I agree. But if I recall you predicted a high 3 or low 4 ERA. That seems about right … but I suspect most Astros fans expect more. They remember Cy Young JV and assume a full year ace performance. I don’t think he has that in him anymore. It isn’t a bad thing, but I expect that expectations will be higher among most fans, and we could see some backlash. P.S. I hope you are feeling better.
Just now feeling better- thanks. It might have gotten a little jumbled but I was predicting what the predictions were going to be to set as a base line for expectations. I actually would set the over under at 3.5 personally. I’d happily take 154 innings though.
Hopefully his off-season regimen will allow him to not hit a wall again. He started out ON FIRE last year too (easy to forget). He also started out ON FIRE in 2021 (easy to forget) and he was soon shifted to the bullpen to "preserve" him before anybody had any clue about potential dead arm/stamina issues. So hopefully the way they handled him was simply because he was a young up/coming arm and not specific to "his" arm/body.... but getting in shape/losing weight/working out usually doesn't hurt anything and can only help...
I had high hopes for him last season, but he just hasn't been the same since this...That azz just paralyzed him.
I'm twisted. I want this to be his last bounce-back year because henceforth he maintains his excellence and health.
Don’t forget last off season was abbreviated as possible. Long World Series run with early build up due to the World Baseball Classic. hopefully this year he got a lot more time for recovery, strength/conditioning, and pitch development. I’d be fine if he didn’t round into form until June/Julyish.
Hopefully that was it… but he really wasn’t a regular starter in 2022 as well until the 2nd half of the season. And it was a pretty universal opinion that he could have been in better shape overall (but like you said, maybe the short off-season contributed to that?) The previous front office and scouts original assessment may just be who he is. An arm that really cannot withstand a 200 innings/year workload. And that’s fine… not many SP are doing that anyways nowadays.
