Wow, so disappointing. I was really starting to like this kid. At least Morton is set to come back next weekend. So if they can get through one of Paulino's starts and then get through the All-Star break to get Keuchel back, they should be able to survive. But I still think Lunhow needs to make a move for another starter. The rotation has been held together with scotch tape over the last couple of months. The Astros can't afford to have that happen before or during the playoffs.
Prospect Keuchel didn't really move the needle... even less so after his debut. The others have thankfully lived up to the hype. I agree with the sentiment that if Paulino was juicing for these results... he needed better juice.
Just pointing out that there is nothing wrong with falling in love with prospects or trading them away for immediate help. It really comes down to knowing which ones to keep and which ones to trade away. Some prospects seem obviously expendable and others like Martes and Tucker are harder to judge.
I rarely will fault a team for trading a prospect... if it makes their chances for realistic WS success that much better. Sure, teams that aren't likely to win it all should probably be more scrutinizing. When the Astros were big sellers (Bergman, Oswalt, Bourn, Pence), they acquired a ton of promising prospects... but really, none of them have panned out directly just yet.
Disappointing to hear this, but doesn't really impact the team. Him, Martes and Musgrove are still pretty interchangeable in terms of current value to the ML team. Sure it's one less arm, but Musgrove could come right back up, and Morton's return appears close. Team still needs a good starter, that was the case before this injury. If I were a team considering trading for him, this would hurt his value a little, but not kill it. He was never gonna be a foundation piece of a big trade anyhow.
What a loser!!!! Guys that do this are just a bunch of cheats who don't deserve a paycheck. I just hope nobody else on our team is doing this BS!!
It definitely hurts us in our lack of starting depth. Although he has struggled, he's also showed impressive K-stuff. I think he could have been a weapon out of the bullpen sort of like Michael Feliz. It is disappointing.
And they will cheer for them again. Michael Feliz is only with the Astros because he used PEDs. We rooted for Rocket, Tejada, Caminiti & Pettitte, plus plenty of other guys that probably used.
I think though looking back the Tejada/Rodriquez Astros were my least favorite team in the last 30 years. I never cared for 'em that much. It felt tainted to me all season. Almost glad they did not win the series even if clean at the time. And reflecting back I am probably glad now that the Clemens/Pettite team did not win it all. As that really would have been tainted. There will be a day when steroids are healthy, and I will probably change my mind about the users, but even still they always had an unfair advantage when under disguise, and then once found out, I lost a lot of respect. Paulino's impact was so negligible it won't phase me if we win it all, and he is suspended from postseason anyway which is a good thing for my conscious going forward.
I don't cheer for cheats, who try to make themselves perform better than naturally gifted athletes by taking drugs to give them an edge. The sad thing is, there are so many of those type players you never know who is playing with natural abilities or not, and it makes you question all of them. I can't help wonder what percentage of players do it until they get caught.
I think that is largely because we sucked (though we almost made the playoffs in 2008) and didn't have much to look forward to.
