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2019 Houston Astros Thread


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2 hours ago, TexArcher said:

Our RISP batting was ridiculous the whole playoff run.  Both teams had 9 hits last night and we lost by 4.  Christ.

 

At the time they took the lead on Kendrick's HR, we had (I think) 8 hits and they had 3. Economical rascals, for sure...but we left way too many ducks on the pond all fall, despite sometimes hitting rockets with RISP.

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21 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

Did anyone else's significant other make things worse during the meltdown by acting like a gigantic bitch getting upset all of a sudden and having to worry about their shit or was that something only I got to enjoy in addition to what happened on the field

Haha yes. At one point my wife said, you know they can’t hear you through the TV...” I shut the damn thing off and went upstairs to watch us lose in peace. 

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3 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

At the time they took the lead on Kendrick's HR, we had (I think) 8 hits and they had 3. Economical rascals, for sure...but we left way too many ducks on the pond all fall, despite sometimes hitting rockets with RISP.

If George's out to Soto falls, it's a whole different ballgame.

Inches, man.

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If George's out to Soto falls, it's a whole different ballgame.
Inches, man.
Yeah that was big. We just needed something like to break it open. 2 runs wasn't enough.


Also just saw this
 

After an awkward exchange with a team official following Game 7 of the World Series in which he said he was "not employed by the team," free agent Gerrit Cole, a front-runner for the American League Cy Young Award, said his "thank you" to the Houston Astros and their fans via social media Thursday.

"Last night was a tough one for us and the heartbreak hasn't gotten any easier today," Cole tweeted Thursday. "Before I became an Astro I didn't know much about Houston, but after just two years you have made it feel like home. So here's what I know now. You have been overwhelmingly friendly, welcoming, and kind to my family and me. The Astros organization has been such a pleasure to play for, the Cranes are indeed special people and great owners. I've met lifelong friends on the team and in the community and learned a little about pitching along the way.

"... This is a relationship between a team and it's fans like no other that I know. Thank you for making us better people and better players. This was a great season. We have a lot to be proud of."

Cole set an Astros record by winning his last 16 regular-season decisions and topped the AL with a career-best 2.50 ERA. His career-high 326 strikeouts were the most in the majors and set a franchise record that had stood since 1979, when J.R. Richard fanned 313.

Cole and Astros teammate Justin Verlander are the front-runners for the AL Cy Young Award.

Asked by a team official to meet with reporters after their 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, Cole, who was wearing a Boras Corp. hat, said, "I'm not employed by the team." However, after agreeing to interviews, he started out with, "I guess as a representative of myself ..."

Cole is represented by agent Scott Boras and is poised to command

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27975988/free-agent-gerrit-cole-thanks-astros-fans-support
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Just now, David Dennison said:

If George's out to Soto falls, it's a whole different ballgame.

Inches, man.

Absolutely. Lower, higher, 50 feet left or right...that ball was a missile, and it was just bad luck it went straight to the LF. Felt at the moment like a play we'd all regret...and it certainly was. Yet it's tough to complain about "failure" with men on base when a ball is blasted that hard. Inches indeed.

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37 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

Did anyone else's significant other make things worse during the meltdown by acting like a gigantic bitch getting upset all of a sudden and having to worry about their shit or was that something only I got to enjoy in addition to what happened on the field

No. My wife made things better after the meltdown with her, um, attentiveness to my needs .... in bed.

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43 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

Absolutely. Lower, higher, 50 feet left or right...that ball was a missile, and it was just bad luck it went straight to the LF. Felt at the moment like a play we'd all regret...and it certainly was. Yet it's tough to complain about "failure" with men on base when a ball is blasted that hard. Inches indeed.

That AND Yordan's blast to deep center in the 3rd that looked like a HR off the bat. 

 

Goddamn. Both of those outs had a statcast expected BA of greater than .680, both happened with two men on base, and both were noisy outs that were ultimately  the difference between us fans feeling like shit today and us fans rejoicing over a second World Series trophy while discussing where the 2019 Houston Astros rank in the annals of MLB history. 

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Those you can live with.  Altuve failing to at least advance the runners last night was the biggest play of the game, imo.  I can live with "bad luck" a lot easier than failed execution.  If he at least gets them to 2nd and 3rd with one out, they could have scored at least one more run.  He has to be better in that situation and I'm sure he would say the same thing. 

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5 minutes ago, Hate said:

Those you can live with.  Altuve failing to at least advance the runners last night was the biggest play of the game, imo.  I can live with "bad luck" a lot easier than failed execution.  If he at least gets them to 2nd and 3rd with one out, they could have scored at least one more run.  He has to be better in that situation and I'm sure he would say the same thing. 

The Chirinos bunt is the play that I was probably most disappointed about. Astroball is about never conceding outs, never giving up intentional walks etc and they went away from that philosophy in game freakin 7 of the World Series to concede an out on a bunt attempt that resulted in an out without doing the one fucking thing that matters...advance the runners into scoring position. 

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5 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

The Chirinos bunt is the play that I was probably most disappointed about. Astroball is about never conceding outs, never giving up intentional walks etc and they went away from that philosophy in game freakin 7 of the World Series to concede an out on a bunt attempt that resulted in an out without doing the one fucking thing that matters...advance the runners into scoring position. 

Chirinos was flat out shitty last night. Props on the ball over the plate that he grabbed with a motion that almost smacked his mitt into the batter. The umpire still made the correct call and called it a strike but it was a wtf moment for sure. 

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7 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

Not going to judge.  Not sure how salty I would be after my team lost a winnable game 7 for the championship while I was itching to get the game.   I sure as hell wouldn’t want to talk to media if I didn’t have to.   
 

That said... I do wish he would have handled that moment better.  
 

Still an all-time Astros great in my book.  Unless he turns completely anti- Houston in the future, I’ll continue to root for him.  

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33 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

The Chirinos bunt is the play that I was probably most disappointed about. Astroball is about never conceding outs, never giving up intentional walks etc and they went away from that philosophy in game freakin 7 of the World Series to concede an out on a bunt attempt that resulted in an out without doing the one fucking thing that matters...advance the runners into scoring position. 

Sorry, yes for last night I meant the Chirinos at bat.  The Altuve shitfest was Game 6.  I got my failure to execute situations mixed up.

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Not going to judge.  Not sure how salty I would be after my team lost a winnable game 7 for the championship while I was itching to get the game.   I sure as hell wouldn’t want to talk to media if I didn’t have to.   
 
That said... I do wish he would have handled that moment better.  
 
Still an all-time Astros great in my book.  Unless he turns completely anti- Houston in the future, I’ll continue to root for him.  
That's a terrible look for him. We're all upset about that game last night so I think we can commiserate with him but he's also a very highly paid pitcher who's expected to be available to the media afterwards. Throwing a hissy fit in front of reporters hoping to get quotes from players usually doesn't go over well.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

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10 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

That's a terrible look for him. We're all upset about that game last night so I think we can commiserate with him but he's also a very highly paid pitcher who's expected to be available to the media afterwards. Throwing a hissy fit in front of reporters hoping to get quotes from players usually doesn't go over well.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 

I wondered if he had a falling out with team members, Hinch or the front office before or during the game when I heard his comments to reporters last night.  And if that's how he felt, the "flowery" written comments about the Astros today (one would assume written by his management) looked like he was trying to sweep those comments from last night under the rug for PR purposes.  He was definitely trying to make a statement with the Boras cap he wore last night.  IMHO, a classless move.

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1 hour ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

This actually makes me give him benefit of the doubt. 
 

He clearly was upset and didn’t want to have to talk the reporters. I think that’s why the Astro guys said he could just do it at his locker. He was so fucking pissed at having to do it he said the snarky thing that came to mind in response to the dumbass required interview. 
 

As in, if I’m not employed I don’t have to do the stupid interview

I don’t see that as a swipe at the Astros as much as just wanting to avoid the postgame jack ass questions (as we have see all playoffs). 
 

“why did you throw that pitch?”  

I’m sure most Astros wanted to GTFO immediately too. 

Now the hat is petty and probably his agents idea to get some photos in it no matter what. (Win/lose)

Edited by ChickenSandwich
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I'm torn on that.

If he were wearing an Astros hat one last time I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt that he was just pissed about the way the game went. 

But wearing that fucking Scott Boras hat and acting like a little whiny bitch just makes me think he was a dick all along.

Also, where is the rest of the team? Does Cole have his own "non-employee" locker room?

Edited by crimsonlonghorn
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So another bullcrap controversy created by a trolling dishonest media?

If he's worn a Boras hat in the locker room before last night, then this is much ado about nothing.  I wouldn't want to give an interview, either.  But he went ahead and did it.

Cole carried this team often in the regular season and especially in the playoffs.  Everything I've heard about him from local media members that actually know him say he's a great guy.  I'm totally cool with him and thanks for all he did for Houston.  

Edited by clapclapclap
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6 hours ago, David Dennison said:

He only mismanaged it in hindsight.

If they don't score, he made the right call.

I have no problem at all with his decision to pull Greinke.

I mean, that's easy to say.

But what I said wasn't results-oriented.

Greinke was on a two-hitter in the 7th inning with a lead and he'd thrown 80 pitches.  One could argue that it's never correct to pull your starter under that set of circumstances unless he's hurt or on a pitch count for some reason.  One could also argue that if you're gonna pull him, you pull him for your best available alternative, not for a guy who's been overworked the last three weeks and who got shelled the night before.

I hate yanking Greinke there.  And I hate putting Harris in more.

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2 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

I mean, that's easy to say.

But what I said wasn't results-oriented.

Greinke was on a two-hitter in the 7th inning with a lead and he'd thrown 80 pitches.  One could argue that it's never correct to pull your starter under that set of circumstances unless he's hurt or on a pitch count for some reason.  One could also argue that if you're gonna pull him, you pull him for your best available alternative, not for a guy who's been overworked the last three weeks and who got shelled the night before.

I hate yanking Greinke there.  And I hate putting Harris in more.

We'll agree to disagree. I have no problem with what A.J. Hinch did. 

I have a problem with our lineup wetting itself with runners on base at home the entire World Series.

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3 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

We'll agree to disagree. I have no problem with what A.J. Hinch did. 

I have a problem with our lineup wetting itself with runners on base at home the entire World Series.

Well, we agree on the second part.

I think we could've tried to win that game 2-1 and had a pretty good shot at it.

But it also could've been 6-1 or 7-1 at that point.  Or we could've already taken Game 6 or Game 1.

Dammit, this is gonna bother me forever.

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5 hours ago, TexArcher said:

Well, we agree on the second part.

I think we could've tried to win that game 2-1 and had a pretty good shot at it.

But it also could've been 6-1 or 7-1 at that point.  Or we could've already taken Game 6 or Game 1.

Dammit, this is gonna bother me forever.

I think we all agree that bitching about the pitching is a smokescreen at this point. 

Knock in just half of those runners LOB and it's 7-0 in the seventh inning and the Rendon and Kendrick HR's aren't quite meaningless but still not nearly as decisive. Greinke probably gets a chance to finish the 7th, maybe the 8th, then you bring in Osuna in the 9th and Cole isn't as bitchy when he's dowsed in champagne. 

Edited by crimsonlonghorn
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7 hours ago, crimsonlonghorn said:

I think we all agree that bitching about the pitching is a smokescreen at this point. 

Knock in just half of those runners LOB and it's 7-0 in the seventh inning and the Rendon and Kendrick HR's aren't quite meaningless but still not nearly as decisive. Greinke probably gets a chance to finish the 7th, maybe the 8th, then you bring in Osuna in the 9th and Cole isn't as bitchy when he's dowsed in champagne. 

Yep. The pitching decision is a complete non-issue for me. If Gerrit Cole and fans are butthurt about it, that's fine, but the real issue in that game and in all of the World Series games at Minute Maid was our inability to move runs across the plate with men on base.

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