"You like the spaghetti, Arrighetti?" "Calm down or I'll sick Baxter on you!" The bullying he had to endure on Spaghetti Wednesdays. Poor fellow. Sniffle.
I understand Alvarez has been on fire but if you’re gonna keep trotting Bregman in the 4 hole you might as well move Bregman to 2 and have Yordan 3. Put Tucker at 4. This Bregman ain’t no cleanup hitter.
He is similar to a lot of the pitching prospects the Astros have called up over the last 7-8 years. Some of them like Javier or Urquidy got some low key support as top 100 prospects, but most were not big prospects outside the eyes of the the Astros system. I don't know what Arrighetti will do as a big leaguer, they have kind of maxed him out on certain things. They have got his fastball about as high as it will get velocity-wise. They helped him develop some deception on his delivery that allows max effort, but also makes the ball harder to pick up leaving his hand. The trade off isn't great control in the strike zone - but he has even worked on that some with balance exercises, etc. Last thing I know they were working with him on is a change up - but not sure he has it down yet. Reminds me of a less effective Tim Lincecum. Let's see how he does - Valdez, Urquidy, Garcia, Javier, Brown, Abreu... all were good to "meh" prospects.... but all have had success. Actually, the most heralded in that group (Brown) has actually been the worst thus far. It has been awhile since the Astros called up a prospect, and gave them more than a handful of starts and they didn't pan out. Martes is the last one I can think of. Lets see what we have with Arrighetti.
You wanted to pull Javier after 4 innings? The reason I ask is because the Royals did not score in the 6th inning. They scored in the 5th innings..... after 4 innings and 50 pitches thrown - Javier walked the lead off hitter on a full count. He then gave up a single after 7-8 pitches to Renfroe. He then retired the next two hitters before Witt tripled and then the Bregman error. Yeah - Hader wasn't going out there in the 10th unless we had a lead. I supported that decision. He has to use some of these other guys too. Pinch hitting Singleton for Dubon? Whatever, I wouldn't have done it - but Singleton wouldn't be on my team if I had the call.
He would have gone out in the 10th for the save - but they are not using him for two innings for a tie. I didn't have a problem at all with Hader pitching the 9th. Espada and the rest of the staff need to start calling Javier "the tandem starter", because he seems to think going 5 innings is a job well done. Part of the reason we were low on arms was Javier going 5.1 innings yesterday, coming off that other emergency starter we canned up that went less than an inning.
Javier coming out in the 6th did zero harm for the Astros - and it gave Javier a chance to stretch it out. Look - this isn't directed at you, but the Astros problem isn't that they don't have pitching or depth. The Astros have the best pitching depth in baseball - the problem is that it is all on the injured list. Right now the Astros have an entire 5 man rotation on the injured list that is better than 66% of the leagues staff - Verlander/Valdez/McCullers/Garcia/Urquidy .... and a bullpen of: Graveman/Dubin/Sousa and Ortega. At some point some of these guys are going to be healthy - and they will fill holes.
Maybe pair Javier and Brown in a tandem system. Both run up high pitch counts and don't typically get deep into games. Can't have them start back to back games on the regular as you'll burn up your pen. Maybe less is more, and their stuff plays up?
If Javier can't take that next step up and start going a little deeper into games, then once more of our SP come back from injury he may be more useful in the swing man role, like he had in 2022. I had Blanco pegged for that role coming out of Spring Training, but so far Blanco is going deeper into games than any other dude we got right now.
My guess is that if Javier keeps his era low - they will at worst have Urquidy or France scheduled to pitch 2-3 innings when Javier starts. It is just annoying, because there really isn't any excuse for Javier to be losing command after 70 pitches.
So you reward Bregman by giving him even more AB's? The #4 hitter being your main RBI guy is somewhat of an archaic concept... but even if you believed it was a thing that happened every time the #4 hitter happens to come up, you tend to value a guy who doesn't strike out and has good RISP numbers. And 1-3 guys are all seemingly interchangeable, however they also tend to be the guys you want to bat the most no matter what.
Brown runs up high pitch counts. Javier just gets fatigued regardless as the game goes on. The way they handled him in 2021 makes more and more sense each passing year (and I was staunchly not a fan of using him as a bridge guy in the moment).
Maybe that’ll make him think twice next time. Lol Two callups in two days 1) Pitches 0.1 innings 2) Throws 2 pitches Both sent down immediately afterwards. Harsh world
I personally would still start him. However I would have someone ready to go a few innings. He is REALLY good the first couple times through the order. The Astros also will likely have a number of guys that can go 2-3 innings behind him. Javier going 5-6 innings isn't an issue in the playoffs most likely - and I don't want to change his routine.
