It's gonna probably be that way until the very end. Unless we get some serious rally house going!! @MadMax.
Brown and Framber and then Kickuchi against the angels while they have 3. Cross your fingers and hope it’s 7 by the time Friday night rolls around. 6 would be awesome. 5 would be fine. If it’s 4 or less when we start Friday night with JV, Blanco and Arrighetti on tap my ******* is going to pucker up a fair bit. SD Brown Framber Anaheim: Kichuchi JV blanco Areighetti seattle: Brown Framber Kichuchi Cleveland TBD. If nothing isn’t stake then it’s JV, Blanco, arrighetti. With the off day Thursday if it matters I’d go: JV/Blanco Brown Framber. hopefully Cleveland matters to try to take the 2 seed but not to empty the clip in the gun with Brown and Framber and then not ready to pitch in the wild card series because they were needed to get us into the playoffs.
Thanks for continuing to reference my posts. It's nice to know my thoughts are at least interesting to someone here.
Stros get dominated last night and just barely avoid the sweep gain at a very good SD team. I hope I’m wrong but I’m not seeing this team as WS caliber this year.
Worse teams have won it all. It’s going to take more luck than it did in 17 and 22. Houston’s 5 good hitters and 3 good SP and 3 good RP can collectively get hot enough to carry them.
I agree. The "it" factor is missing. They are one of the more inconsistent Astro teams in memory. Their record compared to last year isn't that different, but their identity seems different. They don't seem as feisty, determined, or competitive. When you go to the ACLS every year, you can become a tad complacent. Injuries have played a big factor as well. Imagine this team fully staffed with ALL their players in top form.
I agree. We’ve seen them play brilliantly against some of the top teams and then duds against some of the bad ones. Baseball is a weird and frustrating game and we’ve seen teams limp into the playoffs and win it all. Like you said I’m not feeling it from this team. I will gladly be wrong about this.
I think McCormick’s failure and Myers not really stepping up as a bat have had a huge impact on this year’s team. Of course, there was also Abreu. We could have weathered the storm of injuries much better if those guys would have stepped up. I hope they kick the tires with McCormick at 1b. A platoon of Singleton and McCormick only batting against LH could free up capital to give Tucker his bag and be able to stomach the negative impact of starting Dicenzo at 3b. A healthy lineup of Altuve 2b Pena SS Alvarez DH Tucker RF Diaz C Singleton/McCormick 1b Whitcomb LF Dicenzo 3b Myers CF Is good enough to contend for the playoffs while waiting for the youngsters to season.
The Astros can go to 7 straight ALCS's, win 2 World Series, and be the best team in the AL by 4.5 games over the last 100, and people can still go, I just don't know if the Astros have it. I just don't get how the first 30 games of the season matter so much more than the past 100 games or the past nearly 8 seasons.
I'd put the Astros "struggles" mostly on Abreu, team for keeping playing Abreu, McCormick falling apart, and early pitching struggles. The Astros have been the most dominant team in AL for most of the season. It is just that they started out like they were the White Sox for 30 games.
I don’t think it’s a desire thing or being complacent. We have the thinnest batting line-up that we have had during the dynasty. I’m generally an optimist, but having a lineup that is only 5 deep and a superstar that is limping into the post-season is reason for concern. I will say our pitching may be the best it has been in some years and that is a source of hope for this season.
We just need to get rolling offensively. I'm not worried about our top 5 hitters other than maybe Bregman's elbow. However we need 2 other hitters to get hot. I don't see Meyers being one of them. He just doesn't have it in him. So hopefully Singleton keeps going the way he's going and we see rookie playoff Pena. Would have loved Chas to be healthy because he was starting to heat up.
I don't care how a team wins. The Astros have been the boot for the past 8 years. The Astros have been the boot the past 100 games. Whether it is steel toe or a composite toe boot, the boot squashes the bug. The Yankees have scored 38 more runs than the Astros the past 100 games. They've given up nearly 100 more than the Astros over that time period. I really don't care if the Astros only have a Top 8 or Top 10 offense this year as long as the pitching can make other teams look worse. Hey, you can prefer a team that scores a little more than the Astros, but I'll take the better overall team. No team is perfect. I didn't look at other teams besides the Yankees as I expect the Yankees are the biggest meanest bug out there...but a bug never the less.
This is a lie. I would worry a lot if the Astros were winning by sheer randomness (e.g., if the Astros were winning due to 1-run game luck). Winning by having better pitching...yeah, that doesn't cause me worries.
Hope you’re right. Squash them roaches. You only need to have 3 star SP in the playoffs. So a better analysis would be the 3 best starter era’s for each of our competition to Framber, Brown, Kikuchi to see how large of an advantage we have from a pitching perspective. Of course, bullpens have a huge impact as well. I’m not a stat guru nor do I have the time, but it would be fun to see what is our real advantage on the pitching side going into the playoffs. Having much better 4th, 5th, and 6th starters is of much greater significance in the regular season than it is in the playoffs.
