I put the odds of this happening at 5-to-1 yesterday, and that might have been a little high. Sosa was on schedule to start Wednesday, but had little Triple-A experience. Of course, Houston has shown in the past weeks that Triple-A experience means little to them right now.
↵Sosa, for those of you unfamiliar with him, is a 26-year old picked up in the Jeff Keppinger trade with the San Francisco Giants. He has pitched in 29 games this season and started 10, throwing 115 total innings. Sosa has an ERA of 4.53 over that time with 77 strikeouts and 32 walks. His strikeout rate has been around a very solid 8.0 K/9, which suggests he'll be able to at least do adequately well in the majors.
↵His control has to hold up, however, for him not to pull a Nelson Figueroa. Sosa isn't technically a prospect, but he is intriguing and is as good a name as anyone to start in place of J.A. Happ. What's really become clear, is that Ed Wade is trying to showcase the talent he's traded for in the past year. From Jimmy Paredes to Mark Melancon to Sosa, Brett Wallace and even players he drafted like J.D. Martinez and Jordan Lyles. Will it save him?
↵That's up to new owner Jim Crane, but I doubt it. A few weeks with players rushing to the big leagues is not enough of a basis to keep him around, what with his sorry record overall in the past three seasons. But, I'm not the owner...