Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! I'm not too big on the wins stat (Josh James, in 2019, tied the All-Time Astros World Series Wins Record set by Devenski*) or ERA in a small sample, but Javier has pitched great by Statcast Data that stabilizes quicker as well. I'm fine if Javier is in the pen if 5 better starters are healthy. *Others have also tied this record.
Outside of Houston the majority of people think it's a fact Altuve wore a buzzer and that's why he gets the most hate. They've conveniently forgotten that this originated from someone trolling on Twitter pretending to be Carlos Beltran's neice. Altuve not wanting his jersey ripped off is apparently indisputable proof of a buzzer.
The only knock on him is that he doesn't chew up innings and he gives up a lot of home runs, but I can't say there are 5 better starters at this moment.
He's been good overall as a starter. He's been completely overpowering in opponents first PA against him. (1st PA sub .500 OPS, 2nd PA, .775 OPS) He's very meh overall and sometimes downright bad around the 4th or 5th inning (not always). Ultimately a quality start is a quality start, but if the team has 5 quality starters (which we may have when fully healthy) he has more value as a dominant reliever (or opener). We certainly shouldn't move him anywhere until we have said quality starters fully available.
He will continue to get starts. At some point they'll have Greinke, LMJ, Valdez, Odorizzi & Urquidy. Javier will more than likely be going to the pen, because his arm is more effective throwing a couple times a week (than Urquidy is).
So...in 7 games so far Yuli Gurriel has 6 walks, or like 0.86 BB/G. Prior to this, the best season he had taking walks was 0.25 BB/G and most seasons are closer to 0.15 BB/G. Weird, small sample-size statistical anomaly or are the goggles/safety glasses giving the man super vision powers?
I doubt he can keep up the pace, but his walks per game were increasing until he stopped hitting in 2020 and pitchers stopped throwing him balls in 3-ball counts. On a 60 game splits, his BB/game was at 0.4 when everything fell apart in 2020.
Come playoff time, having a few guys who don't get deep into games, having Urquidy and Javier will really help. Greinke Valdez LMJ (5 IP) Urquidy (2-4) Odorizzi (5 IP) Javier (2-3)
They ALL should've thought about the blowback on this if they were to ever get caught. I blame EVERYONE who let it keep going, even Altuve. He could've taken a bat to the montor himself and said no mas! but he didn't. By letting it go he was just as complicit. Altuve and everyone else let Cora and Beltran run the f*cking show and soil their career reps. I'm sick of hearing everyone in MLB was doing it. So what? It was wrong, they didn't need it and guess what it really didn't work and here we are. Sorry I just don't feel sorry for any of them and I have defended them to no end on here.
This isn't that hard. Over a 162 game season they'll need a few guys to come in and throw some spot starts. As sealclubber has pointed out (as have I) at some point they'll have everyone healthy (starters) and the rotation will be: Greinke, Valdez, LMJ, Odorizzi & Urquidy. Javier loses his effectiveness usually going through the order a 2nd time. Javier is the most effective out of the pen and thus once everyone is healthy that's where he'll be (however he'll still throw some spot starts...doubleheader, makeup game etc).
You actually think it’s ok to single out one team for something a bunch of teams were doing for years? That’s wild
In a respect, but if we were gonna do that I would rather have him pitch 2-3 dominant innings every 3rd or 4th day versus 4-5 solid innings every 5th. If I were drawing up an ideal scenario for him as an opener, I would have him pitch 2 innings then have Odorizzi,McCullers,Urquidy take over at the bottom of the order and pitch 4-5, likely facing the heart of the order 2 times at the most. Then come back in 3 days and do it again. Unless he improves on his effectiveness once his pitch count starts to rise, it seems an ideal scenario is to use his most dominant innings more frequently instead of getting a few more less effective innings.
I am skeptical that this would work over a 162-game season. Pitching him more frequently will likely reduce his overall number of dominant innings now, and slow down building up his endurance to throw deeper into games with more dominant innings in future seasons. If he averages 3 dominant innings per start on 4 days rest, that is about 100 dominant innings in a season. 100 dominant innings at beginning of the game would be worth more than any reliever even with higher leverage for later innings accounted. Though if Astros have 5 other starters healthy, he would easily be the most valuable as a dominant reliever. I would still prefer the Astros trying to keep him stretched out as highly unlikely he won't be needed as a starter at some point.
Astros have come out of the gate with playoff intensity in my opinion. Lance is going to be hyped af tonight
