Houston has named Scott Feldman as its Opening Day starter after signing the veteran right-hander to a three-year, $30 million contract as a free agent this offseason.
Feldman is 31 years old with a 4.62 career ERA and it would be easy to make some jokes about him being the Astros’ choice, but whatever. They’re really bad now and in the relatively near future they’ll probably cease being really bad and, within a few years, there’s a pretty reasonable chance that they’ll be very good.
And in the meantime they have a guy like Feldman around to eat some innings and, for this season at least, take the mound in Game 1. Last season he threw 182 innings with a 3.86 ERA in 30 starts for the Cubs and Orioles, and now Feldman is returning to Texas after playing the first eight seasons of his career for the Rangers.
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