Hader likely won’t be back until early May. A normal progression from throwing bullpens would to then face live BP, then go out on a rehab assignment. In Hader’s case I expect them to take it slow. Maybe live BP next week, rehab assignment over the last 2 weeks of April then back with the Astros first week of May. Barring…setbacks.
Could the Astros deploy a consistent piggyback rotation? Brown would be his own guy. Blubaugh paired with Burrows. Weiss paired with Lance. Teng or Bolton paired with Javier and Imai. Leaves them with a bullpen of Abreu, King, Okert, and Munoz (who Hader would replace). Won’t work while they need a 6 man rotation but could be very effective if they stuck with a 5 man.
I have some concerns that Javier might only be able to pitch 3 IPs before his velo becomes BP ... essentially making Javier an opener.
it only works if you let the guy piggybacking get themselves out of trouble like the starters. For guys like Javier who you know won’t give you 6 innings, it definitely makes sense to have someone like Blubaugh or Blanco consistently take over.
This team looks good especially of Loperfido continues to look like a real major league player. Meyers is back to who we knew he is with a bat. If he continues to suck with a bat, I say bring Cole up when he’s healthy. At least he’s good for an occasional home run, some walks, and havoc on the basepaths. Can Cole swing a bat while he’s rehabbing a broken toe? Make him hit fastballs non stop until he can consistently hit them.
Yes. Yes they could. I've wanted them to do this so much. 9 "starters" 3 leverage relievers and 1 eat **** dude. That eat **** dude can get sent down to sugar land after he eats a big plate and another dude can come in and be the eat **** guy and they can just alternate. Most days you'd never use the bullpen. It would work imo.
I just think that if you know a starter is extremely likely to go less than 5 ip, you have to reserve another pitcher who can throw 4+ innings to pair him with. It also allows a manager to play a hot hand if there are >6 starters with similar value vying for spots. Obviously the more Hunter Brown types you can get, the more traditionally you can manage your staff. But otherwise it just makes too much sense to have piggyback guys lined up fans managed accordingly. What I would like: Brown and Imai are traditional 6+ ip SP. McCullers, Javier, and Burrows are openers. Weiss, Bolton, and Blubaugh are piggybackers; Weiss would be the 6th SP when the schedule dictates it to accommodate Imai, with Burrows being asked to go 5+ in those stretches. Hader, King, Abreu, and Okert are the leverage RP who pitch the 7-8-9 when needed. Teng is the optionable extra arm for when things go sideways or they need extra innings.
Astros off to a surprising start. Did the new hitting coaches make a difference? Is it "health?" Better lineup? Walker working on his game? Whatever it is, keep it going. Too early to "get excited," but it is encouraging.
I like this, but most likely Arrighetti will become part of a 6 man rotation and Bolton will be in Sugarland.
You can't plan it out like that. Baseball happens. What happens when Brown has a tough outing because of 2 errors, he has 54 pitchers through 1.2 innings, and Joe has to pull him? Or... like last year the trainers walked out to the mound so often they created a dirt path in the grass from the dugout to the mound. Just look at the first turn through the rotation. Who had 4.2 innings for Brown and 7 for McCullers in their first starts? You would have to find a spot for one of your piggyback guys to get innings since McCullers went deep in the game. Baseball be crazy
Yeah, all the theory goes out the window as soon as the first pitch is thrown. Its similar to all the time spent trying to find ideal ways to rest players/etc - reality hits and it all falls apart. Flexibility has value and piggybacking starters throws all that out the window when anything doesn't go according to plan and you end up with a giant mess.
You just have to do a couple things: 1) they have to go at least 80 or 90 pitches each/ no matter the results. Have to have courage of convictions and let it play. If you are up 1 in the 8th inning and starter 2 is at 60 pitches it’s still his game. If you are down 5 in the second starter 1 has to get to 80 or 90 and starter to has to get it to the house. on a rare situation where they can’t get close bc your getting ass****ed the eat **** guy comes in and does his thing. I like it better with two starters and 6 tandems for the other 3 games. That’s 5 guys in the bullpen. 4 guys that handle brown and Imai’s starts and the said eat **** guy. You could actually just say all the leverage guys are pitching twice a week, period, full stop, 1 inning a game max, circumstances be damned and then that gets to about 150 innings for brown and Imai and about 60 innings for your leverage guys. Which is actually less of a workload and more reliable. you’d need one guy in sugar land ready to go 1 or 2 times a month when you have 18 games in a row with no off day and you want brown and Imai to have 5 days rest instead of 5. But you just split brown and Imai, always give them the off day off and the ramen dudes at 80 or 90 pitches pitch every 5th day to make that happen. there are going to be sometimes where 90 pitches is good for 6 innings and the other guy has a light day- you should flip flop them the next time out. Keep them both more fresh. With how many mlb quality pitchers in sugar land and lack of a true true two this would be really good.
