Quote: Call up Jorge Sosa and Ray King from Round Rock, move Brandon Backe to the BP and demote/designate Oscar Villerreal.


I just looked up Sosa's stats at Round Rock...and I'm with you on that one. His 1.93 ERA is pretty enticing and his K rate and groundball rate look OK. As for Ray King....he hasn't shown enough at Round Rock to be called up, IMO. His ERA is bad and so are his peripherals. As for Villareal, the Astros are not going to cut or demote him unless his arm literally falls off. They've got a 2 year contract invested in him. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems like he has pitched better in recent appearances (albeit mop up type roles).

I don't know when it's time to take Backe out of the rotation. Probably not yet, but I understand where you're coming from. Runelvys Hernandez should be the next call up for the rotation.