Why are you ******** all over Framber? Are you not a fan? Or do you enjoy dog-piling other people on the internet. Framber was great in 2021-2023. He had a great playoff run in 2022, but struggled in the 2023 playoffs. I see no reason to blame Framber's mental condition ... a far more plausible explanation was him being physically worn out since he had a short offseason (after winning the World Series) and he added more innings to the 2023 season when he pitched in the World Baseball Classic and the Astros clinched the division very late (so no skipping a start late in the season).
What do you mean? I think this means Hunter learned a lot and is gonna come in and rolle! Yessssssss? Gooooooo!
My predictions for the regular season: - We will have the best outfield in baseball with Chas, Meyers, Tucker, and Alvarez - We will have one of the better infields in baseball with Altuve, Bregman being themselvers, Pena being at least as good as his rookie year if not better. If Abreu stays healthy and is as good as he was when he was healthy, we should have a top 3 infield. - Diaz will be pretty solid as catcher but will be very good to great as a hitter. He will have his up and owns but I expect him to be close to .800 OPS by the end of the season - Our rotation at the beginning of the year will be solid, but should be very good by the end of the year - Our bullpen will be very good at the beginning of the year and elite by the end once some of the starters get moved to the pen for the playoffs. - Montero will bounce back and be very good if not elite again. - Dubon will even better with a bat and should be right around league average while being a super sub. - The only thing holding us back will be health of our older guys especially Verlander and Abreu. - X-factor will be Javier and McCullers. Both have lots of upside depending on health and fitness. Javier has Cy Young votes potential, and McCullers can shut people down for a few innings in important games.
Framber, Javier, Brown, Urquidy, and France will be opening rotation. Hader, Pressly, Abreu, and Montero guaranteed spots. That leaves 4 openings. I think Blanco is the front runner the 6th rotation/swingman spot= 4 hits, 2 BB, and 8 Ks in 7 2/3 innings. I would say Contreras, Mushinski, Martinez, and Scott have all made strong cases for the remaining 3 spots. Bielak is in serious jeopardy of being DFA'd since he has no options. He has been more mediocre than terrible but certainly not on the same level as some of the others. And he has very limited K ability which is needed in the bullpen. 4 1/3 innings = 4 hits, 3 BB, and 3 Ks. Strotman has impressed with 9 Ks in 6 2/3 innings but also has 5 BB.
Sure seems like starting pitching health and teams’ ability to acquire starting pitching at the deadline will determine who goes to the playoffs. As always, whoever gets hot in October will win it all. Houston has a yellow flag with one of their aces who will start the season on the IL, has one MoR SP expected to miss half the season and had another MoR SP now expected to miss most if not all of the season. They also currently have a pretty weak farm and limited payroll flexibility that will compromise their ability to trade for top notch SP at the deadline. That’s the downside. The upside is that 2 of their SP (Brown and Javier) have a lot of potential and their farm could have several high ceiling prospects break out and become valuable potential trade chips. Their lineup is stacked and the downside (age decline of Abreu and Altuve, standard injury/consistency risks, etc.) is more than balanced by upside (potential breakouts of Meyers, Pena, and Diaz). Their bullpen is very good even though they are still sorting thru guys to fill the last 2-3 spots.
Our risk is depth. We have very little position help after Dubon and Julks. If Bregs or Abreu go down, we won't have anyone with even an average bat to fill in. Singleton and Kessinger don't inspire much confidence other than a warm body. We also have no Myles Straw or Toro to trade for pitching
I think Houston’s 10th thru 20th position players compare favorably with most teams. They don’t have elite prospects peppered throughout their AA/AAA rosters but plenty of high floor guys who can fill in if needed. And I think there will be plenty of Straw/Toro types, most of whom will emerge over the course of the first half.
Can't judge someone's value on 4 or 5 spring innings. Bielak has bad peripherals, but he's had a better than average ERA in the past 2 seasons with the Astros. I can't see them DFAing a cheap proven major league arm like that. Especially with the lack of bullpen arms. We've got 6th - 9th innings covered when we are ahead. What we need are guys who can hold up for a couple innings at a time when the starter struggles early or gets hurt. I think Blanco and Bielak can both provide some needed length out of the pen, spot starting or relieving as needed. The rest of those guys don't have that versatility, but I do like Mushinski's results out of the pen the last couple years in AAA.
I wonder how much he would cost. I assume he's not going to get close to the close to 7 million he was awarded in arbitration or some club would have traded for him. He also go some money from the Giants. Would 3-4 million get it done?
We talked about that on the pod. If he comes back and resembles his old self o will take the astros over the field with 3 from lance, 3 from brown and our leverage guys and feel good about it.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/szymborskis-2024-booms-and-busts-pitchers/ Brown is one of fangraphs picks to breakout and it certainly looks possible. Would not shock me at all if he puts up 3+ fwar.
I agree with them not DFAing Bielak. Wasn't thinking big picture when I wrote that (or just plain wasn't thinking) Proven MLB pitching ( even just replacement level) is just too valuable right now and Bielak has health. If neither he nor Blanco are in the rotation then he should be traded. If he had options it would be different but he won't make it past waivers and in a bullpen along with Blanco he is a liability. He doesn't have the strikeout ability or kind of stuff that plays up in the bullpen.
