All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PBP, that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on Root Sports unless otherwise noted. 5-9 Bartolo Colon RHP vs. Charlie Morton RHP 7:10 5-10 Jaime Garcia LHP vs. Joe Musgrove RHP 1:10
Amazing how long Bartolo Colon has been in the league. When he first started out, the Dbacks and (Devil) Rays did not even exist yet. The Brewers were in the AL, and the Astros were in the NL and played in the Dome. He is the only active player to have played for the Montreal Expos.
Could someone please post this article? http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/19339967/ranking-every-mlb-lineup-passed-cubs
Braves are terrible and we're at home. For this series to be a success we need to take both of these.
I miss NL matchups. Love the DH, but not being in the NL still feels weird. Crazy to think about how talented those ATL teams were. And for how long. Combination of multiple HOFers, All-Stars, and above average players, and not for a handful of seasons. 14 straight division titles, yet they only won one WS. Absurd. Also, screw the Braves.
Posting Astros portion (posting everything requires a lot of cleaning up / etc. that I can't do right now)
I tried and gave up. Also, Fangraph's Jeff Sullivan is a fantastic writer. I was surprised to see ESPN feature him. One of the best baseball minds in the media, IMO. His Twitter is a great follow (@based_ball) as well.
Bummed we don't get to see R.A. Dickey pitch. I enjoyed the documentary "Knuckleball" which featured him heavily. Seems like a great dude with a great story.
...assuming we can all agree Carlos Beltran has more left in the tank than he has shown. Does he? Opinions?
I think he will warm up in june as the days get warmer and the opposing pitching staffs thin out a bit. I could see him contributing at a fairly high level in the second half.
2015 1st half: .260/.309/.430 2015 2nd half: .292/.364/.513 2016 1st half: .299/.338/.550 2016 2nd half: .291/.337/.469 Career 1st half: .278/.352/.495 Career 2nd half: ..281/.360/.501 Current: .243/.273/.357 2015 worked out that way. 2016 didn't. On the one hand, he doesn't appear to have strong splits either way. On the other, save for the first half of 2014, he's never had a half season with a sub .700 OPS. I think it's reasonable to assume that he'll get up to a ~.740 OPS regardless later in the year, with upside beyond that.
