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Sunday, August 07, 2011

Houston Chronicle: Astros send Happ to minors

The Astros on Saturday optioned lefthander J.A. Happ to Class AAA Oklahoma City and placed righthanded reliever Enerio Del Rosario (shoulder strain) on the 15-day disabled list. To fill those roster spots, the Astros recalled righthanded reliever Jeff Fulchino and lefthanded reliever Wesley Wright from Oklahoma City.

Happ is 4-14 with a National League-high 6.26 ERA in 22 starts. In an 8-1 loss to Milwaukee on Friday, Happ became the first pitcher in franchise history to allow five or more runs in eight consecutive starts.
...
“It’s not an easy decision,” Wade said. “We wanted to figure out the best way to get him back on track. And I think it truly is a case of back on track. This is not placing your hope and faith on a guy who has only done it at a level below where we are right now.”

Heading into this season, Happ was 19-9 with a 3.27 ERA in the majors. The Astros are 4-18 in Happ’s starts this season. He has the highest walk rate (4.8 per nine innings) of any of the NL ERA qualifiers.

NTNgod Posted: August 07, 2011 at 02:44 AM | 12 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: astros

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   1. Didi Dodo Doodoo (1k5v3L) Posted: August 07, 2011 at 04:14 AM (#3894547)
Happless Astros...
   2. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: August 07, 2011 at 04:24 AM (#3894548)
dammit, TKAE, you beat me to it (pretty easy joke, but still...)
   3. Biff, highly-regarded young guy Posted: August 07, 2011 at 04:33 AM (#3894550)
Happ became the first pitcher in franchise history to allow five or more runs in eight consecutive starts.

That's a pretty impressive run of sucking.
   4. Austin Posted: August 07, 2011 at 09:35 AM (#3894573)
That's a pretty impressive run of sucking.

It probably also means that Mills is leaving him in there to get torched rather than just pulling him out of the game at the first sign of major trouble.
   5. Harveys Wallbangers Posted: August 07, 2011 at 10:27 AM (#3894574)
Austin

If Mills did that he would burn out the bullpen lickety split. Happ has been giving up runs early and often
   6. Tricky Dick Posted: August 07, 2011 at 02:08 PM (#3894610)
J.A. Happ is a good example as to why you should be wary of using ERA to predict a player's performance. Happ had an ERA of 3.40 in 2010 and now has an ERA of 6.26 in 2011.

Yet, Happ's K/9 and BB/9 are basically the same for both years (actually slightly improved in 2011). The difference? How about a BABIP of .262 in 2010 in contrast to .322 in 2011. Or a LOB of 76% in 2010 vs. 61% in 2011.
   7. Gern Blanston Posted: August 07, 2011 at 04:53 PM (#3894664)
Yeah, leading the NL in walks per 9 while pitching in Enron seems like a bad idea. Makes those BABIP fluctuations all the more painful...
   8. Greg (U)K Posted: August 07, 2011 at 05:24 PM (#3894674)
I remember when Happ was bandied about as the key part of a Halladay trade.

I'm sure glad that never happened.
   9. Pat Rapper's Delight Posted: August 07, 2011 at 06:37 PM (#3894719)
Happ became the first pitcher in franchise history to allow five or more runs in eight consecutive starts.

That's a pretty impressive run of sucking.

Especially considering this is the same franchise that gave Lima Time 42 starts in 2000-01 with an ERA of almost 7.
   10. Joe Kehoskie Posted: August 07, 2011 at 08:27 PM (#3894787)
The most surprising thing about this is that Hardball Talk went with the rather staid headline "Astros demote struggling starter J.A. Happ to Triple-A" rather than the obvious "And that Happened ..."
   11. Gern Blanston Posted: August 07, 2011 at 09:24 PM (#3894800)
Huh--Happ is from Spring Valley, IL. I lived in that neck of the woods for one miserable year of my life...
   12. Banta Posted: August 07, 2011 at 09:49 PM (#3894812)
Especially considering this is the same franchise that gave Lima Time 42 starts in 2000-01 with an ERA of almost 7.

Not really your point, but I thought I'd mention that Happ's ERA+ this year is 60. Lima in those two years averaged roughly a 77 ERA+. Happ's suckiness is certainly impressive.

The more comparable Lima year would part of his career always baffles me) with 168.2 IP of 63 ERA+. That, of course, got ol' Omar Minaya all intrigued and led to me seeing the worst, most hopeless starts I'd ever seen in my life the next year.

EDIT: Looking closer at Lima, he's sort of a lesson in, no matter how shitty your stuff is, if you can throw strikes, you'll do alright. Every time his BB/9 was lower than 2 (which is very impressive), he was pretty good.

EDIT EDIT: Except '97. And '01, he was at 2.1 but an ERA+ of 79 over 169 innings. Ouch. So, uh, nevermind, I guess.

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