Well, the Stros finally made a few moves. Pitchers Taylor Buchholz, Mark McLemore, Fernando Nieve and Juan Gutierrez were sent to the minors. I’m not real too surprised – Buchholz is still recovering from shoulder surgery and the other three hardly looked like the next Roy Oswalt. What bothers me is that Franco and Wendell have looked terrible and they are still there.

Veteran Presence, I guess. Sigh.

I WAS surprised to see that Pete Munro was released. (He was signed to a ML $700,000 contract just a few weeks ago.)

I keep reading that Dave Burba is going to be the fifth starter. God forbid. Burba was last a full time starter in 2002, when he released by Cleveland, picked up by Texas, started 22 games and managed to pitch 145 innings with a 93 ERA+ going 5 – 5. He pitched 43 innings as a reliever for Milwaukee in 2003 witha 124 ERA+ (tying his highest ever from 10 years previous) and 77 innings of relief last year with a 99 ERA+ with a 4 – 1 record and 2 saves. So this 38 year old guy, who hasn’t started in 3 years, is supposed to be the fifth man?

Munro had a 5.15 ERA in 19 starts (21 games) with a 84+ ERA last year. Munro is barely adequate, can’t pitch worth a *(%#! from the stretch and usually gets hit the second time through the lineup, but at least he doesn’t just throw the ball down the middle as Tim Redding tends to do. I realize that Munro has had a lousy spring (5 ER in 5 IP total) but unfortunately he is still better than Duckworth, Redding or Hernandez. And I know that’s not saying much.
Hector Giminez (yet another catcher who can’t hit) was sent down, as well as Charlton Jimerson and Barry Wesson. Guess Jimerson’s supposed new found plate discipline didn’t show up…

Tags: Houston Astros, MLB

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2005 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Astros baseball, Fernando Nieve, Juan Gutierrez, McLemore, spring training, Taylor Buchholz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.