Mere survival is not enough, imo.
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That this wasn’t fixed in the off season confuses me.
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Is there a surgical fix for it?
I don’t think the Astros have ever said what the exact injury is.
ETA:
If McCullers can get the least bit healthy, I think his future will be a late inning bullpen arm at best. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid we shouldn’t expect much from him in 2023.
I don’t trust him to throw strikes in that role.
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Or throw hard enough to be effective
Call me crazy but the guy I last saw in the postseason can be a very effective 5-6 inning SP
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No, you are not crazy, but “last saw” means you skipped WS Game 3.
I think McCullers is a supremely talented pitcher with an arm that isn’t able to take the stress that many can.
He is actually perfect for the 2020s. If he was pitching last century he would likely already be “retired” at age 29.
I think if he can pitch every 5-6 days with a 100 pitch limit and stay under 150 innings he can be a great pitcher.
But him throwing high stress pitches in back to back days may be terrible for him.
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If he can just stay healthy, I agree with you. I’m just not convinced he is healthy and I’m not sure that we can expect 175 innings from him.
WS Game 3 was rough for him.
Hopefully he regains form, stays healthy and has a good 2023.
Game 3 was awful but any single game can look that way. It sure looked like they saw something he was tipping.
Game 4 of the ALCS wasn’t great either but not terrible.
But he was great in the clinching game in Seattle (and needed to be which can’t be overstated)
He also pitched 5+ innings in every regular season start and only gave up 3ER once.
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His breaking pitches were slow and flat. I do not believe in the media’s tipping stuff.
I defer to your knowledge and experience.
My thoughts came from the huddles I saw from Philly players - of course those were shown and focused on by the media.
Of course the huddle could be - " his curveball is shit today - wait for it "
I have no knowledge and am influenced only by what I saw. I do concur his breaking stuff was crap.
There was a blurb somewhere about this yesterday. Essentially, said that it was a ruse and the Phillies were not seeing anything tipped but sitting on what they thought was coming.
If you’re facing LMJ and not sitting on the curveball, you haven’t been paying attention.
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The one guy quoted said he was waiting for a sinker and got it.
His fastball was also 89-92 from what I saw during that game 3. Lance used to throw 95-97 mph. When you mixed that with an 88 mph breaking ball he was nasty. Hopefully he regains form.