The Astros can’t rule out making an external addition to their starting rotation mix, writes Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. General manager James Click has a somewhat uncertain stable of starters upon whom he can rely, with his Astros losing a considerable chunk of innings via the departures of Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley. The rotation currently projects as Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, Lance McCullers, and some combination of Jose Urquidy, Josh James, and Framber Valdez. However, given the potential limitations on McCullers’s workload and the unproven back-end options, Click may dip into the free-agent pool for insurance. That said, pickings are slim this time of year, with the likes of Marco Estrada, Clayton Richard, and Danny Salazar (to name just a few) representing the most experienced free agents. For what it’s worth, minor-leaguers Bryan Abreu and Cristian Javier have impressed Click thus far and could contribute to the rotation this year.
Here’s more from baseball’s West divisions…
- Giants prospect Heliot Ramos is expected to be out of commission for at least a few weeks after suffering an oblique strain on Friday, reports John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. The 20-year-old outfielder sustained the injury while making a throw home during the Giants’ matchup with the Rockies. Per Shea, Ramos will be re-evaluated this weekend, but is likely to be on the shelf for two weeks at minimum. Ramos is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the number 65 prospect in baseball, and the third-best in the San Francisco organization. He’s reached as high as Double-A and appeared in last year’s Arizona Fall League. He wasn’t invited to Major League camp this year, but has been brought up to participate in a couple of the Giants’ Cactus League games.
- An MRI of Athletics prospect Daulton Jefferies showed no issues with the elbow, though the right-hander does have a strain in his upper bicep, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The Oakland organization had some fear that Jefferies may have sustained an elbow injury when he exited a February 24 game prematurely. Per Gallegos, we won’t know exactly when Jefferies will be able to throw again until he visits a specialist tomorrow. Jefferies, 24, is coming off a solid 2019 season in which he made it to Double-A, throwing 64 innings of 3.66-ERA baseball at that level.
Over/under 15 trash can comments on this post?
Total over.
Over
Does yours count as 1/15? And is this 2/15? If so, odds are nice.
Mine does not count. But you’re right I probably put it at too low a number
Blah blah trash can blah blah bang.
Trash can.
well over
Surprised to see that Heliot Ramos didn’t get a standard invite to spring training
True, but then again, we’re dealing with Farhan. It’s most likely because there’s so many outfielders they have to sort through for Opening day. A good start from him and Bart at AAA could see both of them called up by All-Star break.
Under
There is some HEFTY pressure on the stros this season.
I think they’ll be just fine, they have so many quality players at their disposal.
So you’re saying it’s in the bag?
I think they’ll just …. refuse … to lose.
What a waste of a comment
1/15
They’d do better to just leave it out on the curb…
How do these guys suffer oblique strain injuries all the time? On a throw home? Are baseball players just injuring themselves merely by playing the game? Has it come to this? What is going on? I feel like I’m going to watch a game where about a dozen players collapse on the ground injured during one play. It is really just getting out of hand. “He hurt himself getting a drink of water in the dugout. He’ll be out for a month.” It’s coming to that.
Ever try throwing a baseball as hard as you can 300 feet? I’m guessing no.
Actually, yes. I broke the throwing records in every throwing contest I entered growing up. I pitched against college players in a competitive men’s baseball league past the age of 40. I know a thing or two about throwing and also about fitness. I’ve run 20 marathons in under four hours. But I’m watching the modern athlete fall apart constantly. I don’t know why. I’m guessing it’s their routines or lack thereof. But I just don’t get what’s wrong.
Lmao
Guys are playing harder than ever, and injuries that would’ve been played through in the past or led to longer IL stays are easier to treat and deal with. It’s not “TODAY’S PLAYERS ARE SNOWFLAKES” old farts like to throw out, it’s the opposite really. These dudes are throwing and hitting harder than ever in history, but there’s still limits to the human body
I’m not complaining about today’s athletes, my nephew is a professional baseball player and I admire the work he puts in, but he just suffered a high ankle sprain combined with recovering from TJ. I just feel something is going on with these injuries but I don’t know the answer. If they are pushing themselves to the point of injury then something is not right. I know what it is to push yourself, I’ve been doing it a long time. But a man’s got to know his limitations. I heard that somewhere.
“At 39, I had a slap tear and ripped off my biceps tendon.
Never pitch again?
Yeah right.
I went to Montefiore orthopedics and begged Dr. Levy to get me back on the diamond.
At 41, I was drafted to play pro ball.”
I could throw a football over the hill by my house.
Dude, these guys play hurt. Constantly. And they often push themselves more than they should. Why? Cuz not playing will cost them…money. They hurt but aren’t “injured”. Then the hurt becomes too much and becomes an “injury”. There isn’t a “hurt list” but there’s a “disabled list” which is now called the “injured list”.
Long story short, being injured/disabled can hit the wallet at Ramos current stage of career. Playing hurt can impress. He’s now disabled/injured because he pushed it ehile hurt.
Did you know he hit a bomb AFTER that throw? Playing hurt. My guess is he already hurt it before the throw and the throw pushed it to an injury. AND he still hit a bomb. However, the chances of him running a marathon now have worsened
Well, I find these comments shocking under my jersey.
GET OUT! LOL
Plastic kneecap!
Astros cheated!
Ya know, every time I think of that trash can stuff I think of that song from Doug where him and Skeeter are pretending to be rock stars and Doug says “Banging…on a trash can, banging…on a streetlight!”
Point is, Astros suck and I hope they get plunked.
Never realized just how many brutish,knuckle dragging, bloodlusting maniacs there were around here. Wishing injury on others, especially complete strangers, is a tell tale sign of psychopathic behavior.
I bet you cry over the suffering that child molesters suffer in prison too, don’t you?
@Javia, don’t ever compare cheating in a sport to child molesters. Someone that does anything like that to a child is the lowest scum on earth, at the end of the day baseball is a sport, comparing going after cheaters in a sport to what happens to the pieces of trash in jail is not even close to the same.
Javia? Blah blah blahvia
That you would compare stealing signs to touching kids and then probably turn around and call Astros fans delusional is just… wow
BANG THE TRASHCANS BLAH BLAH WOOOOOO
The Houston Astros are now FOREVER, *Houston Astros*. It’s a shame but Houston is marked for life, anytime the team name appears, for whatever reason, the first reference will be to the cheating years, sad position for the franchise.
And that counts as a trash can related comment,,,,over 15 all day!
No one will care in a few years. Some other meaningless “scandal” will enrage the masses and we will all forget.
People still talk about the Black Sox. People still talk about steroids. This might be around for a while
People talk about the black sox because players were TANKING GAMES on purpose. Steroids, stealing signs w tech, etc is players trying to “illegally” get an upper hand and increase their chances of winning.
Both the steroids scandal and this current one are both just symptoms of the league being way too behind on the science and the tech.
keep dreaming that it will blow over. Astro team this year is the weakest its been in years. The rotation is weak and so is the bullpen. Now that they have 0 edge with cheating the hitting will go way down. I have a feeling dynamite will disappear about May when the astros are just a .500 team.
I don’t care about their record. I’m not an Astros fan.
Arc89, Astros will win the division. Bregman, Altuve, Springer and Correa are probably as focused as they’ve ever been proving fools wrong all season.
That’s nice, but the rest of the division is stronger, and their rotation hinges on two 37 year olds and an oft injured guy coming back from TJ being healthy the entire year.
and a #1 overall pick, and 5 solid prospects
You’re hatred is skewing your vision. Get it over it. Or when the Astros win 100 games this year and go to the WS you are going to have a hard time.
“Weakest it’s been in years” yeah when you come off winning 107 games it’s hard to look better dude
Go Astros. Flags fly forever.
Trash cans bang forever
I bet it’s difficult to find a player that really wants to go to Houston right now. Can you imagine someone like Markakis accepting a trade to Houston? He can’t block it, but he can sure show his displeasure on it.
Well that’s too bad for him. There’s plenty of hungry minor leaguers and journeyman who deserve and will fight for their time in the show. If someone wants to make a morale stand in lieu of playing for Houston and that means other guys get a chance then that’s their loss.
Hughes, Maldonado (returning, but he arrived in late 2018), and Garneau already did, so…?
All this whining is getting ridiculous. Acting like a bunch of third graders……Wah Wah they cheated. Get over it.
No one is “whining”. They’re just recycling the same tired and weak jokes we’ve all seen 100x a day.
Players and fans have a right to be POed and air their frustrations. It’s the low hanging fruit comedy acts that are getting irksome.
I think Cristian Javier is gonna be good, I hope to see him in the bigs this year.
Finally a baseball comment, yes Javier looks intriguing. He really splashed onto the scene last year when he dominated AAA hitters.
Sounds like a bunch of whiners to me. Dodgers score more than 1 run (at Dodger Stadium), in game 7 then they would have won. So did Red Sox cheat them out of 2018 WS? I guess the Nats cheated them out of World Series appearance in 2019 too then.
The only one guilty of cheating the Dodgers out of a Championship is Dave Roberts and his incredibly bad decision making.
no it’s the lack of intellectual honesty that’s getting tiresome. The Houston Astros were the fourth team to get caught doing what they did. very few people know about the other three teams because Major League baseball didn’t kneecap them. didn’t make an example out of them. And don’t think that it doesn’t escape people at those three teams are very high-profile teams that bring in a lot of money for the league. Major League baseball has shown itself to be biased and unfair. purely driven and motivated by money
These repetitive comments about the Astros cheating, etc is really getting annoying. Sounds like a bunch of third grader whining to the teacher, “They cheated”. Grow up
…. you literally already posted this. Are you ok?
Astros fans who stand by their cheating team are all very much not ok.
It’s called loyalty, Strike Four. That and recognizing the fact that there are gonna be times where your team makes decision or does something you don’t agree with. You can express your disagreement but that’s all you can do about it.
I have been a Astros fan for over 50 years. I’m pissed at the players for cheating but I’m not going to stop supporting them because they cheated 3 years ago. They’re my team. This group of players won’t be there forever. Some of them wasn’t there in 17. Some of them that were there are on other teams now. It’s over & done. Whether you agree with the punishment or not. Hell let’s play some ball! Go Astros!
I hope they get the ball stuck in the ear first pitch first game. it’s not going to be forgotten about anytime in the next several years until Altuve Springer and all the other cheaters have left the game.
Astros fan who stand by their team too so because it’s their team. they’ve been fans of that team for decades before this cheating group of guys ever came along. how shallow would it be to walk away from something that you’ve been a fan of for 30 plus years because of one season in one team. You have a backwards way of looking at things. You need to learn what real integrity looks like
What world are you coming from where dishonest actions of third graders have repercussions involving millions of dollars?
Seriously. And in this macabre make believe scenario, are we NOT meant to feel sorry for these third graders who have been cheated somehow? Are we not to be enraged?
The Astros cheated and should be suspended exactly like how the Black Sox cheated. Ban all hitters who participated for life, vacate Altuve’s MVP or give it to Judge. Manfred is a worthless coward.
The black Sox didn’t “cheat”
And we wouldn’t have the plethora of facts we know without the players cooperation, of which immunity was issued to procure. You can’t have it both ways.
I grew up watching Baseball in the golden age of cheating, i.e. the steroid era. What the astros did was bad but it didn’t affect the very fabric of the game like the steroid era of the 90’s/early 00’s. An entire generation of players mostly tainted. As opposed to one group of hitters and coaches forever demonized and vilified in the court of public opinion is almost punishment enough compared to a league wide epidemic that literally re-wrote MLB record books
Rsox that got to be the biggest whine. Since in the steroid era everyone was cheating not just 2 teams in the trash can era. Even big poppa was a steroid abuser. Problem most fans have is the ones that pretend it didn’t help them out. Just like the Astros wanting you to believe that it only happened a few times not the last 3 years. I am guessing you don’t watch any wrestling shows full of steroid abusers.
Lots of wrestlers used steroids in the 80’s. WWE was in major trouble in the early 90’s because of a steroid trial. Some wrestlers in 2020 still do steroids I’m sure, like Jinder Mahal, but as a wrestling fan it’s tough to tell who does and who doesn’t. That is of course unless they got obvious telltale signs like horrible acne and the shape of their pecs.
No one cares about wrestling, kid. That’s not competitive a competitive sport.
And yet arc89 brought it up, son.
Steroids could take a guy hitting 16 homers a season to one hitting 40.
No arc89, not all teams were chocked full of steroid users. Other teams did not have steroid users when McGuire and Canseco played a pivotal role in the 89 A’s World Series Championship.
Cashman continues to have his job despite his objective to fill the late 90s and 2000s Yankees teams with PED users.
And let’s not forget how Tony LaRussa brought McGuire over to the Cardinals with him. And how the A’s traded for and brought Canseco back to their team in 1997. Some GMs and managers were also complicit during the steroid era.
Good post IAF. I hadn’t read it when I wrote my long post an hour ago (it’s currently at the end). I’m a giants fan. One of the greatest at bats I’ve seen was bonds homering off Gagne. They both were more intense than usual. Epic battle.
And both juiced. Doesn’t take away from epic-ness.
Both were amazing players. It happened and it can’t be erased from history.
Bonds faced a ton of pitchers just as guilty as he was.
If IROD, Bagwell ( Astro btw), piazza, etc can be HOFers, then let’s stop with the Astros hate. The precedent has been set
this guy understands that his Red Sox got caught already doing with the Houston Astros did and our investigation for doing it again during their 2018 world series run. but don’t worry buddy. You’re a fan of the Red Sox. Major League baseball is going to do everything they can to protect them just like they did when Dustin pedroia got busted using an Apple watch in The dugout to pass on signals to guys at the plate so if they knew what pitch was coming. You’re never going to have to deal with what Houston Astros fans deal with. You come from a special class
Are you going to apply that logic to the Yankees, Redsox and Cardinals? And more to be announced.
It would be nice to be able to talk baseball on a thread about the Astros without the mob, torches. And pitchforks.
It just happened, and it will be here for at least a year. Sorry we all don’t need someone creating rules for what we are and arent allowed to talk about. You are absolutely free to talk baseball in this thread, other people are allowed to bring up that the cheating Astros cheated.
If I was an Astros fan I would walk away from the game and read books all summer instead of caring about baseball.
Seriously considering doing so. The cheating pisses me off as a true fan of the game and Astros. The bonuses are that Hinch got fired and apparel is greatly discounted. The anger and derpy comments are juvenile. I would’ve rooted for the Cards but they got busted cheating themselves stealing the Astros info. Oh well, guess I’ll sit the first few months out and continue going to Corpus and Round Rock games.
and if i was Astros fan I woudlnt. your opinion does no rule supreme. im willing to bet most people would be willing to forgive them given the biggest culprits are gone. willing to bet if the Black Sox thing happened nowadays all people would need is a single winning season to get over it, and they were actively trying to be bad, unlike the Stros, who at least gave their fans a heck of a show and a 2020 roster still good enough to win it all without trash cans.
Hard to do when you genuinely love the game, but yeah it’s hard to cheer for a team that so blatantly cheated. Frankly, for me, one of the most deflating things as an Astros fan is how they’ve handled everything. The Osuna stuff, the Taubman thing and the sign stealing thing.
I’ll never walk away from baseball because I love the game. People have asked me all winter my opinion and if I’ll still still root for the Astros. My response has consistently been “I’m window shopping teams.” Lol. It’s a weird situation for sure.
Good to see a real baseball fan like Astrows20. I respect people that admit their team had a big advantage instead of pointing fingers at other teams and saying everyone done it.
Arc89, quite a few of us realize that nothing we say, do, etc will change the fact that the Astros had unfair advantage.
I am an Astros fan and have been one from Day 1. Watched plenty of games at the AstroDome, and remember being angry as a young kid when John McMullen wouldn’t resign Nolan Ryan in 1988. I won’t apologize for still cheering and going to games.
While the cheating scandal feels a little dirty, it isn’t going to sway my allegiance. The best thing they can do now is embrace it, because even a heartfelt apology wasn’t going to win over many fans anyway.
They just need to go out, kick tail, and prove everyone wrong. I’ll be rooting for that scenario, don’t have any other choice.
You’d be a bandwagoner aka not a real fan, Strike Four.
Well, you are not us. I have been angry at the players. I had lost so much respect for the players. I contemplated shopping for another team. But ultimately, I decided that was not my values. I do not condone cheating. But in the real world that I live in, people are not perfect. They make mistakes. I value forgiveness and redemption!!!
As disgusted as I was with the Astros, I have been even more disgusted with the American people and their hate filled hearts.
you earned it now wear it
loser
Well said Rsox
I have been a dodger fan for almost 50 years(yes I am old!). It’s ridiculous to say that the Astros actions did not affect the outcome of the season/postseason. That said, I believe it’s time we all just move on. Even with the weak MLB discipline the players are paying a price for their actions. Ever have a job that you hate going to everyday? That’s what every road game will be like for the Astros. We will never know how 2017 would have turned out if they didn’t cheat.
Agreed. Who knows if the 2004 Dodgers, for example would have done if Gagne and Beltre didn’t use PEDs. They won the division.
Astros are cheating scum bags.
Wow, what a fascinating insight.
Click will go dumpster diving for back end rotation help…dumpster, trash can…
It would never happen but if I were Crane, I would trade off nearly everyone. Imagine the haul for most of these guys and the value in shedding the * from the franchise. Crazy talk though.
Any article about the Astros’ GM is Click bait.
Obligatory trash can comment
Ramos hit a single and a HR after the throw.
Bang! Bang!
From ESPN article in 2012:
“Former Cy Young closer Eric Gagne alleges in his new biography that 80 percent of his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates were using performance-enhancing drugs. Gagne won the 2003 Cy Young while converting all 55 of his save opportunities and posting a 1.20 ERA. “
Dodgers won NL west in 2004. Gotta give it back. Beltre hit almost 50 bombs that year and never over 30 in 6 years prior. Hit .330 and had 120 rbis. His stats that year blew away his previous years in comparison. It was his walm year and he signed for huge $ with mariners and fell back to earth the next year. Manny helped Red Sox win a WS while using PEDS. So did AROD. Go back to A’s 89 title. McGwire/Canseco?
So did those teams get punished? Death threats? Begged to give up they’re awards/titles/$?
LaRussa is in the HOF. Coached A’s and Cards(McGwire played for him in StL)
How’s that for punishment?
So, may I conclude that the precedent has been set. Ain’t nothing happening to the Astros nor should there. A’s had it coming and I’m an A’s fan. I don’t follow the Astros. Time to move on
Bang! Bang!
Man I love Bryan Abreu, but if the goal is another championship run, you need more veterans at the back end to get you through the season.