Because injuries and the Astros couldn't be discussed on April Fools Day
by Stephen Higdon on Apr 2, 2010 6:00 AM CDT
in Editorials
Email
PrintOn Wednesday at work I did nothing for six hours of the day but sit on hold with some IT guy. Or at least that's how it felt. With a broken computer that is heavily firewalled anyways, I had nothing better to do than to practically beg Twitter to update so I could find some link to click or morsel of news to digest on my Blackberry. Sadly, I didn't have to beg at all for a seemingly mind numbing stream of injury news about the Astros.
The day started with news of Lance Berkman, Alberto Arias, and Yorman Bazardo would, at a minimum, begin the season on the DL. Then Brian McTaggart was tweeting that Felipe Paulino couldn't move because of back spasms. As I passed along/discussed this series of awful news to Evan, he wondered (in a far more expletive laden manner) how was all of this possible. Astros County asked whether the next injury would be to the strength and conditioning coach.
I don't blame anyone in particular, but I am distressed. Alberto Arias, whom many of us were anointing the closer in waiting, has a condition that is a precursor to a torn rotator cuff. Will Carroll recently threw the words "microfracture surgery" and Lance Berkman's name in the same sentence. Things are bleak. And we haven't even broached the subject of Roy Oswalt's less than inspiring lower back. Nor have we discussed the near unanimous consensus among the media types that Tommy Manzella is not actually ready to play SS because of his quad.
Over a month ago, I wrote a nightmare scenario for the Houston Astros 2010 season. I didn't include the now distinct possibility that Lance Berkman could see a huge drop off in performance as he deals with his knee. I also didn't include Alberto Arias or Yorman Bazardo being hurt because they were actually part of the back up plan for the scenario in which Roy Oswalt went down.
There is cause for much alarm amongst us. But it is still spring, and that behooves us to feign hope in these times. So I will.
By all accounts from those with medical knowledge, Roy Oswalt should be alright. Lance Berkman as well, but he'll have to adjust to the reality of his knee. Felipe Paulino is still day to day, but is feeling better. However, my guess is that Arias is headed to a surgeons table before he gets back to regular playing time/meaningful contributions.
Regardless of the forced optimism, the Astros have a razor thin margin of error. The probabilities of havoc-wreaking injuries that will depress win totals are increasing.
The dreary—and too easily imagined—outlook facing the Astros is something we could all see ahead of time. In order to cobble together an outside chance of competing, a lot of money has been leveraged on this season. Moves have been made that many have disagreed with and we have tepidly defended, in some instances. I have a strong sense of how the majority of us feel about Ed Wade's offseason. What I am not sure of is how we will feel if it all goes to pot due to injuries. So that's what I'd like to determine before any meaningful games start. Just so we can keep ourselves honest.
12 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I suppose I never really expected much out of this season in the first place; our best case outlook prior to spring was “somewhere around .500”. I guess we’d all been hoping that everything which could go right would go right, plus a couple things we didn’t foresee, and that we’d sneak into the postseason with somewhere around 84-86 wins.
So if it does wind up being an injury-riddled mess, then I guess we’ll be upgraded to definitely not contending from probably not contending. It’s hard to get too angry about that, and if Wade finds a way to trade some of those pieces he “wasted” his money on at the deadline, so much the better.
At least we’ll get to watch some young players develop this time around. Towles, Castro, Norris, Paulino, Gervacio… maybe even Manzella and Johnson will surprise us, as they showed signs of in the spring. Watching a young squad be bad is a lot more fun than watching an old “veteran” squad be bad, right?
They're just getting the injuries out of the way in spring training
I’ve got a lot more optimism this year than I had last year, when Ortiz and Hampton we’re taking up 40% of the rotation.
by Timothy De Block on Apr 2, 2010 7:36 AM CDT reply actions
Call up the kids already
Give them a shot to play. Why did we sign Pedro Feliz and the RHP version of Kaz Matsui again (Lyon)?
If Berkman can’t go, let Johnson play 1B and see what happens. If Manzella’s starting the year out hurt, play Maysonet at SS and lets see what happens. If Matsui sucks again, move Towles to 2B already and get Castro up here.
B^2
In Daryl Morey, Rick Smith and Ed Wade we (usually) trust.
Move Towles to 2B, the old Biggio move. I like it.
Not sure if it will work out like Craig’s move but who knows. I don’t suppose there would be any defense stats on how well Towles might preform in the field.
Miss-placed Houstonian living and going to school in the wilderness of Wyoming.
He’s fast enough, and one would think his hands would be fine, being a catcher. The biggest question is whether he would have the instincts to handle a middle infield position.
The only non-catcher position ever played by Towles in the minors is one game in CF. FWIW, the most common catcher position conversion is 3d base. (Makes some sense: less range required, good arm a necessity, experience battling hard hit balls) Given Towles’ size, I would think that would be a better bet than 2d base.
However, I’ve come around to the idea that I prefer keeping Towles as a catcher. If he can hit well (still to be determined), he will have a lot more value as a catcher. A platoon of two young good hitting catchers would be something special. And Towles would have more trade value, if the Astros decided to go that direction.
Yes, I realize that it’s much more common for catchers to convert to the corners. However, Towles is quite fast for a catcher (though not as fast as Biggio was) and his bat might play better at second. If his bat comes around this season I’d at least think about sending him to winter ball to experiment with different positions. But I agree that having two good-hitting catchers would be nice, if perhaps a less efficient use of resources.
The roller coaster ride starts in three days
Let’s get it on.
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Apr 2, 2010 8:28 AM CDT reply actions
It appears fairly likely now that Chris Johnson will play 3d and Feliz will play 1st against LHP. And the Astros face 3 LHP early on this season. Mills thinks that Feliz looks comfortable at 1st base. He says that Feliz has been practicing at 1st base during the days he didn’t travel for spring games. So, apparently Mills has been anticipating this for some time without telling us.
One injury I’m concerned about: Brandon Lyon. He has struggled coming back from the shoulder surgery, and I would not feel good about the Astros’ chances if he is brought in as the 8th inning pitcher in a close game during the first series.
With Berkman out, the team’s starting pitching will have to step up big time for the Astros to have a chance early in this season. And, at this point, it’s hard to know what we will get from any of the starting pitchers, either due to injury or an erratic spring. At this point, I’ll go with the optimistic view that the pitching injuries have been minor, but that’s just because I don’t have much choice.
Look at it this way....
at least we still have our rotation stacked with lights out aces….uh…well, wait a minute…uh…..OH CRAP……we screwed :-(
Bernardo Fallas quotes a concerned Wandy Rodriguez
Wandy Rodriguez’s spring struggles continued Wednesday in the Astros’ 10-5 loss at the Atlanta Braves, prompting the lefthander to express worry about his readiness for the season.
Rodriguez (1-4, 12.10 ERA) had a shaky first inning for the third consecutive game, giving up three runs before allowing six more to start the bottom of the third.
"I don’t know what happened today," Rodriguez said. "I threw a lot of quality pitches and they hit them.
"I’m worried because I don’t feel ready and the season is almost here."
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Apr 2, 2010 2:35 PM CDT up reply actions
Wandy should probably keep those thoughts to himself. Or better yet, go talk to Roy Oswalt. Roy may not use terms like “BABIP,” but he is well versed in the basic idea of luck on balls in play. (Bud Norris said that’s one of the first things that Roy told him, you can pitch great and still give up a lot of runs and there’s nothing you can do about it.) I’m watching an ESPN preseason game right now, and I just saw the Orioles (and Ty Wigginton) rip up Mariano Rivera to take the lead over the Yankees. Buck Showalter is the color broadcaster: “Do you ever look at spring stats? When I was manager, I don’t remember ever looking at spring stats. Sometimes reporters would quote me spring statistics for a player and I wouldn’t know what they’re talking about.”
Mills said that Arnsberg would work with Wandy to get ready. From what I recall of the first inning of the last spring game, Wandy mostly had bad luck. (The 3d inning, I’m not sure, other than perhaps he was tired after pitching on short rest.) Perhaps Arnsberg needs to go over the video of that first inning, show him that he was hurt by bloopers, and restore his confidence.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on The Crawfish Boxes
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
TCB Tweets!
Current Series
3 game series vs Dodgers @ Dodger Stadium
| Fri 05/25 |
WP: Lucas Harrell (4 - 3)
SV: Brett Myers LP: Clayton Kershaw (4 - 2) |
3 - 1 win |
| Sat 05/26 |
WP: Kenley Jansen (4 - 0)
LP: Wesley Wright (0 - 1) |
3 - 6 loss |
|
Houston Astros
Sunday, May 27, 2012, 3:10 PM CDT Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to right field at 10-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 75. |
||
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
26 | 20 | .565 | 0 | Won 1 |
|
St. Louis
|
25 | 22 | .531 | 1.5 | Lost 3 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 24 | .478 | 4 | Lost 1 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
22 | 24 | .478 | 4 | Won 2 |
|
Milwaukee
|
19 | 27 | .413 | 7 | Lost 1 |
|
Chicago
|
15 | 31 | .326 | 11 | Lost 11 |
(updated 5.27.2012 at 1:03 AM CDT)
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
- Benches clear at Fenway as Red Sox-Rays rivalry heats up
- Keeping good company: Albert Pujols becomes fourth-youngest player to hit 450 home runs
