ortunity at hand for Houston Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole Brett Cecil Jersey , whose offseason acquisition bolstered an already strong pitching staff, one that helped the club claim the 2017 World Series before his arrival.In Cole (15-5, 2.88 ERA), who is scheduled to start Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday at Minute Maid Park, the Astros have a pitcher fully capable of assuming the duties of an ace. Instead, Cole is slotted behind Justin Verlander, who carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the Astros’ 7-2 victory on Friday in Game 1.Cole does have experience functioning as an ace, serving in that role with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who made him the top overall selection in the 2011 draft.Article continues below ...Less than four months after making his big-league debut in 2013, Cole was starting Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in the Pirates’ first postseason appearance in 21 years.After two decisions in two starts during that series, Cole got the ball the next postseason when the Pirates faced the Chicago Cubs in the NL wild-card game. It’s that experience that he aims to cash in on when he makes his postseason debut with Houston.“I would hope so,” Cole said. “I can’t speak to the Championship Series or the World Series, but the wild card definitely takes some years off your life. The Division Series against the Cardinals was hard-fought in 2013 http://www.stlouiscardinalsteamshop.com/authentic-marcell-ozuna-jersey , and I pitched twice in that. I remember those games really well, so I’m going to draw on those experiences for sure.”For Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco (17-10, 3.38 ERA), his postseason experience is linked to one outing: Game 3 of the 2017 ALDS against the New York Yankees. Carrasco held the Yankees to three hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 scoreless innings but did not factor into the decision of a 1-0 loss that spurred the Yankees’ rally from a 2-0 series deficit.After finishing fourth in Cy Young Award balloting last season, Carrasco produced another exceptional campaign in 2018, lowering his FIP (3.10 to 2.94) and walk rate (5.8 percent to 5.5 percent) from 2017 while increasing his strikeout rate (28.3 percent to 29.5 percent).Carrasco is 60-36 with a 3.40 ERA since joining the rotation full time in 2015. His elevation in the postseason rotation is deserved.“Tito (Indians manager Terry Francona) told me that on Sunday on my last game,” Carrasco said of getting the start in Game 2. “He said, ‘Congrats, you’re going to go to the second game.’ I just feel so happy to get to that point. Being pretty much just happy for the way we play this year, and then we get into October.“But I think … it’s the same baseball. So I’m just going to go out there and have fun. That’s it.”Carrasco is 4-2 with a 3.45 ERA in eight career appearances (seven starts) against the Astros, including a 2-1 record and 1.17 ERA in three starts at Minute Maid Park. He is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two starts against Houston this season. You may have seen that MLBTradeRumors article today has been about the Tigers reportedly looking to trade Nick Castellanos. This isn’t breaking news, though there were a few things that made me..."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Houston Astros NewsGame ThreadsHouston Astros Minor LeaguesAstros Game DayPodcastsExploring the idea of a Nicholas Castellanos TradeNew,72commentsto receive a $11.3 Million dollar contract. The good news is that Castellanos would be playing this year in his age 27 season Michael Wacha Jersey , which Fangraphs aging curve projects to be the best a player’s career based on the standard aging curve.What would it take?This part of articles is always interesting, as it is largely speculative and somewhat more of an art than science, but I’ll try to put together the best logical components I can, but am open to criticism. Using the Fangraphs projections, and a $10 Mil / WAR figure, Castellanos shows an excess value of roughly $7.7 Million. You could make an argument due to his age that there is a potential of prospect return via a Qualified Offer, but bat only type players have floundered in recent years, which negates this in my opinion.Fangraphs does do a prospect value report generally covering the top 100 or so (131 in this case) prospects and what their corresponding value is. Obviously, it’s an imperfect system, but they have 50 FV prospects showing anywhere from $9 Mil to $31 Mil in value. This makes me think that a 45 FV prospect is probably somewhere in the spectrum of a similar value, though obviously it is more likely to be spread among a few different players than a 1-to-1. SummaryWell I’ll be honest, I don’t see a need for a bat in our lineup. There’s always ways to improve, but there doesn’t seem to be a major hole anywhere other than arguably catcher. If It was looked at in a vacuum where Castellanos is simply replacing Tyler White’s bat at DH Ozzie Smith Jersey , there’s a minimal differential in projections (113 vs 119), which doesn’t seem to warrant a change. There’s a fair argument that Castellanos production is significantly more consistent to bank on for a team that is destined for a playoff run. With our over-filled 25 man roster, I could also see an argument being made to trade some of the fringe prospects to eliminate losing them in the roster crunch. With that said, we still currently have 10 position players projected to be over 105 on wRC+, the real players with concerns with the bat would be at Catcher, and Castellanos doesn’t solve that for us.Don’t get me wrong, I like Castellanos and would enjoy him being on the team, but unless we were unable to combine this with the unloading of one of our other veteran players such as Gurriel or Reddick or even Diaz (relegating Gurriel to the Marwin role), I’m not sure I see where we could put Castellanos (or even Cruz who has been rumored). I can’t help but think if Luhnow is truly shopping for a bat, it would have to be a catcher or linked to trading some of our assets. Let me know what you think, would you want Luhnow to pursue a Castellanos trade?