The gotta establish a fastball mantra falls apart again. It is truly amazing how not throwing a crappy 4S fastball 50% of the time can make a pitcher better. He just couldn't get guys to chase on 2 strikes and couldn't get a swing and the miss in the zone with two strikes. He's still throwing about the same amount of fastballs, but he's splitting it between the 4S, his new sinker, and his cut fastball which makes it a lot harder to guess whether a fastball will be inside, in the zone or outside. Not sure if he can keep it up as a good fastball makes everything else easier, but he's looking better than last year. Bielak's movement pattern is signature Astros pitching development below. The left hand image is the way the ball is spinning out of his hand while the right side is how the ball actually moves. Basically, every pitch is spinning (some top spin, some backspin) on the same axis out of his hand which causes very good tunneling (i.e., everything should look similar to the batter right out of the hand). However, it appears guys Astros have called up lately use wiggle (think football spin) to push curves more 12-6, sliders more horizontally, changeups/sinkers down, 4S's up, and cutters horizontally opposite of the way they should move based on spin out of the hand.
That's ... rough. No Brantley, Yordan, Tucker (yeah, I know - but he's hitting the ball hard). Has anyone heard anything more on Yordan.
Per Rotoworld.... Astros manager Dusty Baker said he's hopeful Yordan Alvarez (illness) will be able to return Friday. Alvarez was placed on the COVID-19 injured list on Wednesday, presumably due to vaccine side effects. Baker told reporters Thursday that the young slugger is feeling better but "not 100 percent" just yet. Alvarez, 23, has slashed .309/.355/.529 with two home runs and 14 RBI through 18 games played this season. Source: Brian McTaggart on Twitter Apr 29, 2021, 11:58 AM ET
I wonder who will throw the most pitches for Astros today. Garcia is the nominal starter, but he's likely going to have a short outing based on short rest. Emanuel and Solomon have full rest. Dusty has had no problem using Abreu for more than inning even with short rest. My guess would be Emanuel, but I'm interested to see if Solomon is any good.
He's looked good the little I've seen of him this year. No idea how many innings he's geared up to go right now.
I don’t mind a rest day for Brantley, Tucker, and Yordan....we’re coming up on our biggest tests of the season to date...6 road games at Rays/NYY followed by 6 home TOR/LAA games...this has been a fantastic home stand and we will need our best fresh and ready to go now that we’re within arm reach of OAK. Hopefully we can come out and get to Kikuchi. A sweep would be so nice.
Southpaw Flu. LHB are 2-21 (2 singles and a BB) vs Kikuchi this year. Brantley is 1-14 with a single and a BB in his career. His last start vs Houston Diaz/Jones/De Goti/McCormick did the damage. They hope Yordan will be ready to go tomorrow.
Great dig by Yuli, but not necessarily a bad throw. Carlos had no momentum behind it and if you try to hit 1B in the chest you're likely to airmail it over his head, you're taught to use the bounce there.
