Ag_07 said:

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And Jesus...McHugh is filthy out of the pen.

His free agency will be very interesting. Will he garner more interest as a BP arm or starter? Does he even want to sign as a BP arm?

Will be REALLY interesting to see how that unfolds.

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Definitely.

A decent SP usually gets paid a whole lot more than a great setup man. Coming into the season McHugh was more statistically similar through age 31 to Wei Yin Chen ($20M per for Miami) than any other player in baseball history. He's not going to get anywhere near that kind of money as a reliever. That's what he may be by the end by the end of his next contract but the highest bidder will be looking for him to come in and start 32 games.

tjholley16 said:

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Headed to the game tomorrow. I'm hoping we go with the full starting lineup instead of giving some guys the day off to prep for the ASG

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I can't tell if you're joking or not. Surely you have to be but just in case.

Hinch has been managing for awhile now and nothing has changed. He's done it before and he's going to keep doing it.

Guys are gonna get their regularly scheduled days off regardless of what they do the night before. It's certainly not to prep for the ASG.

Ag_07 said:

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tjholley16 said:

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Headed to the game tomorrow. I'm hoping we go with the full starting lineup instead of giving some guys the day off to prep for the ASG

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I can't tell if you're joking or not. Surely you have to be but just in case.

Hinch has been managing for awhile now and nothing has changed. He's done it before and he's going to keep doing it.

Guys are gonna get their regularly scheduled days off regardless of what they do the night before. It's certainly not to prep for the ASG.

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Other teams have done it before ... they treat today like the getaway day and sit a couple of stars. I cant remember off the top of my head if Hinch has done it but it happens quite often around the league. A lot of stars get a "scheduled day off" on the day before the All star Break.

Pressly pitched last night so we are talking about 3 players. Brantley Already sat last night and the full bench is 3 position players + Stassi, so I doubt all 3 sit.

AggiEE said:

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irish pete ag06 said:

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AggiEE said:

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Who cares if he's the strike out leader when your job is to not get runs across the plate.

Not impressed with Cole this year, been much more impressed with Wade Miley despite the much lower K rate

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Still not impressed?

His FIP and xFIP are better than Verlander. If things keep going like they are I will say Cole's ERA will end up lower than Verlander.

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Cole had a poor start to the season relative to his stature in the MLB. He's expected to command 30 million per year on the free agent market.

Wade Miley has close to the same ERA and was only paid 4.5 million this year. He's also been much more consistent.

I'm happy that Cole has seemingly turned things around since June and hope it continues, but at the time I commented on Cole we were deep in the season and he was regularly giving up multiple runs early in the game.

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Yes, but I was arguing that he had been pitching a lot better than we thought. And he was.

Miley, just like JV, is pitching well above his numbers and it's unlikely that his ERA stays that low. Cole is our best pitcher.

He should be the 3rd best starter in baseball this season and it ain't just because of a good June.

dshedd14 said:

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They mentioned in on the broadcast as well as the article but sounds like we easily could have missed on Alvarez if the confusion was never cleared up. For instance, the Dodgers could have balked at "Alvarez" without clarifying "we just paid a ton of money for him" and Luhnow likely wouldn't have followed up by asking them if they had another Alvarez in their organization.

Very true. Thank Goodnes Luhnow clarified

Anyone else in line for the buddies parade?

Hopefully white and Stassi won't be a blackhole in the lineup today

Forgot about you're keeding, hope he gets his first W today

This could very well be White's last chance. Surely they will pitch around Alvarez, so it's likely TW will get several opportunities with men on. Another 0-4 and I predict it's his last start as an Astro.

There has been a lot of talk about his flinching and taking of center cut fastballs on the first pitch. Here's a crazy stat: He has only swung at the first pitch 8 times all season...and he's 3/8.

He also has a 1.067 OPS in 31 PAs in any count with no strikes. The problem is that he has been awful once there is even one strike in the count and he has gotten to strike 1 in 85% of his ABs, so as we know he has been mostly awful. So for those of you that have said he should just come out hacking, you're probably right.

Or maybe he just needs to look at the ball with both eyes.

He is obviously a zombie....

third coast.. said:

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Tyler white has had about 10 last start as an astro predictions on this thread. This time it will TOTALLY happen.

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It has never been going into the AS break with 2 infielders coming back and him being an obvious top-2 choice on who needs to go.

I hope he goes 4-4 and goes into Yuli mode. I'm just saying, with Diaz and Correa coming back, who else are they going to move?

Random pitcher and straw?

Ur kidding & Sneed are the only "random pitchers" on the roster right now and if McHugh is staying in the bullpen one of those guys has to stay even after Peacock comes back. Joe Smith's rehab is going well - 5 scoreless appearances. He can't be too far off.

Unless there are more injuries I can't see both Kemp and White staying on the roster together too much longer. The amount of playing time White is getting (despite not performing) would indicate he's ahead of Kemp, but that could only be because he plays 1b.

We will see.

I predict that White is toast the day Correa is activated.

Berkman on broadcast today

Dirty changeup by Keeding

Love having the big puma on the broadcast, my all time favorite player

Who's coaching 3rd?

Harry Dunne said:

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There has been a lot of talk about his flinching and taking of center cut fastballs on the first pitch. Here's a crazy stat: He has only swung at the first pitch 8 times all season...and he's 3/8.

He also has a 1.067 OPS in 31 PAs in any count with no strikes. The problem is that he has been awful once there is even one strike in the count and he has gotten to strike 1 in 85% of his ABs, so as we know he has been mostly awful. So for those of you that have said he should just come out hacking, you're probably right.

Or maybe he just needs to look at the ball with both eyes.

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TW ended up getting a hit, but Lance pretty much just said the same - pet peeve is when hitters are not ready to hit on hitters counts. Hope White was listening.

Kempin