With some talk of starting Abreu and perhaps an overpay of Montero to make sure he stays, it can be argued that the Astros are planning on losing 2 starters.
Who's talking about Abreu starting? First I heard of this. That would be absolutely idiotic. Dude is made to be a closer, and that day is coming sooner than later.
They (and some other teams) believe his bat would improve catching less. He strikes out more than ideal and I wish his average was a little higher but he is a good bat. When he isn’t catching he would DH or play 1st. It would mean getting him in 145-150 games a year instead of 110-120. He probably gets you close to 30 homers and 30 doubles next year if you cut his catching load to 80-90 games and have him DH and play first another 70. My guess is part of their interest in him is that he can play multiple positions the Astros need help at.
I heard the Fox broadcasters mention it during the WS I saw it mentioned here that Astros people were talking to them about it. I don't remember which of us said it or if it was one of the posters with connections. It was also before the hatchet fell.
I said it some time ago, not sure if anyone else did. I don’t think it’s quite a Javier situation where they are married to him starting but they do think it is very possible. Strom was a big believer in Abreu as a starter and Miller has been too. Keith Law is skeptical because the Astros didn’t have him starting recently in the minors, but the Astros usually do the opposite of what Keith thinks they should. Keith didn’t think McCullers, Garcia or Javier were starters and he felt Valdez would be a AAA starter.
Another thing that I feel is forgotten about is we learned that hatred for Ted Cruz truly unites the baseball fanbase. You had fans from the Yankees, astros, phillies all show their genuine hatred for Mr Cruz. Don't ever let anyone tell you that baseball fans are dumb.
To my fan- only eyes he looks like a dominant high leverage reliever who could possibly be a starter But I wonder how/when they are able to test that? If they seriously want to give him a reasonable chance he needs to build up and then get regular starts every 5-6 days for a few weeks at least. How many starters can they have? I have posted here that I think a 6 man rotation + a swing guy who fits in AAA or bullpen to cover injuries is the max. Any more than that and it's diminishing returns - either wasted spot or wasted value. Framber, Lance, and Javier must be in the rotation because the team is significantly better with them there than the bullpen or they physically don't fit that routine. Or both. Garcia and Urquidy are established starters who can pitch in the bullpen but would have wasted value. Brown could pitch in the bullpen for a season to establish himself but looks to have all the tools needed to be a top of the rotation starter and as a reliever would likely have a lesser role that hinders his development based on the composition of the current bullpen. The team still hopes to resign JV. How do they get Abreu the chance he needs if they want to do this experiment. Maybe MLB needs to start scheduling 2 double headers every week?
That and the national scouting types have been cocaine **** terrible at evaluating Astros minor league pitching prospects. Time, after time, after time.
Think about it this way: There are 15 teams in the AL, with approximately 13 (8 position, 5 starters) players per team with any real chance of an MVP vote, which is a pool of roughly 195 players. Astros have 6 OF THE TOP 20 !!!! (at least by mvp votes). That’s almost half of the team getting a vote!!!!! How crazy is that???
We could have the most expensive bullpen if we’re losing 2 starters. JV leaving and LMJ moving to bullpen. Ok I’m kidding but hey never know.
Keith is a mouth breathing moron who likes to sniff his own farts and knows jack **** about the Astros. presley just got extended for roughly a billion years- he’s our closer indefinitely. Starters are way more valuable than relievers and we have too many relievers to adequately and valuably use. It would be criminally stupid for the Astros to not make Abreu a starter if he has the skills and aptitude for it. The Astros aren’t criminally stupid. They could **** around with the Abreu as a starter experiment for the first half of the season and if it doesn’t work out return him to the bullpen no worse for the wear. Maybe it means we win 105 games next year instead of 109. Who cares. They need to try it.
If dbacks are down to trade Varsho, we should do that and Walker at 1b. And sign Verlander and brantley or yuli as bench guys. Boom.
