Wandy's still probably benefitting from the "hitters have never really seen him before" because he's almost like a totally different pitcher this year. Just much more confident, and thus he's throwing more strikes. His breaking ball has always been above average, but it means nothing if he can't spot his fastball. The fact that he's a lefty has every bit of much to do with his success as well... lefties with good control will always find a job in someone's rotation. He's not going to have a sub 3.00 ERA the entire year... but he could easily have a better season than Backe did last year, and with the way the Astros score runs for him, he's gonna rack up a ton of wins. Also, the theory that Redding had amazing stuff is starting to become more of a myth. He had an amazing AA stint at Round Rock... but for some reason, he got by with nothing other than a fastball and average curveball. Once he got to the big leagues, and found out that hitters can nail that 90-94 mph fastball if you don't locate it well, he started to struggle. Then, when he started to "get it" (2003), the team didn't score runs for him... and for some reason, he lost confidence in that. Also, he gave up a ton of unearned runs that year that didn't figure into his sub-4 era. In the end, Redding had an above average fastball, a mediocre-average breaking ball, and no mental capacity what-so-ever
was at the game tonite, and Berkman's homer was absolutely crushed. I know this is a soft part of the schedule, but man these guys look good. The Astros should actually be 15-5 if not for the implosion on monday night.
Funny thing was that the Grand Slam given up by Lidge to Nomar was Nomar's only hit of the series! He was 1-12 in the series.
Sure, this may be the easy part of our schedule, but if we take 2/3 all year against the "easy" teams and don't completely bomb against the contenders then we're in great shape. This is as good of a start as we could've asked for especially without Roger and Backe for the most part.
What else do you expect out of ESPN. They will show a bloop single by Robinson Kano before they show a monster HR by Lance. They will talk about Kerry Wood's rehab before they show a masterful outing by Roy O. They will show Lebron James miss a dunk before they show a 35 pt 15 rebs game by Yao Ming. God I am so sick of ESPN I stopped watching sportscenter. They should just rename that show to Lebron/Lakers/Yankees center. If you want to watch good highlights of Houston teams watch the southwest sports report on FSN,but I guess if you are out of the area you are stuck with sportscenter which kind of sucks.
I sure hope hope Wandy's herpes is treatable. Poor guy. Seriously though, he sure has been good so far this year. Brownie and JD were saying in the 3rd that he changed his approach over the offseason to stop trying to overpower guys with high fastballs to taking a more traditional southpaw route, keeping the ball down, etc. Sure is paying off, and nobody has a decent scouting report on him at this point. He may have a tougher time towards the end of the season, but he should be able to rack up a nice set of wins this year. Gross to see the bullpen give up more runs again, but you can't blame Wheeler too much when Zeke loaded the bases with nobody out. Wheeler's probably had the best start out of our pen this year (well, except Borkowski! ) Looks like Morgan might be going into a bit of a funk. Not his best series. Maybe he'll pick it back up on the road. Cincy=Our b****.
LOL, I had some friends from out of town watching the game with me tonight and first they're asking me what the hells on Wandy's lips. Then Zeke comes in. Oh, lord. They think our pitching staff has lepercy. Then I pointed out that they didn't even know what lepercy was. Problem solved.
