I, for one, am happily moving over to allow people a little room on the bandwagon. It was lonely in here for a few years.
Couldnt watch the game yesterday, was on the road but just watched the highlights of both the bases loaded jacks. Everybody here knows carter sucks but his last few games hes really tried to go opposite way and not just yank everything to left. Its kind of refreshing to see.
I haven't watched this much baseball in 4 years! which is sad because it was my favorite sport growing up but it's brutal watching a team that has no shot of winning anything and im not someone that can watch a redsox vs. tigers game just because I like baseball.
I personally have no problem with teams with no shot of winning. It's not like any of the teams post-Yao/T-Mac were going to do something either. Just give me the "hope" of some sort of future and I'll follow. The problem with the Astros is that the "hope" of winning hasn't existed in the major leagues until now. Until a player truly shows promise in the majors, you really don't know.
In all fairness to myself, I've watched many of the games this season but couldn't care less to talk about them afterwards... But I would gladly jump on the bandwagon for discussion when these guys play like they want it.
I don't have a problem rooting for teams that suck in football or basketball as I loved those Goran Dragic led Rockets and I watched every second of the Texans 14 straight losses but there is something about baseball that makes it impossible to watch when you have no reason to.
My post was in no way a criticism. As far as I'm concerned, as long as you didn't go off rooting for the Rangers or any other team, open arms and all that.
There's also not a history of a team having the worst record in the ML 3 straight years. Fielding a team that's perceived as all minor leaguers after 3 years like that is a little different from Hampton going to a team with proven players (couple of HOFers like Helton and Walker, etc.) that was in the .500 range at least. I think a 10% kicker could work for that type of team. But for the Astros, with *perceived* nothing on the team (prior to this season), I'd say it was different. Maybe "enough $$" is still true, but I think it would have been way outside the range of any sane person for a Tanaka or other biggest-name FA. Now, that was last year. Barring something unexpected, just showing potential this year + calling up a few guys and letting the market see their promise should mean more of what you're talking about. Get a 2nd tier guy this offseason with a 10% uplift. I'm ready for it, and I hope they are too
Wow. Didn't think someone wouldn't buy Hampton going to the place where pitchers go to die as a non-strikeout guy would not be considered an example of player going into horrible conditions for money. But whatever. There are plenty of examples. Here's another baseball history lesson for you on the power of money. Spoiler
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Since George Springer got rolling on May 13, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Astros&src=hash">#Astros</a> are 17-9 (3rd best record in MLB). For real? "It's more real than not," says one scout</p>— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaysonst/statuses/476371025119424512">June 10, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Come on, I didn't say it was invalid. I said a .500 record with 2 HOFers is different from the first ever 3-straight-worst-record-in-baseball season with 1 All Star no one has heard of and a host of guys that were DFA'ed elsewhere. Totally agreed that the A-Rod situation is more similar. A team that was consistently awful (and even they had HOFers like Pudge, Palmeiro and older, solid vets like Kenny Rogers). But I think you're right..if we made an A-Rod level of ridiculousness offer (consider how crazy that contract was in 2001...much less today), I think we could have pulled a free agent in. But I'm ok that the team didn't go to that extent..
We are only 5-4 since the 7 game win streak. Even so, I would take a (.556) win% the rest of the way for this club.
