What more does Matt Downs need to do to get playing time??? Downs - in 78 ABs...5 home runs, 8 doubles, 19RBIs and an OPS of .964 CJ - in 251 ABs...6 home runs, 15 doubles, 30RBIs and an OPS of .672 Oh and Downs has walked 12 times, CJ....9.
way to go stros..come back and battle..if they hadnt blow it last nite would've been a good series win against a good ranger team!
I agree Downs should be playing more but CJ is having a good June hitting .306 with an OPS of .828. Can Downs play shortstop? Probably not but once Keppinger gets dealt, Downs will be the everyday second baseman I would think.
CJ has the better career numbers for now. There haven't been enough ABs to say Downs has earned the starting 3B job, but they should try to mix him into the lineup a little more often.
That's what pisses me off about these Astros. Just when you think this team is dead and is ready for cremation...they come back and pull this to leave a faint light at the end of the tunnel. Yay...keep the false hope alive that this team may actually start playing better. A series that looked completely lopsided coming in turned out to be a winnable series if the game 2 lead holds. We may win more than one game this season series yet. It's been a weird season with all the blown saves and it seems like we are pulling out 9th inning comeback wins with more frequency than I can remember...especially for a team 20 games under .500. Inconsistency rules the days and nights for the Astros. You never know what these guys will do. They mostly lose but they have their winning moments to tide us over a bit past the next losing streak...followed by another win that seemed like a sure loss for most of the game.
Actually, it was John Rhadigan, not Ric Renner, but I don't blame you much for mixing the studio hosts up. I doubt Renner would be any better at play-by-play than Rhadigan was. I agree with you about Lewin, I wish he was still calling the Rangers games, but I think Dave Barnett does a pretty good job most of the time. He's got a good voice. BrooksBall, there wasn't anything idiotic about what Tom said about the Astros and their talent level. He was actually taking up for the Astros (he does that a lot as a former player, since he seems to take player criticism personally.) His point was that the casual observer, not someone following the Astros every day, wonders how the Astros could seem to fall off so quick after being a World Series team as recently as 2005. He was explaining that due to the loss of the veteran core of those highly successful teams, the overall talent level of the organization has gone down tremendously, rather than their being a lack of effort on the players part or even bad managing. Sometimes we have to remember that broadcasters are paid to appeal to the average viewer and not necessarily diehards that are paying attention to everything in detail. Tom Grieve may be a simple speaker but that doesn't mean he's an idiot. He tries to break things down as simply as possible so that it's easily understood by anyone, and when you do that, hardcore baseball fans are going to feel like it's a bit dumbed down.
i meant walk-offs as well. there have been a few of those, too. seems like a lot of 9th inning wins for the astros...but may just be my imagination after losing so many leads.
Good post. I get you. He did however elaborate on the fact that less talented teams have trouble beating more talented teams. I was being too harsh but I will say that I am thankful to have JD and Brownie over those two based on that inning I listened to. And I'm not just being a homer. As evidence of that, I do not like Worrell/Drexler/Bullard. There are a bunch of opposing commentators that I'd take over them.
Anyone see that they covered the Rangers-Astros game with the World Record Attempt for the most sunglasses at night during the Colbert Report last night? Pretty funny.
Understood. I like Brownie and JD too. I especially like JD's dry sense of humor. I've taken up for them on the Rangers forums before. I like Worrell and Bullard is alright. I'm with you on Drexler, I can't believe he's still doing commentary for the Rockets. He alternates between stating the obvious and stating the "huh?" worthy. As far as baseball commentators go, there's none better than Vin Scully in my opinion, I can enjoy him calling a game tremendously even as I root *against* the Dodgers.
