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Hank Chinaski

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Posts posted by Hank Chinaski

  1. 9 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

    Hahahha

    i was literally thinking “why am I so worked up over this. I can’t do anything about it. Try and relax and enjoy what I can.”

    I stopped getting worked up a while back. It isn’t remotely surprising anymore that our lineups will be silly.

    I’m more at the acceptance stage now - accepting that the Astros aren’t really trying to win this year. I’m not sure why they aren’t, but that’s the only logical conclusion one can reach. 

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  2. Crane deciding to side with Dusty fucking Baker over 2 Click and Brown is something. 

    1 hour ago, Jshep34 said:

    I'll say what I know and that's dusty is doing all this as a f you to the gm. There is a power struggle between them. In my opinion that's where crane is at fault , he needs to step in and tell dusty to play the best 9 on roster.

    Putting his own ego over the good of the team. Cool. That’s leadership.

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  3. This is a team with a manager who stubbornly refuses to maximize his team’s chances of winning. Think about that. It’s kind of the antithesis of the job, no?

    Dusty has probably cost the team 5 wins this year just based on his playing time allocation. That’s a guess, but don’t worry, @Wulaw Horn and I are going to do the math on it in a couple weeks and give you a more precise number. It may be more than 5.

    It’s almost like those 5 games matter. 

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  4. This has looked like a 90-ish win team all year. It still does. It’s probably closer to a 95-ish win team if the manager plays his best players. But he doesn’t, and that costs the team wins. Those wins were always likely to be the difference between winning the division and missing the playoffs entirely. And here we are.

    The pitching regression was always coming; water finds its level. 

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  5. 2 minutes ago, Getafix said:

    Tarp with a dopey, contrived scenario.

    Tarps' Take: Ags-Bama game biggest of Fisher's A&M tenure

    Tarp (Aggie 247)

     

      Reveal hidden contents

     

    Tarps' Take: Ags-Bama game biggest of Fisher's A&M tenure

    Tarp (Aggie 247)

     

    Texas A&M and Texas haven’t played each other in over a decade a generation. On the surface, a new generation hasn’t experienced the passion that this kind of an in state rivalry brings to a fan base.

    Many were glad when A&M left what they considered to be an inferior league and put a school that seemingly ran that league in the rear view mirror, never to be thought of again. In addition, without having to worry about their neighbors or coworkers celebrating Texas wins for 365 days a year, losses in the nation’s best league had more of businesslike feel to them.

    It didn’t hurt that the Horns have struggled moreso in the intervening years, always proclaiming themselves to be back when the reality was that they were on a treadmill of mediocrity. A&M’s money, prestige, and athletic programs surged in their new surroundings and it was attributed In part to the fact that the university had taken its eyes off of what was going on to the west of it and had re-focused them on it neighbors to the east were doing.

    However, many Aggies who were involved with the both the school and athletic department continued to keep a watchful eye on the school over in Austin even as the hot war between the two programs transitioned into a cold one. In particular, A&M’s place as the only Texas based school in the Southeastern Conference gave it a unique identity relative to the one that it had for the previous century plus. A&M recruited better than Texas for the most part during the intervening years due to this piece of leverage with recruits.

    When the news broke that the Texas and Oklahoma had applied for membership to the SEC and then were joining the league, all of A&M’s advantages had apparently disappeared in the blink of an eye. On the surface, there was concern that Texas would attempt to do the SEC what it was credited doing to the old Southwest Conference and Big 12….run those leagues to their benefit and the detriment of everyone else.

    More quietly, A&M could no longer sell the fact that it was the only SEC school in the state in the recruiting wars for in state or even national prospects. Back in the day, the series between the two programs tended to run in cycles because recruiting was more of a regional phenomenon. If you won your game, you had your choice of the best recruits in the state. That ensured you of winning the next game and the next game after that.

    Thus, you had A&M winning nine of ten in the 1980’s and 1990’s and then Mack Brown losing just four times to the Aggies during his tenure (which comprised all of the 2000’s).

    When the announcement was made about SEC expansion, A&M seemed well placed for the Horns’ 2024 or 2025 entry into the conference. Jimbo Fisher had just taken the Aggies to the precipice of the College Football Playoff, they were on the verge of a number one ranked recruiting class in the country, and they had just ensured that he would stick around for another decade in College Station via a contract extension.

    However, A&M promptly stumbled to an 8-4 record in 2021 and then fell to 5-7 last year. Recently hired Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian had virtually the same record the past two years as Fisher himself.

    Nonetheless, many people thought that A&M was considered to have missed an opportunity to generate some real separation between the two programs before both were in the same league once again.

    In fact, there has been more of a sense of urgency behind the scenes in Aggieland going into 2023 due to this factor, especially when Texas started the season ranked much higher than A&M. The Aggies needed a bigger than projected 2023 campaign with the 2022 recruiting class playing a prominent role. Last weekend was supposed to be a move in that direction as the Aggies traveled to Miami for a date with a name program while Texas was traveling to Tuscaloosa to a play a top five Alabama squad. In particular, a loss to the Tide would show the world how SEC unready the Horns were. A&M would pick up a win, go on to beat Auburn and Arkansas, and then set up a top ten showdown on A&M”s home turf in October.

    A&M would win, use the game as a springboard to another 2022 type of recruiting class, and re-establish that their massive financial investments in Fisher and the program as a whole were paying off.

    Texas would be second guessed for its hire of Sarkisian, facing the possibility of another failed head coaching search in the post Mack Brown era, and would be looking at its 2024 trip to Kyle Field as well as its membership in the SEC with much trepidation.

    Instead, the Aggies blew a double digit lead versus the unranked Canes and looked very much like the same program they had been in 2021 and 2022. Even worse, Texas beat the top five Tide on the road, got a great performance from both Sarkisian (like Fisher a former Nick Saban assistant) and quarterback Quinn Ewers, and were proclaimed a favorite to win the Big 12 and make the CFP.

    In the distant past or even the near future, A&M would eventually play the Horns and have a chance to undo the current perception of the two schools right now by beating them.

    Instead, the Alabama game next month has become a point of comparison for A&M and Texas.

    If the Aggies don’t beat Alabama…something that the Horns just accomplished….then it’s going to be hard to argue that despite a decade long advantage in preparation that the Horns will have passed them up before they even made it to the SEC.

    In particular, given the number of high end prospects that are expected to be at that game and the bounce that A&M got from its 2021 win over the Tide, it’s going to be the biggest contest of the season in that regard.

    Most of all, it’s now become the biggest game of Jimbo Fisher’s career simply because of the events of last weekend.

    Fisher has done well in A&M under pressure in the past with home wins over top ten Kentucky and LSU in 2018, top five Florida in 2020, number one Alabama in 2021 (after back to back losses), and top five LSU in 2022 (with a 4-7 record). He’s motivated by the thought of beating his mentor in addition to winning in front of the nation’s top recruits. His game plans are better, and his teams are more motivated and play smarter in those games.

    There’s also no question that this year’s Tide aren’t the ones we’ve seen the past few seasons.

    Nonetheless, due to the events of last weekend, the Tide have become a stand in for the Horns in advance of the 2024 game between the two programs.

    That may be an advantage for Fisher and the Aggies given what’s at stake…but there’s no denying what’s at stake has come a year sooner than anyone could have imagined....which makes this game bigger than all of the rest.

     

     

    Texas A&M and Texas haven’t played each other in over a decade a generation.

    lol

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  6. 50 minutes ago, texastroubadour said:

    Andre Ware: “KU can win the game vs Texas in Austin, they’ve done it before”

    True but

     

    40 minutes ago, texastroubadour said:

    More from washed up Ware: not gonna be close in Tuscaloosa. 

    Andre Ware’s incessant, raging hard-on for Texas seems unhealthy.

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  7. 4 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

    Again, this is a Crane issue for setting up a broken org chart that has no chance of working. 
    Some people in the know from various different sites have said the decision to return is Dusty’s. It’s very likely this is a shot across the bow. 

    This. Buck stops with Crane.

    Dusty’s bullshit is getting out of hand. He publicly states that he’d rather have the Mariners’ CF than his own guy (who happens to be outperforming the Mariners’ CF). He’s talking about his “big boys” or whatever. He sounds deranged.

    It’s all bullshit drama that he’s creating by stubbornly refusing to play his best players and then getting defensive when he’s rightly called out for it. And Crane could end it by telling him to cut the shit, play the right players, and shut the fuck up about Chas. 

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  8. 11 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

    2-10 last year doesn't even put New Mexico into perspective. 

    2-10, 3-9, 2-5, 2-10, 3-9, 3-9 in the last 6 years. They are fucking awful. 

    I live in ABQ. They’re atrocious.

    Last year they played 11 FBS teams. They went 1-10 and scored 10.5 points per game. Only one of those teams was P5 (LSU). They lost 38-0. They were also shut out by Colorado St and scored 3 against Air Force.

    Oh, and their OC was…Derek Warehime. (Nice hire, Tom.)

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  9. 16 minutes ago, WBT said:

    4 Altuve

    DH Alvarez

    9 Tucker

    5 Bregman

    8 McCormick

    2 Diaz

    7 Brantley

    3 Abreu

    6 Peña

    Something like that...keep leadoff and 8th and 9th and flip the others around if you want

    I’d maybe flip Bregman and Tucker but that’s splitting hairs. This is the way.

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  10. 22 minutes ago, IDIOTsavant said:

    For the record, I can simultaneously believe that Dusty is fucking up, and the article timing is bullshit. Those aren’t exactly mutually exclusive. If Chandler Rome weren’t a known cunt, I’d probably have a bit more doubt about the unfortunate timing, but as always, fuck that guy.

    That’s fine, but I’m of the opinion that there’s never a bad time to shine a light on this insanity. Hell, @Wulaw Horn and his podcast co-host have been banging this drum since April.

    As an aside, that’s a great podcast and that “Andrew” guy seems smart as hell. 

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  11. 32 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:


    wrong time to be stirring up shit for clicks 

    Bullshit. This message needs to be relentlessly shouted. The asinine allocation of playing time is the reason the Astros are up by a game instead of five.

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  12. 28 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

    “It’s easy if you got a Julio Rodríguez, you just put him out in center field,” Baker told reporters.

    Chas: .289/.371/.527; 147 wRC+

    Julio: .282/.340/.490; 130 wRC+

    Both grade as plus defenders.

    Dusty, it’s easy if you got a Chas McCormick, you just put him out in center field.

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  13. 7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

     

     

    He’s been better offensively than Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Bryce Harper, and Julio Rodriguez in 2023. It is insane to play him as infrequently as the Astros do. Absolutely nuts. It is a legit fireable offense by the manager. 

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  14. allocating PT for Chas and Diaz the way Dusty does would be like:

    1. the Rangers making Garcia and Heim part time players

    2. the Mariners making Julio and Raleigh part time players.

    The difference is that Chas has been better offensively than Julio or Garcia and Diaz has been better offensively than Heim or Raleigh. And they are both good defensively.

    Somehow the Rangers and Mariners understand that playing your good players is conducive to winning. The Astros should have at least a 5 game lead right now.

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  15. Chas has been as good as Tucker offensively this year. Diaz hits as well as the best offensive catchers in MLB - Will Smith, Sean Murphy, etc.

    We sit them routinely in the middle of a pennant chase. Our manager treats them like spare parts. It’s insane.

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  16. 43 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

    2X WS champ.  MVP.  3X batting champ.  2nd all-time in post-season HRs.  His career stats are the nuts on the sundae.  He's in if he's done tomorrow, and it's not close.  

    I think it’s the other way around - career stats are the sundae (foundation), the other things are the nuts. Seems like voters need to see a baseline of career stats. I’m not saying that’s how it should be necessarily, but that’s my perception of how candidates are evaluated. I think he’s close but not quite there yet. 

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  17. 5 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

    circling back...

    1. altuve is the greatest astro of all time already.  better than biggio and bagwell.  yes, already.  postseason homers > career war.  but he'll get where he needs to with career war, unless helo is right and he's slowing down and about to fall off a cliff.

    He almost certainly will not approach Bagwell in career WAR. If that’s not how you would define “greatest,” that’s fine, but there will likely end up being about a 10-15 WAR gap between he and Bagwell.

    6 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

    2. "would he make the hall of fame right now" is a ridiculous question rooted in confusion.  if he retired at the end of this season, said it's been fun, but he wants to go build houses in venezuela, he would get elected to the hof, though there would be some drama because of the limited number of years removed from what is seen as a "tainted" season.  straight performance-wise, he's in.  guys with short careers don't have to hit big counting numbers, they just need to show their excellence during their career, which jose has already done.  reference the postseason homers again.  kirby puckett is a good recent comp here.  koufax is an older one, but he was one of the best to ever do it.

    *now if the question is "are his numbers good enough right now to get him in during a full career where he plays until he's 38-40 years old?"  well that's a different question not based in reality.  sure, if he plays another 6-7 seasons and hits .210 every year with 6 bombs and 33 rbi and becomes an anchor on the team, yeah, he's probably not a hall-of-famer.  but that's not what the question is.  when people say, "has he already done enough and is he a hall-of-famer", the presumption is that he'll continue his pace with the usual human decline, and retire when great players retire.  if that's what happens, he's a hall-of-famer.  and the greatest astro of all time.

    Disagree that he’d get into the HOF if he retired after this season. Not arguing that he shouldn’t, mind you - just that he wouldn’t. The Hall favors big counting numbers, and the more contemporary voters who are less concerned about them place extra emphasis on high WAR/value peak numbers. There just aren’t that many short career guys in the Hall. Puckett is a good example, but I seriously doubt he’d get in had his career ended recently (I don’t think modern voters would vote him in).

    The exciting part is that last season was maybe his best (along with 2017) and he’s actually been better this year, albeit in limited time. The last two years, his walk have increased, moving his OBP up; it looks like it may be the next phase of his continued evolution as a hitter. If he has a couple more healthy seasons in which he performs at the level of 2022-23, he will be just about there.

    There is of course the asinine sign stealing bullshit, but I think as more time passes and more people objectively acknowledge that the entire thing was less a “scandal” than it was a sensationalized story about what amounts to a baseball tradition, as more evidence mounts that it made absolutely zero detectable difference in his performance, as evidence that he didn’t even really participate anyway is reinforced, I doubt it keeps him out of the Hall. 

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  18. 7 minutes ago, VirginiaLonghorn said:

    I guess I forgot the particulars of Peña’s 5 tool rookie season …

    I mean, he hit 22 HR, won the gold glove at SS and was 95th percentile in sprint speed among MLBers in 2022.

    His “hit” tool probably wouldn’t count here, but Gunnar hasn’t exactly been Tony Gwynn either.

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