Post by Commissioner Erick on Sept 16, 2017 12:08:37 GMT -5
Seattle Mariners (39-54) @ Houston Astros (61-31)
SEA: Danny Duffy (6-5, 4.07)
HOU: Dallas Keuchel (8-3, 2.95)
The Houston Astros have come out of the All-Star break basically with the American League West wrapped up. Their 61-31 record is the best in the American League, and puts them at a 16.5 game lead on the Los Angeles Angels in the division.
On some level, the rest of the season is academic. They're four and a half games up on Tampa Bay for the best American League record, but there are management issues going on in Tampa that have many predicting a falloff. The next best team in the American League is Cleveland at nine back.
The Astros are interesting in that they go 14 deep with their pitching staff. This means they have a short bench, so the team is fairly inflexible with their lineup. They have their nine starters with Nori Aoki sometimes subbing for Evan Gattis as a defensive replacement or if Gattis is taking a turn behind the dish. Tony Kemp coming off the DL will offer a bit more flexibility, but what you see is what you get with Houston hitters.
What you're getting is a lineup seven deep with double digit home run hitters. The Astros don't have a singular slugger putting up monstrous power numbers, but with the exception of Colin Moran or when Aoki is in the lineup, everyone in the lineup is a threat to plop a pitch over a fence.
The team is also first in batting average, though it's a bit misleading as Jose Altuve's brilliant .392 number counts for much of that. Aside from Altue, nobody is hitting over .300. However, there are few sinks in the lineup that drag the number down as only George Springer and Brian McCann are hitting under .250. This means the Astros have a dangerous lineup where players get on base at a good clip and can hit for power at a good clip.
The engine is obviously Altuve who is putting up numbers in the inaugural year of the PBA that may never be broken. His OPS leads the American League, his batting average is exceptional, and he leads the league in hits, extra base hits, doubles, and total bases. He's fifth in RBI's, third in runs, and for good measure, third in steals. He's a beloved figure in Houston and around baseball.
Altuve was joined as an All-Star by Josh Reddick. He's had a strong season with 17 home runs and seven steals to go with a .285 average. He's absolutely clobbered right-handed pitching. He has 16 of his 17 home runs and a .303 average against righties. He puts in a lot of work on his swing and studying opposing pitchers to give himself an edge, at least against righties anyway.
The Astros will be sending Dallas Keuchel to the hill today. The Astros were conservative with an injury early in the season so Kuechel got off to a late start. If not for that, he'd be in numerous top five leaderboards. One of Keuchel's best qualities is his ability to go deep into games. He already has three Complete Games this year. Those innings help iron out the fact that he hasn't been absolutely dominant since firing 7 shutout innings against the Angels and following up with a four-hitter against the Red Sox in June. Because of his ground-ball tendencies, he's given up some unearned runs that inflate his ERA as well.
Still, despite all this, Keuchel would be top five in AL ERA and WHIP if he qualified, and is a legitimate ace. The one team he hasn't been able to perform well against though is Seattle. Though his first start of the year was injury shortened, Keuchel has allowed 10 runs in 4.1 innings in two starts against the Mariners. They're the only two starts this season he's gone fewer than 6 innings and the only starts where he's allowed more runs than innings pitched.
That's good for Seattle, because they'll need all the help they can get. Two of their three best starters are hurt, and Felix Hernandez has been awful. This led the team to trade for Danny Duffy and Dan Straily. The hope is that Duffy can be a good pitcher going forward at an expensive but not prohibitive price, while Straily is a good back-end arm whose price tag will be knocked down by arbitration.
The relief arms are also in flux. Steve Cishek, Nick Vincent, and Evan Scribner have each been effective this season and each is on the DL. This is pressing an ineffective group of middle and long relievers into more important roles, and they haven't responded. The solution has been to use Edwin Diaz as a fireman.
Diaz frequently works multiple innings, which at times, will wear him down. He's likely unavailable after pitching the last two games against the White Sox, which means that if a game is late, it will be in the hands of Mark Rzepczynski, who has an ERA near 7. Or Casy Fien, who has an ERA over 9. Mark Lowe's ERA is near 7, while Tony Zych's is over 11. It's not a good bullpen, and manager Aaron Dunham can't wait for the disabled arms to get healthy again.
Questions for the GM's:
For Aaron Dunham, you recently fired Tim Bogar and hired Yaijirobei Nakamura. What are you hoping to gain from the change?
With Diaz as the stopper, how do you cobble together a bullpen from parts that aren't working?
What are you hoping to gain from the moves you've made for Wil Myers and Danny Duffy?
For Jeff Jones, Colin Moran was called up to play third base. Why him over AJ Reed, with Yuli Guriel moving to third?
A huge plus for your team was Alex Bregman's ability to move back to shortstop with superstar Carlos Correa out for most of the season. Is Bregman a name more PBA fans should know about?
With a limited bench, are you worried about players burning out?
SEA: Danny Duffy (6-5, 4.07)
HOU: Dallas Keuchel (8-3, 2.95)
The Houston Astros have come out of the All-Star break basically with the American League West wrapped up. Their 61-31 record is the best in the American League, and puts them at a 16.5 game lead on the Los Angeles Angels in the division.
On some level, the rest of the season is academic. They're four and a half games up on Tampa Bay for the best American League record, but there are management issues going on in Tampa that have many predicting a falloff. The next best team in the American League is Cleveland at nine back.
The Astros are interesting in that they go 14 deep with their pitching staff. This means they have a short bench, so the team is fairly inflexible with their lineup. They have their nine starters with Nori Aoki sometimes subbing for Evan Gattis as a defensive replacement or if Gattis is taking a turn behind the dish. Tony Kemp coming off the DL will offer a bit more flexibility, but what you see is what you get with Houston hitters.
What you're getting is a lineup seven deep with double digit home run hitters. The Astros don't have a singular slugger putting up monstrous power numbers, but with the exception of Colin Moran or when Aoki is in the lineup, everyone in the lineup is a threat to plop a pitch over a fence.
The team is also first in batting average, though it's a bit misleading as Jose Altuve's brilliant .392 number counts for much of that. Aside from Altue, nobody is hitting over .300. However, there are few sinks in the lineup that drag the number down as only George Springer and Brian McCann are hitting under .250. This means the Astros have a dangerous lineup where players get on base at a good clip and can hit for power at a good clip.
The engine is obviously Altuve who is putting up numbers in the inaugural year of the PBA that may never be broken. His OPS leads the American League, his batting average is exceptional, and he leads the league in hits, extra base hits, doubles, and total bases. He's fifth in RBI's, third in runs, and for good measure, third in steals. He's a beloved figure in Houston and around baseball.
Altuve was joined as an All-Star by Josh Reddick. He's had a strong season with 17 home runs and seven steals to go with a .285 average. He's absolutely clobbered right-handed pitching. He has 16 of his 17 home runs and a .303 average against righties. He puts in a lot of work on his swing and studying opposing pitchers to give himself an edge, at least against righties anyway.
The Astros will be sending Dallas Keuchel to the hill today. The Astros were conservative with an injury early in the season so Kuechel got off to a late start. If not for that, he'd be in numerous top five leaderboards. One of Keuchel's best qualities is his ability to go deep into games. He already has three Complete Games this year. Those innings help iron out the fact that he hasn't been absolutely dominant since firing 7 shutout innings against the Angels and following up with a four-hitter against the Red Sox in June. Because of his ground-ball tendencies, he's given up some unearned runs that inflate his ERA as well.
Still, despite all this, Keuchel would be top five in AL ERA and WHIP if he qualified, and is a legitimate ace. The one team he hasn't been able to perform well against though is Seattle. Though his first start of the year was injury shortened, Keuchel has allowed 10 runs in 4.1 innings in two starts against the Mariners. They're the only two starts this season he's gone fewer than 6 innings and the only starts where he's allowed more runs than innings pitched.
That's good for Seattle, because they'll need all the help they can get. Two of their three best starters are hurt, and Felix Hernandez has been awful. This led the team to trade for Danny Duffy and Dan Straily. The hope is that Duffy can be a good pitcher going forward at an expensive but not prohibitive price, while Straily is a good back-end arm whose price tag will be knocked down by arbitration.
The relief arms are also in flux. Steve Cishek, Nick Vincent, and Evan Scribner have each been effective this season and each is on the DL. This is pressing an ineffective group of middle and long relievers into more important roles, and they haven't responded. The solution has been to use Edwin Diaz as a fireman.
Diaz frequently works multiple innings, which at times, will wear him down. He's likely unavailable after pitching the last two games against the White Sox, which means that if a game is late, it will be in the hands of Mark Rzepczynski, who has an ERA near 7. Or Casy Fien, who has an ERA over 9. Mark Lowe's ERA is near 7, while Tony Zych's is over 11. It's not a good bullpen, and manager Aaron Dunham can't wait for the disabled arms to get healthy again.
Questions for the GM's:
For Aaron Dunham, you recently fired Tim Bogar and hired Yaijirobei Nakamura. What are you hoping to gain from the change?
With Diaz as the stopper, how do you cobble together a bullpen from parts that aren't working?
What are you hoping to gain from the moves you've made for Wil Myers and Danny Duffy?
For Jeff Jones, Colin Moran was called up to play third base. Why him over AJ Reed, with Yuli Guriel moving to third?
A huge plus for your team was Alex Bregman's ability to move back to shortstop with superstar Carlos Correa out for most of the season. Is Bregman a name more PBA fans should know about?
With a limited bench, are you worried about players burning out?
