Game Thread - 4/15 - Bucs vs Nats

[2drfischer@gmail.c]

507D70616677602023120 wrote: Low payrolls come with their share of Kellers.  It's why the payrolls are low. 
It's not as if he was a dumpster dive acquired because of low cost. He was supposed to be the next internally developed ace of the staff. 


That’s true, Bobster, but consider who was telling us that: Neal Huntington. We all know how good his Front Office was at developing players. Keller’s failure really shouldn’t be a surprise.

[GreenWeenie]

133E33222534236360510 wrote: Low payrolls come with their share of Kellers.  It's why the payrolls are low. 
It's not as if he was a dumpster dive acquired because of low cost. He was supposed to be the next internally developed ace of the staff. 


The latest in a very long time of them, yes.  We have a new batch brewing.



We won't pay the going rate for anyone halfway decent, so this is what we get.

[GreenWeenie]

712731252A30202B263103242E222A2F6D20430 wrote: Low payrolls come with their share of Kellers.  It's why the payrolls are low. 
It's not as if he was a dumpster dive acquired because of low cost. He was supposed to be the next internally developed ace of the staff. 


That’s true, Bobster, but consider who was telling us that:  Neal Huntington.  We all know how good his Front Office was at developing players.  Keller’s failure really shouldn’t be a surprise.




Huntington, as Cherington and all GMs elsewhere do, pimps The Future by crowing about suspects.



But, Cheirington, as Huntington did, and all GMs everywhere do on occasion- make serious evaluation errors by going with suspects and dumping guys like Musgrove and Taillon, then wonder where the SP went.

[Bobster21]

The positive spin on the negative Keller results goes on like a broken record.



“I’m cool with how I’m throwing it right now. I’m feeling really good,” Keller said. “I think it was seven singles tonight. I can’t do anything about some of those." Gee, I dunno, how about getting ahead of batters and putting them away with your "great stuff." That would qualify as doing something about the opposition getting all those hits against you. But if the quality of hits against him is a positive sign, the fact that he's given up 13 hits in just 7.2 IP must be making him positively giddy.



“Hopefully, it’ll change here sooner than later,” Keller said. “That’s what I’m trying to do is get weak contact. To see that I’m getting weak contact is definitely a really positive sign for myself going on. I’m just rolling with it, trying to keep the weak contact up and hopefully it’ll fall my way here soon.” Yes, all those weak hits were a really positive sign. And while we're at it, let's also include the 3 walks in less than 4 innings as another really positive sign. You didn't give in to those hitters. Yay, you! And that 9.39 ERA is another really positive sign. You kept it under 10!



The PG even cited a stat I never heard of as another really positive sign. Keller set his career high CSW last night! Yep, he had a 7 CSW. That's the highest CSW I ever heard of. It's also the lowest CSW I ever heard of. In fact, it's the only CSW I ever heard of. Turns out, CSW is not Chicago Sox that are White. It's "called strikes plus whiffs." Awesome. Gotta love that career setting CSW. I wonder if McClendon sent champaign.



A stat that I was familiar with is WHIP. And Keller is currently being whipped at a rate of 2.3 runners per inning (13 hits and 5 walks packed tightly into just 7.2 innings). I'm sure there's a positive reason for that. It might just take a little longer to think one up.



https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pir ... 2204150015

[SteadyFreddy]

684548595E4F58181B2A0 wrote: The positive spin on the negative Keller results goes on like a broken record.



“I’m cool with how I’m throwing it right now. I’m feeling really good,” Keller said. “I think it was seven singles tonight. I can’t do anything about some of those." Gee, I dunno, how about getting ahead of batters and putting them away with your "great stuff." That would qualify as doing something about the opposition getting all those hits against you. But if the quality of hits against him is a positive sign, the fact that he's given up 13 hits in just 7.2 IP must be making him positively giddy.



“Hopefully, it’ll change here sooner than later,” Keller said. “That’s what I’m trying to do is get weak contact. To see that I’m getting weak contact is definitely a really positive sign for myself going on. I’m just rolling with it, trying to keep the weak contact up and hopefully it’ll fall my way here soon.” Yes, all those weak hits were a really positive sign. And while we're at it, let's also include the 3 walks in less than 4 innings as another really positive sign. You didn't give in to those hitters. Yay, you! And that 9.39 ERA is another really positive sign. You kept it under 10!



The PG even cited a stat I never heard of as another really positive sign. Keller set his career high CSW last night! Yep, he had a 7 CSW. That's the highest CSW I ever heard of. It's also the lowest CSW I ever heard of. In fact, it's the only CSW I ever heard of. Turns out, CSW is not Chicago Sox that are White. It's "called strikes plus whiffs." Awesome. Gotta love that career setting CSW. I wonder if McClendon sent champaign.



A stat that I was familiar with is WHIP. And Keller is currently being whipped at a rate of 2.3 runners per inning (13 hits and 5 walks packed tightly into just 7.2 innings). I'm sure there's a positive reason for that. It might just take a little longer to think one up.



https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pir ... 2204150015 Yea the Keller I didn’t pitch great but didn’t pitch as bad as you think I did song and dance after these games he pitches is getting really old and tiresome. I don’t know what the Pirates do about this other then to keep throwing him out there every 5th day but Keller just looks like a guy who doesn’t have it. He just doesn’t look like a guy for example someone like Gerrit Cole who is gonna go out there everytime he pitches and has a mentality that I’m gonna kick your ass. But yea the excuses and spin for Keller I’ve had just about enough of.

[GreenWeenie]

No one's kicking any ass when you score two runs.

[Bobster21]

172235353E0735353E3935500 wrote: No one's kicking any ass when you score two runs.
There are pitchers who will kick ass even when their team only scores a couple runs. Keller would have needed 8.



The Nats announcers were commenting on his lack of command. Not so much the 3 walks in 3.2 IP, which was not encouraging but the fact that he was often missing badly or not even getting strikes where the catcher was setting up. I think that's a major problem with Keller. His stuff is good enough if he could throw it where he wanted it. But batters can hit 97 mph FBs out over the plate and when he tries to set them up with other pitches, he misses and falls behind in the count. This is his 4th season, though some are very SSSs. But for each year he either has a fair walk rate and terrible hit rate or terrible walk rate and good hit rate. So he either doesn't throw strikes and walks batters or he throws strikes and gets hit hard.

[GreenWeenie]

I'm not sure that it makes much sense to be critical.  It's the same guy as last year on essentially the same roster as last season, with the same team leadership as last year.



It's not like someone sprinkled magic fairy dust on any of them.



Some are going to do a little better.  Some are going to do a little worse.  Some are going to be about the same.  Some guys will go.  Some will come. 



And, the same will be said about them. 



It's Keller.  He is who he is.



The team is what the team is.



He wasn't any good last night.  The team didn't do all that much better, AFAIWC.  We weren't winning that game because of his pitching.  It was very unlikely that we were winning that game because of the lack of scoring.



Bad combination.



Sad part about it- it was against a team that isn't one of the better ones.  That's not a sign to expect good things.  .