T.J. Mathews has been released and Jim Mann was called up. This is weird because the 'Stros were greatly anticipating his return, and before he came back he had the lowest E.R.A. on the team. They sure didn't give him much time before they gave him the ax.
I'm not too sure I understand this move, unless they are freeing up roster space for players they are going to acquire via trade this week. I guess we'll stay tuned...could Brocail be next?
3 bad outlings following a 60 day DL stint makes him not good when 1/3 of a SEASON of solid performances means nothing? That doesn't make any sense.
His 1/3 of the season was a mirage - perhaps the Astros management realized that those three bad outings signified a return to normalcy for TJ, which is being a poor reliever.
I wonder if you said the same thing about Mike Hampton when he first came up, had a good first half and a lousy second half. I think this has more to do with him being injury prone than anything else. Poor performance right after being on the 60 day DL is not uncommon...to release him because of that is a knee jerk reaction. He has a better ERA and win/loss than Jim Mann who replaced him on the roster.
T.J. Mathews is a 32 year old middle reliever making more than he's worth. Players like him are easily replaced with younger, cheaper, equally effective talent that may actually have the potential to start or close one day. The only negative is that the Astros now have to pay him, even if the players go on strike. Striking players don't get paid - but cut ones do. So much for not throwing money out in case of a strike.
I really think that there is more to this than what it seems, especially since the Astros only have 39 men on their 40 man roster currently. I'm not saying that we're gonna make a trade, but they won't go to war the rest of the season with a 39 man roster.
