PUMPED for Korey Lee’s arrival. If he gets hot our lineup hole is filled and we are capable of winning the World Series.
Relax. It certainly could help but Maldy will still start every postseason game unless the schedule requires A ( = ONE day )off.
Let’s see what Korey Lee can do, friend. Huge arm - 70 grade arm on the prospect scale. Maldy is a leader, no doubt. But he is also in physical decline.
Conspiracy theory.... Astros wanted Castro to go out on a high. Now they will stash him on the IL as the emergency catcher in case Maldy gets hurt post trade deadline.
I’m stoked for the call up of Lee. He literally can’t be any worse than Castro. Let’s see what happens.
About a month from the trade deadline, maybe they want to see what the kid can do before they decide whether or not they need to trade for a backup catcher
This was my first thought as well, IL for Castro while Lee gets a shot and the Astros evaluate if it’s just time to cut bait on Castro.
Verlander is to the Astros this year what Tom Brady has been to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. What we are seeing with the pitching staff is a leveling up that is brought about by Justin Verlander's leadership. The younger guys see his success, leadership, and work ethic and then strive to match it.
This is really fun to watch and follow. I know the Astros have had some great rotations in the past but have they ever had this? 6 starters who have all pitched exceptionally well plus the previous years best starter returning from injury? 4 of them yet to hit their primes? I am going to look back at the history 1980 before J.R's stroke is the first thing that came to mind but even that rotation was older.
They have had 3 or 4 which are close, most recently with Verlander/Cole/Greinke/Miley? But none with 4-7/8/9 at his level. We rarely had a premium 4 and 5 and I can't think of even lower at or ready for call up. I am glad my faith in Javier for the last two years as a prime starter long term is proving justified. Many mistook his flexibility to swing between starting and relieving as a sign he was below par.
Even with the wealth of SP, I want to pursue keeping JV. Inserting a year and advancing the player option year another year might be an avenue to pay him for performance as well as giving him an incentive to stay here with a single bad year of protection.
If Lance McCullers name was Mick Lancer and he showed up in Sugar Land around the end of the month would anyone consider disrupting our staff by calling him up? How about our bullpen? Does he have options?
He has 14.1 war over 671 career innings. He also put up one of the most dominant playoff relief appearances in baseball history. If he’s healthy, you make room for him.