I still feel ok with Giles going out there and closing. Maybe he's just the best of a flawed group but I'm not ready to put someone else in. We've kind of rolled through everyone else anyways.
Yep, I'm still taking Giles over anyone else in our pen to close. Greg and Harris are nice, but they are not closers. That pitching to contact stuff will get you walloped in the playoffs when good/smart teams put the ball in play. Giles is far from perfect but that hit and miss stuff is what saves games in the playoffs.
I agree. Outside of Feliz, Giles has the best SO ability, and Feliz is too valuable a long relief/late innings guy to use him exclusively as the closer. Giles' biggest problem right now is pitch location on the fastball.
Prior to tonight, Fiers had pitched into the 7th inning 7 times this season. The only time he gave up any runs was when they were winning 13-1 against the Angels.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Carlos Correa hit his 40th career HR as a shortstop.That's 5 more than any other shortstop in franchise history -- in 223 career games.</p>— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/769378176992620544" data-datetime="2016-08-27T03:37:06+00:00">August 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Craig Reynolds hit the most memorable home run, in my opinion, of all Astro shortstops. Anyone remember which one that could be?
If our opponents figure out his slider rarely lands in the strike zone, and they learn to identify it, Giles is in a lot of trouble.
You can say that about a ton of excellent relievers though. They clearly can't identify the slider in very limited PA's against him. His mistakes (very much like Lidge) come on hangers, and poorly located fastballs.
That's the point of it being a devastating pitch. Looks EXACTLY like the fastball, and is in the zone till the very last second. Same thing applied to Lidge's slider. For years people were clamoring for him to simply throw it for strikes, not realizing that by doing so... it becomes a more hittable/more recognizable/less dangerous pitch. If he cannot locate his fastball well on hitters count, he honestly should stick with the good slider... and if the hitter doesn't get himself out, walk him and start fresh.
I'm good with Giles as closer. Certainly among the options on this team, and even going forward next year. It's interesting--I'm not sure why, but I feel like people aren't giving Giles room to improve given his age (still only 25) and especially multiple years of experience in the majors. I'm guessing if he had come up in the Astros system (vs. being a "big trade acquisition"), we'd all see potential for growth. I think he will get better in the offseason, with his future secure.
The problem is Giles has regressed. His ERA is double compared to last season. Plus he seems to struggle in the very situation he was acquired. He's giving up too many XBHs.
I get it. But (1) sample sizes are always a weird thing with RPs. Different scale, but even a stud like Rivera (who I'm not saying Giles is or will be) had a 3.15 ERA in the middle of his career even though 60% of his career was in the 1's and the rest in the low 2's pretty much. (2) I'd like to ignore the first ~month of the season when he was pouting after not getting the closer job, feeling the pressure of being a major acquisition, etc. If you don't, I understand. But if you do, he's been pretty great. He has given up too many XBHs, but his sample size on closing opps (esp. 1 run closing opps) is super small. (3) Regarding the XBHs, his HR/FB rate in 45 innings in 2014 was 2.8%, and in 70 innings in 2015 was 3.3%. Right now, it's 16.7% across 51 innings. Even if you think he was due for regression on that minuscule %age, it wouldn't have been that bad. I'd say that's due for positive regression (with some tweaks), and that is largely responsible for his #'s. I guess in short, he's still a good pitcher, he has room to improve and is in the age range to improve, he has pitched pretty well after the first month of the season, and with a larger sample could see a drastic change.
