Lol, they waited until he went into an 0-11 slump and then called him up. Hey, I'm just glad to see him called up and hope he heats up again.
I'm going to game tomorrow. We have ripped Pineda in the past. Should be a win. Wonder if they will throw Chapman with his pending trade coming.
At first I thought you were wrong. I THOUGHT I checked the standings just a few days ago. But I guess it was longer cause when I checked we were in WC 2. But you are right. We are outside looking in. Hopefully Alex with help along with Gurriel. However pitching is still a concern. Yea Fiers turned in a good performance today. But he is not consistent. Keuchel SEEMS to be rounding into shape but not as sharp as last year. LMC seems to have ace kind of stuff but is still REALLY young. Fister has been a nice surprise. But I think another good starter, maybe not an ace but one good enough for a slot number 2? Chris Archer type? Also a closer that you are confident in. As good as Harris has been I don't have that same kind "oh yea we got this" with him trotting out like I did Wagner or Lidge before Pujols gave him the dropped a bar of soap in the prison shower treatment.
Couple thoughts: Would be funny if Luhnow trades for Pineda right before the game; put Ny in a bind and give Houston a big advantage for that game. Looks like Chapman won't be a Yankee after today, good that deal went through prior to Houston playing them. Also the Cubs gave up a Top 50 prospect for a rental closer; if Houston would have traded Reed, Martes, or Tucker for Chapman I wouldn't have liked that deal.
I'm intrigued by the timing. Seems like the team is doing so well right now. Was it Marwin's injury? Is it trade talk? Is it giving up on Rasmus? I'm intrigued.
I'd be really disappointed if this front office/coaching staff believed that Tucker had been "cured" to become a better fielder. By all accounts, he was bad at AAA as well in the field. He's a DH... until they finally get over their stubbornness and try him at 1B again.
If he is just a DH, he better keep swinging it well. There are now a lot of options to put in that slot. I would love to see Bregman play 3B with the chance of Valbuena leaving in the offseason. Unless they plan on playing Yuriel there.
It's not the end of the world if he plays the occasional LF to give one of the regulars a break (today it was Springer), but it should be in the rarest of circumstances. I expect Gurriel to mostly DH, but can also fill in the infield where needed. Also occasionally some LF. Marwin is probably going to be the most affected amongst the current players. I also expect more in-game substitutions depending on matchhups... Something this team is currently very limited in due to a lack of viable bench guys.
The astros haven't been doing so hot with call-ups lately. Correa last one I can remember that has performed to expectations. Also, Lane Mccullers. Singleton, fail. T.White, fail. T.Kemp, fail. C.Moran, fail. AJ Reed, fail. Chris Devenski though has played well. Hoping Bregman breaks the streak of bad callups.
White and Kemp were fringy prospects so I don't think anyone was shocked that they ended up struggling. But the truth is that of all 5 of those guys only Singleton was given enough ABs to even begin to adjust or have a large enough sample to judge. And even he still has a chance (albeit less than was expected 2 years ago) to end up succeeding in the majors. It's harder for contending teams to break prospects (especially non-elite guys) in to the bigs since expectations are higher and leashes shorter.
