Unfortunately I've only seen one of his recent starts, after watching every inning of his first 9. Next time someone wants to randomly blame the hitting/pitching coach, remember this.
My understanding is that McCullers worked with him on SpinRate to make it a bit tighter. Heavy spin rate tends to also produce a better release point.
Thought Fiers had good spin already unless he just wasn't getting it this year. I do see his curveball has increased in speed 2-3 mph. McCullers throws a fast curve that is hard to hit and leads to grounders when hit.
Also heard on 'Stros broadcast that McCullers told him to put less emphasis on placing the curveball in a specific spot. Basically let the curve do the work for you and worry more about the delivery than the location.
I'm curious to see how Luhnow treats the bullpen. Musgrove has probably pitched his way out of the rotation, and back to AAA. With Hoyt imploding as well, I'll be curious if they keep one or both of Paulino and Martes in the majors as bullpen arms, or continue their development as starters. It'll be interesting to watch the corresponding moves as McCullers, Keuchel, Morton, and McHugh get activated. I'd guess Musgrove goes down for Lance tomorrow. Given we're likely to need extra starters to keep the rotation fresh, I don't know if it's better to keep them stretched out, or have them up and ready with the big league team.
Hoyt is definitively a garbage time pitcher at this point. Gregerson at least has shown signs of turning it around. I would see if Musgrove can get out of this rut.
Musgrove probably punched his ticket to Fresno. Martes and Paulino are pitching better and somebody has to go for McCullers. Havent given up on him yet but results are clear right now.
Agreed. Musgrove may be really good one day but with other options available, he'd be better served working his issues out in Fresno.
With tired pen, I am guessing Guduan goes down and one of Martes and Musgrove provides long relief until Keuchel is back. I just can't see sending an arm stretched out to minors with current rotation.
Musgrove clearly has stuff to work on... and he's still going to keep his arm stretched out and be ready to start at the next need.
Having arm stretched out in AAA doesn't help if someone goes 2 innings 6 days from now. Granted, the next 4 days he would be useless. Would not surprise me if he doesn't pitch much in AAA until Keuchel is back so that he's available for relief.
I'm more focused on the fact that Musgrove is far more valuable to the Astros now as a good starter.... and he's nowhere close to that currently. I'd rather him work on his struggles by continuing to make starts... rather than holding him out for the mythical long relief appearance that isn't guaranteed, and still has him likely to make the same mistakes.
Keuchel, McCullers and Morton are obvious. Fiers is a veteran and has been the one constant in the Astros rotation over the last month, so I'd say he's more than deserving of that last spot as long as he doesn't revert back to his early-season performance. For the fifth spot, I'm going to continue to give Peacock the benefit of the doubt. Aside from one noticeably weak performance, he's been remarkably consistent this season. We don't even know what we're going to get out of McHugh when he comes back, but he wasn't exactly lights out last season. If McHugh comes back, gets a chance in the rotation and proves he deserves to be there, then I'll change my mind. But in the meantime, I'm going with Peacock.
As long as they keep using the DL to rest people there will be room for all these guys to get opportunities. I would think at some point soon after the ASB they would get away from that and let a more set rotation settle in
1. Keuchel 2. McCullers 3. Trade target 4. Morton 5. Peacock I personally don't trust Fiers. No idea why I trust Peacock and not Fiers, but something about Peacocks performance screams "real" to me Fiers could be trade bait, or maybe a long man if they are moving Devo to more of a 1 inning role as it seems
Both of them are putting up very real results right now. Mike Fiers new pitching style has made him a major ground ball pitcher, and his K/BB has always been solid. He is pitching to contact, and getting ground balls, which is leading to longer outings and very few long fly balls. You don't trust Fiers because he sucked for a few months, but the change in approach, and results are extremely real. Granted he's not sub-2 ERA good like he has been over the last month, but he is pitching like a good MLB starter, and this approach should lead to sustained success. Peacock is pitching like an ace on a per inning basis, but his success is based on striking people out, and he's always had a high walk rate. He also seem to be a pitcher whose stuff seems to fall off with high pitch counts. Because of the K's and BB's, he runs up high pitch counts early and starts to wobble around the 5th. One alternative would be to pitch a little more to contact, but hitters tend to hit Peacock hard when they do put the ball in play. Over the last month they have both made 5 starts, yet Fiers has thrown 7 more innings. Peacock is pitching better when he does pitch, but he's pitching quite a bit less than Fiers per outing. I personally prefer Fiers because his approach works better as a starter, and Peacock's approach works much better as a reliever. Fiers becomes a mediocre relief pitcher, or garbage long man if moved to the pen.
Love the idea of Peacock as Devo Pt. 2. Would make the bullpen even more dynamic and flexible than it already is.
