Man, I'm a little worried about playing the power house KC Royals. This schedule has been brutal for the Astros.
The scariest part is Houston ***BY CHOICE*** will enter 7 of these final 9 games shooting themselves in the foot by playing an inferior player (perhaps baseball's worst) whose replacement is having one of the *greatest* rookie seasons in league history. This scenario has existed throughout the season which helps explain why these final games are so worrisome in the first place.
As bad as Maldy has been the biggest thing that has hurt the team this year is the falloff in starting pitching. The pitch clock , disallowing the shift, and some of the other new rules have impacted our starting pitching more than other teams. Starting pitching that has to struggle to get into the fifth inning impacts the team in a bad way. Especially the relief pitching. Watching Javier this past game gives me hope and reminder of just how good he was last year. We have a better than 90% chance to make the playoffs and if we do get there we are going to need Javier to pitch like he did this game if we have any chance to get hot and go on a roll. I agree with others we need to start Diaz more at catcher. Unfortunately Dusty probably not going to let that happen. I agree with others that Dubon is a great utility backup infielder but does not need to play in the outfield unless we have no other option. Again Dusty going probably keep putting him out in CF for some reason only he knows. We also need somebody else other than Maton to come into games where the other team has runners on base. Maton has got to be the worst I can remember that we keep putting out there with runners on base. He is good at not allowing his own runners to score but evidently could give a flip less about another pitchers runners. I think over half of the runners he has inherited have scored but Dusty keeps putting him out there. Hoping this team figures it all out, gets hot, and gets back to the WS again. Win or lose, Dusty needs to ride off into the sunset next year and take Maldy with him.
Management has had a terrible season. Most of the reason the rotation has been lacking is from poor planning (i.e. load management). The team could've easily attempted to fix it by skipping some of their starts via Bielak and Blanco, but the team chose to do nothing. Javier was great last season, but he was great in April and May of THIS season too. Abreu was also mismanaged. No way should he at his age been playing 99 of the first 100 games, plus he barely played DH too. Diaz should've gotten reps at 1B since April and damn sure gotten some/more in May. Then, there's the obvious lack of games playing catcher. Management has been an abject failure this season. Injuries have really hurt too, but France and Dubon were unexpected plusses. Neris has been all-world and Chas made a huge jump. It is disappointing and a shame the team hasn't done the obvious moves to win more games.
It's been so long since Javier has pitched like he pitched this past game it seems like he has not been himself all year. The rest of he league figured out the invisiball or he started tipping pitches, giving up gopher balls, but if we can count on what we saw the other night, that's great news and increases our chances dramatically.. When he is on he is a great pitcher. I agree with you on Jabreu. Same argument can be made more Maldy. I have never believed that certain pitchers had to have Maldy as their catcher. More likely BS made up by Dusty. Both Maldy and Jabreu at their advanced age and deteriorating physical condition should have played much less throughout the year. If Dusty is so hell bent on playing Dubon, put him put him at first base part of the time. Just keep him out of the outfield unless it is an emergency. France and Brown are pitching on fumes. Neither one has pitched anywhere near the number of innings they have been asked to pitch this year. I agree with you that is on management. Framer is a head case, JV getting old. Starting pitching to me anyway is still a huge question mark going forward. The offense is so fickle and inconsistent pitching needs to dig down, take the bull by the horns and keep us in games. Like many posting on here, I will feel a lot better about things after I see how we perform in the next nine games. At least I am hoping I will be.
Need to win the division if they’re going to make a run in October. Pitching isn’t there to make a run from the wildcard. They have to sweep KC, and take that 1st game in Seattle. I can also see them missing the playoffs all together and it’s all on them. Texas and Seattle tried to hand them the division last week, all they had to do was take 2/3 vs two of the worst teams in baseball history and **** the bed. The Maldy/Diaz situation has hurt, Brown not being what we thought, and the inconsistent lineups.
Everything said in these past several posts are exactly true. I still have hope but not faith. If Dusty is no longer the manager, and Maldy no longer a player next year this team should be extremely good. As for now? There's an old saying "a chip and a chair" if they get in then experience and luck may bring another World Series but I'm not counting on it or emotionally invested like previous seasons.
Lineup prediction for today: Brantley off Altuve - 2b Pena - ss Alvarez - lf Bregman - 3b Tucker - rf Abreu - 1b Diaz - dh McCormick - cf Maldy - c
I worry about Brantley and if he can go the rest of the season/post season. This team is night and day different with him and Chas in the lineup together. If Diaz catches too its murderers row. Of Dubon and Maldy play its no better than him on the bench.
Winning a World Series has a lot of luck as even the Astros have only won 2 of the last 6. I think a lot of the Dusty issues get fixed in the postseason if the Astros make it (Dusty's inefficiencies add up over 162 games moreso than over a 5 -or a 7-game series unless you are really unlucky). Odds are that if the Astros win the division (edited), they will not face a better team in any series.
