I wasn't finished typing that post. It was saved as a draft and "prepended" to the other. Anyway, first, Giles didn't blow a save last night. It's why baseball is a team game. Fielders bail out pitchers, pitchers bail out fielders/hitters. So, I will clearly not count Giles as having a blown save last night and neither will all of the statistical methods used. As I wrote, in Giles 11 save opportunities, he has had 6 "clean" saves (retired every batter he faced). He has faced 37 batters over the course of needing 30 outs in those 11 save appearances, mostly skewed by 2 games. Sure, it would be great if Giles were 'cleaner', but, I'll take 91% save success rate. Of AL closers that had over 20 saves last year, that would rank about 4th.
If Giles continues to convert 91% of his save opps, it won't matter how high his ERA is, or how nervous he makes you guys, he will be the closer. The only purpose of the closer position is to finish games and he's doing that. If Giles starts blowing saves (and no he didn't blow the game last night because we won) then the discussion can be had, until then nothing is gonna happen.
Astros depth is INSANE. Of the 12 regular players, 10 of them of 100+ OPS+ and the other two, Beltran and Aoki, are 90 and 99 respectively with Beltran on the upswing (pun intended). 2 players in the 120's (Springer and Reddick), 3 players in the 130's (McCann, Altuve, Correa), 2 in the 140's (Marisnick!, Gattis), and Marwin is hitting a mind numbing 189! Obviously some of these are not sustainable, but also I suspect Altuve, Springer, Correa, Beltran, and Bregman will improve.
There's one dominant bullpen option on this club and its Devo. They're absolutely using him in the best way possible right now. He got the crucial outs in the 7th/8th and left the 7-8-9 hitters to whoever in the 9th inning. They've run Gregerson, Harris and Giles out in the closer role in the last two years and no one owned the role. I've just come to terms with that. Making Devo the closer isn't a better option. GHG are all 2nd tier or worse closers, whatever. They're not going to expend more resources on an already incredibly strong bullpen.
He blew it the save. Hinch knows he blew the save....but I don't want to go around in circles. I know where you stand...lets just root for the astros and see how it plays out. I hope you can call me out for being wrong. I just ask that you don't do it after every appearance.....and I will stop harping on it as well.
If you weren't such a pompous poster, you wouldn't make foolish statements. You've now made two consecutive regarding my posts.
The is the most important point. It is strange that the best reliever isn't closing, but it has been working, extremely well. We have played a ton of close games, and our bullpen has been equaling or outperforming the opponents in the vast majority. Many of these comebacks have been possible because our pen slammed the door. Plus many of the runs have been cosmetic.
The corollary is that no position player is a no-doubt all-star. McCann has the best statistical argument, as he's hitting well for a catcher and other than Salvy Perez AL catchers have been awful. Correa is building his argument but even he questionably isn't a top 2 AL SS by the numbers (yet). Tuve is like 6th in AL 2B WAR. What a long strange trip its been...
Point of order: blown saves are an actual official stat-type-thing that is qualified by the actual official stat-type-people. He did not have a blown save last night. Ken Giles has blown 1 save this year. The Astros are 15-1 in games that Ken Giles has participated in.
I remember a time when a hitter took strike 3, but the umpire called it a ball. The next pitch he hit a HR. I guess he actually struck out. Everybody saw it and everybody knows it so add a K and subtract an HR.
hehe you guys can have all the fun you want with your little remarks, but they are off base. Go ahead and pretend like Giles is this super solid guy that you have all the faith in the world in, but he won't close for us in the playoffs.
Let's just hope the coaches look past our weak schedule, and we are still among the top 4 teams by season's end.
No one is saying he's lidge or billy Wagner. No one. That's pure straw man. My guess is that he will close in the playoffs.
So, in your mind, who is a top closer the Astros could reasonably acquire. Assuming things play out as expected, I would think the following teams would be sellers at or before the deadline as the teams not listed would be expected to be in contention (perhaps an exception or two) Rays Jays White Sox Royals Any of the AL WEST teams Phillies Marlins Braves Brewers Reds Pirates Rockies Padres Giants
Ahh I get it. It looks like Giles is our honorary "let's complain about something after a great win against a great team on the road." I get the frustration, because he wasn't overly sharp last night. I actually felt he had a great pitch sequence against Ellsbury, but that was just a case where great hitting beat good pitching. And if Bregman is playing close to the line in "no doubles" mode, it's a weak groundout and all of this is a moot point. But I heard on the MLB Network broadcast last night that we were undefeated (the actual record escapes me at the moment) when we were leading after 8, or something to that effect. So, in essence, we have a good bullpen. A great one, some might say. Sure, our relievers will have ups (i.e. Devo, Hoyt, etc.) and downs (i.e. Gregerson, Sipp - always Sipp), but the truth is, as a unit, they have been tremendous. So why on earth would we want to change anything (Giles as closer included)? We are among the best teams in the league, from top to bottom, so how about we keep trucking along as is, and continue to play good-to-great baseball? I love the passion, but let's also sit back and try to put things in perspective some times too.
whats straw man about it? Some think he is plenty solid enough to be the guy (as evidenced by their unwavering support) some don't I never mentioned lidge or wagner.
You kind of did: ya. I agree it can't be devo or gregerson. Might have to give Harris another shot or Feliz. Hell, you might even have to bring somebody in. It just absolutely can not and will not be Giles.
Christ Bobrek, I said they might, then I said I'm not going to go through all the teams and give you players right now.
Last night could have been a huge disaster night for Houston sports history. Thank you, Jake, for making that great throw and not completely ruining the night like the Rockets tried to do. Yea...all the Houston sports fans were glad to switch over to baseball away from basketball and we were watching this game at the end instead of the Rockets game. It would have been a worse night if we lose this game the way it was going in the ninth. It would have made my top 20 list of worst nights in Houston sports history.
