Don't know if this is a universal fan issue, or if it's a Houston specialty, but people are easily...very easily, alarmed around here. This current run of Astros play is about as stress free as regular season baseball will ever get. I couldn't make it as a fan if every bump in the road had me concerned. Every loss is a glimpse of some major team flaw, and actual stretches of poor play means sky is falling.
Yep. I bet people don’t even realize that the Astros currently hold the largest division lead in the AL. Also, historically, teams with insurmountable division leads don’t fare better than those who are in a true pennant race. IOW, it doens’t matter if the Astros win their division by 5, 10, 15, or 20 games. You can’t rest players for multiple days/weeks towards the end of the season or risk them getting extremely rusty come playoff time. Managers don’t over-extend pitchers anymore. Maybe it gives you the opportunity to see if some late season call ups can contribute on the playoff roster (like James did last year)... and of course it does help you line up the rotation... but its usually a marginal advantage.
They'll be playing to the end as it'll be a dogfight for homefield advantage with Minny, NYY and even the Dodgers.
Assume the Yankees have home field wrapped up. Last game of season. Astros win, they get home field for the first round. Astros lose, the Twins get it. Verlander, Cole and Miley are completely rested and have pitched similar to how they have thus far. Who do you start? Also, assume the Angels will be putting their best team on the field.
Cole with Miley on alert in case things go south early. I believe Game 1 of the ALDS will be that Friday. Verlander starts game 1 and Cole has a full 5 days rest for Game 2.
Hopefully it doesn't come down to that but it would be interesting to see what they would do. Having the ALDS 5 days out even puts Verlander in play as they could go Cole, Verlander in the ALDS without batting an eye.
Universal fan issue. "Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that." -- George Carlin
Outside of injury, I doubt this is true. Dominant teams win more often than not. Baseball has more exceptions than other sports, but overall, the more dominant team usually wins.
That may be the team with the best record. But sometimes it isn't. Who is playing best at the right time carries a lot of weight IMO.
This is the thing about deadline trades.....Never know if the guy acquired will play well. Even if he plays well, rest of team could slump. Sure, almost every year there is a Verlander. Almost every year there are 4-8 Quintanas. That said, the better the team, the likelier they are at winning WS and having a better regular season record. For right price, improve team. For wrong price, all it does is hurt team's chances of winning WS.
Since 2010, the top seeds are 9-9 in the first round of the playoffs. They lose early all the time. The baseball postseason is usually absurdly unpredictable, although we are in a run of great teams winning it all.
