Justice On The Astros
Richard Justice pens an excellent column on the main reason the Astros are unable to take the next (championship) step: Drayton McLane.
Unfortunately, I don't think McLane is going to be inclined to follow Justice's advice.
Some of the criticism of Jimy Williams is valid, but given the tendency of Astros starters to break down in recent years (not to mention the expense of starters in the league), I'm inclined to defend Williams's quick hook. Yes, we all liked it when Larry Dierker let starters go deep into games, but pitchers are so valuable that I wonder if the Williams approach isn't smarter in the long run. I think it's debatable at least. On the flip side, why bother to conserve pitchers arms for the long term if your owner is not going to re-sign successful pitchers who might demand big bucks. *shrug*
Excerpts:
Hunsicker probably was as annoyed as anyone by the handling of the pitching staff, but he surely agrees that Williams got about everything from this team that was there to be gotten.Agreed (especially on the bold items, which should sound familiar).He deserves to return next season.
Most of all, the Astros can't be afraid to change things a bit. At the moment, they're mediocre.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/03 23:46 | Sports | Technorati
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Comments
Jimy could have easily gotten about 75 more IPs out of his starters. He had plenty of games in which he needed to yank them early, but he missed numerous opportunities to squeeze an inning more out of them. It would help if he had more efficient starters with low pitch count, but the quick hooks eventually caught up with bullpen, especially Lidge.
More problematic was his handling of the third base platoon. Only a certifiable idiot would have started Blum over Ensberg so often in the second half of the season. There's something crazy going on when Blum gets more ABs than Ensberg. Jimy deserves to get fired on that alone.
Posted by Gary C @ 10:37 on 09/30/03
What do you really think of Jimy Williams? :)
There is no doubt that Williams could have squeezed more innings out of the starters. No doubt at all. What I am suggesting is that Williams believes in saving the arms of his starters, for whatever reason. And I'm also suggesting that it may not be as crazy as it sounds, given the current economics of baseball (i.e. price and availability of quality starting pitchers versus price and availability of bullpen help) and the Astros' budget constraints.
Personally, though, I prefer the Dierker approach.
Posted by Kevin @ 20:43 on 09/30/03
You make a good point. I think Larry probably went the other way a little too much though. Ideally, I would like to see a happy medium where a manager lets his pitchers work out of some jams, but still keeps a close eye out for any sign of fatigue which may increase the likelihood of injury. While I would give more established pitchers a little more leeway, young pitchers especially need to be watched closely.
I could go on all day about Ensberg, but I won't ;).
Posted by Gary C. @ 09:10 on 10/01/03
I don't think anybody disagrees on Ensberg. :)
Have you given any thought to starting a blog? Your comments are great blog fodder.
Posted by Kevin @ 20:22 on 10/01/03
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