Bregman has been back to normal/better than normal for a while now. Tucker for a couple of weeks (peripherals look great for longer). Abreu hasn't been horrible lately (i.e., he's been a lot better than Bellinger). DIaz and Chas have basically been mini Yordan's in 75% of the games the past month. Meyers is the only one of the average (or close to average) or better players struggling at the plate the past month or so (even then, he's played great defense most games to make up for it, and Meyers might be a slightly below average hitter). The offense has an OPS around 0.800 not counting Maldy the past 30 days. With Maldy, 0.759.
What a maddening series, it just captured everything that has been annoying about this team - goofy lineups, poor bullpen, and bad in game decision making. It's bad when the team starts losing games that they are actually producing on offense. With three starters in the rotation being rookies, I would've figured any struggle to win would be because of poor starting pitching. Who would've thought they'd be turning out quality starts regularly, and then bad run support and bad bullpen performance each take turns pissing away wins.
i know its apples and oranges, but still interesting. Montero has given up 27ER in 31.1IP, that's more ER than Framber has (25ER) in 99IP
Dusty's concerted effort to preserve the bullpen end up having the reverse effect. He ended up having to pitch Neris anyway. And then we burned more arms in extra innings. This has happened how many times already?
If Montero was a car you could use the lemon law and get your money back. Mitsubishi made a Montero. Hmmm........
Must be a proximity to a close relative override that breaks the programming.... in this case, his brother found the glitch and exploited it.
Agreed. The offense has shown some signs albeit it hasn't translated fully to wins thanks to not having pitching on some of those days. Get the pitching shored up first... starters/bullpen/whatever they can.... then hope that health can continue to be maintained for rest of lineup in Yordan's return and Brantley maybe gets a taste at some point...
Pitching has been a problem recently. I'd say another problem is losing close games. This is mostly pitching, but until the Astros play their best batters, we'll never now if it was possible that some of thsoe 1-run losses were caused by just not having a better batter at the plate in a critical situation.
Not pinch hitting for Maldonado was indefensible. What are the odds that Diaz gets hurt and if the very improbable happens I’m sure somebody would put on the gear for the rest of the game. That pop up bunt was pathetic.
Or if their best batters aren't in the lineup to start the game, they should be subbed in if those critical situations come up and a better hitter is needed. But honestly, with Diaz playing everyday as either DH or C, we're just talking about McCormick, right? Even with their best lineup... minus Yordan, they can be pitched to if the opposing pitcher is above average. Urquidy throwing off a mound. Will put him back in the rotation around the same time off as his 2021 hiatus/injury.
I don't mind Montero pitching yesterday when he did -- three run lead, bottom of the order due up We can't pitch the same arms every game or every other game My problem is letting him pitch to the tying runner He should've been yanked once Freeman hit the double Previous game, Abreu should've been stripped after he walked the bases loaded Ground-rule had us lucky the game was still tied before the balk
Yes and no. Maldonado should be benched altogether and bring up Corey Lee. We absolutely don’t need to trade for a catcher. McCormick and Myers should be starting most everyday with an occasional sub out for Julks or Dubon. We have the horses just don’t have the right cowboy leading them. We should spend any trade assets on relievers unless an ace with a reasonable cost comes along. This is probably the worst buyers market in the history of the MLB.
Korey. And nobody is advocating them to trade for a catcher. Brantley will have a say in the OF rotation if he remains on track.
Our starters consistently go 5 or 6 innings. This might be why we are 6th best in BP runs allowed maybe not, but worth mentioning.
We're 8th in bullpen ERA, aside from the Montero disaster the rest of the bullpen has been one of the best in baseball.
You really want 2 rookie catchers are your primary? That is a recipe for disaster. (Lee is still a rookie).
