Which Pitchers Should be on the Astros’ Playoff Roster?

guess you haven't watched Rondon pitched the past month or so.....

 

lets hinch do what he does

"He is so fast he forced the third catcher off the roster, and that gives us a lot of weapons," Hinch said. "It allows me to utilize Jake Marisnick in a different way. It allows me to save Tony Kemp's at-bat. I don't have to spend that as a base runner. He's a potential upgrade for every player on our offense."

 

So Straw over Marisnick?

 

JM is on the roster for the ALDS

 

Have you watched Harris or any of last year's bullpen ?

 

So our big offseason bullpen additions of Joe Smith and Hector Rondon didn't even make the playoff roster. (Not that they should have).

 

its not to say they won't get a chance it in the next round or after. alot can happen from one series to the next.

these choices made sense based on what hinch said was being evaluated

 

Surprised Peacock is out. Surprised Harris is in.

 

I've watched his last two outings with 2 scoreless innings. His bad stretch was only 4 or 5 games and looked to be over.

 

3 members of the OD bullpen made the ALDS roster. That's a pretty remarkable rebuild by the FO.

 

Absolutely. Pitching really is a crap shoot...especially from season to season. It's weird how it goes that way.

 

So you would have taken Rondon over Harris because he happened to suck in a different uniform last postseason?

Rondon has a 3.66 ERA over the last 3 seasons, he's just an OK relief pitcher. The Astros had a group of relievers that don't feel like good options (Rondon, Harris, Devenski, Peacock) and they chose the one that is pitching the best. FWIW I don't trust Harris much either, but Rondon has been playing with fire for a while now.

So the fact that he's given up multiple baserunners in 7 of his last 8 outings ( including his last one) doesn't concern you? He wasn't even all that great beforehand. If it was just a few bad outings it could be ignored, but he was was in constant trouble even before the runs finally started scoring. A WHIP over 2 for the last quarter of the season is pretty damn hard to ignore.

 

I apologize to '15 Sipp and hope he performs well in the '18 post season. He can thank '16 and '17 Sipp for the vitriol. #ContractYearSipp

At least '17 Fields helped the good guys to win the World Series!!

Go 'stros!!!

 

You have to look beyond ERs. He gave up 2 hits in his last outing, and altogether, he gave up 21 H+BB in his 8.1 September innings (2.59 WHIP - WHIP; not ERA), and has posted a 1.73 WHIP & 8.9 K/9 since August. After posting clean outings in almost 50% on his first 41 appearances, it's fallen to just 18% since August.

He had a very nice run but has not been a reliably good reliever for two solid months.

 

Really like what they did with this 25 man roster and am especially happy they put James on the roster. If and when they get to the ALCS there could be a tough decision on whether to add Rondon or Smith to the roster and take out Gattis or Straw.

 

Yeah, I'm really not that thrilled with Harris over Rondon or Smith. I just have zero confidence with him on the mound in a tight game. Hopefully he gets to pitch some innings in Astros blowout wins.

 

I feel like a broken record but... You do not burn Marisnick's glove or Kemp's bat on a pinch-running assignment. Both are too valuable.

Hinch had to learn this the hard way in September after a long week in which he kept lifting White in the 7th (too early, IMO) and burning Marisnick, leaving the team worse defensively. Straw's speed is a legitimate weapon, and the team maneuvered to make him postseason eligible. He was a lock the minute they did that.

You'd think Fisher scoring the game-winning run in the greatest game in franchise history would've taught a valuable lesson to everybody. And Straw is *faster* than Fisher (who is fast).

 

not enough to convince Hinch apparently.

 

You aren't going with 6 OF's. That's the starting OF of Springer, Marwin and Reddick, plus a PR specialist, your LH hitting specialist and your defensive replacement. It's not about what position these guys nominally play, it's about skill level. Straw and Kemp have a certain skill the FO values that they are on there for that has nothing to do with nominal positions.
There is no need for depth in the post season in an every day sense. You start your 9 best every single game, and you use guys with a specific or unique skill in a particularly high leverage situation late in the game. This construction of the non- pitching portion of the roster is awesome, and the idea of needing an 8th reliever for 5 games played over 7 days is basically lunacy.
Also- Kemp is not fast. People think he is but he isn't. His sprint speed is the exact same as Yuli Gurriel. And if you PR him you can't PH him, so it really doesn't work. Same with Jake- if you PR him you can't keep him in for defense, unless you are PR him specifically for Marwin. Neither of those guys are base stealing threats either. Straw might be top 5 base stealing thread in all of professional organized baseball.

 

Yes. Jake and some others were on the bench all last year.