What’s real and what’s fantasy? Two of three from Cleveland. The Guardians lead the AL Central and are one of five AL teams above .500, so a series win matters. Houston is 37-42, three games behind Seattle, with Toronto and Detroit coming up on the road this week. The schedule is getting softer.
But the pitching tells three different stories. Friday, Tatsuya Imai struck out 11 over six innings after getting yanked before recording three outs in his previous start. Saturday, Spencer Arrighetti, the guy Claude says is untouchable, gave up three home runs. Then, on Sunday, Kai-Wei Teng threw six strong innings in a 2-1 win, and Hader shut the door on nine pitches. Three games, three completely different versions of the Astros’ rotation. Brown is looking good working his way back, but Javier is still out.
What’s real and what’s fantasy?
Which pitching staff do you trust? And is it enough to make a run?
The CBA clock is ticking. MLB’s latest proposal came out Thursday, and the union rejected it before the ink dried. There’s a hard salary cap, a salary floor, and an international draft. But the piece that got my attention is the draft overhaul. MLB wants to ban high school and junior college players entirely, raising the minimum age to 20. Cut the draft from 20 rounds to 12. Eliminate competitive balance picks. The union says this wipes out a billion dollars in player compensation over the next five years.
No more debating about drafting a high school SS or a more proven college pitcher. The CBA expires Dec. 1, and the two sides are not good at finding middle ground. President Trump endorsed the salary cap too, because apparently this needed a political subplot.
What worries you most: the cap, losing high school draftees, or another lockout?
It may be time for Justin Verlander to just go home. JV was supposed to start Sunday at Comerica. Instead, he strained his hamstring during a bullpen session last Wednesday. He’s had one start all season. He told reporters: “I’ve always said that I want to play until the wheels fall off and, I don’t know, maybe they are falling off.”
He’s got 261 wins, three Cy Youngs, a no-hitter, and two World Series rings. Justin, you gave this game everything. Maybe it’s just time to go home.
Should Verlander retire, or does he try one more time?
Kylie McDaniel and Jeff Passan at ESPN ranked Jeremy Peña the third-most-valuable trade candidate before the Aug. 3 deadline, with a 35% chance of being moved. They mention a detail that we’re all keenly aware of, the one that is likely defining in Peña’s case.
Peña nearly signed an extension last year, then hired Scott Boras and the deal went south. We all know Boras clients go to free agency every time, so Peña is gone after 2027 no matter what. Passan has the Braves, Rays, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Red Sox as fits.
Deadline deal or offseason move? When would you pull the trigger on Peña?
Yordan Alvarez is the lone star for Houston. First All-Star ballot updates are out, and Yordan leads every AL player with over a million votes. Only Ohtani has more. Yordan’s on pace for 54 home runs, leads the majors in OPS, slugging, and total bases, so he’s a lock.
Is there another Astro who belongs in the All-Star conversation, or is Yordan going alone?
The pride night double standard. Three Giants pitchers wrote Genesis 9:12-16 on their Pride Night caps Friday. MLB issued a warning for violating uniform rules. Rules are rules, except when they aren’t. Kershaw did the exact same thing with the Dodgers last year, and nothing happened.
And this is the same league that approved BLM sleeve patches, “United for Change” messaging, social justice statements on cleats, and writings on the pitcher’s mound without blinking. Florida’s Attorney General has now subpoenaed MLB’s enforcement history since 2020, and I think he’s asking the right question.
If you want a uniform policy, enforce it the same for everybody. When you only enforce it selectively, it stops being about uniforms and becomes more about politically correct messaging. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Should MLB allow personal expression across the board, or enforce the rules equally and ban all of it?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
One response to “Astros’ random thoughts & musings”
Good morning. Yeah, the Astros took 2 of 3 from a winning team. Our guys have won four of their past five series, mostly against compromised teams, but we’re compromised too. Cleveland hangs their own hat on good pitching. And they sure shut our offense down 2 of 3 games. But their own offense overall is one of the worst in baseball. However we’ve got to credit Teng and Imai for going out and shutting that weak offense down.
I just don’t know what to expect from our starters each time out. It’s hard to sweep a series when Arrighetti, a guy acting like our number two behind Hunter goes into a funk as he has over his last four starts.
Chip, no I don’t trust our rotation to make a run, especially against the few good teams we have to play. But we don’t have to play a whole lot of good teams. So maybe our pitching can trot. Thing is, they need more offensive help than they are getting from our own mediocre bats.
I don’t care about a lock out. I’m not worried a bit. It’ll likely happen. MLB and the union are already making a big mess out of this negotiation. But what happens to the high school kid that has no interest in a college education? Is he going to have to go overseas to find competitive baseball? As far as I’m concerned, as we’ve found out, drafting most any high school kid is a big crapshoot. It’s usually a bad pick. But it sounds like MLB is trying to reinvent itself. 2027 could easily be a total wash.
We’ve already discussed Pena and I don’t have any reason not to have faith in what Claude thinks on this one.
Verlander can play golf. He might even go to Hollywood.
Spencer Arrighetti was going to the All Star game just three weeks ago. Things can change quickly. Pena might get in if someone gets hurt or wants the time off.
Chip, you ruined a good post with your last comments. You obviously founded this blog (was it called a blog way back then?) as an apolitical environment, a place to discuss baseball. When you brought the Attorney General into the mix, you lost me. Some things are evident. We all want consistency. But life is not quite so perfect. You won’t get my political opinions here. And I don’t want yours.
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