Time for Monday Morning QB Session. After the 1st two games, what would you do differently: 1. Beltran needs to move down in the order. I struggle with this, because don't fix what ain't broken. BUT...this guy is hitting with such power...and the bottom of our order is so weak...that I think we're wasting his power at the top of the lineup. I'd have him batting 4th, I think...I'd be tempted to move Bagwell up to the 2 spot. But I'd be open to suggestion on who should replace carlos in the 2-hole. 2. Unless they're just getting shelled or they're pitching on 3 days rest, your starter is going at least 6. if i have to. in the 7th and 8th i'm working Wheeler...in the 9th i'm working Lidge.
Max .....you can call Munro shutting down the Cards for 4 1/2 innings a minor miracle. Expecting him to go at least 6 and continue to shut down the Cards was just not realistic. the funny thing is, as soon as Wheeler gets touched up in this series, we are left with no one that the fans will be comfortable brining in we aren't going to win this series with just Wheeler and Lidge pitching in relief every game....either Qualls or Gallo or Harville or Micelis is going to have to step up and do their job my best is that Qualls rebounds and pitches moderately effective the rest of the searies to help fill this gap
I'd run the starters as long as possible then go straight to lidge (especially if the meat of their lineup is due up). I wouldn't let them close the gap on our middle relief. Then I'd take my chances at the end. At some point you have to stop the onslaught in the middle innings and if that means the starter and our closer have to pitch longer then so be it. The other guys will hopefully only have to go one inning at the end.
I would like to see Chavez catch for Clemens and Oswalt. Let Brad catch the youngsters. If they pretty much call thier own games then why not? Look at what Chavez did against Atlanta. I know Morgan Ensberg is doing good but I want to see more Mike Lamb. Hell, if we get him a few swings in one game it might do us some good. I like the fact that he is a lefty. Astros all the way baby in 2004
The #1 change I would make is let the starters have a chance! All 4 losses in the postseason have been by the bullpen. Garner doesn't give his starters a chance. For all those that say Munro shutting down the Cards for 6 is unrealistic, it's also unrealistic for our middle relief to shut them down at all. Munro shut them down for 4 innings - that's 4 more innings than our middle relief has done. We've given the middle relief many chances and they keep failing. It's time to just go ahead and stick with the starter and give him a chance to see what he can do.
Can Everett play or is he just hanging around to pinch run? If he can go sit Viz down! We need Everett's glove and occasional pop. For better or worse leave the starters in longer. Last night I would have left Wheeler in to try to bunt the runner over instead of pinch hitting for him. If Palmiero had gotten a hit the game may have turned out different but I would have either stayed with Wheeler or gone to Lidge in the 8th.
LEAVE THE STARTERS IN... OR BURN IN HELL, GARNER! Let's look at fun stats: Postseason ERA (so far): Starters Oswalt: 2.38 ERA Clemens: 3.00 ERA Backe: 5.06 ERA Munro: 5.79 ERA Bullpen Wheeler: 0.00 ERA Lidge: 2.08 ERA Gallo: 4.50 ERA Miceli: 8.31 ERA Harville: 13.50 ERA Qualls: 14.40 ERA Springer: 18.00 ERA Only 3 of our 7 relief pitchers have better stats than our starters. As far as I'm concerned, the next few games should go: Starters --> Wheeler/Gallo --> Lidge End of discussion. If we're up by more than 3 runs, maybe then give those other guys a shot. "But, they did okay in the regular season, blah, blah, blah..." STOP. This is NOT the regular season. It's a whole different game now. Play your best freaking players... or lose. ... And while we're at it, Everett should start over Viz, and Lane/Lamb should be your first freaking hitting options off the bench, NOT Palmeiro. The preceeding was a special presentation of "Two Can Play At This Game, DaDakota!" and should not be confused with the otherwise optimistic view he holds regarding the Astros in this series.
I have always said the playoffs are won by starting pitching. Outside of the closers the starters are suppossedly your best pitchers. Dierker managed it right, he let them work out of jams and many young guys thrived on it. I think Backe and Munro should have been allowed to try to work out of their own messes. Garner has become Jimy W, with all these quick hooks. DD
Here are some interesting stats: 2004 Rolen v. Miceli - 0-3 3Ks Pujols v. Miceli - 0-3 1Ks Edmonds v. Miceli - 0-2 1 K Combined 0-8 against Miceli with 4 Ks. Was Garner playing the percentages??
I agree with everything said so far, ESPECIALLY about leaving the starting pitchers in longer. The things Garner is doing now, IT ISN'T working! He needs to use Lidge not only in a save situation, the Astros maybe win that game last night if Lidge comes in and shuts down the 3-5 and gives the bats another chance. What parallel universe and totally unbelievable other dimension did you dig those stats up from? While I believe you got those stats from a credible place, I just can't see it after that worthless effort last night.
The playoffs IS about starting pitching... unfortunatley, the Astros only have only two LEGITIMATE starters... with Backe doing his best job of trying to be a 3rd guy. (not bad for a guy who's had 10 starts in his CAREER). We all knew we didn't have depth in the rotation... we knew we could get by in a short series with just Roy and Roger, but it becomes a little tougher in the 7 game series. That being said, the team cannot lose confidence in its middle releivers, because they will be called upon again. That's baseball... you can't just bench guys when they fail once... especially since there aren't many other options. Qualls has come thru for us, and now he's failed for us... but he has already shown that he can bounce back. Harville is a one batter at a time guy... he won't eat up innings like Wheeler. He made Rolen hit an unhittable pitch for a homer... you tip your hat in that case. As for Beltran, I wouldn't move him in the order simply because when he gets pitched to, he makes you pay (and you have to pitch to him in the #2 spot)... but he sometimes gets impatient even if the team is trying to pitch around him. Plus, when he was batting 3rd earlier in the season, you could tell how uncomfortable he was... he's never done it. Bags, while he's not the RBI/HR producer he was... is just about our only option at that #3 spot. It serves us well... and (more importantly) serves him well.
AGREED 1. Leave the starters in 7 2. Use Lidge in 9th 3. Use Wheeler in the 8th or Miceli simply put, we need to at least try it. Out bullpen is getting killed.
I wonder how much Garner showing that he has absolutely no faith in his bullpen outside of Lidge in game 2 of the Atlanta series has affected them. To me, that has been the biggest mistake of the post-season so far. Garner effectively told everyone in the bullpen that he didn't have any confidence in them whatsoever.
I'm going to post it here also: Garner really needs to think about retooling that bullpen. 1) Bench Miceli and Harville. 2) Have the starter go 5-6 innings. 3) Bring Wheeler in to do the 7th and 8th 4) And then have Lidge close the 9th. Simple and it's effective. Lidge is going to shut them down in the 9th. Bags is going to break out of this crappy slump.
It doesn't matter how many times you post it...a) it's not a good idea, and b) it's not gonna happen.
I don't think changing the batting order is gonna help at all...cause it wasn't until Bags moved back to his comfortable spot at the 3 and Beltran to the 2 that the bats got going again. That was prob the best thing Garner did cause Jimmy screwed around w/ the order so much no one knew their role (Bags in the 6th spot, wtf?!) So i think changing that will only worsen things...Plus its not like the offense is struggling. Granted they left a lot of baserunners on last night but they still put up 4 runs. The problem is the bullpen...because unless Clemens and Oswalt pitch a complete game shutout, we're gonna have to go to them eventually. And outside of Lidge I dunno. Wheeler has pitched effective and I would rather have seen him come in instead of Harville. But what happens when he gets knocked around a bit. You have to expect it to happen sooner than later (though I hope I'm wrong). I would just rather see our starters go as deep as possible...they've been the best component to the pitching staff so let them win or lose...let 'em work out of jams. Like last night...it's easy to second guess...but what would have been the harm in letting Munro try and get out of that inning (Harville comes in he coughs up the lead anyways) So I think the key is letting out starters get into the 7th..then bring in Gallo or Wheeler or hell even Lidge. I remember a number of occasions during the regular season when Garner used like 2-3 pitchers in ONE inning...so y doesnt he do that more. If you bring in Harville and he walks a guy..don't take any more chances, bring in someone else. It just seems that everybody's got Phil Garner second guessing himself that he's thinkin too much and not doing what he was doing in the regular season. But really nobody expected us to take the first two games anyways. The Cards did what they were supposed to do, beat up on mediocre pithcing and protect their home field. Now we got three games at home with a fully rested Clemens, Oswalt, and Backe coming up. We're in a good position to take those three or at least two. So it definitely ain't over yet.
