Colby lewis was pissed they choose holland ovee him in 2015 playoffs. He spent off season getting in shape and lost 20 pounds and he is mentally sharper. His career yes he has been average. But this year he has been really really good.
Fister has given up 3 runs or less in 13 of his 15 starts you might not like his "stuff", but saying he isn't "good or even average" is a bit wack
Aren't we 1-9 against the Rangers? If we had just split with them this is how the standings would currently look like: Rangers 47-31 Astros 45-33
It isn't about stuff (there is more to pitching than stuff). It is about more than that. A pitcher only has so much control in a game. Just last night the Rangers starter was awful, but only gave up 2 runs in 5 innings. Why? Because his defense made some great plays, and hard hit balls found gloves. He hasn't been sharper. He has been luckier. 37% of balls hit off him are rated as hard. Only 12.5% are rated as soft. Not only are those the worst of his career, that is the 5th worst hard hit rate in baseball and the absolute worst soft hit rate. He has the 8th worst ground-ball %. 3rd lowest BABIP.
Yep, Fister is a guy who knows how to pitch I don't expect him to suddenly lose it or fall off drastically
The Pitching has definitely started to round into form. 5th K/BB (3.14) 7th (tied) in ERA (3.87) 17th BAA (.259) Overall, not so shabby. On the Offensive side though. 12th HR 14th OPS 15th RS If there are moves to make, the argument can certainly be made that our offense needs more help than our pitching. That said, who is available might dictate what happens more than need.
In case anyone is unclear, these numbers are in all of MLB. But, they are roughly the same in the AL offensively - middle of the pack.
Quoted from http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=10596282&postcount=288 As much as I love Marisnick in the field, replacing him with a veteran RH 1B/LF/DH-type bench guy who loves hitting lefties would really help this team. Bregman's interesting, but I don't know their thoughts on platooning him or bouncing him around multiple positions right off the bat. That's a tough spot to put a rookie in. What they do with him in Fresno the rest of the month will be telling I suppose.
Keep forgetting he is here. Marisnick is also the one base runner we have on the bench, unless we bring back Kemp. If Bregman does come up, I do think he'll be asked to play 3B & LF, but DH most frequently. Danny Valencia stands out to me. He was a terrible choice to replace Valbuena (thank goodness the people posting in here weren't GM), but he has always hit LHP well, and he will be asked to play 1B/LF/DH, which will better mask his defensive shortcomings.
Marisnick's lack of offensive production could warrant replacement, but he seems irreplaceable in the clubhouse. Wonder if cutting ties with him would backfire on that ground. Jake just seems to so central to our chemistry, but who knows, maybe the clubhouse would be fine without him. Chris Cotillo was on 790 the other night. He was saying that Bregman is better *right now* than both Valbuena and Marwin. I agree, I don't really want to bring Bregman up just to platoon. I think we could essentially platoon Gattis/Valbuena platoon at DH (mixing in both at C and 1B/3B), with Marwin backing up every position + PHing. We have a ton of flexibility which is nice, seems like everyone can get pretty regular at bats.
Really? Another chemistry post? Its ok.... Gomez already ruined it, so there's no chemistry. The bottom line is that Marisnick is just not hitting at all. Gomez has turned it around enough to where he will be playing everyday. They need a better option for when Rasmus sits against lefties.
Bregman won't platoon. Valbuena has been so good (.934 OPS over the last 2 months), his playing time stays. Gattis would quit DHing and now just be a full-time backup catcher. Marwin would receive fewer starts, filling in at 1B/SS/3B/LF when necessary.
Valbuena, very quietly, now has an OPS of .814; he's just behind Correa (.819). They're limiting his appearances against LHers (though, he's doing pretty well against them - again, likely due to the smaller sample size). Bregman (likely) wouldn't produce at a rate considerably better than Valbuena's, if at all. Luis has been one of the stealthier bright spots this year.
I am not a Danny Worth fan. [insert stupid pun about his last name here]. You need a backup IF though so for now he's here. Yeah, I'd really like to keep Jake around, I'll get to that later. I kind of forget about the DH sometimes and how it opens up another regular spot. Gattis being somewhat-surprisingly competent (and improving) behind the plate really helps here. I like it. Back to Marisnick. Houston is one of 5 AL teams with a 13 man pen - Cle (also doesn't have a LHRP, odd combo), KC, Tam, Tor are the others. With the emergence of Devenski/Feldman/Feliz as very good to great pen arms (who can all go multiple innings) that last arm seems superfluous to me. I really like Neshek, but he's the odd man out (I imagine a contender would give you a decent prospect for him). That opens up your perfect spot for Jake: 5th OF, PR, defensive replacement. I'd love to replace Sipp with another LHP as well, as good as he was last year he's been a gascan so far this one. His contract and performance would make that difficult I assume, so I dunno what to do about him.
Yep. We've got Castro, Rasmus, Valbuena, and AJ Reed as lefties. OPS for our lefties against lefties Castro - .374 Rasmus - .622 Valbuena - .767 (career .665) Reed - 0 for 5 (.717 OPS in AA last year, .782 in AAA this year) Correa has also been surprisingly bad against lefties (.600 OPS), but that's likely randomness based on last year and the minors. Marwin and Gattis can cover 2 of those spots, but open up a hole for the DH. I think Valbuena's earned a right to play, but Marisnick and Worth both have sub .700 OPS vs. lefties (and it's even uglier vs. righties!). If you find a guy who can play in the lineup everyday, Worth is not as valuable as Marwin can revert to the super utility role. I think Marisnick's ++ defense, and speed make him more of a keeper.
