Welcome to the Launch Briefing, a daily feature, where you will find a roundup of news and interesting stories from the Astros clubhouse and from around the league.
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It’s the Monday Launch!
Houston Astros News
What will Houston do at the deadline? (NYT)
Ulloa called up from Triple-A (HC)
Why did Teng get sent down? (HC)
Three key takeaways so far (NYT)
AL West News
A’s prospect Lin undergoes surgery (TR)
Peralta signs with Angels (FP)
Langford lands on IL (YS)
M’s acquire Kennedy (TR)
A’s acquire Juenger from Jays (NBC)
MLB News
Anunoby throws out the first pitch for the Mets
Ragans undergoes elbow surgery (ESPN)
Mets outright Short (TR)
Blue Jays place Suarez on IL (CBS)
Guardians activate DeLauter (C)
Rutschman activated by Orioles
Gonzalez activated by the Red Sox for debut (BG)
Suárez exits Reds game with injury
Houston Astros birthdays
RHP Tony McKnight (49)
IF Joe Inglett (48)
LHP Brooks Raley (38, New York Mets)
RHP Michael Cuevas (29, High-A)
Feature photo from Astros on X, Source Link
Rome talks about it in the 3 takeaway pieces but how do you handle the rotation here on out? Brown Imai and Lambert seem like they’re locked in. Javier’s rehab is up on Friday. His rehab has been up and down, the last outing was up, and he’s probably re-entering the rotation.
Teng was sent down. Who’s the last spot? Arrighetti? Burrows? I would lean towards Burrows, because Dana made a more substantial investment in him, and he at least seems to be trending in a better direction. Rome says the one who doesn’t stay in the rotation could go to the pen, but they both have options left, and I think it’s probably end with Arrighetti going back to AAA.
But then you have LMJ and Blanco coming back later too. Is this just gonna be the new infield logjam that ends up working itself out on its own?
If we were going to make some trades, will Dana dip into one of these starters? Think of the Sanchez trade of last year with Gusto as a precedent.
But who would he trade? Anyone who’s been bad, I don’t know if anyone else is going to want, or if they do, I don’t know if they give anything consequential. Anyone’s who’s been serviceable, Dana won’t want to move because he needs them if the Astros are going to make a push. The Astros have a lot of starting pitchers now, but they’re still short on good starting pitching. Maybe if he thinks he’s squeezed all there is to squeeze from the Arrighetti rock and another team is interested, but they all see the same data we do.
Some of it depends on Javier/Blanco/LMJ coming back. If two of those three look solid, Brown is Brown, and Imai more or less has figured it out, you have 4 starters for a playoff series. Then you’re left with a muddled group of Lambert/Burrows/Arrighetti/Teng/Blubaugh, there isn’t space to roster them all this year if the org internally values one or two of them more, maybe they listen for offers on the rest.
Or if you want to free up some payroll and you think Lambert is up for pitching in a Division Series you flip Javier at the deadline if someone is really looking for an effective veteran pitcher.
I was going to say both the rotation and bullpen are facing a crunch. If there is any evidence that this team will need to buy and sell(even if its just off loading a reliever and/or starter) its with that conundrum.
I imagine the three safe names in the rotation right now are Brown, Imai, and Lambert. Arrighetti can be optioned assuming he struggles again, Blanco can be optioned in order to build his arm up, but LMJ and Javier are going to be given their shots.
I am really not sure if any of the starters can be moved from the active roster unless you cash in on Lambert now, but Gordon could be a throw into a deal much like Gusto just as a depth innings piece.
Or try to swap Abreu or DLS for a minor league reliever.
Well said and pretty much how I see it. There is no path forward besides a buy + sell strategy or just sitting on our hands. We’re too good to sell and too bad to jeopardize our future to buy pieces of real significance.
Good news is Atlanta has been decent at doing that kind of thing for a while now and I’m sure Brown is thinking of that heading into the deadline. He’s never traded a piece who is the caliber of our current top 10 guys (ie good enough to actually make the lists).
Thing is we have a lot of what you might call marginal depth. So grabbing one more *solid* reliever and one more actually useful left handed hitting outfielder may be enough.
The goal should be getting a guy or two with team control, so we’d have to project upside- whether vets coming out of slumps (Kwan? Duran?) or blocked prospects who Dana feels are ready to contribute and debut- kind of like Delgado, but obviously with better pedigree.
And the pieces traded need to be from surplus (relievers, ironically enough), prospects we don’t see as the future, and/or discount bin guys we’ve flipped. I can see Bryan Abreu as a piece, Gordon as a throw in, and I can see an intriguing but uncertain type of guy like Schiavone as a trade piece too though I’d prefer to avoid that.
There is almost zero chance guys like Alvarez, Neyens, Fermin, anyone with pedigree who looks like a 2028+ contributor gets traded IMO. And that’s a good thing.
Flipping Javi with that salary and his production is almost a non-chance.
For as poor as Burrows has pitched this year at times, he has done a good job at chewing up innings. That’s hard to give up with so many unknowns around the rotation. As Brown rounds into form, and if Imai keeps turning in quality starts, maybe that draw goes away, but for now, for the sake of not completely destroying our middle relievers, I think he has some additional value.
I’m hopeful Burrows’ arm angle change will bear fruit. Hope is a dangerous thing though
I won’t hold my breath on it but I feel better about his chances than LMJ being an effective starter this year.
Burrows was an effective pitcher as recently as last season. The last time we saw Lance as an effective pitcher, he was 28 years old. He turns 33 in about 3 months.
I think Javier is best suited for the pen,