This is some painful baseball being played by the Stros....brutal. Pittsburgh has a darn good team, happy for the city.
I'm happy for the city of Pittsburgh, but I'm just not sure it's going to matter this season. The Cardinals, Reds and Brewers are all superior teams and I think one of those teams will run away at some point. I also can't see the Pirates success being sustainable in the short run. They have some nice prospects making their way to the big club, but their success this season has had less to do with the kids playing well and more to do with them getting career years out of a group of mediocre starting pitchers. Paul Maholm has proven to have some staying power, but I doubt that guys like Jeff Karstens, Kevin Correia and Charlie Morton will keep this up for much longer.
It's true that the Pirates have been in the dumps for ages but as a franchise, they've been to 7 World Series and won 5. Those 5 wins are good for 7th most all-time. Of course they've been around since the 1800s but they did win 2 WS since the Astros were established. And I agree with you, jdh. I picked the Reds before the season and I still think they can pull it off if their SP gets a little better. The Cardinals would've been much more dangerous obviously if Wainwright didn't go down, esp. with Berkman producing at this level, not only in our division but to the Phillies and the rest of baseball. The Brewers should be there all year. I could see any of those 3 team winning but I have a feeling it'll come down to the Brewers and Reds.
i hear ya...it's just that it's so long ago now..and they've been such an afterthought and not competitive for so long now...that it's almost entirely irrelevant.
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, it's definitely a good (albeit unusual) feeling to be second place in the division in freaking July. The overall vibe in this city is a mix between excitement and confusion. Hell, we didn't crack the 45-win barrier last year until some point in September. I won't know what to do with myself if we somehow made the postseason. Hell, neither would this entire city!
I was suppose to move to Pittsburgh with my company but things didn't work out. I got to visit a lot and got to know the people. That city is starving for some meaningful baseball and that stadium is FANTASTIC. I was happy to see it packed Monday afternoon and everyone so into it. The area is such a sports town that adding baseball to football and hockey would certainly make it a top 3 sports town IMHO.
enjoy man. for some reason, in the last few years, i've really been itching to go to pittsburgh. maybe next year to catch some games at pnc.
And i remember telling my dad how great of a trade it was for us when we traded for Carlos Beltran..Seems like ages ago
But the Astros sure dodged a bullet in the long term by not ending up with Beltran after the 2004 season. Sure, him not signing might have had a lot to do with signing Carlos Lee, but I'm thinking of them as two isolated signings.
Haven't won more than 79 games in 18 years. Since the 'We Are Family' bunch won the WS in '79 (and then a few years later were central in one of the biggest drug scandals in American sports history), they've made the playoffs 3 times (90-92).
100 RBI over 4 and a half years isn't massive, but it's significant. Also, Beltran has been wildly inconsistent over the years (mostly injury, no?). In 2005 he was $14million dollar for all of 78 RBI. But in 2006 he was an absolute beast. He fell off the planet in 2009 and 2010 and looks to be enjoying quite the renaissance this season (contract year?). Lee, on the other hand, had a couple verrah verrah nice seaons and has slowly tailed off whilst at least appearing to gain weight. Pick your poison, I guess.
Beltran has always been a much better defender and baserunner than Lee. Not to mention centerfield is a premium position.
I mentioned this last time we faced Morton, but his new delivery looks a lot like that of Halladay. The mechanics are eerily similar.
