He could have an uptick, but I wouldn't call it promising. His K rate is down, but swinging strike and zone contact the same. BABIP is more a normal rate though slightly below what I would expect. I still think he's basically who he is with a slight improvement, but not enough that it looks like Astros messed up. Basically, if Hader finds zone and stays healthy, Astros get bad end of deal from results. It will probably be the very bad end of the deal. If not, I'm guessing Astros will win deal with about as bad of results from Gomez and Fiers as possible.
It's not even a "we messed up" situation. Santana needed a lot of low leverage ABs to come into his own and we weren't going to give him that. Happens all the time.
Giles is in the completely opposite situation. He went from low leverage to high by being traded. He's showing great progress by not surrendering XBH's at the alarming rate of last season.
Geez. He's still in AAA? I'm really surprised they haven't given up on him as a starter and have just tried to get any value out of him as a reliever. This is his third year in AAA.
Exactly. Wouldn't be the first failed starter who still has a salvageable career thanks to having a live arm and youth on his side. But at this point, with confidence being key to any dominant reliever... they/he may be facing an uphill battle no matter which course they take with him.
Rio Ruiz called up! He'll have a good two months to make his mark with Freddie Freeman out. Last 10: .350/.366/.625 Hope he does well. Always liked Ruiz.
Most teams want their relievers to have an idea about the location of the strikezone. But I don't disagree. Matt ****ing Bush has turned into a great reliever, so who knows.
Nolan Fontana getting the call w/the Angels. They've had a ton of injuries over there. Good luck to him! Always hoped he developed more--has been hitting well enough this year in AAA (way better than last)
Fister did well for about 3 months last year. His approach to sit out the first couple months might actually benefit both him and the Angels.
Juan Minaya, a reliever we had put up the 40-man in 2015 then waived, made the majors with the White Sox. Seems like we're developing a lot of ML'ers for other teams (Fontana, Aplin (to be), Minaya).
