Anyone watch the NLCS and think, that should have been the Astros?

But all the same things could be said about the Cardinals. If only Izzy had played to his abilities. Or Rolen didnt go into a massive slump. Or if Pujols didn't get hurt for 3 weeks. etc.

Both teams played mediocre for huge chunks of the season. Ultimately, their mediocre was better than ours. As far as limping in, the White Sox limped in last year and got on a roll, as did both Detroit and St. Louis this year - momentum apparently means very little as far as the baseball playoffs go. Surprising, but what we really thought of as terrible teams in September have consistently been turning it on in the playoffs.

 

It's what I was saying all year long, DaDa. The margins between the teams in the NL was razor thin this season. The Astros were good enough to win that division..they just didn't execute on it.

This playoffs should remind us all how different baseball is from the other sports. "Momentum going into the playoffs" is a fantasy. Once you get there, virtually anybody can be beat anybody. No one gave the Tigers or the Cards much of a chance to advance to the WS. It happened, anyway.

 

What I kept thinking last night was, "That Beltran is such a choker. He comes up in the "clutch" and looked *horrible*!!"

 

not really, b/c we sucked the whole year.

 

Yeah, divisional standings are so old fashioned. After the season is over, I think there should be a national vote on who gets in the playoffs...

 

Nope, they won games when it mattered....we didnt

 

Dont know what your definition of "sucked" is but we certainly didn't suck. Wait am I in a Astros thread or Texans thread? Kidding aside. I didn't watch the NLCS because I was thinking that could have been the Astros there. I'll watch the WS now but I'm pulling for the Tigers to sweep the Cards. Has any team been swept twice in the WS or at that swept in 2 straight apperances?

 

That was an UNPROFESSIONAL at-bat.

 

I really don't think you can compare Detroit and the White Sox (last year) to the Cardinals (this year). The difference with those teams is that the Tigers and Sox played great baseball all year aside from a little slump at the end, then continued that success in the playoffs. StL has struggled all year, got lucky and backed into the playoffs where they have faced competition that had their own struggles; I hardly think the Cardinals have caught fire. Also, Detroit already had a playoff berth locked up when they started slumping; the only thing the Semptember struggles cost them was a division title, no biggie.

I think momentum toward the end of the season can very much translate into playoff success...look at the Astros last year, the Marlins, the D'Backs; all those teams played hard to the end and snatched up the Wild Card and took that success all the way to the Series. But then there's an equally number of instances where September success doesn't mean jack...Yankees anyone?

I'll agree with the mediocrity though. While I do feel the Astros should have been there...there's about 3 or 4 other teams that could make the same argument had a few losses gone the other way. The NL fielded such a weak class this year...the thing that is a shame is the Astros couldn't take advantage with the pitching they had.

 

They did? I can swear the Brewers were whooping the dead birds asses. Only, we couldn't beat the damn braves!

 

The Cards split the 4 game set with the Brewers. The Brewers had their chance to win the series 3-1 but their closer blew the third game. If they lost- they would have had to play the Giants and who knows. There were too many if's this baseball season for the astros. It wasnt meant to be and we didnt deserve to make the playoffs. Its not ok to just turn it on whenever you feel like. We must play more consistant baseball next year.

 

Two things here.

One, if Bochy doesnt go braindead and NOT pitch to Pujols with game on the line in the rubber game, this all doesnt matter anyway all that much. Or at least bring in Trevor ... duh.

Two, its pointless to blame teams for not taking care of businees that your team should have. If Lane or Ensberg would've not been sleep walking through a majority of this season, we would be there regardless of our bullpen blues.

Also, this just in ... pretty much EVERY bullpen blows games. It's just our offense SUCKED basically the WHOLE season. There's your culprit.

 

DD, I agree somewhat, but I felt the Astros were going to run out of gas and they could not sustain the run. It just happened in the last series of the season instead of during the playoffs.

 

I agree, hence why I said damn the braves. The Astros didn't do their job. Brewers did enough to help us if we only could win in Atlanta. But ultimately, the Astros fate was the same as 90% of the season.

 

No need to clarify. I'll keep saying "damn the braves", even Buck the Fraves until we sweep them at least twice in the playoffs then payback is complete for 97 & 2001.

 

Don't forget '99 , Walt f'n Weiss.............

 

82-80 record. and it took a miracle winning streak in the end to get there.