You don't have to be Billy Beane to value OBP. I'm one who enjoys poking fun at folks who take stats too far, but if you ignore OBP you've got your head in the sand and your dumbass up in the air for all to see. I hope that's not true of our GM. I hope.
That's the approach they're taking with the minor league system but they're just filling gaps at the major league level. We have weak power-corner hitters, not one projected 30+ hr hitter, so they're trying to somewhat address that in the middle infield positions.
Will be there tonight. Headed downtown in 15 minutes for some fish tacos and margaritas, then straight to the ballpark... smuggled vodka in tow, short of breath from the altitude at where our seats are at. And of course, I couldn't be happier. Few things are better than an evening at the ballpark. Happ better bring it. I had high hopes for him and besides one start, he's looked pretty bad.
Brett Wallace putting up some nice numbers.................... Wish he had some more pop, nice amount of doubles but some HRs would be nice.
How long before the starters start getting frustrated. Pitching well enough to get a win but having the offense wait until the 8th and 9th to start scoring runs. And that too little too late, because the bullpen already let it get out of reach.
Odd.... it always seems that their games are close. I was going off my shaky memory, thanks for correcting me.
the starters? they haven't set the world on fire, either. my question is, do you think we'll get some pitching before this offense inevitably returns to its craptacular norm? They're averaging 4.5 runs per game right now; that won't last.
Yea, a few HRs would be nice but his other numbers are fantastic so far. Looks like he has adjusted to the inside fastball that was getting him last year. I think we will end up seeing him hit 15-20 bombs this year, remember Bagwell in his first three full seasons only had 15, 18 and 20.
Myers and Norris have ERAs in the mid-to-upper 3s, but their peripherals (WHIP, BAA) are wretched. They are lucky to have the ERAs they have. The other three starters have ERAs of 5.40, 6.35, and 8.55 and have even worse peripherals.
Myers has had only one non-quality start, which we oddly enough won. We've had a lead in 4 of his 5 starts when he left the game (we were tied in the other) and his record is 1-0. He is picking up right where Clemens and Oswalt left off. Where the starters are failing most, is they aren't going deep enough into ball games.
Myers's peripherals, IIRC, are never that good. Dude throws too many balls out of the strike zone and always has too much traffic. That's another thing that made his run last year so unique.
Good points on Myers. He manages to "battle" really well on a consistent basis. I keep thinking it's luck, but given that it doesn't run out, it doesn't appear to be.
So you are saying that Happ last night did not give us a chance to win?? I won't throw Figueroa in the conversation because he is just bad (hopefully he's just taking up a rotation spot until they can bring Lyles up) But we have had several starts lately where starters have left games in the lead or at least left it close enough to win, but before the offense can get a chance to score a few runs the bullpen has given up 4-5 and all but put the game out of reach or allowed the other team to come back. I'm not arguing stats. I'm not worried about that even though they show that the numbers will eventually catch up to the pitcher. If a pitcher gives up 10 hits and a few walks but leaves with a 5-2 lead you should expect to win the game. The way this season has gone so far (and yes I know they are bad), in that situation we really should expect not to lose by more than 3. As of late, our starters, and surprisingly the offense, haven't been terrible in that they have given us more than a couple of games that could have been wins. Unfortunately the bullpen has turned more than a handful of those into losses. And as far as stats go, remember, besides Meyers, all the other starters had ERA's over 10 after the first start.
Sorry - I wasn't referring to yesterday's game in particular, and don't mean to suggest anything for individual games. I'm saying that for the season as a whole, he's sucked. And thus he doesn't have any reason to get frustrated when he doesn't get any run support for a particular game - every pitcher on every team has individual games like that. Over the course of the season, he'll have games here and there where he gives up 5 runs in 5 innings and gets a win - those kinds of things balance out. Overall, for someone with an ERA of 6.35 on what we knew would be a crappy team, a 1-4 record is probably about what you'd expect. The offense is going to lose many games, the starters are going to lose many games, and the bullpen is going to lose many games and they are all likely to fail when the other two components come through - that's the nature of a crappy team.
Yeah, there have been a couple of better starts lately that our bullpen has blown for us. And I will quickly agree that the bullpen so far is the weakest and worst part of a weak, bad team. Not going to argue with you on that.
No problem I just misunderstood what you were saying. I think my issue is more what msn said right above. Over the last few games we have had several good chances to win and the pen has blown them. Hey, but at least we all agree this team is crappy.
