The Astros are done with pretend baseball after wrapping a two-game sweep of the KC Royals at Minute Maid Park, coming from behind in both games. Then they announced all their final roster decisions so let's dissect.
They optioned P Matt Albers & Fernando Nieve, INF Eric Bruntlett to Round Rock and re-assigned C Eric Munson to minor league camp and he'll be the top backstop at AAA. Two non-roster invitees P Brian Moehler and P Rick White both make the big club to start the year.
1. Brian Moehler makes the team, but not as a starter. Essentially he gets Nieve's spot as Nieve heads to Round Rock. Moehler had one notable good outing - his last one - 6 sharp innings against the Yankees. But he allowed 27 hits in less than 22 innings and mind you a lot of that work came against minoe leaguers. But let's focus on his big league stats. Last 2 years, 13-23 with a 5.43 ERA and 362 hits allowed in 280 innings. I keep looking at his numbers and I cannot figure out what is compelling Garner and Purpura to make decisions like this. I don't want to go overboard so I'll just say this - Moehler is not even a serviceable major league pitcher. I expect he'll be released by June. How they think Moehler can help the team more than just about anyone is truly shocking.
1a. Rick White at least was unscored upon until the final spring game and showed the ability to throw more than 1 inning per appearance - but he is really no less of a gamble than Moehler.
2. Eric Bruntlett has to start the year at Round Rock b/c the team is forced to carry 12 pitchers. I want to really blast the Astros for this one, since Bruntlett belongs in the majors. But I understand the need for 12 pitchers with all the problems that are expected from the last 3 spots in the rotation. The real surprise for me on this one is that he had to clear waivers before he could head to Round Rock - and he DID. There is no way that at least one other team couldn't use a guy like Bruntlett. He can play every position but catcher and is a fantastic pinch hitter with speed. He was 2nd in the majors last year with a .412 BAvg as PH (min 15AB).
3. Luke Scott was essentially named the starter in RF. That is very good news. He torched NL pitching for 3 months last year and was perfectly fine during spring training. Who cares what the ages of these players are any more, no Scott is not a prospect - but so what. Let him prove he doesn't belong by failing - but I don't expect that to happen. Lane is fine as a role player provided he stops looking for walks. I felt like management was smokescreening this decision all camp long - don't know if that's the case or not - but they made the right call on this one.
We made our predictions on the show last Friday night and here's what we're going with.
MATT:AL East-Boston, Central-Detroit, West-Oakland, Wildcard-Chicago
NL East-NY Mets, Central-Milwaukee, West-Los Angeles, Wildcard-Philadelphia
World Series:Dodgers over Tigers
ADAM:AL East-NY Yankees, Central-Chicago White Sox, East-Oakland, Wildcard-Boston
NL East-Philadelphia, Central-St. Louis, West-San Diego, Wildcard-NY Mets
World Series:NY Yankees over Philadelphia
PLAY BALL!!!!
---- WEX
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