I still think Pena can hit 2nd vs LHP but he is brutal vs RHP and should be 8th or 9th. I actually like Bregman 2nd vs RHP, especially now that Chas and Diaz are productive lower-middle type hitters for 5th-7th spots.
I'm gonna be super interested to see the lineup with Verlander out there . . . will he have his personal center fielder? Who will DH? Who's in left?
If the Astros play Chas and Meyers in LF and CF against LHPs and as long as Maldy is batting 9th, the Astros should be the best offense against LHPs regardless of who bats 2nd. Though if we are going to move up guys due to splits against LHP, Chas probably has the best claim about for batting in the top 4 among guys not considered stars by most.
Not that I know of. Javier is gassed and possibly hurt. He has gone from pitching 100 innings, to 150 innings and the post season and the WBC to pitching this year without really having a break. There were some that said that the World Series and WBC with little rest would impact the pitching on the Astros and I think it has with Javier, who is traditionally more dominant than a workhorse - he had given up 22 runs in 24 innings going into yesterday. He got hit early and then kept them off the board. It isn't my call, but I would skip him a couple of starts and see if it helps some.
I agree. and now would be the time to do it, instead of waiting closer to the postseason and just hoping he'll suddenly snap out of everything. With the return of Urquidy and JV, there's enough depth to go down this path and see how that works out at this point and go from there. Could also be pen time in the end as well
His velocity looks like it is back. His arm slot looks back. The movement on his fastball and slider look more like last year's. I'd probably go with a piggyback limiting his innings, but giving him time to find his control. If the Astros were going to give him time off, they should have done it earlier.
They didn't really have the starting pitchers to do it earlier. But now they have 7 - so either a 6 man rotation or just skipping him entirely and maybe IL'ing him for a couple of weeks seem like viable options.
When Urquidy is back, rather than going with a six-man rotation as has been publicly suggested, I wonder if it's worth doing a five-man rotation that allows for each guy to get some rest and miss a few starts down the stretch before the playoffs? Or maybe they just go with five guys until they feel like Javier is ready and then implement the six-man? Having a surplus of starters with the Verlander addition certainly gives them flexibility to get Javier right before the postseason.
GD! Only on Apple TV tonight. Their broadcast is pure trash and the commentators don’t know **** about baseball. Ugh
6 man rotation will help Arms of brown, France, even Framber. Rest looks like it’s helped Javier some, skip a start again and then go into a 6 man rotation?
Anything will be better than what we just had to go through because of injuries. Hopefully, we can get Javier and Brown some much-needed rest. If Javier can come close to what he was last post season, then we will be rocking for the playoffs.
I like the idea of pitching Framber and JV every 5/6 days depending on how schedule falls. Make sure both pitch in the Rangers series. Then schedule Urquidy every turn. Then fill in France, Brown, and Javier in the open games piggy backing them and putting them in the bullpen for turns as needed to help keep innings down.
