Time for Heaney to step up

[Tank]

Had to double check it but heard the announcers say Heaney has 24 career wins. 24.

if someone can be frustrating and overrated, here’s their poster boy.

[PattyD22]

Just now, Tank said:

Had to double check it but heard the announcers say Heaney has 24 career wins. 24.

if someone can be frustrating and overrated, here’s their poster boy.

24-29 career record with a 4.44 ERA.

solid

[jsnpritchett]

10 minutes ago, Tank said:

Had to double check it but heard the announcers say Heaney has 24 career wins. 24.

if someone can be frustrating and overrated, here’s their poster boy.

I mean, he's only pitched more than 105 innings once in his career, so it's not all that surprising.

[failos]

Heaney is not good. We’ve been waiting on him to figure things out for many years now.

[m0nkey]

1 hour ago, tdawg87 said:

Still a gigantic pussy.

Can't stand this guy.

Pussy!

On 2/21/2021 at 12:01 PM, tdawg87 said:

Simmons is far from the only player dealing with this, in any sport. We look at these guys like machines: cold and predictable. Everything is at face value. They mess up? They suck. They're slumping? They don't care.

If a player is struggling, or slumping or whatever, what's going on in their head? No one, myself included, ever truly considers that. It really should humble us as sports fans to see things like this. They're all people, just like us, and sometimes they struggle through life, like a lot of us do. 

Mental health is just as important, if not more so than physical health. Joe Maddon said they always focus on the physical stuff, which I'm sure is true in every professional sport. I truly hope they all have access to help on the mental side of things. Doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you make, no one should have to suffer with mental illness.

One thing is for sure, I'll definitely be rooting for Simmons this year. And I'll also be watching what I say about the players going forward.

 

On 2/3/2021 at 5:56 AM, tdawg87 said:

How about we all just try a little harder to understand that these players are human beings? No one should have to "own" anything because they said something then that now looks bad. No one expected something like this. It's a lesson for everyone, not just a "I agree" jerkfest.

 

 

[tdawg87]

Just now, m0nkey said:

Pussy!

 

 

 

Ok.

[Taylor]

6 hours ago, m0nkey said:

We’re still waiting for Arte to step up

I have a feeling this thread will be just as effective as the Arte one.

[FabulousFabregas]

This guy has been trash for years, the fact that's he's still on the team and is the number 2 pitcher (opening day starter last year) shows what a shitshow the pitching staff is. Thank god I got to watch Bundy pitch last night.

[Mark68]

Well, he stepped up--right onto a banana peel.

[Bronson]

4 minutes ago, FabulousFabregas said:

This guy has been trash for years, the fact that's he's still on the team and is the number 2 pitcher (opening day starter last year) shows what a shitshow the pitching staff is. Thank god I got to watch Bundy pitch last night.

I don't think it shows how much of a shitshow this pitching staff is. It just shows Maddon has no clue what he's doing. Canning and Quintana are both better than Heaney.

[Taylor]

8 minutes ago, Bronson said:

I don't think it shows how much of a shitshow this pitching staff is. It just shows Maddon has no clue what he's doing. Canning and Quintana are both better than Heaney.

Does it really matter what order they pitch in to start the season? 

[Bronson]

1 minute ago, Taylor said:

Does it really matter what order they pitch in to start the season? 

Yeah. It's the White Sox. Pitch your actual best. why put your #4 pitcher against their #2 pitcher?

[Taylor]

2 minutes ago, Bronson said:

Yeah. It's the White Sox. Pitch your actual best. why put your #4 pitcher against their #2 pitcher?

I'll bet the order has a 0.0001% chance of affecting the end result of the season.

[Docwaukee]

[Dtwncbad]

Angels should trade him straight up for Howie Kendrick.

[Chuck]

It's time for Heaney to step down! 

[Warfarin]

I think at this point, we probably have enough evidence of who Heaney is as a pitcher.

He does have good stuff and is pretty good at generating Ks.  He will strike out a good amount of hitters.

However, he also is HR prone and seems to fall off the rails quickly.  There have been many starts where he's cruising, and then suddenly, he falls apart and either gives up a few HRs or a few hits followed by a HR.  

He's not terrible, but he's probably not someone I would hang onto long-term, given the above and given the difficulties he's had staying healthy.

I would extend Bundy, given his proven durability and superior secondary pitches, but I would let Heaney go this offseason, along with probably Cobb and Quintana.

The future rotation will perhaps be some combination of Bundy, Ohtani, Canning, Detmers, CRod (?), Barria, Sandoval.  Probably toss in another 1-year deal to a FA SP too, like what Minasian just did with Quintana.  I also expect to see Minasian aggressively draft SPs this year, as we begin to implement a system where we draft and develop our internal replacement.  However, it'll take time for them to develop, so we will likely need to dabble in FA to help supplement the rotation until we can start producing our own SP pipeline.

[tdawg87]

Heaney's fastball is something to at least dream on. He hit 95 last night. 

He went to the changeup in the 3rd and it got crushed. Not sure why he changed what was working the first 2 innings but Heaney gonna Hean.

His stuff is good. Always has been. It's what's between his ears that makes him what he is.

[Stradling]

7 hours ago, Bronson said:

Yeah. It's the White Sox. Pitch your actual best. why put your #4 pitcher against their #2 pitcher?

No, it really doesn’t matter. 

[tdawg87]

I think rotation order only matters in the playoffs. Maybe it can be set up to get your best guys in there during a big series late in the year, but other than that...

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I think rotation order only matters in the playoffs. Maybe it can be set up to get your best guys in there during a big series late in the year, but other than that...

Yep.  And over the course of a full season Heaney is usually average, just like Canning.  Obviously Canning still has upside, whereas Heaney is what he is. 

[Warfarin]

20 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Yep.  And over the course of a full season Heaney is usually average, just like Canning.  Obviously Canning still has upside, whereas Heaney is what he is. 

Yeah.  I mean, when you have pretty good stuff as Heaney does, there's always hope he can improve, but I think there's enough history now with him where we kinda know what he is.  Maybe the FO/Maddon can help him optimize his results a bit more.  His velocity has improved, which is at least a good sign, but there are all sorts of other things that matter - spin rate, tunneling, etc.  Heaney, in a number of ways, kinda seems more like a "thrower" than a pitcher - someone who can blow it by hitters, but also gets lit up when hitters catch up to his pitches.

A lot of the more successful pitchers these days are excellent at tunneling their pitches (see all those Dustin May clips by the PitchingNinja), as well as generating fantastic late movement.  I don't think I really see any of that out of Heaney currently.

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, Warfarin said:

Yeah.  I mean, when you have pretty good stuff as Heaney does, there's always hope he can improve, but I think there's enough history now with him where we kinda know what he is.  Maybe the FO/Maddon can help him optimize his results a bit more.  His velocity has improved, which is at least a good sign, but there are all sorts of other things that matter - spin rate, tunneling, etc.  Heaney, in a number of ways, kinda seems more like a "thrower" than a pitcher - someone who can blow it by hitters, but also gets lit up when hitters catch up to his pitches.

A lot of the more successful pitchers these days are excellent at tunneling their pitches (see all those Dustin May clips by the PitchingNinja), as well as generating fantastic late movement.  I don't think I really see any of that out of Heaney currently.

If you ever get a chance to explain what tunneling is to someone (me) who is too lazy to look it up feel free.  It seems self explanatory but I have been wrong once before. 

[Warfarin]

11 minutes ago, Stradling said:

If you ever get a chance to explain what tunneling is to someone (me) who is too lazy to look it up feel free.  It seems self explanatory but I have been wrong once before. 

Basically, imagine a pitcher who uses the same delivery / release point for two very different pitches.  Those two pitches start off on the same path, but at the very end, move in very different directions - for example, one darts to the left, the other darts to the right.  It's mainly a pitcher's ability to disguise which pitch is being thrown until it is too late.  Conversely, if a pitcher releases a pitch in a different way or it starts moving differently immediately, it is easier for a hitter to know what pitch it is and, in turn, smash it.

EDIT:  Here is an example from the PitchingNinja.  Notice how similar it looks until the very end.  He makes a fantastic hitter look absolutely silly.  PitchingNinja tends to show it as an "overlay," so you see the two pitches and how similar they look until the very end.

 

[Stradling]

Oh ok.  Yea I’ve seen a ton of those videos on Twitter lately but didn’t know the term.