Nuke LaLoosh said:

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He hasn't pitched in 2 weeks, sucks on the road, and we have a hall of fame pitcher on full rest. Doesn't make sense.

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You can poke holes or make a case for just about any of our top 4 guys. If they picked Lance then I would think they have solid reasons for doing so.

Only logical thing I can think of is that we wanna see how our pen usage shakes out so we can see how late into game 3 we let Greinke pitch.

Or maybe we plan on using Greinke multiple days out of the pen, which would be some Dave Roberts level pitching staff playoff bull*****

What I can't get over is the conscious decision to maybe have lance on short rest instead of Greinke on short rest.

This is cracking me up as Rusty-O-Beef or whatever said I should never manage the Astros for thinking anyone other than ZG could start game 1, even though I said it was an out of the box idea that even I wasn't pressing, just a thought experiment.

I really hope this works out because there will be lots of questions if it doesn't.

So, when, if LMJ is #4 in your mind, are you pitching him in this series?

I'm all for LMJ game 1. He's going to be awesome today

Lance was on fire down the stretch. I'm not sure what y'all are arguing about

If LMJ gives us 6 strong today and leaves with a 1 run lead, how should we guide the ship home?

IMO we give it to Javier. If he's hot, we let him take it all the way. If he's solid, we let Javier go 7/8th and Pressly takes the 9th. If he runs into any issues, Raley gets first crack.

Deluxe said:

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If LMJ gives us 6 strong today and leaves with a 1 run lead, how should we guide the ship home?

IMO we give it to Javier. If he's hot, we let him take it all the way. If he's solid, we let Javier go 7/8th and Pressly takes the 9th. If he runs into any issues, Raley gets first crack.

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If you throw Javier today in relief, you are saying you are ok with a game 5 bullpen game with Javier only giving you 2-3 innings that day.

If we get good lance, we are fine. If he goes 3 and implodes our bullpen is blown for the entire week.

I think the best we can logically hope for is 5 scoreless. That still makes for a loooooong 4 innings.

If he goes 6 then we have 9 outs left.

Pressly likely gets the 9th.
Parades the 8th unless there is a heavy mix of lefties. Then you go Raley.
I'd throw James and yank him as soon as there was any trouble (damn 3 batter rule). Before someone freaks out look how James pitched down the stretch. His last 5 games-6 IP, 2 Hits, 0 Runs, 7 K, 1 BB.

I'll save Javier for a multi inning spot. But Javier makes me nervous because the As put up runs against him this year.

bearkatag15 said:

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Deluxe said:

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If LMJ gives us 6 strong today and leaves with a 1 run lead, how should we guide the ship home?

IMO we give it to Javier. If he's hot, we let him take it all the way. If he's solid, we let Javier go 7/8th and Pressly takes the 9th. If he runs into any issues, Raley gets first crack.

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If you throw Javier today in relief, you are saying you are ok with a game 5 bullpen game with Javier only giving you 2-3 innings that day.

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Agreed. I'm fine with worrying about g5 when/if we get there.

Other options: Raley pitches 7/8th and Pressly gets the 9th. I'd really rather not get Paredes/Taylor involved with a 1 run lead late in the game, but we may not have much of a choice. I think it's possible we could manage through the ALDS without using them in high lev, but almost no chance we could get through the ALCS.

Buck Compton said:

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Beat40 said:

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This is cracking me up as Rusty-O-Beef or whatever said I should never manage the Astros for thinking anyone other than ZG could start game 1, even though I said it was an out of the box idea that even I wasn't pressing, just a thought experiment.

I really hope this works out because there will be lots of questions if it doesn't.

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No... you proposed basically throwing game 1. You don't concede a game in a 5 game series.

My guess is they're going LMJ because he's had a long break, ZG has some injury or soreness they haven't announced yet, or because of ZG's very mixed results against the As this year. Not to concede the game and try to get a batter SP vs. SP matchup later.

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I didn't say throw the game per se. I said you would do so knowing you were at a disadvantage with the intent of setting up for matchups for the remainder of the series. My thought experiment was a question of a different strategy. I never actually pushed for it.

Now, I believe the Astros are doing this with the intent that LMJ is the best matchup, so they are still doing things in good faith, which is the main difference between what I said and what they are actually doing.

Farmer1906 said:

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If he goes 6 then we have 9 outs left.

Pressly likely gets the 9th.
Parades the 8th unless there is a heavy mix of lefties. Then you go Raley.
I'd throw James and yank him as soon as there was any trouble (damn 3 batter rule). Before someone freaks out look how James pitched down the stretch. His last 5 games-6 IP, 2 Hits, 0 Runs, 7 K, 1 BB.

I'll save Javier for a multi inning spot. But Javier makes me nervous because the As put up runs against him this year.

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I'm with ya. James is probably our wild card this postseason. If we end up making a run to the World Series, it almost certainly means he made a significant contribution at some point. Maybe we just throw him in with a short leash and see how he does. Like you said, his recent performance is encouraging.

Think it also has to do with the LMJ not being able to pitch in short rest.

So if you start him today you can use him twice this series to start GM 5 or come out of the pen for someone on short rest. If he starts later today you only get him once.

With our depth we need him to be available later in the series.

Yea, LMJ's ability to go on short rest is another wild card. I'm sure Lance will be all-in to pitch g5 on short rest. Question is just how effective he would be. Doubt he's thrown on three days since TJ.

Hardly anyone is very good on 3 days rest.

Use JV for example.

In 2011 he went on 2 days rest, threw 8(damn!), but gave up 4.
In 2017 he came out of the pen to close out Boston on 3 days. Went 2.2 and gave up 1.
Last year he pitched game 4 vs TB and got lit up to 4 runs over 3.2.

I know this has already been discussed, but why such a long wait between series? Could have started the series Saturday and had an off day mixed in after Games 2 and 4. Really poor management by MLB just because they are scared of competing with the NFL.

Agmaniacmike12 said:

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I know this has already been discussed, but why such a long wait between series? Could have started the series Saturday and had an off day mixed in after Games 2 and 4. Really poor management by MLB just because they are scared of competing with the NFL.

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Im guessing getting everybody in the bubble as well as travel to the destination cities.

Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't care or dislike the day games. It's not like many people are in an office or unable to be near a TV.

Let's give Lance some credit for his postseason history.

His debut he went 6.1 vs the eventual WS champs and only gave up 2 runs. Leaving the game with a 3-2 lead before one of the biggest postseason implosions ever.

In 2017 he made 5 appearances. Boston got to him his first start, but he had a very nice outing vs NY in the Bronx(6 IP, 1 ER), his famous 24 knuckle curves in a row to take us to the WS on 3 days rest, an OK start vs LAD, then a game 7 start of a scoreless 2-1/3 inning before he ran out of gas (no shame).
In 2018 he pitched through a major injury that needed TJ. He pitched out of the bullpen 5x, including 3 scoreless innings, 1 (unearned) run in 0.2, and finally 1 ER in 1.1.

Farmer1906 said:

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Let's give Lance some credit for his postseason history.

His debut he went 6.1 vs the eventual WS champs and only gave up 2 runs. Leaving the game with a 3-2 lead before one of the biggest postseason implosions ever.

In 2017 he made 5 appearances. Boston got to him his first start, but he had a very nice outing vs NY in the Bronx(6 IP, 1 ER), his famous 24 knuckle curves in a row to take us to the WS on 3 days rest, an OK start vs LAD, then a game 7 start of a scoreless 2-1/3 inning before he ran out of gas (no shame).
In 2018 he pitched through a major injury that needed TJ. He pitched out of the bullpen 5x, including 3 scoreless innings, 1 (unearned) run in 0.2, and finally 1 ER in 1.1.

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I was thinking about this last night. He's had some pretty good postseason appearances.

Hopefully this will be his best one.

Agreed throwing LMJ on three days rest in g5 isn't ideal, but bookmarking Javier for g5 and rolling with James/Paredes in high lev isn't necessarily ideal either. I can listen to arguments either way.

Worth noting that LMJ slammed the door on the Yankees in g7 of the 2017 ALCS on three days rest. (It looks like you noted that in your other LMJ post... great minds think alike!)

Frok said:

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Agmaniacmike12 said:

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I know this has already been discussed, but why such a long wait between series? Could have started the series Saturday and had an off day mixed in after Games 2 and 4. Really poor management by MLB just because they are scared of competing with the NFL.

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I think baseball's goal is always to make it as hard as possible for me to watch my team.

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weird scheduling all around, just so the yankees/dodgers get prime time tv spots. look at today: west coast home team athletics start at 1pm local time. why early afternoon when everyone is at work? meanwhile, the yanks/rays start at 8pm local time, and will probably end around midnight, during the work week. only diehard fans are going to stay up that late.

and i'll bet a month from now they'll be scratching their heads wondering why tv ratings are down again

Fun to relive...

The no days off is what bugs the shlt outta me. What's the point?

Can you imagine if a team goes up 2-0 using it's closer both days but can't use him for a clinching GM 3 because he's wore out?

Incredibly dumb move by MLB but hey...That's what's expected at this point.

I agree. We can't just save Javier. We don't have a deep or decent pen. If it goes 5 it's all hands on deck. Let Lance go 2 to open. Then throw the kitchen sink at the As. Garcia may need to be the man in long relief in his hypothetical game.

Especially since we had such a long break after the 3 game wild card series. Makes no sense.