Before it became evident James would get the 10th I was thinking maybe Joe Smith not that he was that great of a choice. I knew no way Devo was going out there. I would put Cy Sneed out there before I would Devo. Anyway, nice timely win. Glad to see our young guys like James and Toro coming through in the clutch. If he stays healthy James may have just punched a ticket for himself to the post season roster.
Apparently, JV and Cole K'ing 14 back-to-back is the first time that's happened in the 60'6" mound era starting in 1893. (Source) A couple weeks ago, I wondered if Bregman could lift his average to .300 by the end of the season, which would be an incredible feat. He's almost there. Crazy. Crazier than Altuve's run up to .300, because Alex has been playing the whole season. Great time for him to get going, and, boy, has he been going.
Of the now-eight home runs he's given up this year, half of them have been with him ahead in the count. That's very concerning.
I'm hoping it's something mechanical and not his arm. I haven't been seeing that nasty late breaking cut fastball that he was living off of early. Everything hard seem very straight recently. I don't think people remember just how good he was in the first half: through June (84 games) he had a 2.12 ERA, .179 .211 .268 .479 slash line, 35:4 K:BB, .765 WHIP in 34 IP. Since then he's walking more guys, slash line of .219 .284 .452 .736, K rate has actually gone up, but way more HR and XBH. That's what used to piss me off with Musgrove. He'd throw strikes and get ahead and then would stay right around the zone instead of throwing a chase pitch.
Pray for Tucker to get an 80 game suspensio next year. This kid needs to be on roids ASAP. Super skinny!
If James can resolve his "control" problems, I like him as a closer going forward. When he is throwing near and in the zone, he is very hard to hit. Osuna is tanking. I think he is about to get pulled for good. What happened to Rondon?
I remember how good he was first half. I've been trying to keep a even keel about things recently, but he's making it hard. He knows he's over the zone too much. Said he and Cole talked about it before one of the games in the past couple weeks where Osuna went out and looked like his first-half self. So, is it a control issue? That would be troublesome. The pitches you throw on an 0-2 count ought not to be hittable even if you're not quite hitting your spots. He's got the tough-as-nails personality to be our closer, but location is more important than anything, and he's got less than a month to get that sorted out. I'm slightly optimistic that he will, but man, I'm going to be nervous every time he's out there until he gets a consistent streak going.
Would a stronger presence behind the plate help? I would think someone like McCann would help him get his **** together.
Rondon objectively lost his closing spot to Osuna last year after really blowing it in quite a few games around the time Osuna was acquired. The spot was his to keep, and he lost it. He's doing decently as a flex-reliever this year. James has the most raw power in the bullpen, and that's historically the stuff closers have. I don't know if he's got the ice-in-veins mentality to go out and handle the pressure of being a closer, but he's the only guy in the pen that can straight up overpower hitters. He needs to be kept in mind as a viable option when that's needed.
James is your 7th inning guy for now. Harris then Osuna. Pressly coming back will change that eventually I hope. Smith is a great situational guy vs RHB. I trust nobody else in close games, and I don't trust a couple of those guys much at all. Rondon being good again like he has been in the past would change this entire bullpen, but I'm not counting on that. I think Devo is a lost cause, low leverage innings only. Not much else they can do. No help on the farm, if there's one huge black mark on the FO it's the inability to develop young, cheap, useful relievers.
