Quick Scouting Reports On Our New Pitchers From Crawfish Boxes

I sent an email off to writers at Crawfish Boxes, SB Nation's Houston Astros blog, to get a quick scouting report on the pitchers we received in the trade. David Coleman and Timothy De Block got back to me.

From David:

J.A.Happ is the big piece in my mind. He's a lefty who can strike out plenty of batters at times. Consistency has been his biggest problem since coming over in the Roy Oswalt deal. This year, he's been better and may be putting things together. His peripherals have also supported his new success more than in previous years.

Lyon was one of the most mocked signings by previous GM Ed Wade. A shoulder injury scrapped most of last season and Lyon had to have experimental surgery on it to get it fixed. It seems to have worked, as Lyon is slowly recovering velocity. His usage pattern this year has seemed to keep him from being exposed too much, but he's probably been Houston's third-best reliever.

Carpenter was a catcher in the Cardinals farm system who converted to a reliever before getting traded to Houston for Pedro Feliz. He has a ton of potential and a good sinking fastball, but hasn't had nearly the kind of results he did last year.

From Timothy:.

J.A. Happ - Pitches better than his FIP xFIP would suggest. He's a flyball pitcher that pitches up in the zone. He'll have his bad games, but he'll also have some good ones. He's a backend of the rotation starter.

Brandon Lyon - His only fault is that he's over paid. He's coming back from an injury that no other pitcher has come back from. The name of it fails me but a google search should remedy that. He's pitched well in his return from injury and is a solid late inning reliever that could close in a pinch.

Tom: I didn't see the name of the surgery but I did see this:

Yocum, the Los Angeles Angels' medical director, echoed the opinion of Astros counterpart Dr. David Lintner - namely that Lyon's biceps tendon is out of its groove and the condition likely will not improve through rest, rehabilitation or medication. That leaves season-ending surgery, but there's an attention-getting complication to Lyon: The doctors could not cite one major league pitcher who has had such a procedure.

David Carpenter - Converted catcher that is primarily a fastball/slider pitcher. Some people have been high on his potential as a future closer, but I never saw it. I thought he relied on his fastball too much and also felt it was a bit too flat. Still he's relatively young and there is some potential there to being a good late inning reliever.

Tom back: I'm as bad as anyone for overrating our prospects and I really like Musgrove, Perez and Wojciechowski. I really think Perez could be a good catcher. None of them are top 10 prospects or the Jays. On our prospect list they are numbers 14, 15 and 18 respectively.

I'm going to figure Alex knows what he is doing here. J.A. Happ could be better than he has shown and we need to have another starter or two next year. I'm not thrilled, but we needed someone. Lyon is better than Cordero. Carpenter? Who know, maybe he'll become a decent reliever.

It's not an exciting trade. It should make us a little better this year. Getting Travis Snider up doesn't hurt. Adding Happ and Lyon to the pen (for now, Happ better move to the rotation soon) makes our pen better. We'll all be happy not to see the Franciscos out there any more.