If I were a competing club, I would be poaching all the pitching coaches in our org. Amazing how many no name prospects we turn into legit major league pitchers. The irony is that we can't turn our most talented pitcher into one. I guess you measure what is between the ears before your draft them.
No doubt losing a few key figures (e.g. Bill Murphy and Josh Miller) would hurt badly, but at this point in the Astros cycle the pitching infrastructure is incredibly robust. Foreign amateur scouting, domestic amateur scouting, minor league coaching, major league coaching, back office analytics, etc... The organization withstood losing Brent Strom pretty well. Miller/Murphy were ready to take over the reigns. Whatever org philosophy they have seems to play up people's strengths, rather than make people all throw one way (e.g. the 2010's Pirates). And to your point: Nook has said a few times that Whitley would be best served by playing up his strengths, cutting down from 5 pitches to 3 pitches and just focusing on consistency/reliability rather than attempting and failing to have 5 good pitches.
I'm not so sure if Whitley can be saved. His most hittable pitch is a 96mph fastball that sometimes reaches 98mph. AAA players are hitting it like batting practice for a homerun derby. I'm not an expert so l have no idea why it's so hittable, but hopefully our great coaches will help him figure it out.
Nook has mentioned a few things in the last few weeks. -Poor pitch selection and sequencing -Poor command -Overthrowing the 4-seam. I.e. throwing 98-100mph flattens the ball out/loses movement. Actually throwing slower, in the 95-97mph range, has more movement and is harder to hit. Probably more control/command too. It's all a combination of not having enough reps over the last 5 seasons while also not trusting the coaches. The hope has to be that if he continues to stay healthy and get innings in, that the first two things improve. And he finally gets tired of eating the **** sandwich, shows some humility and embraces the strategy that the coaches have been telling him for years.
Well, I pitched collegiately so I can probably share a little bit of insight. Throwing slower is not going to help him pick up movement. Coaching would never teach that, nor do the Astros. Pitchers power is from the legs and core with correct mechanics. Spin comes from velocity. The more spin, the more movement. Unfortunately, his stuff is just playing down. There's probably a combo of multiple things going on. Lack of location in hitter counts Doesn't hide the ball well enough Poor location I have a feeling its a combo of all 3.
Huh, I get what you're saying but that's somewhat counter to a lot of baseball insights I've read over the years. Plenty of folks say overthrowing a FB can lead to worse outcomes. Even earlier this season Dusty was saying Framber was having trouble with his FB when it was hitting 97-98mph and that it didn't move as well as when he was throwing it 94-96mph. Part of it is arm-angle and pitch-type. McCullers doesn't throw a great 4-seam but throws a much better sinker. Maybe Whitley would have more success with a lower arm-slot, more sink and less mph than his 4-seam from a higher arm slot.
I'm not sure I understand this statement. Wouldn't the spin come from the grip and the way the ball is held/released? I mean, curveballs have more spin than fastballs on average, right? But they have much less velocity.
Poor location / command would explain a lot. And that would be super hard to discern from a box score. The high altitude parks in AAA will also play havoc with the stats. Routine fly balls to the outfield turn into HRs. Breaking pitches lack their bite and lead to more loud hits.
It's all walks, HRs, inherited runners scoring, and 4th inning+ (of pitching, not game). Home/Road don't matter so far. His splits and peripheral stats are ****ing bewildering wrt the results.
I think poor location is probably the main driver, but the pitch is probably fairly easy to identify based on release point or some other key. Would like for him to be promoted if not simply to work directly with the Astros coaches every day.
He hasn’t really pitched in 3 years, right? It’s not hard to believe he could be tired and not conditioned to go deep. he just needs to take the ball every time out and try to get acclimated to pitching again- I suspect his luck with regards to inherited runners and HR’s will change somewhat.
Sandy Gaston, who is definitely experiencing an adjustment period, hit his first home run of the season for Fayetteville.
From what the White Sox assistant coach told us yesterday, the Astros are one of the 3 highest paying teams for staff - so that’s probably part of why the Astros keep them. Fans don’t realize how bad it is for the White Sox. The owner basically doesn’t allow the front office to fire anyone. So a lot of the scouts and employees are teaching out dated techniques and relying on dated things. It even impacts guys that were naturally more progressive like Rick Hahn… at this point Kenny Williams has been running the White Sox for almost a quarter century… the GM has been there almost 20 years and the guys in the offices are there until they retire. I admire an owner that is loyal to his employees but he is almost 90 and his whole organization is stuck in the late 90’s.
He has been terrible this year. I hope he turns it around, but I have heard he may not even be a catcher
Jose Fleury finished off Fayetteville's 6-5 win. He allowed a run on a solo homer, walked one, and struck out six over the final four innings; the homer was the only hit he allowed.
