The Dodgers and Yankees have both made big additions. I will just point out that being the best team doesn't guarantee anything. Last year the Astros were clearly the best team and they lost in the World Series...... and that really, from a statistical perspective wasn't under achieving. A lot of it is a lottery......... you get as many balls in the hopper and wish for the best. We have a lot of balls in the hopper this year. Perhaps the Yankees and Dodgers have a few more, but not enough to make a huge difference in the playoffs. For all we know Yordan Alvarez could hit 450 in the playoffs and McCullers could out pitch Cole..... we may not even face the Yankees or Dodgers.... Baseball is a more a game of chance than the other major sport. Over 162 games it evens out........ over 7 games? No, not always.
If someone doesn’t step into the second ace role, not only must we overcome our decline in production by not being able to cheat, we also must overcome the decline in our pitching staff, and literally handing our competition an ace. That’s being dealt a bad hand. The deck is stacked against our getting back to the World Series. But we can hope. Everything has to break right, but all we’ve seen for the past 4 months has been breaking bad.
Any Astro cheating now will likely get the death penalty. I wouldn’t even blink after the batter gets hit by pitch, steals second, and looks at our batter. Dont. Even. Blink.
You forget the Astros didn't employ the electronic scheme in 2019 and made it to the World Series? The issue to overcome is losing Cole and the 34 ace starts he gave us last season. The cheating production (which didnt even occur in 2019 unless you believe in confetti buzzers) is totally overblown.
Nobody believes the Astros. They just don’t. They can’t ignore the data. Forget about buzzers. Every Astro had a historic epic season in 2019. Every single one of them. That just doesn’t happen. It doesn’t. Never in our entire history. Not once. The only time We’ve ever seen anything like it was Bonds, McGwire, Sosa. It just doesn’t add up now, or then. There was no deterrent for them to just suddenly turn off that light switch and go dark. 2019 was Too good be true and it was.
The bigger concern is we need a #2 behind JV. Verlander should be on an inning restrictions this upcoming season to keep him fresh for the postseason. McCullers is likely going to be limited to 125IP. My gut tells me that we dont make any other considerable additions and we roll the dice with what we have which would be a grave mistake.
I know you’re trolling, but in 2019: Altuve had his 3rd best offensive season and 6th best overall. Brantley had his 3rd best season. Correa 2nd best offensive season, 4th best overall. Diaz 2nd best offensive season, 3rd best overall. Chirinos 2nd best offensive season. Marisnick, Reddick, and Maldonado were terrible offensively. Alvarez was a rookie. So the 3 guys who had “career years” offensively in 2019 were Gurriel, Springer, and Bregman. Bregman was 25 in his 3rd full season in the majors, hardly a surprise he would have a career year. Gurriel was finally fully recovered from injury, and his k/bb numbers are very similar to his other years. Springer is the one player who’s career year stands out, and his k rate plummeted starting in 2017, but he’s ONE player.
Agree with this 100%, the blueprint for success is unchanged from the past three years. Need a pitcher or two to go supernova in the playoffs. In their two WS runs: 2017 Verlander/Morton and 2019 Cole. This can't be predicted or planned for. You acquire the pitchers who have that kind of variance and hope for the best. McCullers, Verlander, Greinke and even Urquidy have demonstrated in the playoffs they have that kind of variance. Home field should be the regular season goal. 100+ wins and health come playoff time. The offense is historically good, up and down the lineup. Only C and RF are somewhat question marks I think the only thing that could hold this team back is at the helm. The team will be in circle the wagon mode at least through half the year. Can Baker keep this team focused and loose? Will our front office be as opportunistic as Luhnow in acquiring elite talent via trade?
Grienke is number 2. Although he's getting up there in age as well. Do they need to keep him fresh like with JV for the playoffs?
I don't care about being the best team on paper going into the season. We weren't in 2017 and we were the number 2 seed behind the Indians in the playoffs. Since 2000 a wild card team has now won the world series more times than the team with the best record thanks to the Nationals beating us last year. I hope the Yankees are the 1 seed and have to play Tampa in the ALDS. I would much rather play the Twins/Indians than see Morton, Glasnow, and Snell again. I also suspect there will be plenty of pitching available at the deadline. Bauer, Castillo, Stroman, Boyd, and Ray are some names that could be available.
Please don't waste posts and space helping to spread this guys nonsense He is a babbling idiot, just ignore him
I agree. Don't blink. Use hand signals to indicate to the pitcher that you know he's going to throw a fastball.