I might be alone but I don’t trust McHugh as our number 4, I might trust him as 5 but with some of the young guys biting at his heels, I would rather have him in the role he was in last year. I guess if LMJ was healthy he would still be in the pen. How does everyone else feel about Colin?
McHugh is fine. There is a really high likelihood that the Astros add a starting pitcher in the next 4-5 months anyway. McHugh gets knocked around every once in awhile but so do a lot of pitchers.
If he stays healthy he'll most likely be fine. [/Captain Obvious] It's too early to really worry about anything with this team anyway.
At this point I am mostly concerned with Alex Bregman hooking up with the owners exwife and chemistry being destroyed.
So, looks like McHugh has added a decent changeup. That would make him a 4S fastball, cutter, slider, curve, and changeup guy with an occassional 2S FB. Changeup would help him with LHBs.
I've seen far worse. We have plenty of talent in the pipeline anyway. He is better than average and that works.
I expect McHugh to pitch 155-175 innings with a sub 4 era. That's more than we ever get from McCullers during the regular season. Will we be able to replace Keuchel and Morton? Probably not to that level. Collectively with Miley, Valdez, James, Whitley, and Peacock we can figure out who will be in our rotation down the stretch and what we need at the deadline. If our divison was stacked like the NL Central or NL East I would be worried. It's not... we are still the clear favorites in the AL West. 4/5 of our rotation are free agents after this season. We need to see what the young guys can do.
After last years opening day rotation, I am clearly getting a bit spoiled. I am rooting for McHugh and everyone for that matter. I realize we have a nice problem when I am questioning a guy who has won 17 games in the past and had a sub 2 era last year. When the Rangers are trotting out Mike Minor as their opening day starter.
It seems like it was only a year ago people (including myself) thought McHugh wouldn't be as good a reliever as he was a starter.
No, it was a joke because Bregman plows more than a farmer in Illinois and Crane's ex-wife has recently been in the news for being absolutely insane.
And not to derail the thread, but yes, Cranes ex is crazy. If there’s one thing I have learned over the years, it’s that crazy people HATE being called crazy. And it seems like she really needs to move into a gated community. https://heavy.com/news/2019/02/franci-neely-crane-video/ Also, she only got $30M from the divorce?!?! Jim Crane is a billionaire! Talk about worth the cost.
During his 4 years starting for us McHugh had the following ERA's: 2.73, 3.89, 4.34, and 3.55. In Keuchel's last 3 years as a starter he had: 4.55, 2.90, and 3.74. Not that much difference.
Last 4 years, Keuchel, 3.51 FIP, 3.37 ERA, 750.1 innings McHugh, 3.74 FIP, 3.62 ERA, 524.0 innings Biggest difference is the innings. Keuchel has the better floor. McHugh has the better ceiling. I would not be shocked if McHugh is the better pitcher in 2019.
