Built For Big Moments

- Peter Gammons

There’s no way to measure how Justin Verlander would have finished the 2017 season were he still in Detroit. General manager Al Avila and manager Brad Ausmus understood what going to Houston might mean to him. They know Verlander, appreciate and admire that he is a moment guy, that with the Astros position players and fellow alpha personalities like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel that it would drive him.

Verlander is fearless. He is one of those rare persons who is totally at ease with who he is and lives for the thrill of walking up a mound in the first inning like Mick Jagger taking the stage. Ausmus, an 18-year big league veteran, caught someone like that—Roy Oswalt.

In one of Bill James’ most fascinating essays, he defined “big games,” rated “big game pitchers” from 1950-2013 and listed Oswalt as his number one. Ausmus well remembers going to St. Louis for Game 6 of the 2005 National League Championship Series after the Albert Pujols homer off Brad Lidge in Houston, watching Oswalt walk to the mound in the first inning and just knowing Oswalt would never deliver a pitch that he didn’t believe was perfect.