Eight innings from a starter is baseball ecstasy... especially when the bully is suspect. Rinse and repeat as much as possible Offense, do enough too
I, too, was sleepless in Seattle. Was too busy dreaming OF A WORLD SERIES BIRTH AGAIN!!! (Think about it though. We've made it in odd numbered years. 17,19, and guess what years next baby?! 21)
Assuming the team is in contention, Click will have to earn his stripes as an in-season GM by getting a piece (or pieces) to plug holes on the roster. Hopefully he is up to the challenge.
They really weren’t that much more stacked in 17 until they acquired Verlander. Even then, the bullpen had its share of question marks and they ended up relying on LMJ and Morton to be key bullpen pieces in the post-season. The 2019 team is the greatest Astros team of all time. It’s likely they’ll never have a team that stacked again in our lifetime.
It’s pretty much the same team now minus Cole but with emergence of Valdez, Javier, Tucker, Paredes, Taylor, etc
2 legitimate cy young campaigns, Springer, a legit shut down closer, and a stable proven bullpen. Wade Miley was even putting up a cy young vote worthy season until he fell apart.
Fair enough. I would put Grienke as a legit Cy Young campaign so far though. Pressly and Osuna are comparable and I like this years pen more (sure Covid, injuries have gotten it off too a shaky start). Harris and Smith were the only two dependable arms in the pen come 2019 World Series and that bit the Astros in GM7 with the overusuge of Harris. Maybe the value of Cole and Springer hasn’t been replicated..yet. But the overall depth of the team is much better.
