You can throw out all the xw stats you want but based on the numbers there was about an 80% chance he wasn't gonna get a hit.
Quote:
HOUSTON -- Astros ace Justin Verlander, who suffered a right forearm strain in his first start of the season and was shut down, hopes to resume throwing a baseball next week in an effort to return this season, a source told MLB.com on Wednesday.
Verlander threw six strong innings July 24 against the Mariners to begin the season. He was subsequently shut down for two weeks, but he has been making excellent progress. On July 26, Verlander rebuffed a report that said he was going to be out for the year by tweeting he was going to try to return after a period of rest.
The Astros' pitching staff has been rocked by injuries to the rotation and especially the bullpen, which features nine rookies. After losing Gerrit Cole in free agency, the Astros have had to get by without Verlander, putting further strain on the undermanned staff. Verlander and Cole finished 1-2 in the American League Cy Young voting last year.
At age 36 in 2019, Verlander had one of the best seasons of his career, perhaps trailing the '11 season in which he won his first Cy Young Award and also the AL Most Valuable Player Award. In 34 starts in 2019, he went 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA, 300 strikeouts and a 0.80 WHIP in 223 innings. His WHIP was the second-lowest in the past 100 years.
Farmer1906 said:
Summary of our key injured players
Springer - Back in the line up at DH. Should see the field soon.
Alvarez - needs another weekish worth of ABs in Corpus, maybe less.
Urquidy, Peacock, Devo - All throwing off the mound, bullpen sessions.
Verlander - Plans to start throwing next week.
Osuna - Shut down. No TJ yet. Hoping to rehab and be back for the end of the season.
Pruitt - No responding to rehab, moved to 45 day IL.
I would guess in about 2 weeks we'll have Springer & Alvarez back in the line up daily, Urquidy in the rotation, and Peacock & Devo in the bullpen. That likely pushes Sneed, Castellanos, Rodriguez, and/or Baily off the roster and Bielak or Framber into long relief. This is a big deal.
He took much better swings last night. He was a little early on the first pitch on his 4th AB and absolutely mashed it just foul... he ended up fouling out but honestly I was just happy to see him make hard contact.Farmer1906 said:Ag_07 said:
I don't think Tucker would've done anything but rollover to the right side with another chance but that strike 3 call last night to end the game was egregiously bad.
You probably thought he'd do the same in his other ABs too but he ended up with 2 hits and the farthest hit ball of the night.