I also like Fiers, we have 4 deep. We have many in house options, at 3b Moran, at 1b Reed, we have good arms in the minors. I really think Luthnow is doing very good job, and now we have a great farm system. I don't like the manager, but, maybe he will improve with time, I HOPE.
we will be getting swept. Time to bring down the astros flag and put up the Texans. Heck the way Texans are going i may just skip them and put the Rockets flag up just to remind my neighbors ( i live in Dallas)
Twins lost Angels winning 4 to 1, not looking good there AStros will lose tonight, so lets hope Angels lose tomorrow and we win.
Though likely impossible at this point, this sounds fun: http://espn.go.com/blog/jayson-star...ing-all-of-the-potential-tiebreaker-scenarios If there's a four-way tie (Rangers, Astros, Twins, Angels) Where they'd play: Please. We beg you. Don't ask. If the Rangers, Astros, Twins and Angels all finish with the same record, we'd have a three-team tie in the AL West, plus a wild-card spot up for grabs. So don't hold us to this, but most likely, the Angels would host the Astros, and the Rangers would host the Twins the day after the regular season ended. If the Twins win, they automatically become the wild-card team and the winner of Angels-Rangers wins the division. But if the Twins lose and there are still two AL West teams alive, they would play yet another tiebreaker game the following day. The winner is division champ. The loser is the wild card. Make sense? Um, don't answer that! Why they'd play there: Have we mentioned this is complicated? These teams aren't even through playing each other, so all of this could change. But as of right now, the Angels would own the best head-to-head record, so they would get to choose where they would play their division tiebreaker game. Good bet they'd opt to play at home. The Rangers would choose second. Then the Astros. Then the Twins. We can only guess that the Rangers would also want to play at home, because they'd have no way of knowing if they'd also have to play the next day. If there's an Angels-Rangers game that Tuesday, they would play that one in Orange County, because the Angels have clinched that season series. If it's Astros-Rangers, that game is in Texas for the same reason. Everybody on board with this? Ehhhh, again, don't answer that! Potential travel madness: You know that Astros road trip from hell we outlined above? This is their alternate version. Their potential schedule under this scenario: Sunday in Phoenix, Monday in Anaheim, Tuesday in Texas, Wednesday in New York, Thursday in Kansas City or Toronto. There might be astronauts who haven't flown that many hours.
Hate to say it, but finishing the division in 3rd place and missing the playoffs entirely seems the most likely at this point. We could even finish without a winning record Even if we go 3-5 over these last 8, a 83 win season is a 13 game improvement over last season. It certainly would be easier to accept what has happened if instead of starting strong and collapsing at the end, we had started slow and were playing really well in September. Even if both scenarios ended up with the same win total.
7 games left, we are facing 4 lefties in a row (Seattle has Paxton for Wed) Today's game is a must, why? So the last 4 games in Arlington have a meaning for the Rangers, and try to win. I said before that only way Astros would win the division is if other teams loses, they won games, and now they caught us. Now we HAVE TO WIN to make the playoffs. We need to go 6 and 1 to go to the wild Card. I think Angels will end up with 6 and 2 record. Texas 4 and 4 Twins 5 and 3 Indians 6 and 2 Rangers 88 and 74 Astros 87 and 75 Angels 86 and 76 Twins 84 and 78 Indians 83 and 79 We are facing 4 lefties in a row, and then righties vs Arizona. Today is Perez, and we need to hit this guy hard. Then is Elias, Nuno and Paxton, we should be able to hit this guys. Paxton is good, but coming off injury and struggling in second half. De la Rosa is an ok pitcher, but struggles at home with a 4.99 ERA, and allows 1 hit per inning and a lot of homers. Hellickson on the other hand, pitches better at home. Both of these pitchers struggle vs lefties, so there is an interesting question here, Lets say Carter plays next 4 games vs lefties, and hit well, are we going to sit him in Arizona for Valbuena? Who plays, Marwin or Carter vs the lefties? I think we can win 6 of 7, it all starts TODAY, Go astros
While Angels winning doesn't help with WC it does help with keeping them within striking distance of Texas. So there is a silver lining in that the final 4 game set between Texas and LAA looks like it will be a competitive series. So while it hurts us in the WC it helps keep alive hopes for the division. We need LAA within 4 games of Texas when they open play Thursday.
If we win 5 of next 6 games, we will make it. It was 7 of 8, now 5 of 6, goooo Astros. We are facing Elias tomorrow, is a matchup we should be able to exploit. He is ok, but Fiers is better. Tomorrow we can use Rasmus and Castro, he does not dominate lefties. Now, righties can hit homers against him.
Some interesting scenarios here. If Astros, Texas and Angels are all tied at 85-74 going into Friday then the Astros need only 1 win to clinch a tie or better for WC. 2 out of 3 would guarantee WC and a sweep would guarantee at least a tie for division. In any event having LAA and Texas play 4 against each other to end the season is truly a blessing for the Astros.
Lineup for tomorrow? Not the one i would like, but the one Hinch may have: 1. Altuve 2. Springer 3. Correa 4. Lowrie 5. Gattis DH 6. Gonzalez LF 7. Carter 1b 8. Castro C 9. Marisnick
If that happens then Gonzalez is the odd man out, unless he plays over Lowrie. Right now Marwin is hitting better and plays better defense
How am I supposed to sleep this week? Stupid baseball....I hate you. I'm sorry baseball...I was just mad...I love you. Please stay.
Astros are in control of their own destiny. They have 6 games left against teams already eliminated from the playoffs and that have nothing to play for. Yes they are all on the road, but we have to win road games eventually. 6-0 gets you in no matter what. 5-1 guarantees you at least a tie of some sort (even if Angels go 7-0 and Rangers go 3-4, Astros and Rangers would be tied for final WC spot)
Yup, good thing they know how to beat those teams, teams like Oakland who were 20 games under .500 and had nothing to play for. Spoiler
Angels/Astros are tied in loss column. Astros are not in control of their own destiny to take a playoff spot without having to play in a "play-in" game (and our Ace would not be available for that game).
