I hope no Astros get hurt. There's at least one Ranger I wouldn't mind getting hurt, and it's not Gomez.
I his brother Rougned Odor? I'd really like Jeff Banister to get hurt. I feel like he is a Mendelbaum.
Whether we agree or disagree, I'm really just making an observation. Many other coaches in the league, and many prior Astros coaches, would have an Astros pitcher bean a Royal back in 2015. Volquez was getting killed by the Astros that day and the Royals were getting killed by the Astros that series. Then Springer gets hurt. And Volquez had plunked several other players on other teams that year. Clearly, Hinch had a policy of no beaning back then. My observation is that that his policy has changed, at least as of last night. I don't feel bad or stupid about it. Why should I?
Sure - but many coaches are stupid on that kind of stuff too. See the Boston mess this past week as an example. Pedroia called out his own teammates for being idiots there. Volquez is an erratic pitcher - his willingness to pitch inside is part of what makes him effective, but it does result in people getting hit occasionally. Biggio got hit more than anyone back in the day because he was willing to stand in there on those inside pitches and not flinch - no one ever thought any of that was intentional.
They've played 20+ games against the Royals since that incident... a playoff series included... with the Astros doing quite well in some of them offensively, with no further ill-will or retaliation needed. There is absolutely nothing further that would have been gained (except possibly more injured players) by starting a beanball war.
So I take it you disagree with what McCullers did last night? Again, my post was to point out that it appears Hinch's viewpoint has changed on this topic.
Do we know who gave the order? Do we know this wasn't in response to Napoli being 2-2, crushing a pitch earlier that hadn't landed yet? Was it simply in response to the earlier HBP's? Also, there's a tad more bad blood between the Rangers and Astros.... for better or for worse... and when the Astros were owned as much as they were last year, and cannot afford to come close to being that bad this year, they're going to be a little more reactive.
Sitting first row in the Crawford boxes against Hamels with their best righty line-up. I'm ready to catch some dingers!
Disagree that he "clearly had a policy of no beaning". Don't think he's necessarily changed any policies. Situations are different and require different responses.
Biggio was able to "stand in there" because he had a HUGE A$$ pad on his left arm. I wonder how "willing" he would have been without the padding?
Nothing specific to him but the #2 hitter typically gets the best pitches to hit because you don't want to walk someone ahead of the #3 hitter. Could be a nice kick starter for Beltran.
