Last spot is going to be a choice between Hoyt and Feliz. Like i said, if Hoyt does not make the team is due to his last game.
Crane just said on 790 that McCullers should be ready by the second or third round of starts. Could afford us the luxury of being able to keep Hoyt over Feliz.
Going with 12 pitchers had something to do with it. But also, I cant help feel they would rather gamble on youth with a upside to get better as time moves on than with Wandy, a guy on the decline and little to no possibility of improvement.
Going with 12 men increased the odds of needing a long-man. I guess Feliz could be that guy. Keeping Feliz over Wandy would also make sense if the team wanted to hang on to somebody on the 40-man.
Looking back with hindsight, I think Wandy would have had to knock our socks off to make this team. Or, a combination of bullpen injuries with unexpectedly bad performance from other guys. While I cant imagine this bullpen being worse than average, I am not convinced it will be good or great either.
If Hoyt gets the last spot, who gets released from the 40-man for him? Peacock? Wojo? I think we are at 40 with White and Kratz being added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The 2016 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AstrosOpeningDay?src=hash">#AstrosOpeningDay</a> roster has been finalized. Read more: <a href="https://t.co/MMEXY2EbwW">https://t.co/MMEXY2EbwW</a> <a href="https://t.co/o6hAfxstSf">pic.twitter.com/o6hAfxstSf</a></p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/716007994828439552">April 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Spoiler
Very happy to see Feliz make it! People assume he will be middle man, I think he will be another great late inning option Love this roster
Yep... like I said earlier, him being on the 40-man already was the difference maker. I think he has the talent to supplant Fields if needed... with Harris/Neshek squarely in his crosshairs, should any of them struggle.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/JoseAltuve27">@JoseAltuve27</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/RealCarlosGomez">@RealCarlosGomez</a> swapped pants, and it went how you'd expect: <a href="https://t.co/nob6JjCh8U">https://t.co/nob6JjCh8U</a> <a href="https://t.co/yVDWFMlsE3">pic.twitter.com/yVDWFMlsE3</a></p>— Cut4 (@Cut4) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cut4/status/715970736821772288">April 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Glad Feliz is on the roster. He has a chance to become a dangerous weapon out of the pen, and we can always convert him back to the rotation, it's been done plenty. I imagine they will use him in low leverage situations to start with, but he has the firepower to become a shut down weapon. If he does, our pen suddenly looks dominant.