Where Do We Put All These Guys?
It wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about how pitching depth was just an illusion, that the Astros were running out of center fielders, that the team was understocked on left-handed bats, or that there was a shortage on shortstops.
Before the end of April, the Astros had used 11 different starting pitchers. Peter Lambert is in the rotation only because the Astros were force to turn to the tenth guy on their starting pitcher depth chart. The team was essentially signing guys outfielders off the street: Dustin Harris, Daniel Johnson, Lamonte Wade, Jr, and trading for utility infielders like Braden Shewmake and Ray Delgado midseason with pocket change, quite literally in Delgado’s case who was acquired for “cash considerations.”
It was a struggle to fill out the 26-man roster, let alone the 40-man.
Then yesterday, the organization released this injury update report:
Suddenly, the question becomes, “Where do we put all these guys?”
Nick Allen, the opening day roster utility infielder came back from his hamstring strain yesterday. That bumped Ray Delgado back down to AAA, but with news of Jeremy Pena hitting the IL with a left calf strain, Delgado is probably coming right back up. Shewmake, affectionately known as Shewrake for his 2 week stretch of unexpected offensive production, is also coming back soon, but if Pena’s IL stint is the minimum 10 days as Joe Espada would have us believe, there may not be a spot for him.
The outfield has been a battle for playing time, as illustrated in the playing time snapshot from the past Friday’s preview. Recent big hits and the ability to hit from the left side of the plate have given Taylor Trammell and Joey Loperfido more playing time over righties Brice Matthews and Jake Meyers who have struggled at the plate. What happens when Wade comes back? Astros fans thank him for the Toronto series, but in all likelihood, it’ll be Loperfido going back down to clear space for Wade, who is also a lefty.
Finally, the rotation. It used to be an open sign-up sheet to start a game. With Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers, Jr., and Ronel Blanco coming back, something’s going to have to give. Hunter Brown, Tatsuya Imai, and Peter Lambert’s spot look like good bets (although Lambert’s grip is starting to loosen after his last couple starts).
Kai-Wei Teng was optioned. Who else goes when the veterans come back? Arrighetti? Burrows? Arrighetti had a great May, but he’s been awful in June. After having his turn skipped in the rotation, Mike Burrows bounced back. That doesn’t mean he’s fixed, but he’s at least pointed in the right direction. The fruit of Dana’s biggest offseason trade, Burrows seems less likely to be optioned than Arrighetti.
Having too many available players is a better problem than not having enough, but let’s not confuse this situation for an excess of riches. It’s more like an excess of quarters. They’re useful and you’re glad to have them, but nobody’s going to mistake you for Mr. Monopoly, just because you have a couple rolls of them. It just means you can comfortably do your laundry.
Mike Burrows vs. Joe Ryan
Mike Burrows makes his second start since having his turn in the rotation skipped. The break seemed to do him well. In his last start, he went 6 innings against the Jays, allowed just 2 hits and 1 run (a solo home run). He struck out just 3 hitters, but also walked only 1.
He’s made some adjustments. He had dropped his arm angle from 48 to 39 degrees from 2025 to 2026. Against the Jays, in 93 pitches, his arm angle moved a bit back up to 42.7 degrees.
Maybe that played into his success. Or maybe it was the fact that the Jays started only 3 left handed hitters against a pitcher who’s been terrible against lefties. The Twins started 6 hitters who were either lefty or switch last night against Lambert.
Burrows sits at 3-8 on the season with a 5.48 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 3.3 BB/9 and 7.3 K/9.
Joe Ryan will likely be an All-Star for the second year in a row. He is 5-4 in 17 starts with a 3.18 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. His 108 strikeouts rank among the league leaders. He has a 1.8 BB/9 and 10.4 K/9.
Ryan throws his 4 seam fastball almost half the time, to both righties and lefties. It’s not a fireball; it averages 93.4 mph, but it has great arm-side movement, making it hard for hitters to hit. Combined with the rest of his arsenal: sweeper, curve, sinker, slider, splitter, Ryan freezes hitters when it counts; he’s 3rd in the AL in strikeouts looking.
Ryan faced the Astros earlier this season in Minneapolis. He went 6 innings, allowed 4 htis, and just 1 run with 9 strikeouts and no walks to pick up the victory. The Astros will need to have a much better approach this time around against the Twins ace.
Twins @ Astros Game Information and Gamethread Details
The game will be broadcast at 7:10 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
We hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been amazing on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads.
Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .
For more detailed instructions, please see the Guide to the Launch Angle.
If you’ve participated in game threads on other Astros sites in the past, you will probably see a lot of familiar names. Chat, lurk, do whatever! (But please say “hi”, so we know you’re not a bot.)
Be Oranje
Usually, I’ll end on the Game Information and Discord Server details, but I wanted to add one thing. I missed the Astros’ near 9th inning comeback last night, because I switched the channel to the Netherlands-Morocco World Cup game. I’m not the biggest soccer fan, but the Dutch invaded our fair (and crazy humid) city a couple Saturdays ago, and it was phenomenal, and the visiting Dutch were great guests.
I wanted to see if they were coming back for another visit. If the Netherlands beat Morocco, they would have headed back to Houston on Saturday for the next round. They lost in penalties, unfortunately, which is too bad, because Houston is an Orange city.
Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link.
Trade them for prospects. We have a super scout for GM.