Bud needs another f***ing pitch. I'm not talking about the 2 change ups he threw tonight. I mean a legit pitch that he can throw like 15-25% of the time like a cutter or splitter to go along with his fastball and slider. It seems like everyone just sits on the fastball.
While I agree, hasnt this been said ever since he entered the big leagues? One has to assume this has been covered and explored thoroughly by now. If he only throws a slider and a fastball, apparently he a) feels he needs only 2 pitches or b) just hasnt been able to acquire command of any other pitches well enough to throw it with confidence or c) for some reason, no one has brought the issue up with him
While I retain optimism about this team, there is going to be a lot of games like this one this year I am afraid.
What the hell was Mills doing leaving him in there to throw bp? He obviously didn't have it. We could be up in this game right now.
Maybe it's just me, but I've been extremely unimpressed with Mills' managerial decisions this year. Batting Altuve near the bottom of the lineup, Bogusevic before Johnson, as well as many in game decisions. Mills' managing style has reminded me a bit of Art Howe this year, and I don't consider that a good thing.
He's gotta try something. He's getting murdered out there. I was really hoping that he would throw a change up when he was two strikes up on the hacktastic Ricky Weeks a couple of innings ago. He instead throws a belt high fastball. I think all three of your theories are the answer btw. a.) Bud has the mentality that he just wants to blow by everyone. As evident from the him having high pitch counts in the early innings in his career. When you just care about striking people out, you start forgetting that you have 4 dudes backing you up if you get a ground ball. He's essentially the Anti-Keuchel. b.) I don't understand why he can't throw a cutter if he can throw that good of a fastball. The main way to throw a cutter is throwing the fastball with your fingers moved slightly off center. The motion is almost exactly the same. I know, I used to throw one. c.) I feel like the Tim Pupura-Ed Wade-Tal Smith regime was really short sided on the developing pitchers. They were really old school on the pitch selection that they would develop pitchers with. It seemed like everyone coming up in the system was fastball-slider or fastball-curveball with almost no third pitch. People barely threw change ups and if they did, they weren't out pitches. I can't think of anyone who came up in the astros system at that time who threw a cutter or a splitter. Ed finally started thinking outside the box and drafted a few pitchers who used an assortment of pitches (Lyles) and guys who didn't need to strike people out to be effective (Kuechel) and guys who implement, in my opinion, the best pitch in baseball.... the change up (Kuechel and Tropeano). Who knows if these pitchers will pan out. I'm just glad we aren't just trying to produce the same type of pitcher over and over again.
He's not getting murdered out there. This year, he's has 2 quality starts, 1 bad one, and 1 terrible one. Last year, he was one of the better overall pitchers in the league with a sub-4 ERA and an excellent strikeout rate. He's never going to be mistaken for an all-star, but as is, he's become a pretty functional pitcher #3 or #4 pitcher.
I can't grasp giving less plate appearances to a guy on this roster who is hitting the way Altuve is.
Exactly! Also, what good is it to have one of your top OBP guys hitting in front of your pitcher? Hey Mills! Altuve 2nd, Martinez 3rd should be the easiest part of your job!
I didnt get batting Altuve #8 either. He did change that this last game to batting him #6. That make a little more sense. I wish Johnson wasnt batting at all, except as a PH.