Kinda feel bad for him tbh... Plus even though he has been bad so has Jansen who many believe to be the best relief pitcher in the game. Just hope Verlander can pitch a CG tomorrow so we don't have to swear anything.
I'm with you on all accounts, and I'd add one other thing. It's not just that every pitcher would struggle with particularly difficult parts of certain lineups. Pitchers in general have their struggles in the postseason. There are no more bad teams or bad lineups at this stage. Craig Kimbrel of the Red Sox was great this year, but the Astros got to him in the ALDS. The Yankees had a bullpen full of pitchers who were outstanding this season, and the Astros had their successes, and Kenley Jansen was as good as anyone closing games this season, and the Astros have touched him up as well. I'm certainly not excusing Giles's performance. Whether it's the baseballs or something else, he hasn't been very good, and it's tough to trust him moving forward. But certainly this isn't a unique situation to Giles.
NOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!! This may be a little late Now that he is benched but he proved last year and again this year he is not the answer at the Closer Position. He needs to be traded before spring training 2018. Why did it take so long for our genius manager to see that he is not a reliable closer? I saw that in 2016. If he isn't a closer do you even trust him as middle relief? I say NOOOOOOOOO again.
Hinch told Giles before yesterday's game he would not be called upon to close. He did it to ease his mind. If I were Hinch, I'd have called to the bullpen last minute and told Giles to warm up quick. I would've put him in with the 3 run lead in the 9th.
Question is whether Giles has hit rock bottom or not. Sometines when a guy hits rock bottom and has nothing to lose, they aren't scared any more and they perform really well, Robert Horry style. However, If he gets into a game 7 with the series on the line and blows it, it could damage him permanently, Rick Ankiel style. Hinch is in a tricky spot. I assume the Astros do psych testing on their players so they know how Giles would respond under different stresses.
I think this particular post-season has been an aberration. In this series, you had guys like Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Kenley Jansen and and Dallas Keuchel not performing at the level that fans expect. Kershaw is considered the best pitcher in the league and yesterday was the worst game he ever had. Darvish was hoping to cash in on a $200 million dollar contract this off season. I didn't expect Keuchel to give up 7 runs yesterday. With the baseballs that MLB is using in the post season being different from the ones that were used in the regular season, it is going to be hard to evaluate a pitchers performance. There have been numerous articles, including articles in the New York times and LA Times that have talked about the balls being slicker and effecting pitchers that rely on sliders and curve balls being negatively effected. With two games left, you hold Giles out since he relies on the slider and use whoever you have available. I think that if MLB is going to be using these new baseballs next season, quite a few pitchers will have to fine-tune the pitches they throw or develop new pitches. With all thinks considered, if the Astros win the World Series, which I obviously hope they do, Giles comes back next year and gets an opportunity to refine his current pitches and develop a couple of new pitches. But I think he only has one year to prove himself with this team.
Wish this team had a Mariano Rivera type closer, someone who had guaranteed outs. I don't think people realize how damn good Rivera was in closing games, but if the stars align for Giles to get 3 outs to close a game to secure us our first World Series all will be forgiven, but we are yet to see that.
A Kenley Jansen type closer. Or Kimbrel. Or Chapman. Every team in the history of baseball wished they had Mariano Rivera. We've got an opening in LF next year, we should get a Ted Williams type. That being said, obviously they need to improve the bullpen next year. I'm assuming Luhnow finally realizes this. And it goes way beyond Giles, who I think could go back to his Philly role as 7/8th inning guy and be successful. Not averse to trading him, but I wouldn't give him away for peanuts, too much talent.
There is an absolute ITOLDYA!! glee to the many posts excoriating Giles. Are you, who called out "Giles supporters/apologists/excuse makers" in your initial post, going to deny this?.... There's also an indisputable bias in your (and many other) posts, recasting what was an overwhelming good regular season as bad, as well overly criticizing what has been a bad but not complete failure of a postseason. I'll remind you that Giles closed out the ALDS (getting 6 outs, on the road); saved game 1 of the ALCS (a 5-out save); and kept game 2 of the World Series tied in the bottom 9th - against the Dodger's three best hitters. He doesn't deserve a plaque, or anything. But he's had some huge, critical moments. They have 9 wins; he was a big part of three of them. Bottom line: EVERY closer (as well as nearly every ace - even Verlander) has been lit up by some historically great offenses this postseason - this isn't exclusively a Ken Giles problem, and if you didn't have your out-for-blood, ITOLDYA!! goggles on, you'd see that.
Would love to see him close it out tonight...for his own personal redemption. I'm rooting for him, reminds me of Rick Ankiel and Knoblauch
Hinch kept Giles out yesterday for Giles, Hinch's and the fans benefit. The rest will do him some good and if things go bad tonight we're going to need his arm in the next two days.
It's so funny fans think they are a factor in ANY of this. Yes, AJ Hinch did it FOR THE FANS. LOL. OK... He doesn't give a flying **** what fans think; the same fans, btw, who were screaming at him to move Springer down in the line-up - remember those rotisserie geniuses? He does what's best for his baseball team. Period.
Yeah, he can't come in. Those first few outings were just typical Giles, and maybe the balls are partially to blame for his failures afterwards, but what happened in Game 4 showed it is in his head now, and you can't run him out there in a pressure situation. Given the rest of the bullpen's struggles, I'm not sure I'd even let him in with a 10 run lead.
