Peña caught looking.
And that ends this stinker 12-6 is the final.
I thought Verlander pitched ok for a 96-year old.
Unless he turns things around, it is going to take some balls for this organization to put JV where he belongs in this rotation if we are able to get to the playoffs.
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5 years ago? Help me to understand that in a context where he was 18-4 with a 1.75ERA in 28 games in a season that ended 22 months ago.
I say this because I think it’s too early to say he’s aged out of the profession. In my personal experience (former D1 distance runner now approaching my late 50’s) I found that once I hit my early 40’s, it became harder to maintain high levels of fitness and precision. Not impossible but harder. The #1 issue was it took/takes longer and longer to recover from injury and layoff. The fitness comes back slower but reasonably fast but precision takes much longer. But, they reps, it does come back with an overall downward trajectory in ceiling that is actually quite slow.
All this to say, give Verlander time. If anyone can do it, he can.
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I’m not going to say JV is done, I hope he comes out next time and things click and he helps lead the Astros to another title. But I’m not going to bank on him being JV again either.
JV has already proved many wrong, 99% of players his age are 2 years into retirement. People thought he was almost done around the time he was traded to the Astros. People thought it would be over after tommy john. People were wrong. But people will eventually be right. Are right now? Fuck if I know. But history says pitchers his age don’t put it back together once it starts going downhill. I hope they are wrong one more time.
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Is JV one of the Astros’ 4 best starters right now?
Will he be in ~3 weeks?
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At 40 most people’s best years are behind them when you’re talking about athletic prowess.
Current company excepted, of course.
I’m as athletically prowessed as I’ve ever been, that’s just not saying a lot.
I figure if Verlander has one more horrible outing he’s at least done for the season, but I expect they’ll give him at least one more. The Astros are patient with their players. I don’t know if that means he’s done with baseball or not. Maybe he’s still hurt, but at the very least his recovery is going worse than he thought it would.
He was a mess last night.
I didn’t say he was terrible two years ago, I said his best was behind him. And while he may be able to still pitch well, he’ll never be 30 again. It just doesn’t work that way.
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Last night sucked, but taking 2 of 3 against an almost certain postseason team is a nice result.
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Absolutely.
Keep winning 2 out of 3.
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Verlander has been open and honest about not being right “yet”
He really should be ramping up in AAA. I’m not sure if pitcing in MLB instead is hampering him (due to pressure to get outs instead of get right) but he understands he’s not in mid-season form.
The question is can he get there in the 3 starts he has remaining?
If he is healthy, the only scenario where I don’t see him in a post season rotation, if they get there, is where he initiates the move. Thats not in his nature.