Not if its at the expense of late inning scoring opportunities. With the amount of traffic the Astros had on the basepaths during Devo's 4 innings, his spot would have undoubtedly come up at a time where the better percentage play would be to pinch-hit for him. The same thing came up with Miller in the series last year, being partially neutralized when having to pitch in the NL park. The 2004 Astros had a similar beast relief pitcher in Lidge, and he actually did get to go 3 innings in game 6 of the NLCS, mainly because the Astros lineup did nothing and his spot never came up in a scoring situation. In the end... the NL will just have to adopt the DH. The AL now has potentially two competitive advantages when they play inter-league in AL ballparks: A real DH... and a sort-of designated long relief stud.
It went beyond his rookie year. The overall numbers dont add up because he had spot starts here and there but as a reliever, that dude was solid. He could never piece it together as a starter from what I recall but was a pretty damn good long reliever and to repeat what nick said, long relievers just arent viable as a luxury in the real baseball world.
Not for much longer, iirc. He was a great reliever as a rookie, then they made him a swingman/starter (out of necessity, iirc) and then he was out of baseball within ~4 years. I just don't want, and I don't forsee, the same career path for Devenski. Scott Elarton is another good comp.
I'm sure there have been guys who would have been successful in this role in the past. Who knows on Sampson if they had him stick in that role? The difference I'm seeing right now is that with A Miller as an example--and with analytics present in general--these guys can show significant value in that role, and can therefore get paid for it. Guys like Sampson and Elarton would have always seen starting as an eventual goal because only starters and closers got paid. But now, I think if you put up 3 WAR, you're going to get paid, and they'll figure out the role that makes sense to extract it.
He's overlooked because he is a reliever, but he is a monster. He was one of the best relievers statistically last year, and is so versatile. He can dominate an inning, or three, and can make quasi-starts in extra innings games. I wonder if he shouldn't eventually move him to starter as they seem to have such big impacts (and he definitely could), but he is doing so well in his bullpen role right now that I may just ride with that.
I love having Devo be able to do what he did today. It's almost borderline unfair to the guy because you're putting him into situations where he has to be perfect nearly every time out. At some point I think he deserves his shot to be a starter, but right now he is so very valuable in this role.
Small sample size, but to quantitate how valuable Devo currently is (using Fangraphs): -current highest K/9 ratio in the bigs (15.75) -tied for 6th in WAR among pitchers (only reliever in the top 30) Gotta love this guy.
He's also nearly reached his season expected WAR by their depth charts even though their writers typically expect more than he's projected.
I was wrong. Devo doesn't have the highest K rate, even on the Astros. Giles has 8k's in 3 innings (24k/9).
I almost willing to think he might be scuffing the ball because the movement is unreal. He's right up there with Arrieta in terms of movement. Long been a proponent of him as a starter, but doesn't seem likely anytime soon.
We've already seen some guys connect by simply guessing and looking for the change up. I also firmly believe that hitters often do more to get themselves out in late game/extra inning situations (trying to be the hero), with the exception of the ninth inning when trailing, as hitters go in to full emergency/conservation mode and do focus just a tad bit more. All in all, I feel his current role is the perfect amount of exposure. He's basically a tweener, as has been many of the modern great relief pitchers of this era. They all could be starters, but their ability to impact more games on a semi-regular basis in high leverage situations has a ton of value as well.
I like the Astros..do you? (sorry, taking up space in a double post) So how about that Lenny Dykstra?
