan.
I was thinking that we just had to be .500 for the first half before re-enforcements would arrive considering no one expected Urquidy, Garcia, and McCullers wouldn't be ready until mid-season. But... I had a suspicion even then that the front office didn't expect 2 of those 3 to be ready until the very end. Anyways... coming into the season we could have had a projected September staff of the following: SP1 - Valdez SP2 - Verlander SP3 - Javier SP4 - Brown SP5 - Blanco SWING - France LONG - Urquidy MID - McCullers MID - Scott MID - Garcia 7th - Abreu 8th - Pressly CL - Hader
He's probably a bit better than Bielak ( and Julks as a position player comp). He will be very important the the Astros until he hits arbitration and then DFA'd the next season for roster space.
