This starting pitching staff is really starting to take shape. If Myers gets back close to what he was last year and Bud keeps progressing and Lyles comes on. In terms of next year, the outfield should remain the same. Wallace & Castro are pretty much locked in. Seems to me #1 area to add $ would be the bullpen or 3rd. If they had a an A+ pen, this team could be .500 team starting next season.
The problem with an A+ pen by design is you generally have to overspend (in the context of the Astros payroll) to get one, and even then it might not work out. Even the priciest relievers are up and down over the course of a career. Sometimes an A+ pen seems more like a happy accident - a collection of so-so journeymen and young upstarts all having good-to-great years at once. I'm all for that. And I know a decent pen requires for more to happen than just random chance, but I'd rather they spend whatever money they are going to spend somewhere else.
Isn't Wade supposed to be a whiz at throwing together a decent pen with spare parts and has-beens and never was-es? I think I remember some talk about this when he took the Houston job. Hunsicker was pretty good at it, too, IIRC. I'd prefer that to spending $$$ on established free agent relievers, who may or may not perform up to their expectations.
I don't disagree that this pen has less than successful this far, to put it mildly. Or that a more reliable pen would have made a big difference so far this season. I just hope it doesn't cost too much to fix what is out there now.
Also, nothing against Escalona, but I really wish they'd just forget about the "left-handed specialist" concept. It seems like an absolute waste of resources to take up a roster spot for a guy who is brought in to pitch to one or two hitters, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But that is another subject.
