Devenski deserves to Close. The Rangers hitters after getting struck out by the changeup got that confused look on his face like what was that. He kept staring at Devenski while walking to the dugout like what was that pitch. Devenski should be the Closer now, He deserves All Star Game recognition his stats would be unbelievable.
I have also discussed this with friends and concur. His pitches, fastball, do not move or fool anyone. He has to command location and have a strong 1-2 secondary out pitches he commands.
To get this out of the way, Giles was bad in the playoffs for the most part. Retiring the meat of the Boston order in the 8th of game 4 with a 4-3 lead was a big deal. But since he gave up a run in the 9th, that gets forgotten. And let's not forget that in game one against the Yankees, he came into a 2-0 game with one out and a runner on and having to face Judge, Sanchez and Gregorius. He got out of that, but since he allowed a run in the 9th (struck out the other 3), that critical 8th inning gets forgotten. However, compared to other AL closers he was very good during the regular season. There were 13 relievers with 15 or more saves. Kimbrel was the only closer that had a lower blown save percentage than Giles and it was a 1 save difference. In essence, had Giles saved one more game, he would have had the lowest blown save percentage. Out of those 13 15+ save pitchers, Giles had the 3rd lowest WHIP. If you expand to the 19 players with 10+ saves, he drops to 5th in WHIP. A closers primary job is to get saves. Giles was very good at that during the regular season. Games may have been exciting, but over all his WHIP was less exciting than the vast majority of closers.
Do I trust Giles? No. But he's the closer for the regular season. You don't change the format until needed. Giles needs to play his game. Because in most teams, he can bring a save. Come playoff time, there's going to be a plan b. It's a long season and Giles is part of last years success.
It's too early tell if there were any improvements made. You don't know what he's worked on in the off season. Yeah he didn't have good game but in the end, manager calmed him down and got the strike out and save.
It wasn't a save situation. In fact, I think the numbers have been well documented that he has been significantly worse (in terms of WHIP and runs allowed) in non save situations... or just 3+ run leads... than he has in the 1-2 run games over the last 2 regular seasons. It is, however a make or break year for him... he's due to start making decent money starting next year, and the Astros aren't going to pay a guy that sort of money who has yet to stay mentally sound for the entire season. I thought he made decent strides last year... even if it was regular season only. Like Bob said above, the good of the playoffs was easily forgotten, but were critical moments. There wasn't a good WS moment, and that's gotta get better for a team that should be right back there.
I am a big believer in metrics but I also have seen close to 300 Astros games the last couple years and Giles is constantly flirting with danger and that is usually coming in to start the 9th. There is no way that anyone in that Astros dugout has confidence in him. They will give him enough rope to hang himself and then deal him to some garbage team to close.
That’s fine, you are entitled to your opinion. I hope he does well and is the unquestioned Astros closer for years.... but I don’t see that happening.
How did Giles do in spring training? I wasn't paying much attention to the team during spring training. Surely, he had to have worked on something during the off-season and in spring training?
There is certainly way that anyone in the Astros dugout has confidence in him. His job is to get saves. He did that very well last year. With the exception of "Lights Out" Lidge having more saves (in more games) in the 2005 World Series season, their ERA was virtually identical and GIles's WHIP was 1.04 to Lidge's 1.15. In 31 games July - September, Giles gave up 0 runs 28 times. April and June were poor months. All the others were very good. Is he the 'prettiest' closer? No. Is he an effective closer? Yes.
That wasn't an opinion. Just thought the hyperbole of mentioning the over 300 games was a little much.... unless he was in fact in all those games. Its pretty clear that 2016 was bad, 2017 was better but the playoff failures outweighed the regular season strides, and this year is a make or break year. Some decided after the first month of 2016 that he was who he was... and that's certainly entitled and may end up becoming true. I also don't see him being a long term closer, but more for financial reasons than anything else. He's going to be making a lot of money next year... money that should be used elsewhere. There are cheaper options in-house.
8 Games, 7.2 innings, 1 earned run, 1.04 WHIP, 11 Ks (gave up 4 unearned runs in the 6th inning of an early game)
