AP Jordan Lyles threw a complete-game shutout against the Brewers in his final outing last season to finish 5-12 with a 5.09 ERA. Now, that doesn’t sound very impressive, but he was just 21 years old and that he was an Astro explains the win-loss record. He entered camp this year penciled in as Houston’s No. 3 starter behind Lucas Harrell and Bud Norris.
Unfortunately, Lyles’ position in the rotation is now very much in doubt. He gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning in his start against the Braves on Friday, elevating his spring ERA to 25.20. In three outings, he’s given up 20 hits and 15 runs — 14 earned — over five innings.
The Astros do have rotation alternatives, so Lyles will probably be Triple-A bound barring a massive turnaround in his next two starts. Philip Humber and Erik Bedard were the favorites for the last two rotation spots entering camp, with Alex White and John Ely next in line. They also have Edgar Gonzalez and Dallas Kuechel available as fallback options.
Count on Houston looking at any out-of-options starters placed on waivers later this month. The Blue Jays’ Brett Cecil is an obvious possibility. There are also guys like the Dodgers’ Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang, the Royals’ Luke Hochevar and Bruce Chen and the Rays’ Jeff Niemann available in trade talks. Rick Porcello, too, but the Astros don’t have the closer the Tigers are looking for and probably wouldn’t want to give up prospects for him.
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Craig Robinson lives in Mexico. And based on when he tweets, I get the sense that he stays up late nights after going to Mexican baseball games and stuff. And I’m guessing he also has a lot of conversations with friends that start with “so, like, what if — seriously, now, listen — what if…
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Earlier this week Adam Eaton suffered a setback in his recovery from a sprained elbow ligament, but Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that an MRI exam revealed no structural damage. That’s obviously good news for the 24-year-old outfielder, although according to Piecoro he’ll still take 2-3 weeks off before resuming his rehab. Eaton…
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Not a ton going on today, so Kay and I talk about the pitchers in the mix.
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AP
As you might expect considering he hasn’t played well for two years and is an impending free agent the Red Sox won’t try to negotiate a long-term deal with center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury before he hits the open market. General manager Ben Cherington revealed that on WEEI radio in Boston, saying: “We agreed before the…
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Jon Rauch passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment last week and the Marlins released the veteran reliever two months into a one-year, $1 million contract. Rauch was terrible for Miami, allowing 14 runs in 16.2 innings, but he had a 3.59 ERA with good secondary numbers for the Mets last season and…
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So, if Michael Pineda makes an appearance in New York in the second half, do all the folks who said the Mariners won that trade have to eat crow? From the Tacoma News-Tribune: On the heels of a six-game losing streak and a 2-7 road trip, the Seattle Mariners will make an expected and needed…
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Despite being less than impressive in four minor-league rehab starts John Danks will come off the disabled list and rejoin the White Sox’s rotation Friday. Danks had a terrible 15/13 K/BB ratio in 22.2 innings while rehabbing from August shoulder surgery and failed to make it out of the fifth inning in his final start…
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Last month Amanda Rykoff noted that the Yankees’ “craft beer” section at Yankee Stadium was anything but. They’re continuing to have problems with basic beer identification, however, as now Patrick Wall of DNAInfoNY spied Goose Island listed as an “import.” Which, no, it’s not. It’s a Chicago beer. Wait, no it’s not. It’s actually brewed in…
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Angels reliever Ryan Madson was finally making some progress in his rehab from last season’s elbow surgery, but he’s suffered yet another setback. Madson felt soreness in his elbow after a one-inning rehab appearance at Single-A last week and hasn’t pitched since. As you’d expect Madson sounds…
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The Mets first baseman is having a train wreck of a season thus far. He’s hitting .147/.236/.245, which is horrible even on a horrible Mets offense. And his poor hitting seems to be infecting his fielding too. See, yesterday’s non-play on a ball he though was foul but which he turned into a game-killing double.…
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Francisco Liriano was terrible for the Twins and White Sox last season and then lost out on a ton of guaranteed money with the Pirates when he broke his right arm trying to prank his kids on Christmas morning. That all led to a whole lot of jokes at his expense and caused Liriano to…
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AP
Good news, Miami! Pretty soon all of those Marlins shutout losses are going to turn into losses in which the Marlins score one on Giancarlo Stanton home runs: On Wednesday, slugger Giancarlo Stanton took live batting practice at Marlins Park for the first time since straining his right hamstring on April 30. Redmond tossed the BP session…
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A day after fearing the right field wall in AT&T Park, Bryce Harper went back on a drive much closer to the bricks and made a nice catch. He also had an opposite field home run. You can see both of those plays here. Funny what happens when Davey Johnson doesn’t make his best hitter bunt.…
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So torn here. I love what Evan Gattis has done with the Braves so far. Highlight reel moments, power when it has been needed and he is a great story. But I almost wonder if he’s too great a story. We cant’ seem to go a day without hearing some new Gattis-is-Kane-from-Kung-Fu tale. Stuff about…
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Like the guy needs any help. UPDATE: Sorry about the video glitch. MLB.com has this as embeddable, but for some reason it won’t embed as it’s supposed to. So here’s the link. God, this day is not starting out well.
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Phillies 3, Marlins 0: Cliff Lee shuts out the Marlins on three hits. Granted, it doesn’t take anyone as good as Lee to shut out the Marlins, but that’s nothing that Lee could help. He was dominant. Just like Benedict Cumberbatch in that scene when he killed all those [alien race redacted to avoid spoilers]…
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Astros vendor brings snow cones into bathroom stall, gets fired
May 23, 2013, 12:17 AM EDT
This is on the short list of the most horrifying stories ever posted at HardballTalk. An Aramark vendor at Monday’s Royals-Astros game at Minute Maid was caught bringing his tray of snow cones into a bathroom stall with him. Click2Houston.com has the video taken by a concerned onlooker. Remarkably, this happened in the first game…
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OK, so there hasn’t been any actual All-Star ballot results released yet. That doesn’t mean I can’t do my fun little exercise here. What follows is my best guess at the All-Star Game starting lineups. National League CF Andrew McCutchen 2B Brandon Phillips 1B Joey Votto LF Justin Upton RF Bryce Harper 3B David Wright…
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Don Mattingly had some harsh things to say about the club he manages on Wednesday afternoon, leaving many to guess that he might be officially canned at some point during Thursday’s scheduled team off day. But that apparently will not happen. Via the Los Angeles Times: Don Mattingly will be managing the Dodgers on Friday when they open a…
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Josh Rutledge showed signs of promise in 2012 when he hit eight home runs, stole seven bases and registered a .775 OPS in 73 games as a 23-year-old. But the middle infielder has failed to meet the hype so far in 2013 and was officially optioned Wednesday evening to Triple-A Colorado Springs according to beat…
