Hahah put it this way: if you were playing roulette in a casino, and put ALL your money on black, then before they spin, they bring out a new wheel and it has 6 green spaces instead 2, what would your reaction be? I think an “I’m ****ed” would be appropriate, and statistically that’s about what happened to the Astros if McCullers can’t pitch.
Yes, I know. Just want that little bit of hope I have squashed so I can prepare for series without our ace
You're ****ed because you didn't know that they were going to change the wheel and didn't have proper time to adjust (assuming you didn't move all of your money off of black and onto other parts of the table). The Astros know more about McCullers' availability than anyone on this board so they have proper time to adjust, even if the options (e.g. his replacement in the rotation) is less than stellar. To go back to your analogy (because I like roulette): Assuming you still have all of your money on black (47% odds of winning), it would not only take 4 additional green spaces but SIX more (for a total of 48 spaces/numbers) for your odds of winning to decrease by 10% (18/36 is 47%; 18/48 is about 37%). It might be splitting hairs but going from SLIGHTLY favored odds (55%) to SLIGHTLY unfavorable odds (45%) is different than going from almost a coin flip's chance of winning to now looking at a 37.5% chance of winning.
Obviously I really want McCullers healthy and pitching against the Red Sox. He is the Astros second best starter IMO. Valdez is still the work horse, and he was going to need to pitch well whether we have Lance or not. The pieces are still there to put together a rotation that has the potential to win a WS.... Valdez, Garcia, Urquidy and Greinke is capable of getting the job done....... personally I am less concerned about how this potentially impacts the rotation, and more concerned with how this impacts the bullpen.... Urquidy and Garcia are essentially 5 inning pitchers and Greinke is 5-7 innings....... that means that the Astros bullpen will likey be going 4 innings or possibly more every game other than when Valdez pitches..... So guys like Javier, Maton, Garcia and Odorizzi will need to pitch reasonably well. I think the Red Sox series is a toss up.
Lance pitch selection of Sliders really took a toll on his arm. Constantly throwing Sliders, same pitching form he has gotten injured since his Rookie Year. Forrest Whitley and Alex Santos hopefully become the Top 2 Pitchers for the Astros Next Year.
Regarding Greinke, I believe I remember earlier this season it was said that he has his worst career road stats at Fenway.
According to baseball reference, his worst ERA among all teams is against Boston: Total starts: 8 W-L: 2-5 ERA: 5.09 SO: 35 HR: 8 Walks: 14 SPECIFICALLY at Fenway: Starts: 3 W-L: 0-2 ERA: 10.22 SO: 8 HR: 4 Walks: 6
Silence is violence. It's pretty obvious that Lance is done. Like others have said, we should just accept it and move on. It really sucks, but it's not like our offense can't pick up the slack. So we start winning games 10-7 instead of 10-1. We can still do this.
I think we can beat Boston without LMJ, however it's going to be very taxing on the pen. Facing the Giants or the LAD without LMJ? Going to be EXTREMELY tough!!
