Houston Astros: Justin Verlander’s plan to get back to action

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander was scratched from Thursday’s start, which would’ve been his Spring Training debut. What’s the latest with him?

The Houston Astros’ Spring Training action continues and we’re all excited to see them knock the rust off as they gear up for their 2020 campaign, which arguably could be considered their most arduous in quite some time.

They’ve got to prove to the world that they can win a ton of games with an extensive sign-stealing system and winning the World Series this season will do just the trick to shut the naysayers’ mouths.

The level of disapproval among baseball’s faithful is quite compelling and I think the Houston Astros should use it as fuel with each game they play as if it’s them against the world and they MUST WIN.

It all starts with their tuning up in the Grapefruit League and we’ve seen some positive storylines so far, especially with the strong start from Myles Straw and the solid returns by pitchers Framber Valdez and Austin Pruitt.

We’ll have to hang on for more in-store and by the time we blink our eyes, it’ll be late March, just in time for the home opener; and literally, there goes the whole ballgame.

Justin Verlander will be an important component of this season’s success but he was scratched

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from today’s lineup against the Washington Nationals with minor groin discomfort.

So what does that look like for Verlander?

He told MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola that he “wanted to be a little more controlled environment,” and the reigning Cy Young Award Winner threw two innings of a simulated game.

The word out on the street is that he felt good after the session and that he could be ready to go against the St. Louis Cardinals this Tuesday at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.  Although that’s an estimate, it’ll be nice to see him out there once again, getting some work in.

With the delay of his appearances, one has to wonder about how ready he will be come Opening Day and De Nicola asked him a question that was along those lines.

Here’s what he said:

"“It all depends on where I’m at when I start in games,” Verlander said.  “If there’s a lot of stuff I need to work on, then I don’t have a lot of time to do it.  But if I feel pretty good and my stuff’s working, it’s just about building my pitch count.  It’s kind of a TBD.”"

He’s absolutely right, the future Hall of Famer will be just fine going into the season and he’ll turn in a great start against the Los Angeles Angels at Minute Maid Park March 26 as we should expect.  He just has to build his pitch counts up so that arm is ready to go when it’s needed the most.

Until then, we’ll have to watch him progress through Spring Training.

Best of health J.V.!