Giles has become the lights out, dominant closer that we traded all that talent for. He showed much better command as he steadied last year, and, now, out of the chute...the high octane fastball with movement/location and that devastating slider..so dominant. You can tell he's not plagued by the chronic back issues out there..which affected his mechanics. One would assume he was told in no uncertain terms to do his back exercises... be ready on Opening Day....and he IS.
Quite a few pitchers on the roster with a known signature pitch this year. Giles and that slider certainly among them.
I hope he continues to do well. But, it's only been two games. Let's see how he's doing after two months.
All we could have hoped for was for Giles to start off strong so that he could have confidence early and continue to build off it.
I actually met him today at Torchy's in the Heights. Really nice guy...he said he's surprised "anyone would recognize" him. He was there with his family and was holding his baby so I didn't talk long. Just told him that his stuff look great and to keep on winning. I know, I know....pics or didn't happen; cool story, bro, and all that. I wasn't going to intrude that much on his lunch or his family. Seems like a pretty cool dude though. He probably would've obliged had I asked. Oh well.
I ran into Oswalt and Ricky Stone at a sushi restaurant when I was like 10. I interupted their dinner, got Roy's autograph, and started to leave until Stone's wife asked if I wanted her husband's autograph too. I felt so dumb afterwards. I'm sure they're used to it. It's the trade off of being a professional athlete. Especially when it comes to kids. Their public life is more limited. Fair or not, that's the flip side and reality of making millions and playing a game for a living. That said, go Giles!
Giles isn't quite "a monster", yet. He's surrendered a baserunner both appearances including an XBH (similar problems as last season). He's pitching well, but need more 3 up, 3 downs for monster status.
Exactly. You know what else, a lot of sports talk I hear involves notions that the bats will score 10 a night and pitching will struggle until they get another front line starter. 3 wins later it's been quite the opposite. Just need solid pitching. They've got a lot of solid pitchers...
Yup. Still gets hit. Im never comfortable with him on the mound. I was gonna post this in the game thread last night that he makes me nervous every time hes out there but didnt want to put that vibe out there, but consider me not a fan of his as a closer.
Like I said. Now, I'd rather eat some crow and Giles ball out, but that didn't happen.. and no one said anything until after the fact. #unbiasedfan Baserunners EVERY outing. ZERO 3 up, 3 downs Great winning a 4-game series. Astros future is still bright.
I'll continue to reserve judgement. He has had 3 outings 2 were lights out, 1 was subpar but considering this: He should have been out of the inning without any problems. he also got squeezed on several other pitches that would have potentially gotten him out of the inning as well. But then again thinking about that rationally and considering the whole body of his early season work, might make sense and then I couldn't flip out and bang my "I hate Giles" drum.
Looking forward to the, "Well if you just remove all his bad appearances, he's been really dominant!" argument I heard so much last season.
I don't believe I ever said anything like that. However if you look at last year, he was terrible in April and May no way to deny that, but from June 1st on he had 44 appearances, gave up 13 runs in 44.1 innings (6 of those in one really bad game vs. the Angels). My point above was more that I am not going to hit the reset/panic button after one outing, especially one where he got squeezed on pitches that should have been strikes. And considering that he had a decent run last season, I'll reserve my calls for his crucifixion until he has had more games like last night rather than games like Monday or Tuesday.
