The statement I was responding to was they didn’t have a plan in place when he was pulled after 1 inning with an injury. HIs Sept 16 start was 5.1 innings and 1 run, his Sept 22 6 up and 0 runs, both very good starts. His Sept 29th start wasn’t great, but he still lasted 5 innings. So 2 of his last 4 starts were strong. Who else should they have started? How could they predict an injury would cause him to lose 3mph off his velocity in an inning?
Man it's pretty ridiculous how many people on this sub act like they run the place...hell maybe we should just stop allowing morons like me to even make a thread? God forbid I do something crazy like create a thread to discuss what likely will be the most pivotal decision at this point in our entire season/playoffs instead of just replying as a post in one of the two threads filled with the 90% garbage that comes after a playoff loss (sky is always falling, we suck, etc.). I've made about 10 threads in total since joining in both the GARM and the Astros sub combined. Please help me I am out of control... Oh and it's absolutely comical when people respond to a new thread by saying how stupid the OP is for creating said thread...they're either not very intelligent and don't realize by responding it's bumping the thread so they're just as guilty as the OP (arguably more since they're also hypocrites) or they understand but do it anyway because they're losers in real life who get off on acting superior on a f***** message board...and likely not very intelligent.
Doesn't matter who starts, they both need to pitch. Urquidy needs to find a way to give us 6 today.....
This is the type of thing that drives me crazy with Dusty though, and it greatly lessens our chances of winning You don't bring Odorizzi into the middle of an inning like that. You go to a true reliever, someone who is used to warming up quickly and going into a game with runners on. Literally anyone in our pen would have a better chance of success in that situation Not only do you have a better chance of getting out of that inning with less damage BUT you also give Odorizzi more time to warm up. THEN he can start the next inning clean, as he normally would Put guys in the best situation you can for them to succeed. It isn't that difficult, but Dusty has seemingly always struggled with stuff like this Our offense is strong enough to overcome the lack of starting pitching though, and Dusty
When Javier was pulled from the rotation earlier in the year I really thought he would be out of the rotation for about a month to limit innings, then he would go back in and Garcia would come out to limit his also. The way they did it really made no sense and now it's not likely we get anything out of Garcia the rest of the way. Fully agree on Javier getting the start tomorrow
Prediction: Urquidy, Greinke, and Javier combine for 10 innings with <4 runs allowed over the next 2 games. Story of the series.
Javier has looked crisp , no doubt . but my vote goes to ... brooks “big balls” Raley dusty’s son is actually clutch y’all . Think about it ! After the lefty you go Grienke, then follow with the hard throwing Javier .
My apologies to the OP, I was being a little tongue-in-cheek in my response with some of the recent responses to new threads (hence my second post that started with "But seriously..."). Maybe I should have used a instead. But I still don't know what to think about the rotation. I'm not sure if Javier has a start in him as it has been a while since he started a game, but I would be cool of the Astros rolled with him Game 4 starters.
Grienke followed by Javier is certainly a change up. Lets hope we can get three to four from Grienke and then let Javier take it.
It might be wishful thinking, but I think with a better gameplan/pitch calling from Maldy Urquidy is able to work deeper into that game. Urquidy has to get ahead in counts to have success and we neutralized that by going too breaking/offspeed heavy against them putting him behind in counts where he just doesn't have the stuff to battle back with. I know Urquidy grades out really well on the stuff/command metrics Eno puts out but I think his breaking/offspeed pitches are relatively easy to pick up by batters given the large separation in release point between his pitches. If you throw a slider early in a count it's easy for batters to just spit on it knowing it's likely out of the zone anyway.
That 11 pitch walk to Verdugo completely changed everything. Urquidy got thru the 1st in 11 pitches then started the 2nd striking out Bogaerts and going up 0-2 on Verdugo…then 9 more pitches resulting in a walk. Had he gotten Verdugo out on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th pitch I think the entire game would have been different.
Agreed. Now the Red Sox deserve credit for having players that can work the count like that.... but in games 2 and 3 the Red Sox have had a lot of things go their way. Some borderline pitches called balls, some balls that were inches from being caught etc. Can that continue the rest of the series? Sure, but there is also a good chance we see some leveling out. Greinke could get in jam or two and have a ball hit really hard at someone and go 4-5 innings with only minimal damage. Hell, we saw Sale avoid getting shelled.
Doing some digging, something was really off about Urquidy's slider last night. He was throwing it way harder (4 mph) than normal and the spin direction was totally off from how he normally throws it. Look at how tightly clustered the spin direction is on his slider for the season (first link) compared to the spin direction on his slider last night (the second link): https://scout.texasleaguers.com/players/664353 https://scout.texasleaguers.com/players/664353/games/144705 Probably explains why he had such a difficult time throwing it for strikes last night as the variance in movement on the pitch was much higher than normal (shown particularly in that movement direction circle chart). I wonder if this is health related or a factor of him not pitching in a game for weeks. I wanted Urquidy to pitch in game 4 of the ALDS because I didn't trust the pen, but I wonder if it also would have been helpful to get him some work that series to ensure he didn't have any rust entering this series.
Agreed and I felt the same way at the time. Urquidy thought the last pitch to Verdugo was a strike and I think that messed with him a little bit, similar to how Luis Garcia got rattled by the home plate umpire in Game 3 versus CWS. But perhaps more importantly, that 11 pitch at-bat by Verdugo may have left Urquidy feeling like he couldn't get anything past the Red Sox hitters to put them away. He may have doubted his stuff, which then led to pitching around the plate and walking more hitters and falling behind in the count -- both recipes for disaster. Whether you are on the mound, or at the 3-point line, or taking a snap from the center, on ready to hit driver off the tee box, you have to be confident and trust your mechanics and approach. Any doubt or hesitation whatsoever and you are ensuring failure. We need more confidence tonight!
Only source of optimism is that Greinke should be confident. He should also be able to adjust his pitch selection in real time. But obviously he is extremely limited in terms of stuff so that wouldn’t bode well against such a hot lineup. Tonight is extremely important for Greinke and Javier to get thru the bulk of the game. Another turd that sees the Astros have to burn 4+ RP would be devastating to their chances in game 5 (which would be a must win).
Getting the lead first matters. That's why Greinke IMO is the wrong move...we can't let that crowd get rocking in the bottom of the 1st. Hope Greinke proves me wrong.