Hader may be confused about his role here.
He threw 95 down the middle and up in a pitcher’s count to Albies.
They’re pounding the shit out of him
This unraveled pretty quickly.
Time to bring Bielak in.
Does Hader have a translator?
Put me down as not a fan of Hader.
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It might be up, but it was down the middle to everyone.
If he was pitching in situations where he was protecting a lead more often than when the Astros are trailing, things might be a bit different. Not excusing Hader’s performance tonight, but closers do not typically fare well in non-save situations.
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Thank God we got Hader instead of a starter.
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I saw something in the Atlantic recently talking about how Hader had changed his pitching style substantially from previous, more successful years. Something about fewer sliders and throwing the fastball up rather than down. Whatever he’s trying to do, he should try something else.
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It’s not his fault but I can’t separate him and his salary and the 100 innings he might pitch from Neris, Maton and Stanek and their collective salaries and the innings they would have pitched. Crane seems to have fucked up another high impact personnel decision.
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If Abreu can’t catch up to 40-year-old Jesse Chavez’s 91-92 mph fastball, it’s time to retire.
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Narrator: “He can’t”
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I’m sadly aware. It’s time for Jose Abreu to hang up his cleats.
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And that’s what crappy home plate umpiring does. Dubon chased ball five because he got ball four off the outside corner called a strike.
Astros lose 6-1.
I’m glad you’re here to tell us that everything is wrong.
We need this.
I worry about the general strategy and salary allocation of the club, but maybe that is a product of this rough start. I don’t think I have ever heard of a successful professional sports franchise that stayed that way once ownership decided to become more involved.
The recent Jon Heyman podcast with Reggie Jackson made me think this. The podcast indicated that the decision making process for the Astros has input from not only Dana Brown and Crane, but also from Reggie Jackson, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio.
Unless I am mistaken, I just don’t think the organization ran that way under Luhnow and Click. It seems like we went from being a cutting edge franchise to…something less than that.
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One thing Crane has demonstrated over the last 10 years is that his ego will never let this team be competitive.
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That’s what front runners do: like the guys who are playing well, and disparage those who are not. Reading the kind of stuff you are talking about is the primary reason I am staying away from the GZ during games.
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