Oh snap.... Gomez sighting!! Wasn't clutch or particular great since the game isn't close, but baby steps
The gist of the conversation was qualified with something along the lines of "...if he can get going."
Feldman gets rocked in every 1st inning as a starter but yet as relief he has been pretty damn good. Go figure!
Bullpen guys know their time (IP) is short? Starters are thinking 5 innings, at the very minimum. Glad Feldman is contributing and the team is picking it up on whole. We b-slapped Kluger tonight!!!!! :grin::grin::grin:
Shame we dug such a hole... <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> have won 5 of 7 and are 7-5 in their last 12 games. Team is plus-18 in run differential during the 12-game stretch.</p>— Angel Verdejo Jr. (@ahverdejo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ahverdejo/status/729877543529021440">May 10, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Happens sometimes. And sometimes, you recover. I bring you "Exhibit A"! http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2001-schedule-scores.shtml
playing good baseball. If not for 6 giles appearances, an altuve rare multi error game and the halo of the baseball gods blinding springer, we'd be at least 4 games over .500.
Too bad we couldn't have gotten one of those 2 games we blew late against Seattle. We would be on a full blown tear. One of the reason's for the success is that we are getting some hits with RISP. I was never too concerned with that, because that number was always gonna equalize at some point. Despite many freaking out about it, I knew we weren't gonna hit sub .200 all year, just had to be a little patient. The more important development is that for the moment, the rotation appears to have stabilized. A full trip through the rotation without a bomb. Since his first start, Fiers has posted a 4.04 ERA, which is about the ballpark I expected him in. Effective, not dominant. With McCullers return impending, Fiers, Devenski and Fister are in a battle.
Starting pitching has been better. Hitting has been more timely We've actually gotten some decent production from the end of the lineup (having Castro getting on base and allowing Altuve more RBI chances has been great for the offense)
Its quite possible they could do a 6-man rotation, especially if McCullers needs extreme baby-gloves in order to limit his innings, ensure full recovery, when he comes back. Feldman has actually been *better* coming out of the pen.... he's aggressive, throws strikes, and has been pretty efficient thus far. Of course, they've yet to really use him in a critical situation. Or if Fister keeps it up, move Devenski to become the 7th inning guy until Giles is fully right. Devenski-Harris-Gregerson (with Neshek/Sipp as the ROOGY and LOOGY) wouldn't be too bad.
Giles really only blew one game this season that was looking to be a for-sure win (Oakland game). The Seattle game was truly a team effort. They are who they are... when they pitch well and hit with RISP, this bullpen is good enough to get saves. When they don't do that, its a sub .500 team. They typically do win/lose as a team. I wish it was just one or two guys as the main problems... but it isn't.
Fewer mental mistakes (on bases/in field) It's amazing that when you play better baseball, you win more games. I hope they keep trying this strategy.
I think they need to do something to keep all 6 guys in the rotation for a little while. 6 man rotation, or maybe put Devenski and McCullers in a tandem for a little while. Devenski is the interesting one. His stuff plays up in the pen being a 2 pitch pitcher for the most part. But he also has the potential to be a very good starter, something Fiers and Fister don't IMO. Fiers is a safer bet to be solid, but his ceiling is pretty low. Fister isn't a safe bet to be solid, but he's been OK so far. Neither one of them will help us win many games if they aren't starting. I just want to see Devenski do something to pitch himself out of the rotation first, even if I think he can become a very valuable bullpen arm. Fister feels like he is pitching on a house of cards right now with that 85 MPH fastball.
