Was mentally preparing for Astros to botch it late but they did't show up at all. Altuve said yesterday they like where they are in standings. It looks like it. Touched in head Joe lightness TM by Joe works rebounding from losses but does't seem to prepare guys mentally after big wins keeping feet on the ground. .
Speaking of Dusty, have you read his autobiography? How about you @DaDakota? I would certainly recommend it if you needed your Dusty fix. Leaving Dusty out of this THIS topic, which is Arrighetti's regression, it's not a catcher calling issue. Pro players have too much on the line not to say something if they have a problem with what's being called. Having said that you can find plenty of breakdowns on why this is a Spencer issue.
HR to fly ball rates, and BABIP always level out to a certain threshold eventually, despite some fans wanting to believe it's just "great pitching". Arrighetti was getting lucky, we knew this and the Astros knew this. Fans wanna choose to ignore this "nerd s**t" if it tells them something they don't like. He had a .212 BABIP and only gave up 2 HR's in 77 flyballs in his first 8 starts. He's not pitching worse, he's not giving up harder contact and Diaz isn't calling worse pitches, his numbers are just correcting to what they were always supposed to be. It probably is a more sustainable mix for success long term because his BABIP and HR/FB rate won't be as terrible as it has been the last 4 games. If you strike out a lot of batters and don't walk too many and keep the ball somewhat out of the air, you are gonna have success. Past good luck is no guarantee of future terrible luck...but it often seems to happen that way, and he's in a run of bad luck now.
Human brains hate randomness with a passion - we are hard wired to seek patterns and causal effects. It’s why we see faces in the moon and backward-rationalize capricious impulsiveness as 4D Chess.
Best Sunday lineup in weeks. Altuve gets break from the field. Astros can still have a good series with a win, preferably stat-pad... but the loss yesterday wasted a chance to really make up ground -- turning a previous series L into a Win. Get the dub.
Trammell sure isn’t getting to play very much. To me he and Loperfido should play every day against RHP.
Are there any positive stats to Walker batting in the 3 hole? I think he’s mashed better in the 5 hole. Hey maybe Espada is a genius, what do I know.
The wild part about Arrighetti is his regression is coming without walks. Posters main gripe was the control. Now he's gone 0,1,4,1 in his last 4 games but with runners crossing the plate. He's defying the "walks are terrible" narrative. BTW... this is THREE straight games with 0 walks by the staff. Astros defied the walks narrative yesterday to the tee giving up 8.