So Mitchell Lambson is now a Brave, which seems like a move that no one predicted. Not that people go around predicting trades of minor-league relievers - of at least those who don't have much time on their hands don't. I know that there is no room in a dominant Houston 'pen, but the Houston 'pen was last dominant in early May, and there may be room in a melting-down Houston 'pen, which wore another loss earlier today. Especially with Tony Sipp struggling - another rough outing today - and Joe Thatcher only going a very limited number of batters at a time.
An alternative way of looking at it is that Lambson was buried on the depth chart. Lambson started the year in AA, and was promoted to AAA in May - he has an identical 17-and-one-third at each level, has given up an identical 15 hits resulting in five identical earned runs. And before you think that Lambson's Baseball Reference page is stuck on cut-and-paste mode - he walked 4 and struck out 18 in Corpus, and walked 5 and struck out 12 in Fresno. He has Kevin Chapman ahead of him (despite his much worse ERA) and perhaps starters Luis Cruz and Tommy Shirley as well, if Thatcher and Sipp totally melt down.
A curious move overall, but (i) perhaps the return will be worth it and (ii) the Astros drafted a metric ton of College relievers in rounds 3-10 of the draft (partly to save money with Daz Cameron and all), and they need somewhere to pitch. So, as always, things will become clearer with the passage of time.
So, everyone, no game recap tonight. Day games combined with hard mondays at work don't leave much time for re-cappery, especially given the gutting nature of the loss. Hope y'all enjoyed your July 4 weekend.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
