And another rude post from Nick. But what's new? Your knowledge of the game does not warrant such pomposity.
Again, no one is disputing this. The Rangers have owned the Astros. But their single dominance flies in the face of how they - as well as the Astros - have performed beyond their H2H. The Rangers are 46-42 this year against every other team; the Astros 53-33. Given the much larger sample size, it makes ZERO sense that the Rangers own a 24-8 record against the Astros. How is it possible. They do not beat other teams that soundly; the Astros do not lose to other teams that soundly. That's about as clear as you can make the position we're taking: while legitimate, the one-sided dominance of the Rangers over the Astros is a strange, inexplicable statistical outlier.
While anything's possible - especially given how strangely one-sided this has been - it doesn't make a ton of sense that they drum the rest of the league and become mental midgets against a singular opponent.
To me , it makes a lot of sense given the ongoing Dallas-Houston rivalry about everything. This results in extra pressure to succeed which translates into focus for one club and stress for the other, or so it seems.
Do you honestly think players - the vast majority of which were not born in this country, let alone state - give two flips about a fan-driven rivalry that actually has very little currency? Again, *anything* is possible as we're experiencing a touch of the impossible - but I find it hard to believe Puerto Rican Carlos Correa feels extra pressure to perform in a Houston-Dallas rivalry.
They play and live in Houston now and experience and are influenced by everything Houston including this, IMO. But it probably isnt this alone. Youth reacts differently to pressure than vets do. So the relative age of each club factors in. If it was something easy to explain, steps would already have been taken. Just throwing **** at the wall and seeing if it seems to stick
Agreed. I imagine players immediately feel, at least, a little extra umph when playing DAL. This mentality is built from media, fans, and within the organizations.
Players don't care about that crap; they really don't. Fans do this a lot; conflate their priorities with the players' priorities. Truth is they rarely match-up. I remember someone asking DeMeco Ryans about it; he said Auburn-Alabama was a rivalry; Houston-Dallas was a job. From a civic perspective, they have absolutely nothing on the line. What's the off-the-field fallout if they lose to the Rangers? I don't mean the ramifications associated with baseball - I mean, how will their day-to-day lives be impacted? (They won't.) Most of leave in the offseason; they have zero stake. They were six outs away from beating the eventual World Series winners; do you really think a waning Houston-Dallas rivalry that, really, only the fans care about, swallows them whole? No.
Let's not exaggerate. Of course no one believes players are near suicidal if they lose against a rival, but to suggest certain matchups don't add extra pressure is silly. That doesn't mean players are almost peeing in their pants, it just means there's more spark for certain matchups. As for Demeco, the Cowboys and Texans only play once every 4 years. They aren't even in the same conference. That's a very different situation than the Iron Bowl. I'd be more interested in hearing his thoughts about divisional opponents, but again, ALA-AUB is still much bigger.
There ya go... I could believe the Astros are tighter v. Rangers because of the on-field ramifications; don't believe for an instant that they give two flips about the civic component (because they don't).
http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2016/8/16/12491872/head-games-should-we-believe-evan-gattis-dh-c-splits I didn't realize that Gattis has played better through out this career as a Catcher...why is he not getting at least a 60/40 split at catcher!
I really doubt that players in HOU care about the HOU-DAL rivalry. They care about 1 thing: DAL is in our division and in first place. That's it. Sure, the fans provide extra adrenaline due to the inherent rivalry between the cities, but nothing much else outside of that.
The only reason they care is how poorly they do against the Rangers. But they would care the same way if they were the North Carolina Rangers. At the beginning of every season, games against the Rangers count just as much as games against anyone else in the Win column. The Astros would gladly trade an 0-19 against the Rangers for a division title.
Maybe not 2 flips, but at least one You've heard Irvin's idiotic comments about Watt DPOYing. It was so dumb there had to be an extra agenda working.... HOU-DAL Players care (at least a little) because they're human. Rivalries get shoved in their face so much, they don't really have a choice. I'm not sure why you're so adamant about dismissing the notion.
Extra adrenaline adds pressure. I'd take 0-19 for a division title.... assuming we'd beat them in the postseason if we matched up.
Or occum's razor: Michael Irvin is a dumbass. Here's the disconnect: these rivalries are not being shoved in their faces, in large part because they don't really exist, honestly, outside of the few fans keeping it alive. Do you think Jim Crane or Jeff Luhnow or AJ Hinch - who, again, like the players, are all transplants - are imploring their players to beat those no-good Dallas sunvabitches! (They're not.) Because it's nothing more than fan-service: "I care, so the players should care, too." Doesn't work that way. These are transients from other states/countries: they don't care.
Just playing devils advocate...I'm not sure it's objectively possible for one to like Dallas, no matter where they are from.
