The hope is that the improvement he made from 2016 to 2017 continues. He was more of a pitcher last year, vs being more of a thrower his entire career.
If possible, stop being a dildo. Or, at the very least, spell my name right, CometsWin. We have aliases for a reason; don't be a dick. Stating a player was good until he wasn't good isn't mounting a defense; it's stating a fact. The question is how much stock should we put in not just a small sample size but an egregious outlier of a small sample size. He wasn't just bad; he was horrifically bad. Nothing in Giles' career suggested he'd give up 10 ER in 7.2 IP. In the four full months prior, he had only given up 9 runs. I don't think the Astros will easily dismiss his regular season performance because of 7.2 innings. There may be some skepticism moving forward, and I think everyone will be nervous come next October (if the Astros are in the playoffs again) - but he improved over his 2016 performance and I think that's where they'll settle. It's on him to prove October was an ill-timed slump. You're having an argument with yourself. No one said it was strange; no one called it an overreaction... no one had an issue with Hinch's decision; it was the right one to make.
In my humble opinion Ken Giles was a victim of the slick balls in the World Series. His most effective pitch, his out pitch, the slider wasn’t sliding. So batters sat on his fast ball or, the non effective slider. In an era of establishing your breaking pitches, a fastball pitcher is batting practice for the triple digit mph hitters. Granted, he is still figuring it out in the regular season as there is still inconsistency, but he has tremendous talent and potential to turn into one if the top 3-5 closers in the league. But to me it seems he gets a bit jittery under pressure. The real question is, whether he is a set up guy or a closer.
He wasn't good in the ALDS or ALCS, though... Look, angry people are angry and they want their pound of flesh. I get it. But Giles is a good closer who ran into two extremely good offenses who were able to work counts and then sit on his fastball, which - to their credit - they destroyed. During the regular season, he doesn't face the Yankees or Dodgers every game in high-leverage playoff situation so it's hard to put too much stock in it, IMO. He should be OK for the regular season. As for the playoffs.......... he has something to prove.
If this "slick ball" claim is real, guys throwing sliders better work on a new pitch, especially guys who only have two to begin with.
I will say this......and I think this speaks volumes....at the MadMax home, we have determined that Kenneth Giles >>>>> The Last Jedi.
Hmmm...manana is a rain day, so I'm hitting the cinema. I know your whole family is eagerly awaiting my thoughts. Stay tuned.
They paid him around $4.25MM. They didn't sign him with the intent to be a closer, and he didn't sign with the assumption he was being considered for closer. If he were, he'd have asked for a lot more money. Having insurance and lots of players that can close is not a bad thing though, even if you do trust your closer. Every year, about 10-15 closers get benched by the end of the year.
They strategically put a Specs next to the theater here in MF. 2:30, I'm having wine, charcuterie, and Star Wars. I hope I enjoy it.
Boring. Some of us still remember when you doffed your hat to... yourself and asked for a royalty for work you pretended wasn't ours. Talk about being a dildo. Good stuff. Regarding Giles, you've made a posting career out of taking good players like Giles and Schaub, cherry picking stats over a particular time frame, and claiming those players to be elite only to have your claims blow up in your face. Nobody is claiming Giles isn't a good closer, the question was always would he be able to close out big games in the playoffs. In the case of Giles, would midseason stats against the Twins be predictive of performance in the playoffs. When Giles imploded you blew up calling everyone names. Now you're back to pretend it never happened. Just really boring. Be original, you were wrong so let's move on.
This dude sucked in all minor and major pressure situations since we got him. His ERA looked good because he was lights out when we had at least a 3 run lead.
He was actually worse in non-save/mop-up/3 run lead situations (in the regular season) vs 1 run games. Speaks to some of his mental issues though. Needs leverage to get amped... but add the playoff pressure and things get a little less consistent.
