Feels a bit harsh. Talent level I'd probably agree but he was good this year against MLB hitting for a long stretch.
I love Luis , but y’all are right that he prolly won’t be back till July I think he’s a horse I think Javier would be cool in relief . If his fastball is dialed up to 94/95 that’s how you get Cy Javier France looks good and I see no reason not to pencil him in BOR brown has been good enough that I’d like to see him continue to start
Javier in relief was the thought in 2021… however the inconsistent appearances impacted his conditioning and his ability to prepare for appearances. he may be the first reliever ever to be “scheduled” as he does need a routine. Or basically he could be somebody’s tandem reliever.
If the season were to end today (with Texas/Seattle playing one more game)... If Texas won then we win the division with the #2 seed (Seattle would not make the playoffs) If Seattle won then we would get the last wildcard spot with the #6 seed (Texas would not make the playoffs) Crazy how one game down the stretch can mean the difference of a #2 seed or not even making the playoffs. It's like the 1980s all over again.
If everyone was back healthy tandem would be the way to go. Framber JV Javier/brown France/Urquidy LMJ/garcia 5 man bullpen: Presley, Abreu, Montero, Graveman whoever from the minors. Don’t have Framber and JV back to back so bullpen gets an off day in between them. Nobody in the tandems should throw more than about 125 innings. Bullpen should get 2 days off (at least) per week.
Regardless of how this season goes, they need to make sure Javier has 4 months of full shutdown. Hopefully that means our season ends in November and he's not stretched out for opening day. The combo of career high, deep postseason, and WBC was 100% responsible for Javiers struggles IMO, and I don't think that's a unique opinion. I think Garcia as a starter is mostly off the table for next season, but he absolutely should be available to help the club by years end and hopefully in the postseason.
It makes perfect sense and include Brown and France in the " need 3+ months of rest" club World Series game 7 is November 4th. That gives nearly 3 1/2 months till pitchers and catchers report. I think bringing Garcia back as a leverage reliever makes a ton of sense as long as this team has 6 healthy and viable starters when he starts rehab games. It's a much shorter rehab. Then they can look at the roster and how he performed to decide whether to keep him there or ramp him back up for 2025.
Sometimes I get so beat down with how things are, I forget how they should be. I'd probably do something similar to this if everyone was healthy. I'd probably do a hybrid 6-man rotation with JV and Framber getting 5 days rest with the other 6 guys pitching as tandem starters/relief on 5 or 6 days rest with these 6 guys bouncing around absorbing the bye days to keep JV and Framber on schedule.
Probably repeating myself too much, but I feel like any role we might project for Garcia/McCullers can be filled by Bielak/Whitley to begin next season, whether that’s as long relief, back half of tandems, 4/5 SP, or in a traditional middle relief or setup role. Of course there’s more variance/risk, but I feel like both those out of options guys are worth giving a shot to. If they prove unable to meet the bar before Garcia/McCullers are healthy, the minors should be able to provide adequate replacements (Arrighetti, Gordon, etc.).
Why do you have any faith in Whitley? 1. He can't stay healthy. 2. Even when healthy he has done absolutely nothing in AAA. 3. He doesn't listen to coaches, so he is a headcase. Besides being a top prospect from a few seasons ago, what is there to like?
I wouldn’t say I have “faith” in him. I’m not talking about counting on him to be a playoff SP next year. I’m talking about pencilling him as one of the 13 pitchers on the big league roster to open 2024, holding a spot until Garcia or McCullers returns, or until he proves he can’t hack it and another minor leaguer proves ready to get called up. Even this season he showed flashes of still having a ceiling few pitchers have. While I consider the outcome of him ever being an ace SP pretty much gone, I do think it’s possible he could right the ship and provide some good value, even if it’s just in a low leverage middle relief role where he comes in and throws an inning full of 98 mph FBs and either gets rocked or dominates. For all the reasons to be believe he’s toast, the most compelling reason against that is that the Astros front office is still hanging on to him.
Is tandem pitchers even part of the organizational philosophy anymore? I know it was heavily stressed with Luhnow, less-so with Click, and now I’m not sure if any of the other teams are using it in development…. And certainly we’ve yet to see it translate as a “set” thing on the big league team, even though the Astros have a few prime candidates to implement it with. If Luhnow’s regime was still here, I’m fairly certain they would have found a way to at least attempt it… I still feel like it could work really well given the right candidates.
They have continued to tandem in the minors, especially in the lower levels. They’ve tandemed in AAA and AA but less consistently. Based on what I’ve seen, I think it makes the most sense to tandem in every level below AAA to develop as many prospects as SP as they can, and use a 6 or 7 man rotation in AAA, to keep guys who may need to be called up fully stretched out and have multiple AAA SP on full rest on any given day in case a callup is needed. I don’t necessarily advocate for a tandem in the majors, but I would be ok with having designated long relievers paired with certain SP to manage workloads and accommodate SP who can’t consistently throw more than 5 innings, which is pretty close to a tandem scenario.
This would be my ideal pitching staff roles for next season: 3 playoff caliber starting pitchers (Framber, JV, ???) 3 proven/upsdie BoR pitchers who can be expected to pitching 140+ innings (Brown, Javier, France) 4 proven high leverage RP (Pressly, Abreu, ???, ???) 3 fungible arms of varying ceiling/floor (Montero, Graveman, Urquidy) Hard to guess which category the other arms (Garcia, McCullers, Whitley, Bielak) belong in. Theres an argument for slotting Graveman and Montero into the proven high leverage roles and slotting those 4 other guys in the 2 open “fungible arms” slots, in which logic would point to Houston adding a quality SP this offseason. But more likely they roll with the SP they have and add a quality RP, simply due to costs.
The Astros expect Garcia back in the second half of 2024 - then again they expected Brantley back for a year, so who knows.
If we can swing a trade for Corbin Burnes he can be the third TOP starter. Milwaukee is going to have to pay Woodruff and Peralta after 2024, and Burnes sounds like he's unhappy. Verlander, Valdez, and Burnes would give us 3 top-end starters who can provide 180-190 quality innings.
