For the most part, I sim straight through the first month of the season, letting things settle out before I start tweeking things.
Opening Day
The Astros managed just 5 hits off CC Sabathia and company in a 12 inning, 3-1 loss to the Yankees. Scott Feldman went 7.2 innings, giving up just 3 hits and 1 1st inning run. A 4th inning home run by Matt Dominguez kept things tied until a 2 run homer by Brian McCann off Josh Fields (too realistic) put the Yankees on top for the win.
April 6 (2-3)
Toronto offered me Adam Lind for Austin Wates and Jon Singleton. That reminds me to change Singleton's status to "untouchable". REJECTED
April 14 (4-9)
Jesse Crain is ready to come off the disabled list, so it's time to decide who needs to head to OKC. Fields settled down after his opening day meltdown, so I'd say he's safe. Chapman's been struggling, but he's the only lefty in the pen. I could send down Peacock to keep him stretched out as a possible rotation candidate later in the season; he's only pitched two innings so far. Or I could send down Bass, who was the last righty to make the pen coming out of Spring Training and only has 2.2 innings so far, though he hasn't given up a run. Finally, I decide that since Crain hasn't seen competition since mid-season last year, I'm going to put him on a rehab assignment and let the bullpen shake itself out a little more.
April 18 (7-10)
Lucas Harrell shut out the A's on just 3 hits, though he did walk 5, while striking out 5 and inducing a mind blowing 16 groundball outs as Houston won 6-0.
April Wrapup
Houston finished up the month 11-17, 8.5 games back of Seattle in the American League West. The rotation is doing...ok. Oberholtzer is 4-1 but with a 5.10 ERA. Dallas Keuchel has a 3.86 ERA, but is 0-3. Cosart is really the sore spot. He's 0-4 with an 8.89 ERA and 21 walks in 27.1 innings. Josh Fields has only given up one more run after the egg he laid on Opening Day, sitting with a sparkling 1.76 ERA and 10 K/9. I'd like to send Cosart to AAA for a little bit to get right and slide Peacock into the rotation, but his 16.88 ERA is tough to ignore, although it's only in 2.2 innings. Alex White has put in 13.2 innings of rehab work, so I decide to demote Peacock and Cosart and bring up White and Crain. Qualls has done well in the closer role, so I slot Crain in as the 8th inning guy while White takes the 4th slot in the rotation.
On offense, Chris Carter had himself a month, hitting .292/.390/.613 with 9 homers...and 39 strikeouts. His .379 BABIP tells me he probably won't keep this up, but it's nice for now. Dexter Fowler is raking, too, hitting .337/.448/.511. On the down side, Springer is hitting just .154/.198/.385 with 35 strikeouts, though he does have 6 home runs and 19 rbi and an absurdly low .160 BABIP. I'll leave him where he is and hope some more hits start dropping in for him.
On the minor league side, a couple of Quad Cities players took home some awards. Chase Davidson was named hitter of the month in the Midwest League, hitting .371 with 4 homers and 20 RBI. Adrian Houser won the pitcher of the month as he went 4-0 with a 2.06 ERA.
When asked about his pitching, Houser said "I actually never wanted to be a pitcher. I was an outfielder until high school and on the third day of tryouts my coach came up and said, 'Son you couldn't hit a lick even if we put it on a tee for ya.' Well, that ticked me off, so I decided if I couldn't hit I wanted to make sure no one else could either and so here I am."
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