Great season overall. Easy to compare to last year, which was magical. We didn't have the crazy post-Harvey vibe, our bats weren't quite as hot, Bregman gave the opposition a little fuel/karma, and finally, Boston is just a damn good team this year. Congrats Astros, division champs and final 4 team. Here's to next season!
It wasn't until September that I thought we had a chance to even get into the playoffs much less roll past Cleveland. To get 103 wins as banged up as we were is a testament to how much this team wanted a repeat. But I saw Boston early on and knew they were really, really good this season. Look at how they handled the 100-win Yankees. It sucks to lose and it feels bad but we were just out-played by a better team.
Great season but regular season certainly had its share of disappointments. - Altuve injury robbed him from repeating as batting title champ and overall hits leader. - Correa injury just completely ruined him the whole second half and most of playoffs. - McCann was a factor early but then missed a lot of time due to injury and never really got back to form. - Morton and McCullers injuries at end of season; not in form for playoffs. - Keuchel stunk it up for a lot of the first half of the season. - Home record obviously was disappointing. This team could have had 110+ wins if some of these things went better.
It's REALLY hard to repeat in this league. That's why it hasn't been done in 18 years. Boston was the better team (this year). This team may just be getting started. It's not like we can't go on a 3 in 5 years kind of run like the Giants did a few years ago. We are not the 2015 Royals. This loss in no way de-legitimizes anything we did last year. We'll always have those incredible memories, no matter what happens from here on out. At least my wife won't see me crying like she did last year after the final out of the WS. She still makes fun of me for that. She just doesn't understand.......
they lost to an elite team who will likely be the champs this year. without the full team being healthy, it just caught up to them playing a deep team like that. can't wait for next year. get healthy fellas!
At the end of the day when your team is one of the top 4 in the league, and is 3 games away from going to their 2nd straight WS, I would say we had a great season. And yes they lost to a better team. When you beat two 100+ win teams, you are the better team. Definitely beats being the worst team in the league for a multiple years straight. I am just glad the "core" won a world series even if they don't repeat. Just like I wish T-Mac/Yao won a championship and how I want Harden/Paul to win one.
It was a good year, but sometimes it was a frustrating year. I cant believe I said that about a 103 win team. Lots of blame will be passed around the next couple days and mostly I think its undeserving. The Red Sox just flat out beat us. Calls aside, coaching aside, they were just ...better. In time we will accept it. I am still looking forward to next year. We have a solid core and a damn good development cycle coming through. Make some adjustments to a couple positions and we will be fine. I think we will be right back in contention in 2019. Home record this year was terrible, and I will say that was an anomaly If we have to take the path like the Giants of recent, then I am all for it (winning one every other year). Remember, not even the Warriors repeated after they won their first one, and now they're on pace to win 4 in 5 years. I think this year humbled our young stars. You know what its like to win, and now you know what its like to lose. Bring on 2019.
I'm happy that I will be buying Astros shirts at big discounts. We'd be back next year with same pitching staff and healthy bodies. I'm glad we didn't play that 1 and done game like the A's.
Nailed it. No matter how disappointed I am, I come back to the fact that Boston is a damn good team. Like a REALLY good team. They got some luck in getting the good bounces and the obvious umpiring mistakes but that's not why we lost. They beat us. What keeps me happy is knowing that this isn't the end. Not even remotely close. There will be some changes for 2019 but the core is here and we are the prohibitive favorites to win the AL West again and probably one of the top 2 or 3 favorites to win the World Series, again.
On August 31, the Astros were on pace to win 98 games and were 7.5 games up on the 3rd place team in the wild card standings... And you didn't think they had a chance to even *make* the playoffs??..........
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/25/sports/on-baseball-failure-to-win-in-97-left-mark-on-yankees.html ON BASEBALL; Failure to Win in '97 Left Mark on Yankees By MURRAY CHASS OCT. 25, 2001 For most players and teams, the baseball season ends basically at the end of September. Play 162 games and go home. The Yankees' season, however, is like a run-on sentence; it just keeps going. The Yankees, of course, like it that way. George Steinbrenner pays them well enough to cover the overtime, and if they win 11 games in October (and, for this year only, maybe November), they are champions. They reached the requisite number each of the past three years and four years in the past five. It was that odd year when they fell short of 11 victories that irked them; 1997 was not a very good year. ....
one of their assistants to the travel secretary had a conversation with Jeter and chuckled at that yankees 96' championship. "Yeah. In 6 games." I think that lit a fire under Jeter in more ways than one.
Did you read my entire post or just choose to cherry-pick the first sentence? When they were only a half game ahead of the A's in August, I was worried, but my point was they persevered and had a wonderful September in spite of being banged up and playing in a tougher division than last year. Sorry for the mis-statement.
