I put it on him for flirting with retirement for being homesick... didn't seem to last long.... I think he wanted leverage to get paid.
I remember him saying that he’d felt right at home with the Astros and could see himself retiring if he didn’t resign with the Astros. I think a lot of us supected he’d get some nice contract offers, but he had such a small window of success that many of us figured and perhaps took for granted he could be resigned economically speaking. Then out of left field, the Tampa Bay Ray’s offered him that sweet deal. And Charlie signed the lucrative contact, and none of us dared be upset at him for taking millions upon millions of dollars more than the Astros were offering him! I must admit, I’m still mildly surprised he’s still chugging along 7-8 years after he said he’d been contemplating retiring. But Charlie Morton on the 2019 team probably gets the Astros by the Washington Nationals, and another World Series.
I think Framber for Game 1 and Brown for game 2 are locks. Unless Verlander is hurt, there is no scenario where he is not starting.Imo Kikuchi will get game 4. I think Arighetti will be used as a super sub.
Nah. He was flirting with retirement until he realized he was still good enough to keep on playing. We could have offered him what TB offered him.
Exactly. We just didn't want to pay 15 million. When TB offers pitchers that much, you know it was probably a good deal. In hindsight, we would have probably won 2 more world series and been to a third with Charlie. We would have beaten the Nationals in 2019. We would have gotten past TB because Charlie wouldn't have kicked our ass in 2020 and again 2021 when he was with the Braves.
Fck can we not bring up the pain of Charlie? We made a big mistake not resigning him at the time and it directly came back to fck us up....twice. I really want to forget that sht.
At the time he was having injury worries and he was saying that he was considering retirement if he couldn't pitch closer to home. Then, he got the deal he couldn’t refuse.
Drellich tried to fry Luhnow. But Crane believed in Luhnow's approach and let Luhnow carry though with his plan, which is what lead to this dynasty. Drellich got butthurt and is a guy that cant admit he was wrong, he's a vengeful POS. Screw him. You have to make cold decisions if you want to win vs the major market teams. Seems to me that Luhnow was far ahead of his time and MLB couldn't have this. Bunch of old farts lead by a corrupt commissioner.
Hopefully it continues. If I was a young rebuilding team with some good young arms say like the Tigers I would pay Murphy big time to run the pitching side of my org. I wonder what Murphy could do with a guy like Casy Mize?
And many more seasons to come. Blubagh and Whitley are next up. Followed buy a guy like Brito and that doesn't even include big armed guys like Ulolla. I'm interested in seeing what the pitcher drafted high in this last draft can do once he recovers from TJ. Kid looks to have had really good stuff college. The future is very bright. The fact that they've got a WS winning pitching staff on the IL and are going to win the West because of a historic run of pitching is simply amazing. This speaks to the way the Stros use analytics in teaching young pitchers to be the best they can be. Tell me would teams at the beginning of the year been afraid of Brown/Arrighetti/Kikuch? Probably not, but they've made the Stros the odds on favorite to win another WS if/when Bregs/Tucker get healthy. Speaking of that, what would you have thought if I told you before the season started that Tucker would've missed three months of the season what would their record have been?
Yep, Luhnow chose to keep LMJ. A big screwup, Although some think I worship at the altar of Luhnow, he had his screwups, Key was he admitted he made mistakes and moved on quickly. Unlike what the Stros do now Abreu is an example of what I'm talking about.
And that was a Jeff Luhnow decision not to resign Charlie Morton; I don’t even think they gave him a qualifying offer for fear he’d take it. Yet with Charlie Morton, the Astros could have had a much easier route against the Nationals and Braves. Charlie always seemed to have ice in his veins when the pressure was on!
If Game 4 was today, and I’d used Framber, Brown, and Kikuchi to start the first 3 games, and burned Blanco in a multi inning role in one of them, I would start JV but have Neris and Scott standing by for the first 3 innings to come in at the very first sign of trouble, with Arrighetti set to enter the 4th inning unless JV was dealing. I’d hope for Arrighetti to go 3 innings then use Abreu/Pressly/Hader to close it out.
The problem with Verlander is that generally gives up his runs in the first inning and settles down. It's hard to figure out if he's in trouble until we are already in the hole with a few homeruns. Historically, the first inning and 7th inning are his worst innings by OPS.
Agree, but my leash with him in the playoffs would be extremely short. I’d basically tell him “if you allow a homerun or multiple baserunners, you’re coming out, so don’t hold anything back.” That would ensure he would give up a max of 2 runs.
This is a bit unrealistic. Can't really have that mindset. Let's say, JV looks brilliant striking out the first 2 hitters, then gives up a pop up that sneaks into the first row of the Crawford Boxes. Are you pulling him, when he looks good, still need 25 outs, and all he gave up was a HR that would be an out in every other park? I say you chalk that one up to luck and hope he continues dealing. Generally, solo HRs don't sink you, it's the ones after a walk, or screaming double to the gap (or both) that will. The more pitchers you use, the more likely you are to find one that doesn't have his stuff that day. And you can't burn through your entire bullpen and leave it barren for game 5 (unless it's an elimination game).
That's the conundrum with Verlander. If he's having a bad game, the ship has pretty much sailed before you figure it out. You just have to trust that he's going to figure it out. I do believe that he shouldn't go past 6 innings anymore even when he's dealing.
If Verlander's velocity and control don't improve (though I'm not saying they won't), and Arrighetti keeps performing like he has over his last seven starts, I would start Arrighetti in Game 4. I was impressed with how he handled himself in that Phillies game, especially when he didn't want to leave the game. Arrighetti really showed his competitiveness and determination when he lobbied to stay in the game, even after reaching a high pitch count. His refusal to come off the mound highlighted the intensity and drive he brings, especially in those high-pressure moments. For me, Yes if Verlander improves… no if His fastball velocity stays dipped, now averaging around 93-94 mph.
