LMJ in the rotation to start the season. He's looked...better, in camp. Still have no real faith in him. Can't imagine the leash will be too long if his results are anywhere close to what they were last season. The 5th and 6th starters will be a big game of roster musical chairs and Arrighetti has options so he's the odd man out. Sucks for him, but he will still get plenty of starts to lock down an MLB spot.
Interesting lineup tonight with Loperfido and Smith batting in front of Walker and Diaz. I assume that will be of opening day lineup if Pena isn’t healthy.
Lance in and Spencer out..............OK, Lance looked spent last year, I haven't really seen him in ST so I assume he`s "back" Good Lord, if were counting on him, I don't have much faith every 5th day
Lance is a sunk cost. If you release him and keep Spencer, you're just out $15MM with no upside. If you keep Lance and option Spencer, then he either succeeds (great!) or if he fails over the next month, you can always release/IL him and bring Spencer back. This is a logical economic move.
I think McCullers is going to have a short leash. If he is unable to avg 4.2 ip or more over his first half dozen starts, he will be moved to mop up bullpen duty or put on the IL. One thing that seems different from 2024-2025 is that it appears the coaches and front office are entering the season with more of a sense of urgency this year. They seem to be focusing on optimizing the roster to win as many of their first 25 games as possible. Final opening day roster prediction: 2B Altuve LF Alvarez DH Paredes 3B Correa SS Pena RF Smith 1B Walker C Diaz CF Meyers Bench: Loperfido, Matthews, Salazar, Allen SP: Brown, Burrows, Javier, Imai, McCullers RP: Abreu, King, Okert, Roa, Munoz, De Los Santos, Blubaugh, Weiss IL: Blanco, Hader, Pearson, Sousa, Walter, Wesneski Optioned: Alexander, Arrighetti, Gordon, Murray, Teng, Ullola, Cole, Dezenzo, Whitcomb If Pena starts on the IL then Cole makes the roster and Loperfido is 5th in the lineup. Aside from everybody staying healthy, Cam Smith is the linchpin of the Astros season. They need him to be badass.
I think Pena will eventually be moved into the leadoff spot, but for opening day with him not getting much of any ST I think he will be further down in the lineup.
We missed the playoffs because of our slow start last season. We can’t depend on guys just turning it on eventually like before. Putting Abreu and Walker in the first half of the order doomed us. The only guys that should have a guaranteed spot in the order is Alvarez, Altuve, Paredes and Pena.
5 Bold predictions: Brice Matthews gets rookie of the year votes. AJ Blubaugh becomes a high leverage RP. Carlos Correa hits >25 HR. Mike Burrows wins >15 games. Joe Espada gets fired before the season ends.
If the first 4 happens then the fifth won’t. I don’t know about Burrows winning 15 games. Brown hasn’t even won 15 games yet.
I’m seeing that line at 85.5 or 86.5. 84.5 seems like an easy bet on the over. This team is not on par with the glory years but it’s a fairly rock solid bet to be over .500 and likely to be better than last years 87 win team that was entirely snake bit by injuries.
I’m not a fan of Joe Espada managing X’s and O’s. To me, it seems he should be on a short leash. Though with this being a veteran team, I think the guys save Joe from Joe. If the team stays healthy at a normal MLB rate, the team will win over 90-94 games. But with age creeping up, I anticipate more injuries on account of it, hence an 85-88 win season.
Was I right about the Astro’s slotting Javier 3rd in the rotation? The SP rotation to start the season…. Brown Burrows Javier Imai Lance 4 weeks later…… Brown Imai Burrows Blueballs Javier
