regarding Ted Williams...the supposed greatest hitter who ever lived...he is a great regular season player...but didn't produce when it counted the most, when the stakes were at their highest. But he had a couple of years wiped out by WW2,in the prime of his career, who knows what he would have done during that time span. If you want to include his .200 postseason average, than he is a little overrated since he couldn't hit in the biggest games
You are probably alone in your analysis that Ted Williams is overrated because of his .200 WS average and the fact that you claim he cannot be considered one of the greatest ever becuase of his low WS average. Ted Williams is arguably one of the two or three greatest hitters/players ever, ask any knowledgeable baseball person. You cannot take away the greatness of a player simply because he: A. Never makes the postseason B. Has a limited number of ABs, IPs to gather any meaningful data from.
in a 5 game playoff. If a player gets 4 at bats a game and the series goes 5 games, that is a total of 20 at bats. Now in the playoffs you having to face the elite pitchers. The astros ran into the Atlanta Braves. Greg Maddux Tom Glavine John Smoltz repeat that's why craig biggio had a low season average. It's not fair to judge a player based on 20 at bats
ok..ted williams is out. how about willie mays? regarded by many as the greatest ever...certainly in the top 5 or so. overrated?? because of his handful of AB's in the playoffs??
It may not take away from it, but is sure does taint it somewhat. i The Cards also ran into the Braves in 2000, the Giants ran into the Braves in 2002. They got the job done, and in their first try in the division series. So beating the Braves can be done. They Astros should've beaten the Braves in 2001, The Braves had a down year that year. And the D-Backs exposed that with a thumping in the NLCS. But the Astros hitters let them down in Games 2 and 3. Vina destroyed the Braves in 2000. Now, that's a gamer. As for Mays, he has won a World Series. He's done enough to win the ultimate prize.
Worst postseason draw? What kind of excuse is that?? excuses, excuses. How about having your favorite team be accountable for their failures instead of blaming it on the "draw." The Cards big league hitters didn't struggle against the ATL in 2000, and that was even with wild boy Ankiel on the mound. 102 wins in 1998, and still the Astros couldn't get out of the opening round. Bases loaded nobody out in the bottom of the tenth in Game 3 of the 1999 playoffs against the Braves...still couldn't take advantage! When one team gets 4 chances to get out of the division series with win totals of 84, 102, 97 and 93...you think they would advance at least once.
JB, The Braves of the most of the 90's were a better version of the Recent oakland a's, with a much better offense. I used the draw as an example, and so did you. The Giants faced a watered down braves team last year, as smoltz is now a reliever and glavine and maddux are declining. The cardinals in 2000 didn't have to face smoltz. He was injured with elbow problems. They too got a watered down braves team. The astros in 2001 I buy choked, but I still believe if dierker brings in dotel over jackson, we win game one and the series completely changes. But that's me. Bottom line: I want to win a championship a lot, but the astros are 10 million times better off for having jeff bagwell and craig biggio than they would be without them, and I respect that. Plus, I do want both to retire astros, as that is special in this era of free agency and they deserve it.
If my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.....the fact is the astros lost to a watered down Braves team in 2001. In the Braves watered down years of 2000, 2001, and 2002, the Astros were the only team not to beat them in the playoffs. The astros could have rebounded from that Game 1 loss, but they didn't. And Biggio's lack of hitting was a big reason why.
I remember back in 98 or 99 (can't remember) Biggio struck out to end the series. After the game he said something like, "If Larry thinks he can do any better, maybe he should go out there and hit." Then he proceeded to b**** about how some light had come into the Astrodome because someone opened a door behind the center field wall. The light apparently hindered his vision.
In 1998, the series ended in San Diego. In 1999 Caminiti hit a fly out to the warning track to end the series.
the only playoff series that ended in houston was 1997...3 game sweep against atlanta. we were soooo overmatched that year, it wasn't funny.
the 99 Atlanta series ended in Houston. It was the last game ever at the Astrodome I went to Game 3 of the 1997 series, where of all people Chuckie Carr hit a homerun, that would be one more playoff HR than Bagwell or Biggio combined.
