Hector Ambriz? Again?

The Houston Astros made quite the announcement on Thursday morning. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reported that the Astros would recall relief pitcher Hector Ambriz from Oklahoma City. Ambriz will be taking Brett Oberholtzer‘s spot on the 25-man roster.

I hoped and prayed that we had seen the last of Ambriz in an Astros’ uniform when he was sent down back on July 2nd. The 29-year old has done what he was asked to do this season…if blowing late-game leads was what he was asked to do. In 33.1 innings for the Astros, Ambriz has a 5.40 ERA and three blown saves. His opponent’s are hitting .322 off of him, while his fastball, curve, slider and changeup have a combined value of -7.3 (that’s a negative 7.3). Despite these stats, Bo Porter continued to run him out in high leverage situations during his last stint. And why wouldn’t he? Ambriz is sporting a 6.52 FIP while walking nearly 12% of hitters in those situations. Sounds like a winning combination, right?
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsThere are two things Hector Ambriz has done for the Astros this season: He’s helped them to take the lead for the number one pick in the 2014 Draft again, and has provided Astros’ fans with some comedic relief. Thanks to Ambriz, Astros’ fans and bloggers have come up with great hashtags on Twitter like #Ambrized (which is defined as continually having all hope crushed at the last minute), and #ThingsMoreUsefulThanAmbriz which had some hilarious responses that I’m not willing to quote here.

My question is why did the Astros feel that Hector Ambriz is the right choice? I understand sending Brett Oberholtzer down so that he could get some more work at AAA, but I cannot understand why Ambriz is even part of the organization anymore, let alone getting another chance in “the Bigs”. I would have much rather seen Hector waived and a spot opened up for a Josh Zeid, Kevin Chapman, Jake Buchanan, Jason Stoffel, or my mailman (who, while in his mid-40s, looks like he could really bring it from the right side, and has to be better than Ambriz).

I guess I’ll have to get busy thinking of #ThingsMoreUsefulThanAmbriz tweets so that I can keep my mind from wondering how Hector Ambriz has work when 7.6% of Americans do not. By the way, I hope you weren’t Ambrized by my closing paragraph.