Do you think they'll have what it takes to atleast advance past round 1? This team sadly reminds me of the 99 Rockets that were able to whoop all the bad teams, but couldn't manage much against the good teams. Given the fact that both our studs on the pitching mound are either injured, or struggling, we can't really rely on our pitching to pull us through. Granted on previous years when we were in the playoffs, pitching wasn't always the issue. We just can't manage to put up runs. The scouting report on Biggio goes into effect. Work him away with sliders, and change ups, and he'll swing, and go 0-4. That's always the trend that I see when he's at bat in the playoffs, and sadly he makes no adjustments. Bagwell doesn't necessarily struggle, despite his poor BA in the playoffs. He usually generates a lot of walks, but again it's not exactly something you'd want to see out of one of your powerhitters. And as nice as it is to see we've added better bats to our lineup in Kent, and Ensberg, and to see the re-emergence of Hidalgo swinging well again, it does seem when we run into a good team, no matter how hot we are riding a win streak putting up 5 or 6 runs a game, our bats go cold immmediately. It's one thing thing to shell a team like the Reds and put up stacked numbers, but it's another thing to do it against a team like the Braves, Giants, Dodgers, D-Backs, etc. Point is, these are our potential opponents in the playoffs, and all have proven to atleast clamp our offense down to a sub standard mediocre numbers, right after we've been clobbering teams for enormous run production. As nice as it would be to see this team advance, barring a hot streak at the end of the season and some convincing victories against some good teams down the stretch, or our potential opponents losing their ace to an injury, I think we'll probably be shown the door to a first round exit. My heart goes out to this team, and I've grown up a 'Stros fan since practically birth but it seems whenever the playoffs come up, I'm always left with a bitter sensation watching us struggle.
London -- I don't think their chances are good to advance...frankly, they're the weakest division champ, and that's pretty easy to see. but you never know what's gonna happen when they lace 'em up and start playing in the playoffs. i'd rather them win their division so we can find out than miss the playoffs entirely. the marlins are a playoff contender, and we just took 2 of 3 against them. we've beaten st. louis more times than they've beaten us this year. we've done poorly against the Giants and Braves...but geez, who hasn't?
since the wild-card looks like it will come out of the east and the braves have the best record in baseball, the astros will probably play the braves again if they reach the post-season. the braves, as you've probably noticed are very, very good, but to answer your question, i think the stros have a respectable shot of winning that series, at least relative to what the regular season records and series might indicate. The reason is that a five-game series in baseball is a crap shoot, and it's not always the best team or the best regular season team that wins, but usually it's just the team that gets itself hot for 3 games or trots out a hot pitcher. Now, atlanta is a great team, and they'll win way over 100 games this year, but if you look at them theur starting pitching is not THAT good. Actually i think our is better than there's, especially if oswalt can pitch healthy. 1-6 i think our lineup is as good as there's too and of course our bullpen is solid. Now there are a bunch of variables, like roy's health, miller coming around, and either redding or villone establishing themselves as a legit top 3 guys, but i think they would have a shot if we could get in there.
No way in hell do we win more than 1 game. Our starting pitching is mediocre, and would be eaten alive in the playoffs.
tough call... i think we can still win the division without roy but it'll be near impossible to take a series with miller, redding, and robertson or whatever we throw out there. on the other hand if roy is healthy and if wade pitches like he has in every prior year, than we're not exactly an easy matchup. this offense has never seen the postseason together so i can't write them off based on past failures. kent, ensberg, and berkman could all prove to be pretty clutch. once we get there it's a new season so you never know.
houston's starters have a better era than atlanta's. Moreover, w/ lidge dotel, and wagner the starters would only really need to give 5 good innings
Houston's starters have the best ERA in the NL since Memorial Day. I seem to remember that they changed the seeding for the playoffs. I may be remembering something they were talking about but I thought they changed things so that the wild card plays the best division winner regardless of whether or not they are in the same division.
I think we'll go out in the 1st round if we make the playoffs. Look at the Astros hitting the last few games now that the pressure is on them. They stopped scoring runs, once again. Not to mention their record vs. the Brave and Giants is 2-7. I don't understand why out of 162 games in the season, when your lineup isn't hitting, you can't just completely mix up the batting order. Like dropping Bags to the 6th spot, swapping him with Doggie. Then swap Biggio's spot for Everett, who seems to get more clutch singles then Biggio who i see strikeout in the 9th inning every game we lose on a slider in the dirt. It's not fundamental, but if we could get 2 innings out of the 3 headed monster in the bullpen, that's more than we average from our starters. You could execute this idea when we're facing our elimination game.
Sadly, the Astros bats do always go cold once when they hit the playoffs, but I'm more optimistic this season with Kent, Endsberg added, and Hidalgo returning to form like previously stated. If Oswalt and Miller could just turn it on around that time we'd do real good. Redding, Robertson, and Villone have all had their share of quality starts. We would just need our two horses and one of our 3-5 to good and we'd advance easy. Once we reach the seventh, you know it'd be over.
The playoffs are a funny thing, especially the first round - so I'm not sure you can predict how the Astros will play. There aren't too many dominant starters lining up on the potential playoff teams, so we have a chance to shut their bats down just as good - if not better than the opposition. And in a 5 game series, one game could tip the scales.
Of course if we go to the playoffs I am sure the bullpen will get the heavy load of the games. I think it will rely on successful coaching, like order of bat and when and who from the bullpen should get in. However, it seems we are destined to be the Minnesotta Timberwolves of baseball forever.
