Supposedly some of the "nerd cave" data showed that there was something off as far as the Red Sox laying off pitches that they would normally swing at and jumping at others.... they get pretty damn deep into location, rpm's and count.... so there does appear to have been SOME level of the Astros pitchers tipping their pitches. Having said that, I agree with you that it isn't as if Garcia/Urquidy or Greinke were pitching all that well....... Garcia has pitched more than he ever has before, he has knee issues and has looked shaky and this was his first post season experience against a great line up..... Urquidy has been shaky since coming back from injury and Greinke has been largely bombed since the end of August.... I will say that the Diaz strike zone did ZERO favors for Greinke though..
He has very good stuff, and that really matters in the post season.... he also has experience being very good in the playoffs and against the Astros. He is their best pitcher.... injuries and inconsistency has hurt him.
Siri is in there because Sale is a lefty..... right now Sale isn't having a lot of movement on his pitches and his size and velocity make it hard to pick the ball up until deeper in the zone. Siri has exceptional bat speed, and with less movement from Sale since a return from injury, I am sure the thinking is Siri can possibly hit him really well. Diaz has really struggled, but has really good bat speed as well.... the Astros try to get guys with that profile at bats against high velocity pitchers or pitchers that hide the ball so it isn't picked up until late in the zone. I am not sure I would start Siri either, but I am sure they figure they can move Chas in the lineup once Sale leaves the game, depending on who the reliever is. I am sure both teams are planning on Sale not going even 5 innings most likely.
All 3 of those guys were/are hurt coming in to their starts.... How is it that the starters (and I guess Odo as well) were doing it but none of the relievers? And if it's true to any degree, why the **** didn't they pick up on it while they were getting ready in the pen, or why didn't Maldy or Strom catch on to it after a handful of pitches?
If had to choose between Odorizzi and Garcia, would take Garcia. Sure. He stunk it up. And he's stunk it up twice now. He was amped and wild. But he's still been a better pitcher of the two this year and Odorizzi was equally bad in the post season. There's no easy decision here though. The best would have been Javier, but that's out the window now.
last 7 playoff games Starters 18 innings Relievers 43 innings if somebody gave you that stat line, do you think we would be going into game five tied 2 all in the ALCS?
The way I think we will play the rest of the series Game 6 Urquidy Game 7 Greinke Use Odorizzi in long relief today if, heaven forbid, Valdez gets pulled early. The other option would be Odorizzi game 6, Urquidy game 7. Use Greinke in relief. My personal preference would be Urquidy game 6 and Javier game 7. I'm assuming Garcia is done?
The Meyers situation doesn't make any sense. Did he have a setback or something? If it was an open question of whether he would be healthy enough to play then he shouldn't have been put on the roster to begin with.
I don't know in this particular situation as I have not been able to ask anyone that specific question but I can tell you that in the PAST the Astros have tipped their pitches, and that they have had their signs stolen. In those cases the Astros would change signs in the middle of a game or sometimes would change the battery and pitcher who are aware of what is going on. In most cases the Astros did not realize that the pitchers were tipped until looking carefully at the tape after the game, and often times sample size being larger than a single game. However, in this case, it would be more likely that under STRESS the pitchers would revert back to tipping pitches. If I remember right Strom even said that is usually what happens when a pitcher is tipping pitches. Why didn't Maldonado or Strom say anything? It is very possible that neither of them noticed it in the midst of it happening. The Red Sox manager is very good at detecting it and may have broken down a lot of tape. It isn't something that is always really obvious. What I can tell you for sure is that after the two games, the data was consistent with the Red Sox behaving as if they knew what was coming.... and as it was explained to me, there are a number of variables accounted for, so many that it is highly unlikely that it was coincidence or the Astros pitchers being that poor.... they look at velocity, pitch sequence, movement, location and many other things.
I don't think that Odorizzi is available to pitch today. As for Garcia, I don't know if he is done but he has looked terrible and apparently admitted his knee has bothered him for some time.
The Astros being evasive? No way...... The Astros could use the taxi squad to replace him on the roster and have not.... so that tells me that he isn't THAT far away.
Why do you say that? He hasn't been good in some time......... he claimed before his last start that he figured out the mechanical reason he was pitching poorly, and that clearly wasn't the case as he didn't make it out of the 3rd inning and was lucky he didn't give up multiple runs, his command and movement was poor last time out.
