Nitro Miller

[Waldo]

Cut him NOW.

[Ankh]

and replace him with what? Luke Scott?

I'm no fan of Miller, but who's the next pitcher ready to get called up?

[LonghornCDR]

Somebody get ocnarF on the phone.

[VirtualBob]

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and replace him with what? Luke Scott?

I'm no fan of Miller, but who's the next pitcher ready to get called up?

Brandon Puffer

[BudGirl]

Miller is not the sole reason for giving up 12 runs in that game.

[Arky Vaughan]

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Miller is not the sole reason for giving up 12 runs in that game.

Piss-poor across the board.

Astacio is a marginal major-leaguer at this point. Miller may not be a major-leaguer at all.

[BudGirl]

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Miller is not the sole reason for giving up 12 runs in that game.

Piss-poor across the board.

Astacio is a marginal major-leaguer at this point. Miller may not be a major-leaguer at all.

blowing an 11-2 lead would have been crazy.

Fielder's HR was amazing.

[Savage]

He's just awful.  

Fetters would do a better job with his facial expressions alone.

[Fredia]

i kept having the thought of how to get to the ball park and well do i dont know what but if they had destroyed it for roy  i was going to do someing . and you r right cut him hang him out to dry or even better offer him to the scrubs stems or coards

[Waldo]

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and replace him with what?

It really doesn't matter to me.

[otterj]

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He's just awful.  

Fetters would do a better job with his facial expressions alone.

This is a long shot, but does anyone have the video of Fetters and Biggio, with Craig doing the perfect Fetters imitation mid-at-bat?

[mihoba]

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He's just awful.  

Fetters would do a better job with his facial expressions alone.

This is a long shot, but does anyone have the video of Fetters and Biggio, with Craig doing the perfect Fetters imitation mid-at-bat?

That was one of the funniest moments in my baseball watching career. I still can't believe the normally stoic Biggio did that.

[Andyzipp]

I preferred Nolan Ryan's imitation of Brad Lesley...I'm guessing 82 or 83.

Lesley's nickname was "The Animal", I guess because when he struck someone out, he would howl, grunt and wave his arms, and generally make an ass out of himself (like Jose Lima with less coordination).

Ryan struck him out and proceeded to do a spot on immitation of Lesley's spasms.  Much laughter ensued.

[JimR]

i agree w/cut Miller, and i hope the Brandon Puffer suggestion was a joke.

"spoil it for Roy?" if i am not mistaken, he gave up 4 in the 7th.

Zeke is a major league pitcher, and it needs to be out of the pen. again, if i am not mostaken, C. Lee took Lidge deep as well.

i saw Phillip Barzilla pitch. he looked pretty good in his first game at home. he is a LHP, but who knows about his fitting the lefty specialist role.

[No? in Austin]

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i agree w/cut Miller, and i hope the Brandon Puffer suggestion was a joke.

"spoil it for Roy?" if i am not mistaken, he gave up 4 in the 7th.

Zeke is a major league pitcher, and it needs to be out of the pen. again, if i am not mostaken, C. Lee took Lidge deep as well.

i saw Phillip Barzilla pitch. he looked pretty good in his first game at home. he is a LHP, but who knows about his fitting the lefty specialist role.

The entire pitching staff is perplexing right now, except for.... (*wait for it*).... Wandy Rodriquez.

But to stick to the bully for a minute, one thing that Backe's injury does is effect the bullpen roles.  Nieve would've been the mop up guy for Oswalt, much like in San Francisco.  Nieve is really good coming out of the pen, he's around the plate and his pitches move well.  But Nieve has to move into the rotation.  So now the Astros have to rely on Astacio (just called up and has to get his bearings soon) and also the deaded Miller.

Miller has nothing right now.  His pitches are flat, absolutely no movement.  He gets behind hitters quite often and he's basically lucky he doesn't have a worse set of numbers than he has right now (and yes it could be worse for him).  The other bullpen mates are also very inconsistent.  Qualls, Wheeler, Lidge, Gallo... all hit and miss right now for anyone to call them steady and reliable (a shut down bullpen?  Not right now it's not).  Springer is the next guy who puts up good performances but he's not an every other day arm right now due to his delayed spring training.

The worse thing about last nights game to me is that you want the Astros to establish a good pitching, good defense team first before they start doing these imitations of the 27 Yankees.  Offense will come and go, but you want them to establish at least consistency on timely hitting by establishing good approaches at the plate.  But you never want good pitching and good defense to come and go.  That will get you out of the contender picture pronto.

[strosrays]

I'm trying to think of anything less useful, in the entire universe, than a lefty-specialist who not only cannot retire the lefty he is brought in to face, but gives up the longest fucking home run I have seen in some time to him.

Useless, useless, useless... wait!  I've got it!  The Astro's new lefty specialist -- my appendix.

[MRaup]

Can someone forward this to Purpura?

Dear Tim,
My name is Mark Raup. I'm 27 years old. Out of shape. Work with computers.
Why am I writing this, you may be asking? I throw left handed, and I wish to offer my services as lefty specialist.
What baseball experience do I have? Well, I played through highschool?
Was I a pitcher? Not with any overwhelming success at a varisty level, no.
However, for a WHOLE lot less than you're paying Trever Miller, I'm certain that I can suck as badly as Trev does, if not slightly less. I might be able to get a lefty or two out occasionally.
And hey, even if I don't pan out, at least you'll have a good excuse to fall back on.
"Yeah, he played some high school ball 9 years ago, didn't pitch much. What could you really have expected out of him?"
Instead of, "Yeah, he's kicked around the bigs for a while. Yeah, I don't know why he sucks so bad either."
Just something to thing about.
Go Astros,
Mark Raup

[Foghorn]

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I'm trying to think of anything less useful, in the entire universe, than a lefty-specialist who not only cannot retire the lefty he is brought in to face, but gives up the longest fucking home run I have seen in some time to him.

Useless, useless, useless... wait!  I've got it!  The Astro's new lefty specialist -- my appendix.

Appendix Miller...so let it be written, so let it be done!!!

[MusicMan]

I was thinking of him as "Joey"... an atrocious re-hash inexplicably brought back for another season.

[LonghornCDR]

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I'm trying to think of anything less useful, in the entire universe, than a lefty-specialist who not only cannot retire the lefty he is brought in to face, but gives up the longest fucking home run I have seen in some time to him.

Useless, useless, useless... wait!  I've got it!  The Astro's new lefty specialist -- my appendix.

Appendix Miller...so let it be written, so let it be done!!!

Except that unlike a real appendix, this one will burst over, and over, and over again.

[davek]

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I'm trying to think of anything less useful, in the entire universe, than a lefty-specialist who not only cannot retire the lefty he is brought in to face, but gives up the longest fucking home run I have seen in some time to him.

 

John P(retender) Lopez, of course!...

[Craig]

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I'm trying to think of anything less useful, in the entire universe, than a lefty-specialist who not only cannot retire the lefty he is brought in to face, but gives up the longest fucking home run I have seen in some time to him.

Useless, useless, useless... wait!  I've got it!  The Astro's new lefty specialist -- my appendix.

Appendix Miller...so let it be written, so let it be done!!!

Ha, you beat me to it. Another vote for "Appendix."

[Limey]

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Appendix Miller...so let it be written, so let it be done!!!

The appendix is a non-essential sack of bacteria attached to one's colon.  I cannot think of a better description of Trever Miller.

[VirtualBob]

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i agree w/cut Miller, and i hope the Brandon Puffer suggestion was a joke.
 

It was.  It also illustrates the original poster's point that there are not many options.  Barzilla scares me worse than Puffer.

btw, I like Puffer ... a great story.  But AAA is already exceeding expectations.  Major League ERA > 5 and WHIP about 1.7 ... I think the 'stros can do without that.

[JimR]

i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

[S.P. Rodriguez]

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i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

Garner in the  Chron.

 Manager Phil Garner said the club will call up another pitcher, but not necessarily a lefthander.

edited to add...
Not real specific other than he won't be restricted to a lefty specialist.  Any speculation on who will get the call up?

[JimR]

i like Chris Sampson a lot.

[Lefty]

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i like Chris Sampson a lot.

How's Goat looked?

[No? in Austin]

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i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

Garner in the  Chron.

 Manager Phil Garner said the club will call up another pitcher, but not necessarily a lefthander.

edited to add...
Not real specific other than he won't be restricted to a lefty specialist.  Any speculation on who will get the call up?

Don't know, but I would put Nieve back into the pen and bring up Hirsh.  If not, then put Astacio in the rotation and bring up Sampson to pitch out of the pen and leave Nieve in the pen.

[Jacksonian]

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i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

Garner in the  Chron.

 Manager Phil Garner said the club will call up another pitcher, but not necessarily a lefthander.

edited to add...
Not real specific other than he won't be restricted to a lefty specialist.  Any speculation on who will get the call up?

Don't know, but I would put Nieve back into the pen and bring up Hirsh.  If not, then put Astacio in the rotation and bring up Sampson to pitch out of the pen and leave Nieve in the pen.

Sampson has been the most consistent pitcher at RR in April.  I'd look at adding him to the bullpen.  There are 38 on the 40-man roster so adding him to the 40-man and bringing him up shouldn't be a problem.

[MusicMan]

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i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

Garner in the  Chron.

 Manager Phil Garner said the club will call up another pitcher, but not necessarily a lefthander.

edited to add...
Not real specific other than he won't be restricted to a lefty specialist.  Any speculation on who will get the call up?

Don't know, but I would put Nieve back into the pen and bring up Hirsh.  If not, then put Astacio in the rotation and bring up Sampson to pitch out of the pen and leave Nieve in the pen.

Why Nieve to the pen?  Stamina issues?

[No? in Austin]

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i watched Barzilla in his first start. he was very good, but he is not ready for prime time yet.

Garner in the  Chron.

 Manager Phil Garner said the club will call up another pitcher, but not necessarily a lefthander.

edited to add...
Not real specific other than he won't be restricted to a lefty specialist.  Any speculation on who will get the call up?

Don't know, but I would put Nieve back into the pen and bring up Hirsh.  If not, then put Astacio in the rotation and bring up Sampson to pitch out of the pen and leave Nieve in the pen.

Why Nieve to the pen?  Stamina issues?

Consistency and stability.  Right now, Backe being out put a changeup on the bullpen roles and they're not functioning so well.  When you're not going to have inning eaters up and down the rotation (sans Oswalt, but you don't want him worn out by mid-August either), you need a strong middle relief group.

I think Nieve's stuff is great for the role.  His sinker/slider combo is major league.  If he's going to be a starter, he needs more of a changeup and one more pitch (possibly).  I'd rather see him help the pen at this point.  

They need him right now to settle down some of the roles and not have to run Qualls, Wheeler and Lidge into games that require shutting down the opponent even with a large lead.

[MusicMan]

Make that Wheeler and Lidge.  Qualls has looked like the south end of a northbound donkey.