Houston Astros: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not (Vol 4) Houston starting pitching ranks an impressive 6th in ERA during the first 6 innings of a game, but have been an abysmal 28th in ERA in from the seventh inning on. https://climbingtalshill.com/2021/06/07/houston-astros-whos-hot-whos-not-vol-4/3/
Anytime you give Click a passing grade, you should have to suffer through watching the Stros bullpen or Maldy/Castro hit, when Castro isn't injured.
Castro has hit great when healthy. His on base percentage this season is .397. He has an .863 ops. The majority of bullpen meltdowns have been from guys Click inherited. Scrubb and Smith were Luhnow moves. Raley is the only other reliever with an era over 4.50 who has appeared in at least 10 games, and Raleys underlying numbers are excellent. You can rail on the fact that he didn’t keep Cishek over one of the young arms but that’s a pretty small nit to pick (Cishek has allowed 5.68 bb/9 and has been extremely lucky with keeping balls in the park). It sucks Click didn’t inherit more financial flexibility and it sucks Baez and Odorizzi got hurt. But it’s not really reasonable to grade Click based on just that.
Is it fair to judge him on the new FA's he added to the team and the cost of those FA's since they're up against the cap so bad that they wont be able to make moves at the deadline without moving a guy like Joe Smith in any trade in addition to prospects? BTW, I dont judge Click by letting Springer walk or bringing back Brantley and Yuli. Too bad Luhnow couldn't have left Click a better bullpen so that would've been removed from Click's check list and wouldn't have lead to Baez, whose velocity has declined the last two years before he signed with the Stros. This and the money is why I didn't like the Baez signing.
Well yeah, if you only look at the stuff he has done that has turned out bad (signing Baez) and don’t look at the stuff he has done that has turned out good (signing Brantley and Gurriel), then it makes sense that you would think he’s done a pretty crummy job.
I look at those as Luhnow moves that Click kept as status quo and a smart move to try to keep players that were regulars on 100 win teams. I judge Click on the new guys he's added and so far I haven't been impressed at all. The best guy he's adde has been Raley. IMHO
Giving the extensions is great and all (and yes I know that in the Brantley case it was a “free agent” signing) but I’ll get more excited about Click when he acquires new talent that works out Being a GM is a tough gig (well, not on CF but a real one) and some really smart people don’t make it in this business. Click seems like a really good guy, and by all accounts a smart man. Personally though, I’m very underwhelmed so far. Hopefully Leon becomes a player and some other moves he makes works out. It’s not like those of us who haven’t been impressed with Click don’t want him to be successful, I damn sure do I’m just pretty unimpressed to this point. Hopefully in the next two months he changes my mind
A win is a win. A win doesn't get any shade because it was done with trades, draft picks, extensions, or the dreaded re-signing a free agent that was with you the year before.
With the Thursday rehab start for McCullers, it looks like Odorizzi might be the Pen option if we go with the five man rotation instead of six. Odorizzi would start on 6/15 and 6/20, both HOME games. While it's been 8 years, he was successful out of the pen in 2013, with 3 relief appearances and hes better the first time though the lineup in his starts. Of course everything changes with an injury to any starter.
I would bet they continue with a 6 man rotation until there’s an injury, someone struggles across multiple starts, or the trade deadline arrives. Odo, McCullers, Greinke, and Valdez are too established to demote; they’re committed to Odo and Lance as starters. Garcia and Urquidy are pitching too well to demote. Good problem to have. If they did switch to 5 man I think Urquidy would be the odd man out for now.
Garcia's career high in IP is 108, and he's already at 59 with over 100 games left and hopefully a postseason. The other 4 current starters should need so such rest. If Urqidy or Odorizzi pitch their way out of the rotation then maybe you have to make a decision, but as of right now it's honestly not a hard choice IMO. Garcia should get put on conservation innings.
The same amount of good as making the playoffs, but being booted 1st series due to players not being rested.
Lol, ok...in these cases though, the "win" was probably just as much in Crane's seat as Clicks, but that's fine I guess Luhnow should get credit for Altuve and Springer too lol To be clear, I want Click to be successful. I'm not gonna blindly support him just because he has the keys to the team I love though. I want him to make good decisions on talent acquisition. Maybe that makes me a bad fan or something, who knows in 2021
Not the same, unless one considers anything short of a world series win a failure. Making the playoffs at least gives teams a chance of advancing.
The Odorizzi signing was as much about eating valuable innings as anything. There is little chance he is moved to the pen while the young arms continue to rack up innings. At some point everyone outside of ZG is gonna miss some starts, on that I feel fairly certain. Might as well be while Odorizzi is healthy. And yes, we have to win as much as possible to make the playoffs, and i'm one of the ones who gets mad at Dusty when he sits a regular almost nightly so I get it But Garcia, Javier, Urquidy, McCullers aren't throwing 180+ innings
Slight difference. Slight revision: The same amount of good as missing the playoffs due to players not being rested cratering at the end.
