the risk is mentality is a huge thing. Osuna by no means has had a bad year, he has (at best) had bad stretches. Do I feel super confident with him in the playoffs? no, but that is bc of recency bias and he did just come off blowing a lead. If we remove him as closer now, we may never be able to use him as a closer. I think Astros being in so many blowouts has also contributed to him being out of sync. I think the best course of action is to stay the path and hope that Osuna pitches like he has for atleast 70 percent of the season
I wouldn't even consider changing Pressly's role, especially now after coming off knee injury. Let him acclimate himself back to his role prior to the injury and if worse comes to worse we can have Joe Biagini make some spot closes for us. We just tried to turn McHugh back into a rotation guy out of necessity (loses of Morton and Kuechel) and look how that turned out. This year we have to keep things as is for the guys that are performing optimally in their respective roles. If a guy like Biagini emerges as a viable option to close over Osuna, maybe you consider that from time to time. But we can't overreact to a few blown saves over a 162 game season. The playoffs is a different monster and something that we should focus on once we start heading into early to mid September, not early August.
I'm not advocating removing Osuna from closing based on "on the field" results. My only comments in this thread is about pressure in the 9th being overrated. If mentality was a big thing, Giles shouldn't be having success. The only thing special about 9th is the leverage and hitters not chasing. If you have a guy that only gets used in high leverage that can throw pitches in the zone without getting spanked in the 8th, you probably have a guy that can close.
While focusing on the closer has merit, 5 of our 13 pitchers in the last week have been bad, including JV, Greinke, Smith, Devo in addition to Osuna. A team ERA of 4.23 over this span. https://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats.../hou/split/61/table/pitching/sort/ERA/dir/asc Just shows how good the offense has been to only have lost 1 game over that time.
i dont see a sure thing lock down closer nowadays, even the best ones will have a few bad games or blown saves. You can say we need to replace Osuna all you want, but unless you have a legit replacement, it's useless.
Rookie John Hudek made the All-Star game in 1994, with a riding fastball that had unhittable movement. After the All-Star game, it seemed to all fall apart, and he didn't really recover in post-strike 1995.
funny, I think giles is the perfect example of my point of how fragile mentality can be. When he started losing it, he really lost it and was no longer an effective closer. The same happened with Lidge after (most likely) 1 pitch to pujols. Both of them are also great examples of what happens to closers once the confidence is restored as they both became dominant once again.
Agree with this. Outside of Pressly we don't really have any other options. What we do have in our favor is a sizable lead (IE- time), one of the best pitching coaches in the industry, and a "closer" with solid stuff. Our best bet is to try to get him back in form before the playoffs and if that doesn't happen then we have to go a different route a la Giles.
What is it with posters who rarely post come out of the woodwork when something negative happens? Closers blow saves sometimes. We are a spoiled bunch.
I think they should just demote everyone in the bullpen who has options. Yall figure out who to call up.
Yeah they tried to start the season with a platoon at closer with him and Mitch Wiliams. Both were awful. Had to ditch both of them by May. AND WE ALL KNEW THAT EXACT THING WOULD HAPPEN.
And if Osuna can't figure it out and is unreliable come playoff time, you consider other options like we did with Giles in 2017. I believe Osuna will figure it out. He doesn't come across nearly as fragile as Giles appeared to be in 2017. I think Osuna has probably been tinkering with some things and it looks like he gets a little too cute on the mound with quick pitches and other things that change up his delivery. His stuff is so damned good that he really doesn't need to do any of that, if he can just keep a consistent delivery and locate his pitches I think he will be fine.
Pitch selection and sequence, more changeups https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...ider-Roberto-Osuna-changes-it-up-14295736.php
