If he was still hitting like he was early in the season there would be zero boos. He’s been straight ass. Just in time to suck in the playoffs as usual for them.
This weekend kind of sucked but the good news is that Javier and Arighetti looked good in their last games. I will battle with Framer, Brown, Javier and Arighetti in a playoff series. I'm pissed that we lost Hader because we overused him against the Yankees but hopefully will have him back for the playoffs. We really need Alvarez to come back and hit some some homeruns. We really don't have any dependable power in the lineup. We need some guys that can create offense by themselves.
Sanchez is in a funk, but I hope he's a guy that can catch lightning in a bottle. The tools are there. ETA: I was really hopeful about the return of Brandon Walter. Damn.
Hader pitches a ton because the Astros play a ridiculous number of close games and their starting pitching has been such a mess that they win a lot of games with rando SPs who often only go 4 or 5 innings so you've used several of your top relievers just to get to Hader. You've seen what the rest of the bullpen does in big situations these last several weeks. Would you rather have a healthy Hader and miss the playoffs, or a potentially injured Hader and win those 9th inning games? Hader has pitched a few times in 4 run games, but it's tiny in the grand scheme of things. His 1+ inning outings tend to be because of extra innings and that's a normal use of a closer. The Astros' issue is their offense sucks but they win a lot of games - meaning they are all really close. People would be b****ing a lot more if the Astros were 5 games back but Hader was totally fine. We saw that with the number of people who complained that Hader wasn't pitching on the day he was injured. Beyond that, pitchers get injured all the time - especially Astros pitchers. Obviously pitching more creates more opportunities for injury, but there's no evidence whatsoever that Hader was injured because of workload vs just one random bad pitch.
I said during the trade deadline period that if I were the Astros I would have stood put. To many uncertainties of those coming back. We all know absence makes the heart grow fonder, and those who have come back have been mid at best. I know it takes a while for pitchers to regain previous form, but none of these pitchers were ever anything above a 3rd in rotation guys. As far as Yordan, his presence in the line up means a lot with him being left-handed and having an exceptional eye, but I would be surprised to see any 450-footers off his bat this season. Although I was against any deadline trades, what the Astros did was pretty amazing, getting controllable players for pennies on the dollar. I do not have much faith in the rest of this season, and hope I am wrong. This team looks to be lost at the plate. Making mids look like Cy Young. Next year is the year I'm excited for. Lots of money coming off the books to upgrade in spots. The only black cloud is Framber. To sign or not to sign. I'm still 100% invested in the rest of this season, but my expectations have been largely diminished. That mindset helps me turn off games like last night after the 6th to watch Somebody Feed Phil with my wife without feeling guilty.
Not sure of the formula but Hader has faced 52 of 206 (25.2%) of batters in 'low leverage' situations according to Baseball Reference. 19 of 48 of his appearances have been in 'non-save situations'.
Very generous to call a 6+ ERA pitcher who has never won a Major League game come close to a perfect game... "mid"...
How does that compare to other closers? He has 28 saves, 1 blown save, 6 wins, and 2 losses. So that's at least 37 close games out of his 48 appearances. That doesn't include games he didn't get a decision because he left it tied. He had 7 outings where he had no save/win/loss but the game ended as a 3-run-or-less difference so presumably they were close when he pitched - that then accounts for 44 of his 48 appearances. Edit: his remaining 4 outings were all 4 run leads when he hadn't pitched the last 2-4 days (in one case, 7 days), so he was just getting regular work in. 3 of those 4 happened in April to early May.
