All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PBP, that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on AT&T Sports SW unless otherwise noted. 5-28 Dinelson Lamset (R) vs. Framber Valdez (L) 7:10 5-29 Yu Darvish (R) vs. Jake Odorizzi (R) 3:10 MLBN (out-of-market only) 5-30 Blake Snell (L) vs. Zack Greinke (R) 1:10
Lamset's coming back from a UCL strain last September and their pen got taxed by the Brewers, so it's going to be a committee game (they had been piggybacking Lamset and Ryan Weathers but just went to a 6-man rotation, at least for the next few times through) and it would be wonderful to make them go through 6 or so guys. Their bullpen is stupid good, btw, you could randomly pick any of their guys and he'd be the best or 2nd best pitcher in the Stros pen. They'll most likely need ~4 innings from the pen on Sunday as well. From the SD paper: A bullpen that was rested is not anymore. Heading into a game Friday that will be started by Dinelson Lamet, whose season high is 41 pitches, the Padres pulled starter Ryan Weathers after four innings Tuesday and then used both of their long relievers. “One moment you feel pretty good and all of a sudden you have two extra-inning games, and you don’t feel so good,” Tingler said. “We’ll wait and see where we’re at. … We’ll go game to game and get through tomorrow and then the rotation turns back over. We may have to make a move. We may have to get an arm or so in.”
You could literally pick any random pitcher on most AAA teams and they are automatically better than 75% of the Astros bullpen. The Padres have a nasty staff though. Should be a fun series.
Framber's first MLB action in a long while. Great to have him back obviously, but you can never be very confident in this situation. Javier should be available tonight, but I don't think they want him to have long outings right now. Plus they probably want him for late and winnable. I imagine if Framber has to bow out early it will be Bielak's game. If this does come down to a battle of the bullpens, even with Javier we're at a slight disadvantage...to put it mildly.
Pitcher usage (4 days) coming into the series: 05/24/21 OFF 05/25/21 Los Angeles D H Greinke 6.0 Smith 0.2 Paredes 1.0 Emanuel 0.0 Scrubb 1.1 05/26/21 Los Angeles D H Garcia 6.0 Raley 1.0 Stanek 1.0 Abreu 1.0 05/27/21 OFF
I wouldn’t expect any long outings by Javier, part of moving him to the pen is we aren’t even to June yet and he has matched last years load. Seeing that he likely won’t go over 100 innings by plan, I wouldn’t expect more than an inning here and there from him right now WWW this weekend
Since I haven't been watching the games, just the boxscores, is there any explanation for the surge in BB?
This is the first I’ve heard about moving Javier to the pen , but I like it and agree he can be flat out dominant in a relief role where his fastball ticks up a notch framber Grienke Lance Urquidy is a good playoff rotation . Let’s hope Odorizzi can eat some innings during the regular season . Now , apparently lance is out . I like Garcia .
An inning in relief with little rest is much more stressful than an inning starting. If they want to reduce stress, spaced out, but longer outings would likely be less stressful. If the Astros are looking to win as many games in the short term as possible, I expect he'll be used in 1-inning appearances. After this weekend, I think Astros will use him in 1-inning appearances mostly (for better or worse) based on the way Dusty has treated most relievers. I'd prefer to have him pitch about 3 innings on 3-5 days rest to reduce stress on his arm, and to keep him available as a potential starter if someone gets hurt (granted, I assume what I prefer will not be done in this instance).
This series makes me uncomfortable, not gonna lie. I miss the days of having 100% confidence in our guys.
It's been a long time since I've gone into any series with confidence. Either the opposition seems strong or I fear we play will play down to weak competition.
I was looking at our schedule today and noticed a few things... 1. We're currently in the midst of our toughest stretch of the season. Just finished 2 against the Dodgers, have three upcoming at home vs. Padres, 4 at home vs. Red Sox, three on the road vs. Jays and then 3 on the road vs. Red Sox. 2. Beginning June 11, and going up until the All-Star Break, we play 15 games against the Twins, Rangers, Orioles and Tigers, all of whom are currently significantly below .500. This includes a 10-game stretch against the Orioles (away), Tigers (away) and then Orioles (at home). We then come out of that stretch to play 4 games at the Indians (a team who's run differential show's that they probably aren't as good as their record), 3 at home vs. the A's (similar to the Indians in regard to outperforming run differential) and 3 at home vs. the Yankees to enter the All-Star break. We also have 4 home games vs. the White Sox mixed in there as well in mid-June. So June looks like a relatively favorable month with a nice solid 10-game stretch against some bottom tier teams. 3. Looking ahead even further, the month of August looks to be very favorable (based on current standings). In August we play (in order) the Dodgers, Twins, Rockies, Angels, Royals, Mariners, Royals, Rangers and Mariners. Other than the 2-game series at the Dodgers to begin the month, none of the remaining series are against probable playoff teams. August could be a really prime month for us to put some distance between us and the A's. All of this to say... I really think that as long as we stay afloat for the next couple of weeks, given how relatively friendly our schedule looks from mid-June to the All-Star Break, I think we'll be just fine moving forward. And then we have a real possibility of using the very friendly August slate to put some distance between us and the rest of the division.
I'm thinking Astros win 1/3. Hoping Framber looks good, but I suspect he'll be capped around 70 pitches. Asking our bullpen to hold on for 5 innings is praying for a miracle. Odorizzi right now gives me zero confidence, not to mention he'll also be capped around 70 pitches. Yu has been exceptional this season, so I'm picking game 2 to be a lock for the Padres. Game 3 is our best bet for a victory. We need good Greinke, and Snell has been shaky this season.
We bout to sweep these clowns. I’d love for the 2021 Astros to make these Padres pay for the 1998 Kevin Brown- led squad that took out our Astros. My God I thought we were gunna win it all that year...
Framber fell apart around the 40 pitch mark in Sugar Land during his final rehab start. Lost his mechanics and walked 2 guys in a row on 4 pitches. He's up early because of McCullers. He even stated his curveball isn't back yet. My guess for his line tonight.... 4IP, 5ER, 2HR, 3BB, 3K Odorizzi threw 77 pitches his final rehab. I expect him to be able to throw 90ish pitches depending on how much traffic/stress he has during his outing. I expect us to lose 2 of 3.
Man it would be nice with Yordan and Brantley out of the lineup if we could swap out our .227 wOBA catcher for our .384 wOBA catcher.
