In all seriousness, I wonder if they're considering kicking the tires on Roy O. Would be the perfect "Bedard-esque" signing for this year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Qualls addition by <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Astros&src=hash">#Astros</a> is interesting. Swing & miss rate jumped from 17% in '12 to 24% in '13. Chase rate on slider from 29 to 45%</p>— jasoncollette (@jasoncollette) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasoncollette/statuses/409520221376884736">December 8, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I like Qualls, I expected him to be older than 35. Im ok with this deal. Better than signing guys like Ankiel and Pena
interesting to see the bashing of Lunhow and moves so far. Our team sucks and isn't a destination - and even with that, he's brought in some decent talent that at worst is an upgrade over last year. I see no Kaz Matsui signings here. No $100M fat cowboy signings. Everything is short term and moderate improvements as we look to field the team of the future through the farm. I'm in as long as talent evaluation holds steady.
Another pitcher in his 30s coming off the best year of his career. Also another pitcher that has shown a noticeable difference between AL & NL stats (though that could be just a sample size effect for both).
To me this was an interesting stat. Qualls always had a pretty wicked fastball with movement and a decent slider but never had a put-out pitch. Him coming off a good year maybe says that a pitching coach has corrected it a little bit. Hopefully he continues to get batters to chase.
