James Click on taking over a team with a much larger budget than the Rays: "I’ve talked to Andrew (Friedman) who made a similar switch and Chaim (Bloom) who made a similar switch. There are aisles in the supermarket you can shop in with a team like the Astros that the Rays can’t.” James Click on his new job: “It’s daunting on some levels. It’s tremendously exciting on others. There are more firehoses to drink from than I know what to do with at this point.” James Click on the 2020 Astros: "The talent is undeniable. It's a really impressive roster. I'm really looking forward to asking them how they all got to be that good and see if we can figure out how to get everybody else that way."
Actually, they should give them dugout seats and make them watch up close and personal as the Astros go on to a record 4th consecutive 100-win season.
It could end up that McCullers, Urquidy, and Peacock are the 3-5 starters and all are allowed to start, but all would only be expected to go thru the lineup twice (4-5 innings), with Pruitt, James, Biagini, and another young arm (Abreu, Martes, Armenteros, Valdez, etc.) expected to regularly throw 3 innings in relief.
Well in browing the articles comments/reactions NO ONE agrees with him and in fact most are calling him a biased idiot in one form or another.....
I don't expect to see Urquidy and whoever is the 5th starter going deep in games much. LMJ will depend on game.
Sign stealing analytics volumes 1-9 have been shred and burned, leaving an empty shelf in his new office for the huffle puff bestiary encyclopedia of spells and witchcraft.
lol they will want Lance to get into the 6th if not the 7th when possible, to get it to Pressly and Osuna. Giving him an opener for an inning or even two, will help that I’ll be shocked if Click doesn’t bring this philosophy here with him and it’s not designed to get the starter more innings, it’s designed to get the starter deeper in a game to the back end of the pen and not need the middle guys
Lance will be limited to around 100 innings. He won’t be throwing 7 innings much, if at all give him an opener and he can get to the 7th inning a lot though that’s the philosophy Tampa used and I would expect it here too especially with all of our young unproven but high upside options
No, Tampa used the opener to keep the opposing top of the lineup from batting multiple times against starters that can't dominate opposing top of the order in the first inning with nasty stuff. LMJ has nasty stuff. Considering LMJ has a 2.79 ERA since his rookie year in the 1st inning, it would be a waste using fresh LMJ on the back of the lineup instead of the top of the lineup. Regarding the 7th, it is unknown who will be batting then and whether that will be an important inning. Astros know the top of the lineup bats in the 1st and the 1st inning at least has average importance. The opener is about getting the best guy for the first and not the 7th. On getting LMJ to the 7th, I don't expect it. For deep in games, the 6th is deep for current starter usage outside aces.
Using an opener will be how we get Lance to the 6th, and hopefully occasionally to the 7th I’m pretty deep in the analytical side of the game for reasons other than being a fan, so while I won’t continue to randomly debate you on “why an opener” I’ll definitely continue to believe my reasoning here, and will be shocked if Lance doesn’t have an opener. I don’t think Urquidy will, but between him and whoever wins the 5th spot I would expect one of them to have one, or each on occasion
You can continue to believe your reasoning that playing musical chairs to get LMJ pitch the same amount of innings, but later is better. There is nothing magical about a starter pitching in the 7th. You can continue to believe all you want, but LMJ will not to have an opener. LMJ fortunately will be used to dominate the best hitters once again in the 1st despite your protests and how surprised you will be.
well I’m not a protester so you don’t have to worry about that it certainly would surprise me, although it is certainly possible that Click is a guy from Tampa that doesn’t believe in the opener. Regardless of how successful it is I’m sure not everyone affiliated with them believes in it our personnel sets up great for it with an abundance of arms and guys like Lance and whoever wins the 4/5 spot
I'm pretty sure Click prefers starters that don't need an opener. Tampa only used openers last season before average pitchers (if used as a regular starter) that didn't get Ks frequently. I'm not sure Astros will start the season with a "starter" that is average and doesn't get Ks frequently unless Pruitt wins the 5th spot. Maybe Click is more pro-opener than I expect, but I'm not expecting an opener before JV, Greinke, LMJ, and Urquidy. Peacock..it could go either way. I'm not expecting him to put up a sub-4 FIP, but he does get some Ks.
I hope Peacock is in the pen, with Lance, Urquidy and whoever wins the 5th spot there are going to be a lot of winnable games where our starter doesn’t go very deep, a guy like him that can go multiple quality innings out of the pen could be very valuable
Openers are used when a team doesn’t have enough starting pitchers who would be better against a team’s best hitters than a reliever would. None of Houstons relievers would consistently be more effective in the first inning than McCullers. McCullers is extremely effective as long as his pitches and innings are limited, and that is even more the case given his injury. So the best way to handle that is to have McCullers start, but have a multi-inning reliever ready to take over as soon as he reaches his pitch/inning limit. Pruitt, Peacock, Abreu, and James all could fit that role. It’s likely that the 5th starter (Pruitt, Peacock, Abreu, or James) is the only starter for which an opener might be the best approach, although I think Pruitt is really the only one who doesn’t have the stuff to be effective against the top of an order. If I were the GM/Manager, I’d use Pruitt behind McCullers to keep McCullers’ innings down, and let Peacock/James/Abreu compete to be the 5th starter in a traditional role, with the losers able to come in behind the winner and pitch multiple innings.