Dont know if anyone else saw this or cared, but it pissed me off that during the brawl, the Rangers emptied their entire staff on to the field (see last few seconds of clip), even from across the stadium. We had maybe 15 guys out there where they had to have 50.
Both bullpens came out. Their guys may have been more concentrated to the fracas, whereas the Astros were actively trying to keep McCullers well away from everything. Some of the Astros bench did eventually make their way out, but only after it was clear nothing more was going to happen.
Have at it. Beltran hasn't hit well enough last three years on average to be an average DH. When he signed, I thought Astros thought he could play left as money didn't make sense for him as a DH. Here's to hoping your powers work to turn him back to what he was.
The Rangers suck. They put up a great season the last 2 years only to get bukkaked by the Blue Jays on national TV both times. They're an embarrassment to this great state. And how the fukk you gonna empty your bench over a pitch that hits no one when they've already hit 2 of our guys? LOL Jeff Bannister is cringe.
He basically had a bad 2014, but he has been really good in 5 of his last 6 seasons, even for a DH But he was always a question mark because 40 years old is 40 years old. At that age father time is lurking around the corner to come get your ass at all times. I'm sure the Astros don't want to do it, I imagine he's really popular with our younger latin stars, but he needs to be slowly phased out if he can't start hitting. Give those AB's to Gattis, and maybe one of the guys in Fresno.
Was McCullers' toss at Napoli the first approved beaning of the Hinch era? Hinch clearly approved of it in his post-game comments. I remember Hinch berating Oberholtzer for beaning ARod. I always thought ARod deserved to get beaned by any and every pitcher for being a lifelong cheater. I also remember Springer getting beaned (and injured) by Volquez, but don't recall any of our pitchers beaning the Royals. Anyway, we can't afford to lose Altuve or Gurriel to injury due to some idiot pitching inside on them, so I was happy to see McCullers make a statement to the Rangers.
So happy to beat the Rangers. It sucks so much that we've struggled the way we have against them (pretty much since day 1). It would be nice to finally turn the tables. Hopefully this was the beginning.
A manager is going to stand by his star. I think the big difference with Obie is he hit ARod out of general frustration with sucking balls that day. His career hasn't really gotten back on track since.
He's hit slightly better last two years than I expected his stats would say, but not too much better than league average at DH in those years. Overall last three years RC+ is 112 (expected this number was to be between 105-110) when I expect an average DH to be about 115. With Father Time, I'm still not expecting him to have an RC+ greater than 112 for season going forward this season.
Couple friends and I bought those May week night home game tickets for $60 or whatever, actually got some good seats last night in 4th row of that lower area by shallow left field. Not sure where tonight's will be, but we are goin.
I loved this play. From the other angle, it looked for sure that he was out, but with the nice swim move he evaded the tag. Fav move of the game.
Probably because there's no evidence any of it was intentional and only stupid people are going to try to hurt someone just for the sake of it. If the Astros bean a Royals player, it (1) doesn't stop Springer from getting hurt, (2) risks getting someone hurt in a future HBP, and (3) risks an injury in a fight. How stupid would you feel if Keuchel or Correa gets injured in a stupid fight over an unintentional pitch that people got pissy over?
I don't know about him, but I'd feel as stupid as I'd feel if I thought Hinch's managerial capability / success was correlated to his perceived approval or disapproval of retaliation beaning.