He’s up there with Maldonado when it comes to driving in runs.
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One of those 2 guys hits 5th in the lineup, behind Yordan and in front of Tucker
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With runners on base, he’s slugging a cool .186
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Pitched last year. I really like him.
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Behold, I am become Yordan, destroyer of baseballs.
Look on my works, ye pitchers, and despair.
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5-0 is your final.
Another shutout and a 10-game winning streak, their 6th since 2017.
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Wow. Now THAT is getting blown up
Where would we be without Montero and Neris? In addition to the usual guys in the pen?
In the last 42 innings, the Astros have given up two earned runs.
2 games worth of people, if they all came again from yesterday. Also could be that they had the same people yesterday as today.
This series:
Stros: 21
Twins: 3
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Props to Click. Two excellent additions to the bullpen.
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Montero was last year. He was an afterthought when we got Graveman.
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Not so much “afterthought” as “injured”
Not till he got to Houston. Healthy when we got him. He was a throw in along with Graveman.
Graveman and Rafael Montero are going to the AL West-leading Astros with infielder Abraham Toro and reliever Joe Smith going back to Seattle.
Ladies and Germs: Your First Place Houston Astros!
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iirc, Montero was DFA’d, and hurt, and a salary throw-in.
Worked out pretty well so far for the Stros.
He was DFAed by Seattle after losing his closer job and having a 7+ ERA. He was not hurt. He got hurt in Houston after pitching 6 innings in 4 games and never pitched again in 2021. He was how the Astros got rid of a slumping Joe Smith. They traded Smith for Montero at the same time Toro went for Graveman.
Crawfish Boxes:
“But there’s a thing with Montero. Even though he was partially successful in 2019 and 2020 with Texas, he left horrible numbers behind in Seattle before joining Houston. Once he was traded, things suddenly started to go well for him. Despite pitching only four times for the ‘Stros, he made them count.
Before suffering a lat injury, he threw six innings of three hits and one unearned run while giving up two walks and striking out five hitters. Montero was good for a 0.83 WHIP and wasn’t as hittable as he was during his brief stint as a Mariner.“
Looking at baseball savant, it seems like the Astros basically said “hey guy you have a great fastball, use it.”
He’s throwing all his other pitches much less than before and his 4-seamer much more. Based on the numbers, his sinker was his worst pitch and instead of using it almost as much as his 4-seam, he’s throwing it about a quarter as much.
This is usually the way the Astros “make pitchers better” they just have guys stop throwing pitches that are not effective. Seems to working with Montero
Yeah, when I was researching the “we traded for an injured pitcher,” I read some website’s analysis about how so much better he was in an Astros uniform in 2021 before getting hurt in a game. That article showed his different use of pitches in Houston.
The Astros method seems simple: convince a great arm to use his best pitches more often and to discard his worst. The Astros show said great arm objective data to prove which are best and which are worst.