The Astros have announced that they’ve placed righty Lance McCullers on the 10-day DL with back discomfort. To take his place on the active roster, they’ve recalled righty Michael Feliz from Triple-A Fresno.
The move is a blow to an Astros club that apparently did not add any starting pitching — well, besides Francisco Liriano, who they’ll reportedly use as a reliever — at this year’s deadline. The Astros had been connected to a number of top pitching targets. Dallas Keuchel’s return from the disabled list last weekend looked like a boon to the club, but that addition will be canceled out somewhat by McCullers injury, particularly if McCullers requires a significant amount of time on the DL.
The 23-year-old McCullers was the Astros’ top starter for the first few months of the season, and he’s posted an overall line of 3.92 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 over 105 2/3 innings this year. He has struggled badly so far this month, however, allowing 22 runs (20 earned) and walking 11 batters over 18 2/3 innings.
unfuckingbelievable..talk about over playing your hand..Luhnow comes up with nothing but a pitcher with an almost 6.00 ERA..and has serious pitching problems while all these other contenders add
Man, I feel your pain but I’m guessing that the Astros would have had to really overpay to land either Sonny Gray or Yu Darvish with both sellers being division rivals.
I suppose the ‘stros could have made a greater push for Jose Quintana but as a Chicago baseball fan I didn’t see any reported offer that would have topped what the Cubs gave up to land him.
Imo, Eloy Jimenez will be a more impacting MLB player than Kyle Tucker while Dylan Cease has as good a ceiling as any of the pitchers rumored to be headed to the White Sox. Like some scouts, I liken Jimenez to former White Sox RF Jermaine Dye.
Dye was instrumental in the White Sox 2005 World Championship season but even more impacting at a younger age when he was healthier with the Royals and A’s. I can only imagine the numbers that Jimenez might generate in a hitter-friendly park on the South Side of Chicago in comparison to what Dye put up in his prime years at K.C.’s Kauffman Stadium and the Oakland “Mausoleum”. I’m especially stoked to see what his numbers might be in a batting order that looks to feature additional speed and thunder with all the elite prospects the White Sox have added in the past year.
Couldn’t Agree More. We definitely could have outbid NY w/o giving up Tucker, Martes or Whitley. Hell, two of the Yankees prospects are hurt.
When all said and done, Lunhow will be graded an “F.”
Agreed, jumbo and francisco are the 2 lamest possible acquisitions , and we lost aoki. Luhnow is moron , we have needed lefty relief from the get go and we need a real top end arm for rotation all season and this is the best they could ??? It is pathetic,to y sip is an answer to a question nobody asked ! This is a high run scoring team that will get their ass handed to them in the postseason because whomever we play will have real starting pitching. I am absolutely disgusted.
That was supposed to say tony sipp
Lunhow is a genious. Even if you think he’s dumb you can’t argue he’s not disciplined. It’s harder to stick to your guns than to impulsively agree to a trade on July 31st. Like I said in another comment this speaks volumes about what Lunhow thinks of Tucker, Marte, Whitley and Perez. As in their floor is at least above average MLBer. Beane was clearly shopping ceiling when it came to Gray so I’m not sure we could’ve matched the ceiling without givine up 2 of the 4 “untouchables”. Darvish was never going to be an Astro as the whole point is resign Darvish. It’s already obvious from the outside looking in who’s future is brighter, if Yu wanted to stay in Texas spending the rest of the year in Houston was a great way to make sure he went to a rival.
I’m upset we didn’t find that pitcher, but I’m not sure one was to be found at a reasonable price.
I find that language offensive.
Everyone contender got much better except for us, who got a maybe helpful piece but could easily be as bad as tony sipp. We can’t relay on the injured players coming back 100%
Tucker, Martes, Whitley and Perez all need to be stars or above average mlbers for any of this to make sense…
Great news for the rest of the American league. <3
The only team that got better in the AL was the Yankees and Houston has handled them quite well.
Mehburger of a deadline for the Stros. If looking at the Dodgers as our biggest competition, seriously fell behind the curve… Gotta think big picture, as in WS opponent.
I trust in Luhnow. But wow Liriano and only Liriano?
Totally a big Laugh for the fact we DID NOTHING!!!!
Aoki was going to be gone anyways because wasn’t getting the playing time so figured they could get rid of a bad end they both wanted.
NOW McCullers on DL again and am sure HE CAME BACK TOO SOON from his previous stint because hasn’t been same. They better rest him good at least.
Will Feliz be any better even in Bullpen, Liriano. We will wear out Devenski and such and he will be wilted for the playoffs. But hey doubt we make it out of first round
Everyone else DID SOMETHING. But Guess Luhnow felt we had a great team we are 30 games over 500 so decided really to do NOTHING.
As Said he got a dud for Aoki as probably would have DFA’ed him or something
But guess when you don’t want to get rid of anyone and PAY UP as that is what you have to do
Sorry if Astros fall on their faces and lose in first round. We may see World Series in 2018. Maybe we will get some pitching in the Off Season to help us get there
They traded #9 prospect Teoscar Hernandez with Aoki to get Liriano, so the “DID NOTHING” was more costly than you are apparently aware
I’d love to know what the Orioles were asking for Britton – he was the perfect fit for this team.
I wanted to see Lynn and Rosenthal traded to Houston. Thought it could have been a good match.
Both teams sat on their hands today.
Our GM Lunhow needs to make an announcement explaining why he didn’t make any significant trade deadline deals and what other teams were asking for, for their top players so at least we can judge whether he made a good decision or not in keeping all his prospects. It’s like he’s addicted to his prospects and thinks they’re all going to be future Hall of Famer’s because we could have easily gotten Gray, Darvish, and, Wilson etc. if we were willing to part with SOME, not ALL of our top prospects. All of those could have individually been obtained without having to give up Tucker or Whitley to get any one of those players. I’m not saying we could have got all three of them but we could’ve had any one of those three and still Kept our top three prospects. I feel sick to my stomach that such a good opportunity was wasted because our GM got gun shy.
If our team gets bounced in the playoffs in three games, or better yet doesn’t get out of the first round I feel this decision today by our GM to stand pat will be the major reason that it happens. I hope to god we make it to the World Series and win because the Astros have never won. But all our competitors increased their chances of winning today with smart yet fair trades, while we at best stayed neutral. Teams pray for seasons like the one the Astros are having now and to not add to that to maximize that team’s chances should be a fireable offense
Yeah fire the best team in baseball because he wouldn’t give our divisional rivals our best prospects…that makes perfect sense….
Good point except for the bit about the Astros being “the best team in baseball”.
GM* lol. I’m not biased. Swearsies!
I hate that the Astros being in the fourth largest city in the United States have to manage a team with a budget of a Milwaukee Brewers or Tampa Bay rays, where they can’t afford to trade prospects because they will need them in the future to replace our current stars who we will not be able to re-sign. This trade deadline shows me that our ownership is not willing to lock up players long term because if he was, then he would have traded a few of our massive quantity of prospects to improve our chances of winning this year. But when you know you’re not going to re-sign your superstars then you can’t afford to trade your blue Chip prospects, which is what the Astros, Jeff Lunhow, and the owner Jim Crane are saying with their inaction.
Dude our payroll is 130M this season and we weren’t demanding cash to cover contracts. In other words, market size and payroll weren’t the driving factor here. TEX/OAK were the only teams with difference making SP and are in our division. We lost out on Gray because we couldn’t offer the ceiling NY did without giving up two of our 4 elite prospects. Darvish was NEVER going to Houston. Daniels master plan is to resign him, giving him a few months with a better team down the road is a great way to undermine his master plan.
I wish we’d added, I really do. Lunhow set his price in his mind as his maximum and wouldn’t impulsively break that promise to himself and his staff. I don’t like it either but the only thing we can say about Lunhow in light of this deadline is he’s principled and disciplined. On literally any other day of the baseball year that’s preferable. It speaks volumes of what he thinks Tucker, Marte, Whitley and Perez are going to be when they grow up.
Well said, dude…although the Astros might have made a greater effort to acquire a quality starting pitcher not in their division like Jose Quintana. That being said, it would have been tough for them to match the deal the Cubs wound offering the White Sox.
When I saw what the Sox received for Quintana that was my thought as well. We could’ve probably outbid them but would we have wanted to? I mean your talking Tucker and Martes to even start the conversation. That was never happening.
The Houston Astros have a very overrated system. They do not have the prospects to acquire any top of the line players. Lunhow knows most of the current players will leave and the owner will not pay to keep talent. This is an organizational philosophy. This is the standard, not an aberration.
Everyone is freaking out that we didn’t get Britton, Gray, or Darvish. Yet they still have the best record in the AL none of the core players are free agents and they still have a top five farm system. I too went through the 100 loss years and am frustrated but the team is still good and will be for many more years.
they waited a few minutes after the deadline to announce this because teams would have seen ee need a starter ever more and up the ante. This kid is ess overated anyways