I know we suck. I know we give up leads late. I know our starters are average-to-good-to-exceptional... but... the BULLPEN. At first I am like and then I . Can someone please explain to me what the heck is wrong? I know very little about pitching, but... how the heck do we lose so many leads and give up so many runs in the last few innings!?!? We need a STRONG closer... don't you all think? Are we SRSLY that little away from being a "good" team?
Of the guiys they were realistically counting on, Albers has been solid but he has recently been hurt. Qualls has had one bad game, but otherwise done well. Crain is scheduled to come off the DL later this month. If he is anything close to what he was last year before his injury, the bullpen will improve significantly. Of course a strong closer would help them win more games, and Crain may turn into that guy. I think the mistake they made was not naming a closer. I think it is such a mental thing, that knowing "you're the guy" and that is your role would help. Based on past performance and 'seniority' it should have been Albers or Qualls to start the year.
If the bullpen is the one and only thing dysfunctioning, i think I can handle that. Reeko hit the nail on the head. It's the day to day inconsistency from every part of the team thats so rough to watch. The problem is that practically every player is young and going through growing pains in their 1st-2nd full season. But some of those young guys are actually rising to the occasion. -Villar: who knew he could be this good? -Cosart: Four out of his seven starts were quality outings. Take out the Oakland fiasco and he's got a 2.54 era in his other 6 starts -Keuchel is again quietly solid with a 3.96 era -Tuve is putting up a solid season thus far. TBH I can somewhat see the makings of a team coming together in the next 2-3 years. Especially once we get some core star-level players we won't have to care so much what the Presley's and Krauss's of the world do.
I think Villar will come down to Earth by season's end. Cosart...I do think he'll be a guy that usually has a quality start with the occasional stinker.
My surprise with Altuve and Villar has been their defensive play. Villar was known as flashy but inconsistent. He's been damn near stellar in the field this season. Tuve was known as incompetent (ok - maybe a bit harsh), but he's been solid to plus this season (still lacks range). Sure, Villar can't keep up his recent pace with the bat, but he also started out ridiculously cold, so his avg (not ops) is probably fair. He will be good trade value when the time comes. It's actually scary to look through the team and see the talent that is being to coalesce yet there are still no tangible results. Maybe just maybe we don't have the right guy in charge. But I'd definitely agree that the off-season moves to shore up the bullpen have failed miserably.
The guy in charge may not be helping, but they are doing what is expected based on their individual performances. The team is dead last in the AL in AVG, OBP, and OPS. Not surprisingly, they are last in runs scored. Combine that with being last in ERA, and you have a recipe for last in the league. The manager can help at the margins, but the underlying season-long stats suggest this team is right where you'd expect.
I hope you mean trading Villar 2-3 years down the line when Correa is ready cuz if they trade one of the 4-5 functional pieces on this team in his first full season of team-control then I'll lose it. God I hope he amounts to more than that. That's like a 5th starter on the Cardinals. With his stuff and some Brent Strom tutelage I'm hoping he can get his strikeout rate into the 8's and drop his BB rate into the mid 3's by next year.
Well, FIX that one thing, name someone and make that pitcher the ACE closer and put that mentality... and I think everyone else will start following suit to know their place, like bobrek said. I don't believe that with little to no talent in the bullpen we can be an EXCELLENT team, but I am mainly focusing on losing the games in the last couple innings. For example, Cosart's good outing yesterday was severely wasted away with the unearned, inability to produce offensively, and just not being able to close the game with a solid pitching effort. If that reliever allows the closer to be as good as any other best closer in the league, we can at least take care of this situation in the last stretch. I did mean to touch on other offensive issues, but I didn't mean to go deeply into those.
I see him as a 4th or 5th starter long term. I don't see him ever getting to the mid 3's in BB/9. I do think he will keep the HR/9 low with getting his K/9 up a little.
That's exactly what I mean, but I'm hoping that it's closer to the 2 than the 3 (also considering Correa doesn't move to 3rd either by need or Villar performing over expectations)
Agreed completely - but the individual performances seem out of character even for our ragtag band of misfits. I can look up and down the lineup and see players that should be hitting 30-40 points higher than they are. Our bullpen (as the OP noted) has been atrocious and I'm continually confused with what we're doing. At a minimum it seems time to change your hitting coach and pitching coach. And before you say it, yes, I agree that those seem like trivial moves, but c'mon - in the immortal words of the beastie boys - something's got to give
Absolutely - it's pretty crazy how so many players seem to be underperforming the even mediocre things we expect from them. I have no issues with this. I have no idea if hitting and pitching coaches have an impact, but if they do, why not try something different? If they don't, who cares if you change them?
