This is definitely the most excited I’ve ever been about Houston’s bullpen. Not only the 3-headed monster of Hader/Pressly/Abreu, but the huge group of extremely high ceiling guys slotting in behind them: Montero, Whitley, Sousa, Coleman, and Dubin all have elite stuff.
Blanco has an elite slider, right? If he was a 1 inning guy and just came in and threw that 70 or 80% of the time he’d probably be pretty good. Neither Bielak nor France have great stuff as starters but will be interesting to see how/if their stuff plays up in the pen. I expect Bielak to be up breaking camp and France to end up either in Sugar Land or the pen when LMJ and Garcia get back.
I’ve never been close to this excited. I am not sure yet who will take 6 and/or 5 and/or 4 … but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Astros’ ERA will be less than 3 from 5+.
I’m borderline predicting Hunter Brown or Cristian Javier win 20+ games. Those guys can be electric thru 5 and things will be on lock after that.
Javier gets injured and/or stalls out after 4 too often. But Brown is a workhorse. I would double down on your bet. Tell him to just unleash for 5, then go to the pen and he could win 20. The 6-man rotation won’t help though.
It’s damn near impossible to win 20 now in the slog that is starting pitching, where throwing 175 innings is master class, but yeah, the Astros are going to win a lot of games and most of them will come from the starters. I can see big things from Brown and javier. Both of them have stuff (and supporting lineup) to see them having the ability to get Cy Young votes.
This offense could and should be elite. Any of your starters could win 17 games including the under valued Urquidy. They just need to pitch 5 to 6 innings and hold the other teams to about 3 runs. This offense should put up 5 runs or more most games.
I share your excitement for the backend of the pen, but every other guy you mentioned (despite having "elite stuff") also have huge question marks. Hope they pan out.
My wife says she is dialed in but, like many of you losers, she is not mentally prepared for this season. get it together people WS title or bust
This is true - but I am not overly concerned. Coleman has a better than 50% chance by himself of being very good. Also Garcia and McCullers are coming back and Whitley and others have high octane arms. As long as the top 3 are healthy and productive - the Astros will win. Now if one of the top 3 get hurt and the other guys don’t pan out, then it may be an issue for awhile.
As long as Javier has committed to a training/fitness program, I'll take his inconsistencies/dead-arm tendencies. There's been concerns about him being a full time starter before he was even on the big league club, but he was noticeably out of shape for stretches last season and sounds like he got the message. Still think Brown finds his niche as an elite bridge guy vs a 200 IP starting pitcher, but he's on the perfect team/roster to figure out what will end up being the best version of him... vs. any other middling team, he'd be forced to carry more of a burden.
No one way he goes to the Dodgers (and possibly the Yankees). No way they can possibly sell that to their fanbases even if the cheating scandal is increasingly in the rear view mirror.
