Difficult to win games when half your isn't having by far their career-best seasons. Astros 2 games ahead .
7 straight quality starts ERA below 1.50 in those starts 4-1 record Oops I see someone just posted his streak.
Listening to postgame on 790.... I'm a Taylor Scott fan but he was *not* the Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Game CLEARLY, it was Pressly.
Give us one of those second half fever dream seasons like the Nats had in '19 and I will be completely satisfied with this dynasty. 100%.
Always interesting getting to see what changes a pitcher made. It wasn't just about him "figuring it out", there was a clear change in pitch usage. For Brown it was pretty simple, they stopped exposing the 4 seamer as much and replaced it with the cutter and sinker. They also seem to have dropped the slider almost entirely. Todays game not included in the chart.
What do you want him go apologize for? “Hey I’m sorry for the Astros signing a player I had no real input on and then defending that player in the media when he struggled and working with him in Florida…” The only area Bagwell has any real actual pull is over player development. He watches how the players are coached and trained in the minors and MMP and provides input. He also talks to the players and coaches and makes sure their needs are met and they aren’t missing anything. The level of hate that the best player in franchise history gets is just weird. He played his whole career with the Astros - he has lived his entire adult life in Houston. He was a successful hitting coach and he is a special assistant to the owner. He basically does what ownership asks him and had asked to be involved in player development.
Yeah they “redid” him and made him work on delivery repeatability. Good for him that he actually listened to possibly the best pitching coach duo in baseball. It took awhile but this is why Brown was asked about changing pitching coaches a month or more ago and he blurted out that “those two are really good. I’m not messing with that.” They have been working with Arrighetti a lot too.
I think Bags pulls on Crane's ear a little more than you're letting on, but agreed the straight up hate is weird. I personally just can't stand him on the broadcast. He's a sure jinx every time. Gets on there 4 whiskeys deep and starts **** talking about how the Stros are about to rock xyz pitcher, all of a sudden our 11 game winning streak is going up in smoke against the Tigers. I'll never forget that game. "Yordan is about to light this guy up" *2 pitches later - strikeout*
He gets the hate because he was put forth as the face of the front office while they didn’t have a GM, a time in which they made 2 horrible free agent signings. He has also made comments that seem to favor traditional thinking over progressive baseball analytics. I’m not saying that justifies the hate, but it’s certainly reasonable to peg him as a guy working against the Astros’ success. I think in the role you described, he’s great. But it’s hard to believe that he was limited to that role in the time between Click and Brown.
Or he was just fitting the definition of "figurehead" perfectly. Crane still had baseball front office guys that didn't get jettisoned with Click. People need to stop believing that the Astros operate in a ownership-GM only bubble. There are numerous front office guys contributing to helping Crane (Click prior) and now Brown, and its not hard to believe they helped carry forth the visions that were allegedly spearheaded by Click (both the Abreu signing and the Montero extension).
