Hindsight is 20/20 but I think it was a mistake not going after Chris Sale

Keuchel and Sale are both lefties. But yes that would be sweet. I'd rather have Tucker and a slightly lesser pitcher though.

 

Last time I checked Sale was not right handed.

 

what?

 

I know this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm not sure Keuchel is the best starting pitcher on the Astros this season. It will depend a lot on health, but McCullers is giving him a run for his money this season so far. Health has been only thing holding back McCullers from being an ace. Pitching deeper into games would help, but he has the lowest xFIP, and ERA (FIP second lowest) in the AL among starters since the beginning of 2016.

 

I would take Dallas over lance. Keuchel is an innings eater. Even if he doesn't have his best stuff he can still go 6 or 7 inning. Lance is very shaky when he is off.

 

McCullers relies heavily on his curve. His curve is a hella pitch, but it is hell on the arm. Cy Young or TJS, neither would surprise me.

 

There was an article on this very topic the other day in SI: https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/23/curveball-clayton-kershaw-lance-mccullers

Long story short: Scott Boras had LMJ evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon because of the curveball usage. The orthopod basically cleared his curveball delivery as a significant possible source of injury.

This obviously doesn't preclude TJS down the line but it doesn't look like he has particularly high-risk curveball mechanics.

 

Seen stuff like this several times. Not a doctor, but what I've read over last few years indicates the following:
1. Arm injuries are number 1 indicator of future arm problems followed by velocity.
2. Mechanics is number 3 indicator (though this may be due to survivor bias [i.e. guys with really bad mechanics have a hard time making the majors due to control issues, looking funny, etc.]).
3. Guys that throw a lot of curveballs may be more likely to have bad mechanics, though the curveball itself is not the problem.
4. Telling a guy with bad mechanics to throw more fastballs doesn't fix the problem.

 

Since this thread was posted:

Sale - 2 games, 12.1 innings, 10 runs, 8 ER

 

Sale a righty

Clutchfans at its finest

 

Unpopular and incorrect in my opinion. Dallas is crazy dominant. Also his arms seems to be able to put up with more because hes a soft-contact groundball inducer that doesnt throw hard

 

In other news what became a hockey fan two weeks ago and a week later was posting about how his predators are going to the finals

 

I think the Astros made the right choice. Faltered down the stretch just like a certain lefty we got in 2015.

 

People wanted Sonny Gray. He couldn’t get out of the 4th inning against the Indians. Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make. Verlander was the RIGHT personality for this team. An older vet to mix in with the younger players.

 

Sometimes ( basketball reasons) things that seemed really bad work out for you in the long run.

Regardless of whether it was sound discipline or dumb luck, Verlander seems like the best pitcher we possibly could have added, including Sale.

 

Does Memphis not have a baseball team

 

To my friends I am definitely eating crow on this one. Verlander at 11:59 righted all wrongs. Meanwhile Bregman is looking like a potential fourth all star in our lineup next year.

And it's not like Chris Sale is bad; the big difference is that he had to face the Astros with their RBI leader Marwin hitting 8th. While Verlander had to face the BoSox who had the fewest homers in the league this year.