And THAT right there is the problem... burn your closer in a non-save situation, hell even allow him to invite the opponent to score more runs.... smh He should be used in SAVE-ONLY, shut-it-down, situations. There's no reason for him to "appear" more than necessary... especially 40% more than necessary. I could understand 9-of-48 in non-save, but whether its Jim, Dana, Josh, Joe or a combination of those 4, the onus & burden is on them for "strategically pitching" Josh Hader. F that fine print of your contracts. You want saves or you want innings?
Also 10 games with 0 days of rest... which I am actually fine with just not in non-save situations. I am just not a fan of using him in tie games in the 9th knowing he will also pitch the 10th. But again, I am one of the few here that still defends Hinch for using Will Harris after Greinke in the World Series (I would have have just stuck with Greinke in all honesty).
No closer in baseball is treated that way, so you're expecting them to pay their $18MM closer to pitch like 30 innings a year. Again, 44 of his 48 games were close games and the other 4 were 4-run games where he hadn't pitched in several days. He's playing the same role any elite closer does - the Astros just play an inordinate number of close games. You'd be complaining a bunch if the Astros were repeatedly losing extra inning games because they refused to play him in a tie game and lost playing some mediocre pitcher instead.
Spring Training darling... let's see if he can get hot. With a WHIP of almost 2 in the minors...not super optimistic.
Of notable closers... Clase: 18 of 48 (37.5%) appearances in non-save situations before his issues... 62 of 201 (30.8%) low-leverage batters faced. So very close to Hader's usage. Estevez: 18 of 56 (32.1%) non-save, 62 of 229 (27.1%) low-leverage Suarez: 16 of 54 (29.6%) non-save, 26 of 206 (17.5%) low leverage. Munoz: 14 of 49 (28.6%) non-save, 23 of 192 (12.0%) low leverage. Megill: 13 of 46 (28.3%) non-save, 34 of 173 (19.7%) low leverage. ------ Hader: 19 of 48 (39.6%) non-save, 52 of 206 (25.2%) low leverage. So Espada misused Hader....
"Late and Close" - Hader has faced 160 of his 206 batters faced. He also has faced 56 batters with a 3 run differential or greater. I know 3 run games are for stat padding saves.... but it is really unnecessary unless there is an implosion in the works.
This team needs fresh arms and has to just keep rolling dice with arm talent and hope one or two come up 7 or 11. I wish they could/would just ditch all the AAAA guys and try guys like Ullola or Santa. Blubaugh works too. Get high ceiling, plus stuff guys working with Miller and Murphy and see if they can be a spark. They can't be worse than recycling Neris, Tayler Scott, Contreras, Hernandez, etc.
They know the Astros are playing the old Ali rope-a-dope with their opponents. Lose a few games by 10+ runs, don't score, and just when everyone thinks you're dead in the water...
Maybe we're trying to go for the 6th seed where we don't get any home field "advantage" since....you know...we've lost 6 playoff home games in a row...
