I assume Fister, Feldman, & Fiers are all in competition. I think Feldman will get the veteran preference and be the 5th starter over Fiers if Fiers doesn't greatly outperform him. I think Fister just needs to pitch okay to be the #4 guy.
I think Feldman starts the year in the injury list, given the opportunity to keep Straily and Cotts. I also believe we are going to use a 6 men rotation a lot this year to keep McCullers innings low, or send him to the minors like we did last year, so we are going to need 6 starters for sure next year. We gave a lot last year to acquire Gomez AND Fiers. I don't believe we are going to send Fiers to the bullpen. If we got Fister is because Feldman is injury prone, and not because we need another starter fro Fiers.
Well we've got Feldman, Fister and Fiers...F being the 6th letter in the alphabet...all fighting not to be the 6th man in the rotation. Luhnow is a genius.
I agree Fister is #4 unless he is really bad this spring, don't think it will just be given to him if he is really bad though I disagree on Feldman/Fiers though. I think Feldman would have to outperform him clearly this spring to win the spot, considering Fiers is younger and controlled Will be interesting to see how it plays out
"These things tend to work themselves out..." --Luhnow. But honestly, its awesome that two of the bigger questions of spring training are "who should be the #5 starter", and "which dominant bullpen guy do you want closing?". Those are championship-caliber level team problems.
True. But to be fair, we also have a lesser team problem of "who will play 1B, and will we get real production out of that masher position?" The odds say it'll be answered by one of the options...but it's not as ideal a question as the first 2.
The fact that they have such an unknown at a traditionally "important" offensive position, and yet still are projected to win the division, further's the championship-level expectations. Also better to have depth/elite pitching than elite hitting (if you had to choose between the two).
Another question will be "how good is our DH for 2016". Last year it was one of the worse in the AL, we need an improvement from Gattis, or let White/Tucker fight for it.
So, they are playing Tucker at first base this spring. I wonder how much he will actually play in the field? I guess if Singleton is a complete dud at the plate, the can play Tucker until some of the minor league talent is ready to move up.
And obviously it helps a lot to have one of the games best offensive players at a position (SS) that most teams struggle to get production from
Opening day can't get here soon enough. The idiocy/insanity of the GARM has just about worn me out this season--here's to hoping the vitriol doesn't seep into the Astros' forum whenever there's a bump in the road.
2nd base as well. We had the highest OPS in the majors last year at 2B and SS, 2 of the 3 weak offensive positions along with catcher. It gives us a lot of latitude. Kind of a cool chart showing teams ranks at various positions, if you hover over the number you also get breakdown of the players at that position. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/team_compare.cgi?year=2015&lg=ML&stat=OPS
True, but to be even fairer, most of the problems we will face will not surface until the regular season is underway.
I don't really think closer is a question, they gave up some prospects for Giles, have to atleast give him a shot in the role he's been more succesful at than Gregerson. 1B, Carry two backup IF's (Gonzalez & Duffy) or two backup OF's (Marisnick & Tucker), Feldman or Fiers.
ok? Nick was talking about the fact that this team is interesting because it looks like it's contender-level based on preseason questions. Future regular season issues aren't really part of that discussion
Its more of a question by the fans... especially since they haven't officially named a closer yet. I agree that the team probably has a general idea of who they'll go with. I don't think those sorts of "competitions" happen in ST, where guys are usually tinkering/working on pitches, never ever ever face a true save situation, and pitch on scheduled days regardless of situation (very unlike what they'll face in the regular season).
Not Astros related, more slow-offseason-day related, but I thought this was a cool pic: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Circa 1913 Baseball Magazine Player Poster Walter Johnson's Pitching Arm <a href="https://t.co/Na6xndcVIU">pic.twitter.com/Na6xndcVIU</a></p>— The Skimmers (@TheSkimmers) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSkimmers/status/704330209277976576">February 29, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Houston baseball, close enough <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">savage pick move by <a href="https://twitter.com/RiceOwlsBSB">@RiceOwlsBSB</a> lefty. <a href="https://t.co/6Y04X6ylQ3">https://t.co/6Y04X6ylQ3</a></p>— Jacquelyn Davis (@JacquelynKDavis) <a href="https://twitter.com/JacquelynKDavis/status/704391928377274368">February 29, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Don't you have to step towards the base you throw to else it is called a balk? He didn't really step towards but more just back and off the rubber, it seemed.
I believe you only have to step towards the base if your foot is on the rubber. If you step off, you can make the throw.
