It’s not that Moehler was great – he gave up 4 runs over 6 innings. It’s that The Pirates gave up 2 more and Chris Sampson and Jose Valverde didn’t.
Speaking of bullpen pitchers, turns out that Villareal refused to go to the minors, so the Astros have to trade or release him. You think any team out there is gonna pick up that 1 1/2 year 2 mill contract? I wouldn’t be real too surprised if some team picks him up after he’s released and he improves with an actual major league pitching coach.
And speaking of actual major league pitching coach and getting sent to the minors, will be interesting to see if Dewey gets sent back down and Burt Hooten gets called up
Jose Ortiz said something about Runs Elvys “coming back” – and that is NOT good news, especially as it looks as if Sampson has been relegated to the bullpen again. Going to be interesting to see who is going to be the 5th guy. Of course, we won’t need a 5th guy until 2 weeks from today, so we’ll just have to see. I do know that Paulino is nowheres near anywhere ready to pitch, and McLemore is hurt and so is Bud Norris.
Ah well. To discuss hitters – Pence, at leadoff, went ofer. I’ve been watching his swings and looking at the location and pitches on gameday.†I looked at his PA over the past 3 weeks – he†swings early, almost never gets even 2 balls, and he swings at pitches out of the strike zone – in fact, his homer the other day was on a chest high FB. I looked up his overall stats for this year. He has 3.61 pitches/PA, exactly the same as last year. BB/PA is 0.54, exactly the same as last year – K:BB is 3.6:1 – exactly the same as last year – this year, he strikes out 19.4% of PA – exactly the same as last year. His ground ball hit % is 49%, same as last year. His LD – line drive % is down, however – 15.2% this year as opposed to 19.4 last year and also the infield fly/fly balls is up – 9.6% to 12.8% and I would guess that this means that he is hitting a lot more weak grounders and a lot more popups than last year. Which means, I would guess, that pitchers are throwing him a lot more offspeed stuff (especially sliders and FB low and outside, as we’ve all noticed.) And, in case you are curious, is BA with RISP is exactly the same as his BA, same as last year. And here are his OPS for each month: April – .680; May – .977; June – .596; July – .518.
Bourn was back in the lineup hitting in the 7-hole. He seems a LOT more comfortable there. He’s hitting 54 for 267 with 23 BB: 202 BA, .549 OPS at leadoff and he’s hitting (yeah, I know – small sample size)†13 for 32 in the 7-hole: .406 BA, .862 OPS. And here are his lines for each month:
April: .195/.271/.310/.581 over 96 PA
May: .214/.264/.286/.550 over 120 PA
June: .274/.317/.326/.643 over 101 PA
July: .120/.154/.160/.314 over 26 PA
A little, uh, regression in July, yes?
Seems to me it would be MOST sensible to bat Wiggy leadoff – and Cooper had BETTER freaking tell him to stop trying to steal bases cuz he looked a TOTAL fool last night -†then Matsui second and Bourn in the 7-hole.
Miggy Tejada, All-Star 2008 and Clubhouse Leader (according to Jose Ortiz) has the following lines for this year:
April: .339/.376/.560/.936 over 115 PA with 22 RBI
May: .291/.311/.402/.713 over 119 PA with 15 RBI
June: .227/.292/.392/.684 over 105 PA with 6 RBI
July: .129/161/.206/.367 over 35 PA with 1 RBI
I will note that his overall BA is .277, but his BA with RISP is .226. NOT “clutch” and not good for a batter hitting 3rd or even 5th.
He sat out last night and Blum played short – and his 3 run homer in the first inning turned out to be the difference maker.
Hmmmmmm
Maybe the Astros need a better hitting coach…
I thought the Wiggy CS was a botched hit and run with Bourn AB? Which makes no sense since it’s bourn AB.
I think needs a hitting coach more than he needs a day off. Bourn needs a larger sample size in July for me to pass judgenment. And dear God let’s get rid of Dewy. Also, I was terribly saddened to hear about Bud Norris, this is the first I’ve caught wind of this.
IF the wiggy CS was a botched hitnrun, then coop needs to fired this MINNIT for ordering such an incredibly STOOPID play.
but i don’t think it was because it doesn’t look to me as if bourn had any intention of swinging at that pitch until he saw wiggy take off- and it was kind of a crappy weak-ass swing.
dewey doesn’t seem to have any support among any of the pitchers – ESPECIALLY roy. time for him to go
and i can’t see that sean berry is doing any good for the young guys, who need him most.
It seems like such a no brainer to fire the entire dugout. I just don’t know who you bring in, but anything has to be better than what we’ve got.
stephen,
i have NO idea what on earth drayton is gonna do – unless there is seriously massive booing.
i guess he doesn’t think that spending money on managers/coaches is money well spent. and unless roy is going to be vocal about demanding a trade and again denouncing dewey, i don’t know if anything will happen
and unless cooper is LOUDLY booed, i doubt he’s gonna go neither – and i am NOT impressed by his managing. and i didn’t think it got any worse than phil garner
True, Drayton has no concept of what a $ well spent is in baseball.
Cooper, I think, is doing a worse job than Phil. He just gets to write it off as being a “rookie” manager, yet he’s been around the game for decades. It’s ridiculous.
Also, per your Hardballtimes round table: Gaudin is not on the same plane with 22 year old Gallagher.
stephen,
do you mean gaudin is lower or higher than gallagher?
\
and why?
Gallagher is higher than Gaudin. Gallagher is a 23 year old kid with strong rate stats at the major league level. Gaudin is a younger Chris Sampson type, a good bull-pen guy or a bad starter. Gallagher will provide years of quality 2/3 type starting pitching, while Gaudin’s throwing out of the bull-pen. Gallagher is a way more scarce commodity than Gaudin is and as such, is far more prized than Gaudin. If the trade is (and I think it is) a lottery ticket and Gaudin for the other 4, then why not make that deal? Especially if Beane is constrained by the fact that Harden might not finish his next start.