Also, I'm going to take a leap of faith in you and assume (hope) this is an inside joke between the two of you. If it's somehow not a joke...jesus. It's a sports message board. Take yourself a little less seriously.
Well, lets hope Rangers play awful, and Twins after they leave home because ASStros are 1 and 3 so far this september, and not looking like they are going to play good baseball to win the division, but instead watch how other teams struggle and DON'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If Astros go 13-13 to finish 87-75, Rangers have to go 17-11 to pass them</p>— Reid Laymance (@ReidLaymance) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReidLaymance/status/640576206107074560">September 6, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Another september race: Who will get to 10 homers first? Marisnick, Lowrie or Marwin Gonzalez. How many of the 3 wi
Big win by the Astros and there are 2 very important things going on, Lowrie and Gomez are starting to hit with consistency. If those 2 starts hitting the lineup becomes interesting. I think that we need to give more games to Tucker at DH, he usually gives you good at bats. Now Angels will have a tough series vs the Dodgers and Texas a 4 game series and those are very difficult to win. The Rangers have 3 very good starters but Lewis is just average and number 5 is below average. They don't have days off so they are going to need to pitch the 5 guys so I believe Lewis Must win his games of the Rangers have any chance to win the division, today he struggled big time. The A's series is important and we must win 2 of 3, and we have 2 matchups in our favor. I would really like to see Marisnick in at least 2 of the 3 games.
Santiago pitching, 6 innings, only 1 hit but 6 walks!!!!!! 103 pitches, so the bullpen must be ready. Looks like the Rangers will be 3 and 2 after today's game and Astros 2 and 3. RAngers going to Seattle (Gallardo vs Elias) (Hamels vs Walker) other 2 games are not determined yet, but for the Rangers are Perez and Holland. That means that when we face the Rangers the rotation for them should be: Perez Holland Lewis Gallardo for us Kazmir McHugh McCullers K We will not have to face Hamels, unless they go with 4 men rotation and skip Perez and go Holland, Lewis, Galardo, Hamels ( i think they need to do that) Is going to be an interesting series vs the Rangers
Our advantage is we have 5 starters that you expect them to pitch deep in games (at least 6 innings) with 3 runs or less.
Yep and once Springer shakes off the rust from not playing since July 1st the better. I saw that play yesterday again where he missed the catch....definitely due to being outta the lineup. In one regard if it takes lousy plays like that to loose close games then the astros have come a loooong ways with the help of their starters keeping them in games.
Yesterday Hinch said something interesting, he said that lineup is not as important for him, and that low part of the lineup is productive, and gave an example of yesterday's game where it all started with the 6th hole, Gomez. With that I looked at numbers because I DO AGREE with him that low part of the lineup has been good, and i am sure that the top 3 spots are also good, so i thought, our problem is 4 and 5th spot in the lineup, and i looked at numbers and yes, OPS for the 4th spot is .714 and 5th spot is a very weak .674, lowest of any spot in the lineup. With that said, maybe that is one of the reasons we struggle sometimes to score runs, because our middle is not good enough, what can we do? Lets look at players and see why they should be hitting where: VS Left Handed Pitcher 1. Springer RF (he walks, has a nice OBP, low average with RISP and power) 2. Marwin Gonzalez 1b (this guy hits .284 vs lefties and an OPS of .779, will take pitches for Springer to run) 3. Correa SS 4. Altuve 2b ( this spot needs improvement, and Altuve is our best hitter for average and with RISP, he gives protection to Correa, and pitchers has no way of pitching as he has no strike zone) 5. Lowrie 3b (He is starting to hit, plus takes pitches allowing Altuve to run) 6. Gomez LF (He is starting to hit, 6th spot is very good for him 7. GAttis DH (For me he has been a dissapointment, with Atllanta he had a .810 OPS, with us .729, he is one of the reasons we have struggle middle of teh lineup) 8. Castro C (Always use Castro vs lefties, please, Congers can't hit them) 9. Marisnick CF VS Right handed pitcher 1. Springer RF 2. Lowrie 3b 3. Correa SS 4. Altuve 2b 5. Rasmus LF (numbers are not good, but doing good with RISP and has big hits for us) 6. Gomez CF 7. Tucker DH (this is controversial, as Hinch does not believe in this, only twice he has DH) This guy has better numbers than GAttis, and hits righties pretty good, .835 OPS. 8. Valbuena 1b (He is hitting much better lately) 9. Castro/Conger Majority of the games CAstros for his defense, but when is time for Conger, ONLY play him vs righties. I don't like to have 3 lefties hitting in a row, but late in games you can pinch hit for Tucker and Valbuena with Gattis and Gonzalez. I do believe in lineups and they should be in a spot for some reason, and i think this is the best lineup we can offer. I do understand there are some controversies with these moves, Altuve hitting 4th, Gomez playing LF when Marisnick plays, Tucker over Gattis vs right handed pitchers, but i think that lineup, plus defense can be very productive.
Not Astros related but Nationals vs Mets playing now, Scherzer vs Niese. Mets are 4 games in front, i still think Nationals have a good chance to take the division.
If you are starting a post with this in the Astros section then you are wrong. There is a place for non Astros baseball talk and it is not in this forum. Try "Other Sports". There is an MLB thread in there already.
Looks like after tonight our record for September is going to be 2 and 4. It worries how ineffective the bullpen has been lately. Seattle and Texas are 0 and 0 in the third.
As long as Colby Lewis sucks, the Rangers apparently can't catch us anyway, so how we play isn't really irrelevant.
RAngers leading 2 to 0, 2 rbi single by Beltre, Gallardo throwing a shutout. KC NOT HELPING, Twins leading them 1 to 0 in the first. Hicks homers against NOT ACE Ventura. We have to follow those 2 teams with the Angels, as the 4 teams are battling for 2 spots.