Your Turn To Be GM. Pick the Astros’ ALDS Roster.

It’s our annual pick the ALDS roster “contest.” (Winner gets the acclaim of TCB-land.) Yes, how many fanbases get to hold this contest annually? And I’m confident we’ll soon hold our annual ALCS roster contest shortly, as well.

Don’t pick the locks. On the fielding side, they are:

Jose Abreu, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena, Alex Bregman, Chas McCormick, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Mauricio Dubon, Martin Maldonado, and Yainer Diaz. I’d say Michael Brantley, but with his recent limited playing time, I wonder just a little about his injury status.

One important consideration: Do the Astros want a third catcher to free up Diaz as a DH or pinch hitter?

The pitching will be trickier to pick. On the pitching side, the locks are:

Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, J.P. France, Bryan Abreu, Hector Neris, and Ryan Pressly. Others like Ryne Stanek, Jose Urquidy and Phil Maton seem very likely, but I don’t want to be too presumptuous. Dana Brown surprised us in the Spring with some of his roster choices.

If you think they have to have a left-handed reliever, don’t pick Bennet Sousa. He will not be eligible for the playoffs.

Here is a link to the 40-man roster.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe there can only be 13 pitchers on the 26-man roster.

Fill out the roster in the comments below.