The debate over the decision to remove him from Game 1 Tuesday is all over the place -- literally and figuratively -- so why not have a place to discuss it in one place?
I dredged up the name of Casey Fossum in a game thread this week ... a guy who could look like gangbusters for 4-5 innings, then get hammered if left in too long.
Houck, we hope, is better than Fossum, but what if he isn't? Does Houck's current two-pitch repertoire destine him to be more effective as a weapon as a late-inning reliever?
The "third time through" data is skinny at the major league level, but there is something to it ... because clearly the organization knows more about his development than we do.
From BRef, his major league appearances as a starter:
First time through: .179/.233/.226/.460 ... 8.25 K/W
Second time: .227/.306/.320/.626 ... 3.0 K/W
Third time: .333/.412/.600/1.012 ... 1.0 K/W
There's also this
.341/.449/.488/.937 ... 1.88 K/W for pitches 51-75
It can be reasonably argued that he deserved the fifth inning the other night; but it can't be defended that that inning would have turned out well. We just don't know. The only thing we do know is that Whitlock and Taylor spit the bit.
So, how to proceed with Houck? Let him go deeper against weaker teams? This was, after all, the third time he'd faced the Yankees in a month, so they had his timing down.
If he can't develop a third pitch, do they gradually make the transition to a Daniel Bard path and use him in the late innings?
I dredged up the name of Casey Fossum in a game thread this week ... a guy who could look like gangbusters for 4-5 innings, then get hammered if left in too long.
Houck, we hope, is better than Fossum, but what if he isn't? Does Houck's current two-pitch repertoire destine him to be more effective as a weapon as a late-inning reliever?
The "third time through" data is skinny at the major league level, but there is something to it ... because clearly the organization knows more about his development than we do.
From BRef, his major league appearances as a starter:
First time through: .179/.233/.226/.460 ... 8.25 K/W
Second time: .227/.306/.320/.626 ... 3.0 K/W
Third time: .333/.412/.600/1.012 ... 1.0 K/W
There's also this
.341/.449/.488/.937 ... 1.88 K/W for pitches 51-75
It can be reasonably argued that he deserved the fifth inning the other night; but it can't be defended that that inning would have turned out well. We just don't know. The only thing we do know is that Whitlock and Taylor spit the bit.
So, how to proceed with Houck? Let him go deeper against weaker teams? This was, after all, the third time he'd faced the Yankees in a month, so they had his timing down.
If he can't develop a third pitch, do they gradually make the transition to a Daniel Bard path and use him in the late innings?