Stress can take a toll. I just hope he's got some prodigy to take over when the inevitable happens. "Special Assistant to the Whoever" sounds like a great title in perpetuity for Strom after this season.
Batters have a hard time picking up his stuff. Not sure if it is delivery, stuff, tunneling, or a combo of them. I worry a little that MLB hitters will get better at seeing his pitches after seeing him multiple times, but he looks like he'll at least be dominant out of the pen.
He doesn’t get the attention he deserves because he doesn’t throw 100 mph. He has been exceptionally hard to hit for years and honestly has been dominant. The times he has been hit, it wasn’t that his stuff wasn’t good enough, it was that his command wasn’t good enough. His pitching repertoire fits together perfectly like a puzzle. He has multiple pitches that look similar coming to the plate that then separate by the plate. He has one truly elite pitch and his here secondary pitches that are all average or above average. His command has been improving, if he gets consistent command of his pitches, he will dominate at the big league level as well.
Why? Quintana is a 31 year old who struggled in his limited time in AAA last season. Garneau hit well in the majors last season and put up 0.7 fWAR in 35 games.
Have Strom pull a Bill Worrell and retire from road games and just have him here at home after this season. That way he won't have to deal with any of that road BS.
I think it is velocity,stuff combined with lack of command that has hampered his attention. Models tend to suggests players with similar stats* in the past have had problems walking guys (or threw more strikes resulting in less Ks and walks) in majors, and that hitters in the majors hit the ball harder with a better launch which will give a minor league fly ball pitcher more problems in majors. Though, not many starters throw as soft as him with the same spin rate on his fastball. I'm not sure he's going to have the same homer problems that a lot of minor league fly ball pitchers have in the majors. * there aren't that many good comps for Javier.
can we talk about how the astros might respond to teams pegging us ? Will teams hit us more ? Or slide harder into short etc ? I dont wanna talk about cheating, but it will be interesting to see what ( if any ) recourse other teams and fans will have for us and how we will respond. Baseball wise , im excited about a full year or Urquidy and the return of Lance. How many innings is Mccullers gonna pitch yall think ? is he ready to go out of the gate ? Do we try to "load manage" so hes free in the playoffs, i doubt we want him to rack up 200 innings regardless of how healthy he looks. Does verlander slow down this year ? can he reinvent himself again ? the league catches up and he got tagged quite a bit last year, he did alter his style about halfway through the season IIRC . OOTH not having cole pitch the night before you might make your FB's seem faster . Was that the order last year ? Hitting and fielding we are stacked. Excited to see if Tucker can take a step forward and if Yordan can avoid a sophmore slump. Maybe Correa will find the secret sauce to stay healthy and I think bregs will have MVP level season ( not that he will win) Back of the pen still looks good right ? Harris, Osuna , im sure we have some live arm's in the wings too, we almost always do. Oh and i bet Grienke pays off huge for us. A full offseason and spring to plan and train with strom and the rest of our training staff is gonna be a nightmare for the rest of the league
Verlander tagged? He led the league in Wins, WHIP, IP, K/BB, struck out 300, ERA under 3. Won the Cy Young, threw a no hitter. He gave up a bunch of home runs, but so what. I'll take the exact same season.
first part there are plenty of other threads for I think we give Lance an opener and only ask him to go 4-5 innings a start for most of the year. If a guy like Whitley, Abreu or Javier show they are ready for a playoff start, Lance likely goes to the pen mid September and for the playoffs
I didn’t follow that closely last season , my recollection of verlander must have been from watching some of his bad games.
He got smacked around in the playoffs after he wanted to go out on 3 days rest. Didn't seem the same after that game.
What would you guys choose....the Astros at +700 to win the WS or Dodgers vs. Astros WS matchup at +1500?
On paper of course... it seems like the dodgers have the most complete team, cakewalk to a division title and likely number 1 seed in the NL. So if you were already gunna put money on the stros... I’d personally put money on the matchup
