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Posted at 11:20 AM EST.

8:10 PM EST. While we have very little interest in backing Andrew Cashner, our hand is forced here because the price on the Astronauts here is just plain stupid. Houston is in its first funk of the year and will be forced to bring in some reinforcements. You see, Houston’s rotation has been hit hard by the injury bug. Charlie Morton, Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers are all out while Colin McHugh remains out. That’s four of the Astros projected starting five on the rack. As a result, the Astros announced that Francis Martes will make his first MLB start today, which is something that they didn't necessarily want to see this early. For now, it looks as though they might have to rely on Martes more than they wanted to and now this not-ready-for prime-time kid is favored like he’s Chris Archer? Are you kidding? 

We understand that Cashner could blow up and the Astronauts could score 10 runs here. It happens. Hell, we took the Mariners last night and they scored seven times but gave up 20 but it’s something we can’t concern ourselves with because Francis Martes is not supposed to be here and cannot be favored in this range. Martes was not the Astros next man up either. There have been four guys before him so four starters and one reliever had to get injured for him to get this call and he’s not ready. Martes is a great prospect and is even projected to be a front-line starter someday but he just turned 21 and has just 32 innings above Double-A ball and just 139 innings above A-ball. To say that Martes is raw would be an understatement. At Triple-A, Martes was struggling with a 5.29 ERA after eight starts. In 32 Triple-A innings, Martes surrendered 40 hits and 24 runs. When he got the call last week, he threw 3.2 innings of long relief and walked two batters, struck out two batters and was behind every batter he faced but one. Frankly, it’s beyond ludicrous that Francis Marten is this big a favorite in his first major league start. Furthermore, the Astros just lost two of three to KC, two of three to the Angels and the first two games of this series. Looking for value? If so, this one must be played.

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