So 48 hours after Correa makes his Major-League debut, Vincent Velasquez will take the mound and start Wednesday's game against Chicago.
Velasquez - the Astros' 2nd Round pick in 2010 - will replace Fausto, who is headed to the bullpen in a long-overdue move.
Velasquez had allowed 15H/4ER, with 37K:9BB in 26.1IP for Double-A Corpus. You can bet he's going to be on a very strict innings limit, as he has thrown 289.2IP since being drafted in 2010, having thrown 63.2IP in all of 2014. Velasquez's story so far has been dominating stuff combined with some terrible injuries. He had Tommy John surgery at the end of 2010, and missed most of 2014 with a groin injury. Still, he has 346 strikeouts and a career 3.57 K:BB ratio in 289.2IP in the minors.
So...OMG.
It also means the Astros need to clear two off the 40-Man roster to accommodate both Correa and Velasquez. Jake Buchanan was optioned off the 25-Man to make room for Correa, but now they need two spots. Looking at the Astros' 40-Man, an easy call would be to take Villar off as one spot, and maybe Sam Deduno for the other, or they transfer Deduno to the 60-Day DL? Or it could be that Luhnow goes in and breaks somebody's leg in order to put someone on the 60-Day DL.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
