Staff aces differ in routes to same objective
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The goal for everyone in spring training is to be ready to go by opening day, but there can be differences in how they go about getting there.
Aside from the length of the time on the mound, the Astros’ top-of-the-rotation aces Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel performed as if they were in midseason form in their starts Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Each has three starts remaining this spring, but their goal for the rest of camp, and even day one of the season, are different.
Keuchel, who was nearly flawless Saturday, going 32⁄3 innings in retiring 11 straight Nationals batters before Bryce Harper singled, hopes to get in the 85-95 pitch range by the end of spring training.
He says for him it is less about pitch count than it is about how many innings he can go. That is the opposite of Verlander, who says how deep into a game he gets in the spring means far less to him than the pitches he throws.
For Keuchel, 30, the up-and-down required to go from inning to inning and the varying wait times while his teammates bat help him prepare for the season than the number of pitches in a game.
“When you get to be as old as I am, the body doesn’t respond as well,” Keuchel said, before joking about the ease of recovery for his younger teammates Lance McCullers Jr., 24, and Gerrit Cole, 27.
Keuchel guesses the first couple of outings of the season he will be held to 90, maybe 100 pitches; Verlander says he prepares to be ready to throw as many as 110 pitches out of the gate.
“I’m not someone that focuses too much on upand-downs, I kind of focus more on pitch count,” said Verlander, who will be the opening-day starter at Texas on March 29.
Keuchel laughed and shrugged at the 35-yearold Verlander’s approach.
“JV is a different cat,” Keuchel said. “Sometimes we talk and I don’t even understand how he doesn’t ever get sore.”
Hinch reflects on pen strategy
If A.J. Hinch’s bullpen strategy has confused you, don’t expect him to make it easier on you this season.
The manager’s goal is to have enough quality arms that he “can make any move I want in the bullpen.”
He has sought to make moves based on the situation, not the inning, and not be hung up on the role of a traditional closer.
Thus, he’ll need to get relievers prepared.
“I want to be able to bring in a pitcher whenever it’s the best matchup, and if that carries over into the next inning I want our guys comfortable getting an out, sitting down, getting back up and getting some more outs the next inning,” Hinch said. “Virtually everybody in our pen will be required to do that at some point.”
As for getting the final out? He has no shortage of pitchers to call on.
“If I bring (Ken) Giles in for a huge matchup in the seventh or eighth inning, (Hector) Rondon’s closed, (Chris) Devenski’s closed, (Will) Harris has closed, (Brad) Peacock could close. We really don’t have a guy that I wouldn’t go to in the ninth inning.”
Over the next couple of weeks, Hinch will put relievers in game-type situations — “Pitching is the easiest thing to replicate at spring training” — and begin to rest position players.