As things are, you are right. But at some point, I thought we could move Sanchez, Peacock and Miley to the bullpen come playoff time. If one were to break down this teams advantages and weaknesses going into the playoffs, the bullpen has become a definite weakness. It leads one to speculate that in the playoffs, every game will be about getting a big enough lead early and trying to hold on late. Reliever ERA by month: March/April 2.91 May 2.86 June 5.42 July 4.08 August 3.53 September 4.86 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.a...rtdate=2019-01-01&enddate=2019-12-31&sort=4,a While our season reliever ERA is 4th in the league at 3.86, that number is more reflective of how things were early in the season, not where things are now.
If I knew that, I'd be finding a bookie. Point being, prior to last night, the narrative was how much better the bullpen had been pitching so far this month.
Verlander and Cole need to go 8 innings Greinke needs to go 7. 1. We need Brad Peacock back 2. We need Ryan Pressley back 3. Bryan Abreu needs to be a breath of fresh air for the bullpen. 4. Wade Miley and the Astros need to figure it out and fast. Miley needs to at least give us 5 innings a start. If he can't do that....he can't be on the playoff roster. As of now, we can count Home Field out with 2 of our 5 starting spots MIA.
Fair enough. Edit: My counter point, regarding tonight, is that a bullpen day today is terrible timing and bad planning. Bad planning in that Miley has been shaky lately and planning a bullpen day after his start was the worst possible choice.
The other 'positive' is that with the probable exception of Devenski, none of last night's relievers will be on the playoff roster, barring injury.
There is that. Despite that, if you break down our team to offense, defense, starting pitching, relief pitching, I still maintain I am most concerned about our relief pitching come playoff time.
Last year the Astros carried 11 pitchers in the ALDS. I expect them to go with: Verlander Cole Greinke Miley Osuna Pressly Harris James Smith Rondon Peacock (if healthy)/ Abreu/Devenski With the 2 days off in the ALDS you can get away with that even with Miley being a concern.
The other option was to have started Valdez or Urguidy or to have adjusted their rotation a couple of weeks ago prior to Miley exhibiting his recent struggles.
Two components of the problem equation discussed there: batters adjusting to Miley's pitching AND them hitting it against the "Astros' aggressive shifts." No further discussion of the second half of the equation. A few of us in here have been discussing it, but most everyone is putting the entire onus on Miley. I don't think any of us criticizing the shifts are giving Miley a total pass, nor are we saying all shifts are bad. However, as I said yesterday, he'd have been out of the first inning with, I believe, no runs scored if the Astros played a more traditional defense last night. And if Bregman makes an easy play to his left. Buck was even more four-letter-word adamant about this. I wanted to reserve judgment since I didn't see the last game where he didn't even get an out, but the article points out that even back to the White Sox game, they were beating the shift on him. Now, that there's an established pattern, maybe try playing a more standard infield for your soft-contact ground ball pitcher. Watching weak groundballs straight to the normal second base position roll into the outfield feels even more helpless than watching an empty net goal in hockey. Last game Miley said he felt great and better than he's felt in a while. He's not injured. His pitches last night didn't, to me, look bad. They stayed on the corners of the strike zone. The strike zone was called too small, so he didn't get some calls that would have helped his position in the at-bat. However, the A's just put the ball in play. If a pitcher without overwhelming speed or spin dots the ball on the outside corner of the plate, a decent batter will take that opposite field. That's what the A's did. The easiest adjustment the team can make is try a different, more standard defense in this case as opposed to simply expecting Miley to make some sorts of fine adjustments to his specific style and delivery, which might throw him completely off the rails. Tie Miley and Greinke to the hip, so they can work it out, AND also consider not leaving the entire right side of the infield wide open.
Didn’t watch the game last night or read the thread but I imagine a lot of people are riled up. Some times you just get your dick knocked in the dirt.
I don’t think it’s the losing, it’s what’s going on with Miley? We need him fixed for the playoffs. Astros need to work with him, change defensive strat in the field.... something. It’s like the last 4 starts he is telegraphing exactly what he is going to do and the Astros have yet to make an adjustment.
We're going to need a "home run slugging percentage" stat soon in baseball. Of the 6 HRs the A's hit last night, only one of them was a solo shot. Of the 3 HRs the Astros hit last night, all 3 were solo shots. The A's HRSLG dwarfed the Astros'.
When the Astros shift the last two starts for Miley single single single single homer single When Astros don't shift last two starts for Miley single single single single line out to Springer double (missed homer by about a foot) double Since 8/14, batters have done the following off Miley xwOBA on contact when not shifting, 0.523 That's Mike Trout/Alvarez level production on a very good day wOBA on contact when not shifting, 0.575 That's Mike Trout/Alvarez level production on a very good day xwoBA on contact when shifting, 0.474 That's Mike Trout/Alvarez level production on a good day woBA on contact when shifting, 0.544 That's Mike Trout/Alvarez level production on a very good day So it seems that batters have been effectively going opposite field against Miley as their wOBA is signficantly higher than their xwOBA when shifting. However, they are sacrificing power by doing this (this can be seen by xwOBA being lower when shifting). Trying to tee off on Miley when Astros aren't shifting has still produced better results. Though the moral of the story, whether the Astros shift or not, when Astros put Miley in to pitch, it is like every batter he faces is Mike Trout.