Good morning my fellow Houstonians! I am back from my very long vacation to get married and have a honeymoon and boy oh boy have the Astros greeted my return with some major concerns thanks to the injury bug. While you have not heard me on the air for a few weeks now and I have not been very active on twitter talking Astros, I of course have a problem and still caught a lot of the action, typically watching the game on MLB tv when I woke up in the morning during our time in Italy. Overall, things are much better now than they were when I left as they flopped out of the gate in the first week. But after another injury to a starting pitcher last night, it is time for real concern.
The Astros entered this season banking on what they had, opting to not replace Justin Verlander's innings from someone outside of the organization. For the most part, there was nothing wrong with the plan as they still entered the season with six or seven guys you would feel comfortable making starts. But what do you know, the health luck from a year ago has not continued into 2023 and reminded all of you just how fickle this game can be. The Astros are now staring a real problem in the face. No Lance McCullers still. No Jose Urquidy for a lengthy period of time and possibly the same for Luis Garcia. This problem is not going away anytime soon.
The internal options to cover these issues are now thin and provide a dangerous game. The club is already now asking a ton out of Hunter Brown in his first full season and now will have to dip into other unproven big league arms, hoping to strike some fire with one of them. You have to think Brandon Bielak gets some starts. JP France and Forrest Whitley both have to be wondering when their chance will come. The one thing that this has reminded you is that your margin for error is now razor thin. Dana Brown is likely going to have to hit the trade market at some point and grab another arm to simply eat some innings. As much as you might like these young arms, they are just such an unknown. They are just as likely to struggle as they are to succeed in their first chance at big league action. It will be interesting to see who they decide to give the first crack to in this spot. Again, one thing is certain, the concern for the Astros starting pitching is now very real.