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Posted at 10:00 AM EST.

2:10 PM EST. What an emotional week for the Angels after the sudden death of Tyler Skaggs, who passed away at the age of 27 on Monday, July 1. Sometimes words just don't work very well, and this is one of those times but we have to trust that the Angels players are looking more forward to the three-day All-Star break after today and to get home to be with their families than this final game of a long and emotional trip.

The Angels had a hole in their rotation and Jose Suarez (RHP - LAA) has been named to fill it for now. Suarez has decent enough stuff but he also has an alarming groundball/fly-ball split of 27%/56% and that’s a big problem against Houston’s power-hitting lineup. Suarez comes in with a 5.40/5.31 ERA/xERA split after five games started covering 25 innings this year. 

Formerly known as Jose Luis Hernandez—and still listed that way in some databases. he is now Jose Urquidy. After Tommy John surgery in 2016, one look at Urquidy’s underlying stats this year (1.8 BB’s/9, 12.2 K’s/9) and it’s easy to see why Houston made the call; these are excellent numbers but he also has the skills to back them up. 

The 24-year-old’s heater regularly sits 93 and touches 97, with optimal backspin that Houston covets, and the pitch plays up due to Urquidy’s plus command. There’s also a plus changeup in the stable with a solid velocity delta off the fastball. The curveball lags behind, but he’s also developed a nice slider to give him a four-pitch mix. Urquidy is a bit undersized at 6 feet but he’s athletic and repeats his mechanics well, with a clean, short delivery. Houston has a knack for developing and manifesting the kind of pitchers they want and it would not be shocking for them to unlock another mid-rotation type arm out of this guy. Also keep in mind that Urquidy has put up those numbers in the charged offensive environment of the PCL using the major league ball, and he's done so with a swinging strike rate of 16.4% to boot. Round Rock is one of the better parks to pitch in the PCL, but he’s got a better away ERA and the splits show he’s dominant against left-handed batters. And again … the PCL. Regardless of him coming out of nowhere, it’s fairly hard to deny he is here now and he’s good. The pitching matchup and the situation has us strongly leaning Astronauts and we’ll play it accordingly. 

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