Hunter Brown must be tipping pitches to be that bad last week. He struggles again tonight, is it possible Astros send him down the street to Sugarland to work out the kinks?
Best looking lineup that we have put out there this year given what we have to work with. I may have put Dubon at first base. If not, first pinch hitter off the bench. I guess it doesn't matter if Hunter Brown doesn't put a huge dent in his ginormous 16.43 ERA. Even if he pitches great and I hope he does, the bullpen has been must worse than advertised. If we get a lead going into the late innings, not saying that is going to happen, it is going to be a crap shoot trying to hold on to it. We need a win. We need to do something to get our swagger back. Right now other than a few players on the team we are playing like dog poon and floundering in all phases of the game. If we don't get after it and start playing like we are capable of playing it is going to be a long year.
The difference is that Bregman is 30 and there is genuine hope that comes with each and every PA. You can't say either of those things about Abreu. In his past 12 PAs Alex is: 5-12 w/ 2 doubles that could have been HR (1 a HR in 16 parks and 1 a HR in 24). Over 100 mph exit velocity 6 times and 2 others "hard hit" over 95 mph. Has not struck out. His final AB last night was a 103.6 mph ground out w/ an expected BA of .610 Bregman started slow, but many "fans" on this site always pile on him and never give him the respect he deserves. He's playing well and hitting better than anyone behind him in the order. Yes even Yainer who is 2 for his last 16 with no extra base hits.
Arrighetti can't be recalled for 2 weeks unless a pitcher goes on the IL. The Astros also now only have 4 pitchers on the active roster who have started a game this year. I don't think they would have made that move if there was any possibility they were considering sending Hunter down, or even taking him out of the rotation before May. That bodes well for JV starting this weekend, and also Framber's recovery though.
If Brown gets torched again I wouldn't rule it out, if he's not being competitive there's no point. We have 4 days off in the next 14 days, and it looks like they expect Verlander back this weekend. They could very easily go with a 4 man rotation for the next 2 weeks. There's a lot of space for flexibility coming up.
