re: DAT: 2017 Houston Astros Spring Training Thread

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Im not sold on a guy like morton in our park, he doesn't strike out alot of guys as a matter of fact his strikeout numbers are awful

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You rang?

To be fair...The League got Fisted pretty well through most of the season. Through 26 starts he was 12-9 with a 3.60 ERA. It all crashed and burned in September with a 11.74 ERA in his 5 starts.

To me, Morton feels like a poor man's replacement for Fister. Both ground ball pitchers who don't strike anyone out. Fister however has been far more successful than Morton.

Morton and fiers are crap. McHugh is mostly crap. I would be OK if either fiers or McHugh were our #5 but not #3.

If Musgrove is not in the rotation we have major concerns.

No holes.

Yeah it's just a question of when. I'm hoping the rotation holds up enough so they don't have to jump the gun in June

They do have a higher ceiling than Jake but that's not really the point.

Everyday At bats is the name of the game. Jake is kinda damaged goods so they can carry him on the bench. But Kemp & Teoscar need to play everyday and get at bats...which I why I think they'll stay in AAA until an injury happens

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We have major concerns no matter if Musgrove is in the majors, minors, or serving all you c

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I still don't buy this "major" concern argument.

"Minor" sure, but "major" insinuates that it's what will hold this team back from 80 wins.

I look at it this way. In '16, Keuchel underperformed and ended up bowing out not even finishing the season. Claims an injury all last year. McCullers was hurt from the beginning. Houston is bringing back basically the same pitching staff sans Fister. This team was in the playoff hunt up until the last couple weeks of the season last year. Even had a shot to take the lead in the division at one point late.

IMO, it wasn't the pitching staff that was/is the issue. You all know that the last 2/3 of the lineup last year was a black hole. No one was hitting over....what? .225? .230? Started off in April at an awful awful record. I couldn't find their record from April the middle of September. Between their two complete meltdowns.

The lineup has been reconstructed to fill those black holes. The pitching staff stays relatively the same and these "major" concerns really are about Kuechel and McCullers. I think the rest of the staff fits in with what they are. Bottom of the rotation guys. They aren't really "major" if they can repeat the performance they had last year and going by their history, the pitchers at the bottom of the rotation have been strongly consistent.

Kemp is the same age as Marisnick. If they think he's an improvement off the bench and can help win more games it's time to put him on the ML roster. He's kind of limited defensively though

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before Opening day

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Bold. I doubt it, but hope so.

I guess we disagree on terminology.

I think Keuchel bounces back. He doesn't have a history of injury problems.

We will see about McCullers. He's pitched so little in the last two seasons that I haven't really thought of him as a full time pitcher. He's still riding that potential wave.

There's always been concerns on McCullers as to if he could hold up as a starter. The thought in his draft year was that the mechanics of his throwing motion would make him vulnerable to shoulder/elbow injuries and leave him better suited for short stints as a reliever.

So his 2016 year starts with a shoulder injury and was ended by an elbow injury. My hunch is that McCullers is going to be constantly plagued by arm injuries and headed for TJ before long.