Verlander is going to finish first or second in the Cy Young voting this season. The man had a 2.58 ERA and a .80 whip for the entire season. He had arguably the best regular season of his career. Second, he had two good starts in the postseason. Game 1 vs the Rays, and Game 2 vs the Yankees.
Imo this series was lost in game 6. You had the momentum on your side after ripping their hearts 3 straights in DC, you lose game 6 and it’s anybody’s game in g7, hell you actually have more pressure on your back in game 7.
Exactly. One of the BEST teams won. Stros were actually 3rd best (Indians). That's why the BEST team vs WC angle is misleading. Wild Card has 2-4 teams/opportunities every season vs only ONE best team.
How exactly are the Astros going to lose Reddick and Gurriel when both are under contract in 2020? And Wade Miley was garbage from August on, so he’s not some major loss. Cole would be, definitely, but the Astros will be active in the free agent pitching market or they will trade for a replacement.
Yeah. I knew Hinch was going to have Zach on a short leash, especially with a 1 run lead. To strand the runners we did pulled Grienke was much as Hinch did. If Grienke gives up a HR and walks Soto with the 4-6 run lead we should have had then Hinch likely sits on him to see if he can get out of the inning. With it being a 1 run lead all Hinch had to be thinking is exactly what he said, his pitch count was higher than it should have been and maybe he's slowing down. With how the Nats have been who knows if Zach doesn't give up the 2 run HR anyways or if they don't tie the game anyways. Either way, blame the bats more than anything, 2 runs were never going to get it done.
Game 2 against the Yanks was only a good start on paper. Anyone that saw that game live would have told you that he pitched mediocre. He left a bunch of breaking balls hanging in the zone and was really lucky with the Yanks hitting a bunch of the balls to the warning track. Verlander simply is not able to pitch 200IP no more and be able to be the #1 in the postseason. He simply isnt in his prime no more no matter how much you might not like it.
Instead of the Astros being remembered as a legendary dynasty they'll be forgotten and thats what hurts me the most. This team had all the resources to be something truly special and they choked at the end. The vast amount of talent they had will never be measured again in baseball. How often in baseball does a team have a legit 1/2 cy young tandem along with the depth the Astros had?
It looks like this could be the beginning of the end of the Astros, because its coming due all the cheap talent we have had the past few years. I know they will make an attempt to keep the core, but they are going to make some hard decisions and you are getting close to being in the luxury tax threshold now.
Yeah they choked plain and simple, and yet I will never forgive AJ for this game. This is right up there in worst Houston sports moments for me. The honeymoon is over for AJ after this debacle.
No pitcher makes perfect pitches all game, not even Gerrit Cole in his incredible run this season. Therefore, it’s silly to not give Justin Verlander credit for going 6.2 innings of two-run baseball against the Yankees, who had one of the deepest and most talented lineups in baseball. Also, you have absolutely no idea whether Justin Verlander can pitch 200 innings in the regular season and have enough juice to still maintain his performance in the playoffs. If you want to speculate because of his performance this postseason, be my guest. I’m not writing one of the best pitchers of this generation off because of one-six-game sample size. The guy is still an ace and an elite starting pitcher, and that will be the case heading into 2020.
Nah, they are going to get their respect when its all said and done. This team has legendary players that will be in the HOF, multiple. I'd like to think Verlander and Altuve for sure. Championships are never forgotten and neither are WS appearances. It really sucks they didn't close the deal but people that look at Baseball and study its history knows its an odd sport where anything can happen. It's not like Basketball where the consistency is...the NBA is just really F'n consistent to where if you don't win 2-3 rings then people look at you as a lesser champion... MLB is a lot like NFL, one time champions are respected. It was a legendary team to be sure though.
Nah, they will continue to be a dominant regular season team for a while. With the way Luhnow runs things, they will always have talent in the pipeline. We may not keep Cole, but they will definitely find a solid replacement to go with JV, Greinke and Lance. I have no doubt they will win 100 games again next season with or without Cole and they’ll be in the tournament once again.
I mean think about it, the Nats were almost eliminated in the Wildcard game by a Yelich-less Brewers team...then were almost eliminated again by the powerhouse Dodgers. Baseball is odd like that, they got on a roll, were a team of destiny, as Stras said some weeks back...they were the buzzsaw this year. We're going to lose some guys and that's fine, maybe the guys we lose weren't so clutch after all.
The reality is MLB has the second-most-unpredictable playoffs behind only the NHL. A large part of that is the five-game series in the first round puts the best teams at a real disadvantage. Keep in mind, the Astros had two former Cy Young Award winners and a third pitcher that will likely win the award this season on their staff. Yet, in a five-game series, only the game 1 starter gets to go twice on normal rest. Second, it’s much easier for a team to simply get hot at the right time (Nationals) or slump at the wrong time (Astros). The Astros’ offense picked the worst time of the season to go into a collective slump. They only survived versus the Yankees because their pitching was outstanding for the most part. When it started having cracks in the armor at home in the World Series, the bats never found their stride to pick them up.
Tonight, Astros mostly had bad luck. Overall this series, JV wasn't good enough and Strasburg was too good. The unforced errors (Springer hop to 2B instead of running to 3B and Reddick not running hard) were insult to injury. Astros could've won this series despite a subpar JV and/or Cole blowing up one appearance had they hustled.
I feel like it's even a miracle we made it that far. Despite the record, let's be honest. The bats have been a huge problem for the Astros from the beginning of the playoffs vs the Rays and never really got off. Every loss seemed to be because we had too many LOB and our batting avg RISP was beyond dreadful.
I think the Astros played like they were entitled to an extent, at times. Specifically thinking of those plays you mentioned. And then Bregman show boating. That Springer double may well have cost them the game and series. Too many unforced errors.
Very 90’s braves like. They won 1 WS yeah, but overall they’re known as underachievers considering their talent
Apples and oranges between football and baseball, but the Packers since 1992 also come to mind. Two all time greats at QB in Favre and Rodgers, only 2 titles (one by each) to show for it.
The league leading run differential means nothing come playoff time. We beat up on a weak division. This loss is setting in now. Still proud and enjoyed the sweat.