Update on the Corpus crew: https://www.caller.com/story/sports...t-forrest-whitley-scratched-start/1090124002/ Lopez said catcher Brian McCann, who is coming back from knee surgery, looks good and is likely to catch again during Sunday’s game against San Antonio. McCann caught seven innings in Friday’s 3-1 loss to Midland. He caught five innings on Wednesday and was a designated hitter in Thursday’s game. “He feels strong and the most important thing for him right now is he wants to get more at-bats to make some adjustments and feel comfortable,” Lopez said. “The knee is perfectly fine.” Lopez said pitcher Chris Devenski could pitch at least one more time with the Hooks and that outing will likely come on Monday during the final game of the recent seven-game homestand. Devenski threw one inning in Friday’s game, giving up two runs on one hit with three strikeouts. Devenski has six strikeouts in two innings with the Hooks this week.
^So are they just holding Brian McCann until the rosters expand? Or might we see him back in Houston before then? Sounds like they might just do the former to avoid having to fake an injury on someone to make room for him.
I suspect there is no rush to have him up in the next week so they can wait until 09/01. Since Stassi is out of options they can't send him down without the risk of losing him.
I hope our SP rotation just stays healthy enough for the playoffs. McCullers looks to be a bullpen weapon moving forward.
Forrest Whitley has to be kicking himself. If he doesn't get suspended, he's likely in McCullers' spot and looking at a chance to pitch in the playoffs. Yes, I know he's injured right now but you can't say things would have played out the same had he not started the season out in April instead of July.
This seems like a big stretch. The Astros got two more sure-bet options for the pen (Pressly and Osuna) and already more than likely one of last years playoffs relievers (Devo or Harris) will miss the active roster. I find it hard to believe they would have called him up for significant time (starting his clock early) and would have given him significant burn in the playoffs.
I guess he's looking at it as if Whitely starts the season in AAA on opening day, dominates, and by the time the Astros were looking for bullpen help... they would have considered him as an internal option. As it is, you don't want to waste too many phenom pitches at AAA... this regime has been fairly consistent about promoting aggressively with younger pitchers with that mindset.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. I didn't think it was that difficult a concept. There was a lot of chatter about Whitley this spring, pre-suspension, about him possibly getting the call at some point this year. It's not a stretch at all that had he not been suspended, followed up with an injury or 2, and had been dominating at AA/AAA that he could have been that call instead of Framber.
Wouldn’t go that far... Astros don’t care about starting Frambers clock. LMJ and Martes got early aggressive promotions. Whitely probably would have been on that same track, but the suspension virtually ended that possibility before the season started.
790 reported the obvious today ... During a post game interview after Monday's game, Correa said his back has been affected his swing.
He really should sit out then as it will cause bad habits in his swing IMO. Maybe give him at least a couple of days off and see if he can strengthen it off the baseball field. I mostly like that they are playing him as long as his back won't get worse and as long as he can change his mechanics back to normal once the back starts to feel more normal.