WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Brent Strom, who’s entering his ninth season as the Astros' pitching coach (eighth consecutively), took some time this week to discuss how his pitching staff is shaping up as the club gets ready to break camp next week:

What has stood out to you about your pitching staff as you get ready to leave Florida in a few days?

“Obviously, there have been some guys that have had some notable outings. I think Luis Garcia acquitted himself very well, and Brandon Bielak. Those kinds of guys, I have been happy with the work. Lance McCullers Jr., we got him up to 90 pitches in a 'B' game the other day, which is the most he's ever had in a Spring Training outing, so he's on track. Jose Urquidy's been fine. Blake Taylor, the slider’s improved a great deal for me. There’s been some small little things that we've had hiccups, of course.”

Some of your young pitchers, such as Hunter Brown and Peter Solomon, really impressed. What did they and other young arms show you this spring?

"Hunter Brown, obviously, he's an excellent arm. [Peter] Solomon was very poised in his start against the Mets, against a very good lineup that they ran out there. They ran out their big boys and he was very reflective of a polished college pitcher from a DI school. Brown hasn't had as many outings and everything, but he has really good stuff. Really impressed with an impressive young man.

"I think all of them are really a credit to what our Minor League pitching staff has done. They've all come prepared. They all have a good idea what they're doing. Tyler Ivey's made some strides. The [Jairo] Solis kid is a definite prospect who's going to be very, very good. There's a lot of good things to see.

"I look at the ratings of our farm system and I think we're vastly underrated in terms of who’s on the pitching side by the so-called experts and what we have. I think I see a lot more positives than what they give us credit for. I think not playing last year kind of didn't give them a chance to really see who we had.”

How do you think you’re in position depth-wise to handle going from 60 games to 162 games?

“I think [general manager] James [Click] has often indicated that we're going to have to rely on our entire 40-man roster and then some to get through the season. I think every team might be that way. That’s why we’re trying to get as many innings as I can for a lot of guys -- the [Ralph] Garzas of the world, the [Shawn] Dubins. There are a lot of people that are not on the 40-man roster the fans might see.

"You never know. Obviously, the Framber Valdez [injury] has necessitated some changes in our thought process here but, I think Bielak, [Bryan] Abreu, Garcia have made some strides. I think the most concern for me, actually, is not the new guys; it’s the young guys we had last year that pitched so surprisingly well. I've been in the game long enough to know that the next year is really the tough one -- not the first year -- as teams start to hone in on who they are and what they do.

"There’s going to be fans now. [Enoli] Paredes, Taylor and [Andre] Scrubb, all these guys kind of got a soft landing with no fans. We’ll see how they react to that this year.”

It’s been reported the Astros have agreed to a five-year contract extension with McCullers, so what do you expect from him over the next few years as he enters the prime of his career?

“I know his heart is in Houston with everything he’s done. I made a prediction. I think he's going to have a great year and I went out on a limb and I said I think he’s going to be in the top 10 in [American League] Cy Young Award voting. I really do. He’s in a good mindset, his arm feels great. He's got two catchers [Jason Castro and Martín Maldonado] that know him quite well, and I think that's going to be a benefit.”

Urquidy and Cristian Javier have flown under the radar a bit this spring but figure to be huge parts of your rotation going forward. How do you like their development?

“Javier is right where he's supposed to be. I see glimpses, even though he had to miss some time due to the COVID protocols, and this and that. On the last off day, he came in and pitched four innings. He’s going to go up to five and six, and I think he's going to be fine. His changeup has improved and he’s got that invisible fastball, that hoppy fastball that we relish over here.

"And Urquidy is Urquidy. Just a quiet workmanlike work. He knows the mistakes he made last year, and so we've worked on a lot of pitch sequencing. It’s not so much his pitch shapes or anything like that. It’s just his pitch sequencing when he's ahead in the count. He’s such a strike-thrower that he will do very well for us.”