Maton had already pitched (and given up a 2 run HR). And one move is not "horrible pen management" for a whole series.
Just out of curiosity... what has been the ultimate save Dusty from Dusty roster move: Trading Straw Optioning Siri Not calling up Bermudez (to get a lefty to replace Blake Taylor/Parker Mushinski) Sending down Goodrum
Sending down both Siri and McCormick. It was necessary to keep him from continuing to split center field innings with one or both of them instead of making a damn decision and giving one player a chance to develop.
Day off decisions did that. You do not give the best bat in the league the day off to play Dubin in left field when you are playing against your likely opponent for the conference championship. That was much stupider than any relief pitching decision he could have made, but at least he is consistent.
Dubon got 2 of the Astros' 3 RBI's and Yordan was given the day off for rest due to injury. You don't risk further injury to your star player for a random regular season game that has no long-term relevance to anything.
Small sample size but Dubon kills lefties so far In his short career. Yordan needs his hand healed. Put players in situations they are comfortable in and can succeed. Definitely not a bad move by Dusty there. Why cry about that when there are so many REAL reasons to!!
I'm curious how much this factored into Click's thinking. Actually, the move prompts Dusty to do two things: 1) start Meyers full time in CF and 2) Play Matijevic at 1B against RHP because Dusty loves platoons. It's probably very true that Dusty would split Chas and Meyers 50/50 in CF which would be completely infuriating. I will be looking out to see how much run Dusty gives Dubon in CF. Thankfully we don't have a speedy LHB CF or Dusty would play him against every RHP starter even if his OPS was at .500.
Some 2022 Cristian Javier stats for no particular reason: 62.2 IP (10 games started, 4 relief appearances) 2.73 ERA (20th in MLB minimum 60 IP) 2.76 FIP (9th in MLB minimum 60 IP) 3.87 xFIP (52nd in MLB minimum 60 IP) 31.8% K% (this is 6th in MLB minimum 60 IP - Shane McClanahan leads MLB at 35.7%) 9.4% BB% (worst among Astros starters and 84th out of 101 who qualify in MLB with minimum 60 IP) 0.57 HR/9 (12th best in all of MLB, second on the Astros only to Framber who is 8th best in all of MLB) .270 BABIP 1.6 WAR (30th in MLB minimum 60 IP) Conclusions? Thoughts? I think he's an ace. The K% is nasty. Just get the walks down and look out.
I don’t think he’s an “ace”, on the order of being one of the 10-15 best pitchers in baseball. But I do think he’s showing that he can be a really good SP, one who most teams feel good about in Game 3 or 4 of a playoff series. The trio of Valdez, Garcia, and Javier is a solid 2-3-4 regardless of how you stack ‘em.
At this point I personally don’t expect McCullers to be in the rotation. He won’t even be rehabbing until late July. If he does come back as a starter (which assumes absolutely no setbacks), it wouldn’t be until mid-August. For now I think best realistic case is McCullers comes back to serve as an elite bullpen weapon for September and the playoffs, which dramatically reduces the need to acquire a reliever at the deadline. A playoff rotation of Verlander-Valdez-Javier-Garcia, with a bullpen of McCullers, Pressly, Montero, Neris, Stanek, Maton, Abreu, and one or two other arms (from Urquidy, Odorizzi, Martinez, etc.) sounds pretty damned solid.
Then pinch hitting him in a spot where Dusty himself might have been the only one in the building that didn’t realize he would be walked Or maybe he did and just wanted to see Castro get his chance
McCullers? Honestly we have a while before that situation comes up and with pitching, there could very well be an easy answer by then
