They'd make the case that our offense is over performing. Reddick is a perfect example. Career .224 hitter vs LHP. He's hitting .318 this season. I'm just bothered that the talking heads are acting as if the Dodgers are far and away a better team. It's much closer than that. If they both get to the WS, it's going to be epic.
We are going to over perform. We have 3 of the top 10 overall hitters in baseball and I could make a case for Yuli being in the conversation soon if he is starting to get the MLB. Reddick is benefitting from being surrounded by Springer and Altuve. If Astros want to take the next gear, they need to move Yuli behind Correa and bat Marwin behind him. I am a big fan of Yuli. Has a pedigree for mashing consistently.
The Dodgers just completed a 20 game home stand...well sort of. Their 5 road games in those 20 games were 2 "at" the LA Angels and 3 at lousy San Diego, down the highway.
Our offense is performing as good as you could hope for.. Most of them are having career years. I think our pitching will be better simply due to health (and mind you they've been good as is) while our offense declines some. For the Dodgers I think their pitching declines, but their hitting improves. I expect both will remain clear favorites to reach the WS.
Do you remember the beginning of this year when our pitching was killing it and everyone assured our "offense will start clicking" how come now that it's clicking it has to go back down?
It doesn't have to, but it is clicking at a historical rate. Springer probably won't maintain his torrid pace (certainly not the awesome stretch he is currently in). Jake is most likely going to return to being a below average player. Marwin will probably slow down, though he'll still be good. That doesn't mean they have to, but that is the most likely scenario. Now, Bregman, Beltran, Aoki, and possible callups could certainly improve. We are never as bad as we are at our worst, and never as good as we are at our best.
This. Though, I do think Astros make a trade(s) for a bat or two depending on whether Astros keep Fisher/trust Fisher. I could see the Astros offense having higher highers and higher lows with replacing Aoki and Beltran. It would not surprise me to see one or both of those guys get included when Astros acquire a SP.
Consistent offense is usually going to carry a team quite well in the regular season.... but won't mean much come playoff time. Shoring up the weak hitters can still be a priority... especially since hitting hasn't performed all that well vs. Cleveland and Boston thus far. From his last interview, I gather that Luhnow will look closely at how they matchup against possible playoff opponents and try and improve weaknesses... in addition to the no-brainer acquisition of another starter.
We don't need your negative Nancy comments in here. We need to have positive and helpful comments. Bring your best game or stay home.
I don't know man, as someone that's harped on lack of exposure by the national media during the NBA season, I think the Astros coverage has been pretty good. Obviously ESPN will always love Yankees and Red Sox, but the Astros are getting a lot of love.
Out of our 2-7 record against those 2, we lost 4 1-run games and 2 2-run games. And we could have swept Cleveland at their place if a couple of small things went differently (cough...Correa...cough).
Jim Duquette and his co-host on MLB Network broke down the potential match-up, and both of them agreed that the Astros are probably a slight favorite at this point because of our roster construction, and the fact that we're likely to make a move for an ace. It's really only the Hot Take Machines at ESPN and other national media outlets that are losing their minds over the Dodgers right now. The Astros are still considered to be the best team in baseball by the knowledgeable pundits. And in all honesty, the Dodgers are playing some badass baseball right now. It would be an EPIC World Series.
From the article you posted yesterday... could just be his usual media-speak, or he really does think there's more that needs to be done against these teams. "We’re in an advantageous position that it is highly likely, unless we have some sort of catastrophic collapse, we’re going to be in the post-season and you really can start focusing on what does this team need to look like to face the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game series, to face the Boston Red Sox in a seven-game series, do we match up well," says Luhnow. "We won only one game against Cleveland this year and lost five. They’ve got our number right now. What is it that we need to do in a seven-game series to match up with them better? It’s certainly something we think about. The solutions aren’t easy. The players you need to put on your roster to help you in that situation are few and far between and they cost a fortune to acquire. But it’s certainly something you have to think about."
What's funny is that Correa ranks 214 in average HR distance (has moved up to 179 after Sunday), but such luminaries as Jeff Samardzija, Jon Gray, Ketel Marte and a bunch of others are ahead of him because their ONE HR went further than the average of Crorea's 20.
Exactly why there needs to be a min. amount to qualify for being ranked for HR distance.... as if that is even a thing.
Also: he's hit ~half of his HRs to the opposite field (right of dead center), those typically aren't coming off the bat like they do if you pull them. That being said...I don't give a **** how hard he hits his HRs.
If both squads can somewhat maintain their current dominance, Home Dodgers vs Road Stros could be the biggest collision of unstoppable forces in league history. The combined winning % might be a record.
I'm guessing a little of both. Having Keuchel, McCullers, and a third starter to be acquired be the only starters against those guys would be a good start in matching up with them. Though Astros have hit RHPs well, Luhnow implied recently while talking about Fisher's performance in majors that they wanted another productive LHB in the lineup to be more balanced. This would seem to be geared towards Cleveland and not Boston.
