When I heard him say that last night I almost lost it. If I had a nickle for every ridiculous or incorrect thing he said I'd be rich.
He is... unless there are a bunch of lefties up in the 8th, then Hinch will probably favor Qualls/Sipp. Not that Neshek is "bad" against lefties, but the other guys have historically been more effective (or this year, in terms of Qualls, much better against lefties than righties). You're also going to have games where he needs a day off... or Gregerson needs a day off, and he may be the 9th inning guy. Fields also can step in as the 8th inning guy against a right-handed lineup. I think Hinch has done a masterful job of not pigeon-holing any player into one set spot... but rather let the situation dictate who he puts in (whether it be who's overworked, the lefty-righty matchups, or just his gut feel). Of course, that opens him up to second-guessing when he doesn't do the "usual"... but I'm sure there's some sort of analytical baseline that's dictating all of these moves and why they're being done as they are.
When he criticized Valbuena (I think) for making grabbing the ball with his hand and making an easy out, I said aloud to myself "Oh, shut the **** up" and muted it. It was nice last weekend to be able to listen to the announcers without hoping one of them would have throat paralysis.
Neshek has pitched in the 8th in 14 games, and Qualls has pitched the 8th in 14 games. FIP likes Neshek & Qualls about the same. Qualls is a ground ball machine, while Neshek is a flyball pitcher. I think matchup and park factors should largely decide their use. Josh Fields & Will Harris have been the top 2 guys, so why not prefer them for the 8th or 9th?
He just sounds like such a stereotypical out of touch grumpy old man. Hates barehanded grabs, makes constant remarks on cut off men, even if it has no impact. Complains about shifts, and how much he hates them despite a mountain of evidence and basically the entire league doing it. Constantly talking about batting average while ignoring basically any mildly sabermetric stat. He's not the slightest bit entertaining either. Being old isn't an excuse. Brownie's old too, but last weekend him and Blum were more than willing to talk up some of the modern stats. It felt like a 21st century broadcast. I don't know if it's Blum's choice to only do road games, but that tandem was so much better than the standard broadcasts with Ashby.
I will say Neshek hadn't been a strikeout pitcher for a few years before he rebounded last year. I was not expecting Neshek to be able to repeat such a good performance this late in his career.
I'll take good griefin' Geoff "Charlie Brown" Blum and fake laughin' Bill Brown all day over our favorite balk wanting, bare hand hating, usually wrong replay predictor Ashby.
Old baseball adage that I've heard Astros say this season...These things have a way of working themselves out. In other words, a guy will go down with injury, suck so hard something has to be done, other team offers a good trade for a player, etc. It is just hard to keep 5 starters healthy for long stretches.
So.... this happened yesterday. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hoping this guy at Minute Maid is some kind of undercover cop or something. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/astros?src=hash">#astros</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gun?src=hash">#gun</a> <a href="http://t.co/zczA8Bgyqn">pic.twitter.com/zczA8Bgyqn</a></p>— Steven Miori (@StevenMiori) <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenMiori/status/605572303284355072">June 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> UPDATE: Yes, that guy is apparently a plainclothes cop. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Some officers were in plain clothes, including the officer who was shown on our broadcast catching a foul ball (cont'd)</p>— #VoteAstros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/605765390757560321">June 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Honestly, it keeps being mentioned that Gregerson has been awesome, but he's been pretty mediocre, imo. How many times has he had a 2 or 3 run lead, only to make it close? Imagine if those games were 1 run leads? He'd have 5 blow saves, at a minimum. I think out of his 16 save opportunities, he has had a 3 run lead at least 5 times....but managed to only give up 2 runs, so he get's "credit" for the save. A 5.91 ERA in May is not what you want out of your closer. He's been fortunate to have such nice leads when he appears, but to point to the fact that he's 22-1 in games he's appeared in is not necessarily something that is indicative of his performance. It's like saying, the Astros have a .550 winning percentage in games that Villar has started. Well, sure, that's correct, but there are other factors that led to the Astros winning the game. Having said all that, Gregerson has been okay, but there is definitely room for improvement there.
Does anyone know what the personal issue was that he was dealing with? Seemed pretty serious and seemed to last more than just a few days..a week or 2? Curious to see him going forward now and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt
We have absolutely no idea what the outcome of those games would have been with a 1 run lead. Quite possible that the pitch selection to some of those hitters would have been different. Quite possible the opposing manager would have employed different strategies. Also, this is the only post in the entire Astros' forum where "Gregerson" and "awesome" were used together.
