Got to wonder if Maldy is our catcher if we don't win it all with JV at least having 1 great game in the World Series that year.
Well he has 3 he consistently uses now and used up to 5 in minors 2022 Pitch Distribution: 4-Seam Fastball (45%) Slider (44%) Curveball (10.3%) Sinker (0.4%) Changeup (0.3%) Seems he dropped his change up and sinker and lowered his curve usage in order to maximize his relief role not because those weren’t effective pitches
He doesn’t need a third pitch. I don’t know if he will end up eventually in the rotation or if he would even succeed in the rotation if they decide to try him out. What I do know is progressive teams have moved away the necessity to have a good third pitch to be a starter.
If you think you can 150 awesome innings instead of 65 it would be foolish to not even consider it. Not sure I agree with it though.
I think of Abreu as very similar to McCullers. Elite stuff, but tough choice between having an elite elite reliever or a really good SP who usually only lasts 5 innings. For this roster I think he’s more valuable in the pen. But if they plan to convert him back to starting then the Montero signing makes even more sense.
At least McCullers had success in the minors as a starter. Javier also had success in the minors as a starter. Hell, Lidge had success in the minors as a starter. Elite stuff can no longer be elite when somebody isn't at max effort because they have to try and throw multiple innings.
You develop a 3rd pitch by deploying that third pitch in game situations. If your FB and slider is as good as his you might need to throw that other pitch 8 or 12 times a game is all. It doesn’t have to be great, just enough to keep them off his primary stuff. Learning to throw a change up isn’t exactly the most complicated thing in the world. Or a cutter.
Please just leave Abreu alone in the bullpen. I remember what happened to Neftalí Feliz and Jobs Chamberlain when they started moving into the rotation and back out again and it derailed their entire promising careers.
They should definitely get more than 60 innings out of Abreu next year if he stays healthy. 70+ IP for sure.
Obviously a concern but I can't remember another time where the stakes of doing something like that were so low. The rotation: already loaded. The bullpen: would still be loaded. Status quo is perfectly fine, so is experimenting.
He doesn't throw his curve much to RHBs. He throws it ~18% of the time against LHBs. The third pitch is usually needed to handle opposite handed batters. Abreu's curve dominates LHBs. The only questions of whether Abreu can be a starter is endurance and whether he can stay consistent. If his slider shape disappears again, he won't be a good reliever or starter. On his endurance, he seems to handle 2 innings fine with a day of rest. My guess is that if Abreu goes back to starting, it means guys are hurt (though Astros might stretch him out in spring in case of an early season injury). Provided Abreu keeps his slider shape, I'd rather try Abreu for 4 innings as starter than go with someone like Bielak for 5 innings. I'd expect Abreu would be short on innings like Javier was in 2020 and 2021. There are not many closers that were as dominant as Abreu was this past year.
How are these even relevant? Abreu has appeared in 97 regular season major league games and hasn't started a single one. In their first three years: Javier 78 games 44 starts Framber 45 games 23 starts Garcia 63 games 57 starts They couldn't possibly be any different than what Abreu has established himself as. Abreu would be most like Neftalí Feliz. A dominant, established reliever who years ago started in the minors. These other three guys were all brought in as starters and meant to be starters and perhaps got in some relief work through necessity to bring them along.
That's why he doesn't have a front office job anymore and writes for a living. Some analytics guys see numbers but really don't know what contributes to those numbers.
I thought his third pitch was a really really high fastball thrown at roughly 1 mph faster than his normal fastball.
I honestly will trust the pitching staff since they obviously know what the hell they are doing. My only concern with making any reliever a starter is mentality and health. McHugh and McCullers have a difficult time staying healthy an entire season as starters.
Oswalt technically had a 5 pitch repertoire but he mostly only threw two pitches, fastball and curve, had a great career throwing it too.
