Lance McCullers to start Monday at MMP

His 4 seam is the one they were looking for and attacking. He couldnt seem to get his 2 seamer to find the strike zone. That slider was tight and nasty though. Hitters knew it was coming when there was 2 strikes on them.

 

I was amazed at this youngster's stuff.

Sadly, we can't generate a bit more offense to insure him of a win.

I stood up when we gave him a standing ovation. He will be in the MLB for a while.

 

The A's just had a perfect gameplan. They are always a team that looks to work counts, and they did it to Lance. They were willing to sit back and force him to throw strikes.

That 2 seamer can be an effective pitch to get quick outs, he just doesn't have the same control of it as he does his 4-seamer. The Muncy double he gave up was actually a four seamer with perfect location that was sort of flicked out to deep left. The slider/curve was very good, but he struggled with the control of it.

 

The 4 seamer is just so much straighter, and MLB players don't have as hard of a time catching up to 95 as they do in AA. He did good to mostly throw them low in the zone near the knees, but I thought they should have thrown more elevated ones up near the letters to see if they would bite.

 

It's "couldn't generate" since it already happened. And how does one go about insuring someone else of a win? It's a quiet morning, so I called my State Farm agent and she had no idea what that means (I also told her Cliff Paul can eat a dick).

Could it be you meant ensure?

 

Lance has come a long way the last 2-3 years.

When he was at Jesuit, there were a number of scouts that thought he could go number one in the whole draft until he was pigeonholed as a reliever based on the belief he was over throwing his four seam fastball and lacked any secondary pitches.

He took some lumps in the low minors because of poor command, a questionable attitude and the fact his fastball tended to flatten out when he threw it especially hard (95-98 mph).

The last year he has worked really hard and he has improved the command on his slider and two seam fastball and also has developed his change up to the point that it can be an effective pitch. He no longer relies on a fastball to bail him out. He now uses the slider to make his fastball seem even more impressive and sprinkles in the change up.

The command was less of an issue at AA because the slider was just so dominant, but against big league hitters, they will be good enough to adjust and hit the 4 seam fastball as it is fairly straight. He doesn't have the tight command on the two seam fastball to throw consistently for strikes at the big league level. He also lacks the confidence to rely on the change up yet.

None of this is criticism, as you cannot expect a pitcher that has thrown like 50 innings above A+ to be able to immediately and consistently dominate major league hitters without issues. Luckily, most of Lance's issues will be resolved with greater command which will probably be gained through experience.

If they send him back down, I am sure he will work on his command of the two seam fastball and spotting the four seam fastball. A lot of people were saying he should scrap that change up, but I don't agree. I know it is 87-89 mph, but he has good command of it, and he can work on the grip to get it even a little softer and spot it at 86 mph which can be huge.

I have also noticed he every once in awhile is throwing what appears to be a cutter. He usually throws in when he is pitching really well and ahead in the count, but it could be something to watch down the road.

 

McCullers needs to use that 4 seamer like McGugh does.

raise it up and play it off that slider/curve.

 

I would not not call it a perfect game plan. Muncy double was good hitting. Fuld and Sogard both were close to striking out, IIRC. A's were very close to having to having 5 shutout innings by McCullers.

I thought early on they were giving McCullers a free strike. With McCullers having good stuff, that gave them only one strike to really work with before seeing curve or change. Patience (albeit this is based off of seeing him once in minors and last night) appears to be the way to go, but batters just can't allow McCullers to get ahead with 4 seamers for strike one so easily. A's only got one run off McCullers despite making a lot of good contact even on pitches out of the zone.

A's won, but I think Astros will usually win games in which the hitters were that passive against McCullers. Edit, I do think teams need to be somewhat passive, but not quite to that extent.

 

Nope. Sometimes you say present tense when it's understood that it will continue. They still AREN'T generating offense. Also, you ARE accosting me a bit much, even though your post is in the past.

No, I meant insure... insure as in "runs for insurance." Also, google's "define:insure" shows "secure or protect someone against (a possible contingency)." Secure and protect his win.

It's sad your State Farm didn't know the word "insure", because she works in that field. You should have called Jake. You know, it's Jake, from State Farm... well, he's a guy... so...

 

That is what he is trying to do.

 

Even if all this is true, which it's not, the offense still could not have "insured" the win for him last night.

 

^ That's your opinion. And even if it's wrong, I respect it.

Get JAKE next time.

 

There is no way I'm wrong. Insure or ensure, are not or did not, McCullers was not going to get the win last night. This is not opinion, just fact.

 

I would recommend looking up what qualifies for a victory by a SP in MLB. The offense had nothing to do with McCullers not getting out of the 5th inning.

 

Had we gotten some runs to insure a win, yes, he was going to. When they didn't, he wasn't going to. At the point he was yanked, he had a runner on base for whom he was responsible. Of course, I meant runs BEFORE he was yanked, not after.

Had he stayed in the game, but the runner on second scored, and the Astros scored more than two to win the game, yes, he would have been the winning pitcher because the lead was half of the last inning to take it. At the fifth inning, if his team scores more than the visitor at the bottom part, he wins if the score remains the same. I know what qualifies. I would recommend not assuming people don't know facts.

 

Uhhhh....so, what could the offense have done to improve his command and not have him up to 93 pitches in the 5th inning? Is there some new cutting edge offensive wizardy that actually helps pitchers throw strikes and not work full counts to nearly every batter?

Please elaborate!

I'm sure that you understand that a SP must complete 5 innings to qualify for a W, yes?

 

That is awesome ..did you tell her Sebastian Curry can go **** himself

 

If the Astros offense makes way many more runs in the first two, maybe three innings, the A's offense will struggle to try to get on base, allowing McCullers to punch out more than having to pitch so much in the 4th and 5th. Their at-bat strategy would have changed.