Monday, March 24, 2014

Roster pretty much set

Evan Drellich (and others) noted on Twitter this afternoon that Bo Porter said the roster - as it stands - is basically set. The Astros will be platooning right field, and carry eight relievers. So here's what it looks like to me:

Pitchers

Matt Albers, Anthony Bass, Kevin Chapman, Jarred Cosart, Scott Feldman, Josh Fields, Lucas Harrell, Dallas Keuchel, Brett Oberholtzer, Brad Peacock, Chad Qualls, Raul Valdes, Jerome Williams.

Injured: Jesse Crain, Peter Moylan, Alex White, Asher Wojciechowski

We already know that Feldman, Cosart, and Oberholtzer have made the rotation, for now. SP4/5 will come down to Harrell, Keuchel, and Peacock, and I think Jerome Williams is the long reliever/spot starter. I'd prefer to see the spots go to Peacock and 2012 Harrell. If 2013 Harrell is back, I'd prefer to see him somewhere else. An analyst for CSN Houston, maybe. I haven't seen anything about Keuchel's velocity since he was sitting in the mid-80s last week.

Catchers

Jason Castro, Carlos Corporan

Infielders

1B: Jesus Guzman
2B: Jose Altuve
3B: Matt Dominguez
SS: Jonathan Villar
UT: Marwin Gonzalez

There's still time to move Castro to 1B, and let Stassi catch...

Outfielders

LF: Robbie Grossman
CF: Dexter Fowler
RF: L.J. Hoes/Marc Krauss

So lefty-hitting Marc Krauss, of the .209/.267/.366 debut in 2013, will make the team as a platoon player. Against RHP, Krauss hit .218/.282/.387, but did hit .257/.362/.462 against RHPs at Triple-A in 2013, so maybe they're hoping he replicates that line. L.J. Hoes posted a virtually identical OPS against both LHP and RHP (.774 and .773) combined at Triple-A and Houston in 2013. His OPS was 41 points higher versus RHP in Houston (.710) than LHP (.669). So...

Designated Hitter

Chris Carter

You'll probably see the DH spot rotate around a little bit, though I do think Carter will really only play DH or 1B.

These are your Astros.