Good for the official scorer in giving Springer an error. I am tired of balls that should be played and if they aren't touched, generally hits are given.
There were some interesting comments on that by the Rangers official scorer of 20-something years re: Darvish's recent almost-no-hitter when Ortiz's popup was ruled an error and not a hit. I'll try look it up later.
Ortiz' comment was funny. To paraphrase, he said "It was a ball that should have been caught, but it should have been ruled a hit".
They have yet to lose with Springer hitting second. EDIT...never mind. I forgot they started him off hitting second when he first came up.
Official attendance: Oklahoma City Redhawks vs Colorado Springs: 10,383 Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers: 14,028
Keuchel is beginning to seem legit. It isn't just empty numbers, in fact he's actually underperforming his FIP. Good K rate, low walk rate. All the metrics back up his performance thus far. He really appears to have taken the next step in his development. Jarred Cosart has actually been really good as well when you take out that one clunker. Really positive signs from these 2.
Keuchel is 4-2, which is incredible on this team. He's doing an excellent job of striking guys out (as he did last year), plus limiting the walks and keeping the ball in the park. A .301 BABIP against him is a very reasonable rate for him to be able to maintain.
It's been a busy year for me so last night was first game I've made in person. It was a nice surprise. Keuchel is tough to hit with two strikes. It was nice seeing two Astros get above the Mendoza line during the game. It still is shocking that the Astros had 4 hitters below the Mendoza line before the start of the game. Adam Neverhit was a better hitter.
He's Wandy 2.0. A couple of seasons of "why the heck do they keep running him out there" then he started putting it together. They're both soft tossing lefties to boot. If only we could get 6 seasons of >100 ERA+ like they got out of Wandy...
I like this comparison. I think hes a smarter pitcher than Wandy though. Wandy had Ausmus catching him for many years and Keuchel has Corporan. Big difference in game plan and game management there.
Thank you, Ed Wade!!! Ed Wade was a genius. There I said it. Keuchel, Springer, Singleton, Foltynewicz, DeShields, Santana, Velasquez and maybe Oberholtzer. They all could be the core of players that lead the Astros back to The Promised Land.
We'll see, but right now it's looking like he deserves some credit for building the farm. His tenure wasn't nearly as bad as the reputation it has gotten. I'm still happy with Luhnow, but I've put a halt to the Wade jokes, because he was certainly no Tim Purpura. Maybe even some open praise if these guys start performing in the show.
