Um, yeah, it's time to give Clutch a donation so that you can become a contributing member. Do you not think this site is worth donating to? Is it truly worth zero to you? With over 6,000 posts?
How many 20-win seasons...how many postseason starts...how many postseason teams has Jorge Sosa been on????? every answer is the same...0!!!! And Roy Oswalt? Well, hopefully you know by now since we are both Astros Fans!
Yeah.. But, why does Roger struggle so much in division series games? Apparently he's over 4 in ERA and 2 games under .500 in division series games..
I love how last night when we won, Sports Center talked about the other playoff games for twenty five minutes, went to hockey, and then talked about the Astros-Braves game. Tonight the Braves win, so it's the first thing they talk about it.
Listen, your argument is clearly wrong. Earlier in this season, the Washington Nationals had a clear hold on the Wild Card lead, despite having given up more runs than they had scored, on average. Over the course of the season, this statistic became their downfall, as they could not sustain their luck in this department. The same thing goes for guys like Sosa: He has a WHIP approaching 1.4, which is fairly mediocre. His winning % is relatively meaningless. His ERA is nice, but ERA is far more susceptible to luck/variance/etc. than WHIP is. Unless his OPS% against is VASTLY better than Roy's, it's clear that he is not even close to Roy's equal, since he's putting more men on base per 9 innings.
Nobody ever said this was going to be easy! Astros will still take it, but this series is going to five games, just like last year. Believe!!!
Dreadful...However, there are at least 2 games left and I think Roy will get it done Saturday...It was painful to watch, but Clemens had nothing...Didn't look himself, obviously, but there was something else, no emotion... Can't wait for tomorrow...
How is it unfair to say that Sosa is Roy's equal? We're not talking about overall value or trade value, this is simply in this situation on Saturday, it's not a foregone conclusion that Roy has the advantage. How does WHIP or strikeout/ratio have any pertinence to this discussion? The outcome is the ERA, it doesn't matter by what means he arrived at it, especially when there's a large enough sample size to conclude consistency on his part. My main worry is that Roy has historically never pitched up to his capabilities during pressure situations. I'm not saying he's been bad, but he hasn't been the "untouchable" Roy O that we've seen in stints. Whether it's wilting under pressure or just wear and tear by that time of the year, he has always tailed off. His second year, he blew three straight chances to win his 20th game. Last year in the playoffs, while he battled and gave us a fighting chance (and the win in Game 5), he certainly wasn't "dominant." He pitched poorly in the clincher this year. Again, I'm not saying he's pitched poorly, but he certainly hasn't been dominating enough to conclude that experience or track record gives us a decisive edge on Saturday. It's a toss up.
No excuses...if we can't get it done now, then we don't deserve it. I don't care if our starting pitching was #1 in the league. If they and the team don't bring it in the playoffs when it really counts, then it is all for nothing and we can go home early to watch the rest of it.
Except WHIP and all that junk aren't definite predictors of success - runs scored (for your Nationals example) are. Some pitchers walk more people than others (Glavine, for example). Others strike people out more. Some throw hard, some throw soft. There are different ways to be successful pitching. You will *never* be more successful, however, by giving up more runs rather than fewer - that's why the Nationals case will naturally correct itself. Regardless of that, you keep using this "luck" concept - if luck were significantly involved, it would show in a lot of variance in the breakdowns by month - but they don't. He's as consistent as can be. That indicates that it's not luck, but a style of pitching. But if you want to go with your WHIP argument and all that junk, fine. Since the all-star break, Roy has a WHIP of 1.37 - virtually identical to Sosa. Meanwhile, he has a batting-average against of 0.296, compared to .243 for Sosa, meaning that while Sosa is walking more people, Roy is giving up more hits. During that stretch, Roy has an ERA of 3.65, while Sosa has an ERA 2.3. Roy has gone 8-5; Sosa has gone 9-2. So if you look at recent performance, not only has Sosa been Roy's equal, but he has been substantially better. I don't know if Sosa will be good next year. I don't know if he or Roy will perform well tomorrow. But however you want to look at, this season and especially down the stretch, he has done his job as well as Roy Oswalt. I know people here don't ever like to give credit to anyone on another team, but it doesn't change the facts. He's been a huge part of why they are in the playoffs, and has arguably been their best pitcher.
Woah, Looks like I started a brush fire, and left Major hanging. Sosa has been every bit as good as Roy this season, and Roy has been danged inconsistent since he said he had a tired arm. He throws FAR to many fastballs when he is ahead in the count and his ERA has been going SOUTH for the last 2 months. Look, I want the Astros to win too, but the fact that this is an EQUAL series, is not above discussion. Roger has been pedestrian in the playoffs...a 4.5+ ERA and only 2 games over .500.......not to mention a losing record in the divisional round....yet people said our pitching was going to carry us. Right now the ONLY pitcher that I feel really confident about is Andy....the rest all have warts, especially lately. DD
Part of the reason there (and I am in no way trying to defend Sportscenter - because the way they treat Houston teams in most cases, they don't deserve it) was it being a matchup of Hall of Famers in Smoltz and Clemens..... I guarentee most likely, Saturdays (Oswalt/Sosa) and Sundays matchup will not be the first story covered regardless who wins.
Jayson Stak's latest column includes this scary stat: Clemens' teams have lost 16 of his 31 postseason starts. Granted, that's a little fluky and I'll take my chances with Rocket on the mound any day, but it's interesting to ponder.
