Hernandez: Another camp hopeful
(c) Associated Press
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The idea that the 2012 Astros will be a Kiddie Committee continued to dim as the front office signed two more veterans to minor league deals with invites to spring training.
Livan Hernandez, who will turn 37 before Opening Day, is a former All-Star with a 174-176 record in 16 major league seasons. The righthander was 8-13 with a 4.47 ERA last season for the Nationals. If he wins a job with the parent club, that's about as good as can be expected from him. His best remaining talent seems to be as an inning-eater in the starting rotation. Hernandez has spent most of his career tossing mediocre pitching for inferior teams so he ought to fit right in.
Houston has also added infielder Mike Hessman, who played in Japan last season and has batted .188 in 223 at bats in the major leagues before that. Hessman can play all around the infield and shows some power. You might see similarities to Matt Downs, although Hessman will be 34 by Opening Day.
That swells the number of non-roster invitees to 15, including infielder Angel Sanchez who cleared waivers earlier in the week and then signed a minor league deal.
What all this means is that the Astros want to have a lot of options in camp and they want the freedom to place young players at the level the organization thinks is best and not rush players the way we saw last year.
The Astros might feature fewer young players than you might have expected when last season ended. Other than Jose Altuve, none of the young call-ups we saw last year seem to have a clear path to keeping a job with the parent club. That's good because the others will need to win jobs to play in Houston but it's bad because some of the prospects may get fewer chances to gain confidence and break through.
None of the veterans the Astros have added are top players. None but Jed Lowrie would be expected to be big contributors and are easily disposable. But the big camp means that some players, like J.D. Martinez, Jimmy Paredes and Jordan Lyles whom you might have presumed would start the season with the Astros, could wind up in Oklahoma City for more seasoning as veterans get the first chance.
There are a lot of names to sort through and very few with a certain future in the majors. Life at the bottom starts out very murky indeed.
- Bob Hulsey
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