it hurts for those of us who live out of town and depend on gamecast. damn you mlb, damn you to hell!
Very solid outing. I was happy when his mistake in the 5th didn't turn into multiple mistakes. He did walk the next batter but that's it. Uh oh... Bourn is down. I just saw the replay... that sucks, bro. I thought it was his wrist at first.
I don't believe in jinxes so I'll go ahead and say it... how good has Sampson been this year? If I recall correctly, he was doing really well out of the pen last season before the elbow issue.
How good would the bullpen be if Geary and Valverde were healthy. With Sampson pitching the 6th, Geary the 7th, Hawkins the 8th, and Valverde the 9th, we wouldn't need anyone to go more than 5 innings. Hopefully Valverde and Geary come back strong after there DL stints.
Finally, we do well enough to get Roy a much-needed win. I agree with the earlier posts.... this could turn his season around.
Geary was phenomenal last season. Not good... phenomenal. This season has been a mess for him so far. We could really use his services if he can bounce back.
Sweet, we're back to 50% in save opportunities. 11-for-22... not pretty but moving in the right direction.
LaTroy Hawkins was a nothing pickup at the end of last season, look at how that has worked out. He has been great since we picked him up. Geary is a key for the bullpen, he gives it much needed depth. Without that depth, Sampson and Hawkins will get overworked.
Yea, I like Hawkins. I have no idea why he struggled in the past. He always looks composed out there and seems to have good command. He definitely has some stuff. He's a nice closer option when Valverde is unavailable or struggling. We need the good Valverde though when he gets back.
again, it all comes down to depth in the bullpen, you can't depend on only 2 pitchers out there. the team must have quality depth in the bullpen to be successful. i think the club may trade valverde once he comes back and shows that he is healthy. he is a good closer, and the stros maybe able to get some good young players for him.
Yea, I heard we were 18-1 toward the end of the game. That's a positive stat. I believe most teams have a very good record when leading after 7 though. Every single one of our relief pitchers who has had a save opportunity has blown at least one save with most of them having blown mutliple. Byrdak: 0-2 Geary: 0-2 Hawkins: 7-9 Paulino: 0-1 Sampson: 2-3 Valverde: 2-4 Wright: 0-1 We've given up a lot of leads in the middle innings. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we're second to last in the NL in innings per start. We've put a lot of pressure on an undermanned pen and the pen, as a whole, has not pitched well independently of the fact that they've been used a lot. Our bullpen was struggling even when everybody was healthy early in the season. At this point, we need more arms as well as better pitching out of the pen. We also need our starters to start pitching deeper into games more consistently. Notice the correlation between innings pitched by our starters and wins over the last few games. A pitcher like Hampton won't likely pitch deep very often because of the type of pitcher he is. The same goes for Moehler so we need guys like Roy and Wandy to pitch deep as much as possible.
