Poor Nieve, I thought he'd bump Wandy out for sure... Wandy better not be getting left-handed bias, cause Nieve has some good stuff.
This blows my mind. Bruntlett is one of the better utilitymen in the entire league. It makes you wonder how closely the other teams watch the waiver wire or how well they know the occasional players from other teams in the league.
Why wow? In recent years they have carried 12 and going into this season they said they would carry 12. They could have carried 11 for the first week or so (until Sampson makes his first start), but that would have cost Sampson a "send down".
I'd imagine that if he went through waivers earlier in the spring, before teams had pretty much set their rosters, some team would have claimed him. Sounds like the main reason they went with Q over Munson is because Q's out of options & they couldn't afford to lose a catcher.
Pretty sure I heard Gar say that they need the 5th starter the 9th day of the season, and there's a 10-day window where you can't call a player back up after sending him down.
Does the 10 day window start (only count) during the regular season? If not, they could have sent Sampson down a couple of days ago.
I'm assuming it starts opening day, couldn't find anything. Did see that you can call a player back up before 10 days if you put someone else on the DL.
Anyone else shocked that Nieve was sent down? I would have given him the 5th rotation spot vs. Sampson and at the very least kept him around in the bullpen. Control and the long ball were always the knock on him but with only 5BB and 0HRs in 20IP this spring, it looked like he had turned the corner. Just very odd to me.....
Purpura go get Ron Villone for the third time. He was cut by the Yanks but he always pitches well in a Astros uniform. He is better than Moehler.
Same here. I thought Nieve was a lock. Astros management projected Nieve as a middle of the order starter and Sampson as back of the order starter (if not long relief in the bully). Also shocked that the Astros kept all three of Moehler, White, and Borkowski. Not shocked but I thought that Bruntlett though some sleight of hand would make the 25 man roster.
I'm willng to bet it was done in part to keep Moehler around, who also pitched a fine spring. Nieve has options, so they can send him down and allow him to get more work, get a little more consistent, and then bring him up sometime this season. It's just a way to have more options.
