I like Arrighetti. Not panicing at all. Diamond hands. He's going to be a #3 starter for us in the playoffs and we are all going to be fine with it. This game tomorrow is secretly pretty huge for an end of June game. Our ace is on the bump. If we win the game we go 5-2 on the road trip which is super successful whereas 4-3 is meh. That would get us to 2 games under 500 where we are starting a 6 game homestand where the expectation would be 4-2 and get to 500. Then go on the road- go 3-3 against meh competition and hit the all star break at exactly 500, with LMJ, Blanco and Javier all back, probably in the wild card if the season ended today standings and 2 or 3 games back of Seattle for the division. I'm not saying we have to win tomorrow to make all that happen, but pyscologically I think it is a big game.
Could be… then again, they peaked last year in mid-summer so I’d temper the excitement till they get through the dog days.
Mentioned it in the the game thread, but thought it was worth mentioning here. Bryan Abreu has thrown 21 pitches total in his last 2 outings. Only 2 of them were 4 seamers, and he threw 9 cutters, something that has never been a part of his mix but is now his primary fastball, at least in these 2 games. It feels desperate, but we'll see.
Feels like he’s a head-case also trying to hide an injury…. Or his alcoholism has finally caught up with his arm.
That was quick, he's been on a roll out of the pen. Could be a huge potential weapon, or another command deficient bum, we shall see.
With the hole they dug in April, every game has been huge since May 1st. The season has teetered on the brink for 8 weeks. The only reason they have any life is because they’ve mostly righted the ship AND all of the other AL teams have sucked. Astros fans are very very likely going to be biting their nails for the rest of the season unless/until they go on a prolonged streak to either finish themselves off or claim a significant lead in the playoff standings.
To your point… we had an 8 game losing streak and that’s why we aren’t pretty comfortably leading the division. Even shitty teams generally have a stretch where they win 8 in a row or 9 out of 11. If we have one of those stretches that will absolutely put us in the drivers seat for a playoff spot in this shitty AL and maybe even the division depending on joe it corresponds with what Seattle is up to.
I don’t think so. If he was trade bait they’d have kept him down so other teams could dream on him. Hes either going to be effective in which case we won’t trade him, or he’s going to **** the bed in which case nobody wants to dream on him. He’s up bc we think he’s going to help us get to the playoffs.
You guys know the prospects better than I do but looking at his game logs, he looks like he's a better reliever. Very much like a young Bryan Abreu type pitcher. Electric stuff if knows he doesn't have to pitch for more than one inning.
Sure. The overwhelming difference between an average starter and good reliever is so high that I wish he was still a starter but yeah- he’s probably Abreu. Which is nice but I think we should have given him some rope to try for more.
