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2020 astros offseason


elfenix

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I know this isn’t near the transgression but do you realize how similar Astros fans sound to Penn St. and Baylor fans?
I’m a Rangers fan that lived in Houston for awhile and grew up in Austin. I’ve always been a bigger Dallas sports fan and live here now. Never gotten into the Dallas-Houston rivalry. Always have a soft spot for Stros and Rockets.  I was ecstatic they won the series in ‘17 and was upset they lost last year  
But this circling the wagons is so Aggie-esque that it’s laughable. 
Penn State and Baylor fans weren't mad because all the other schools were allowing the systemic rape of young boys over a 20 year period or covering up 50+ rapes over a 3 year period.

There are plenty of takes to give on Astros fans not accepting why the rest of the league has turned on them, but that one ain't it.
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For the Astros thread regulars, where is the secret thread where we actually talk about the 2020 team, changes dusty might make/Gameday management, etc?

Or are we still stuck with this shitshow of a thread?

About a week ago, I joked about renaming this the “Astros vs world thread of hate” and starting a new thread to talk actual astros baseball. Hoped this shit would die down, but manfred blows and this clearly won’t go anywhere until the Red Sox report comes out.

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One of my favorite pitchers from last season, Brett Conine, was rankted in the ZiPS top 100 prospects.  So there's that.  Cristian Javier is starting tomorrow so there's that, too.  I don't see Javier as a SP prospect but he has a chance to help in the pen this season.  

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17 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

About a week ago, I joked about renaming this the “Astros vs world thread of hate” and starting a new thread to talk actual astros baseball. Hoped this shit would die down, but manfred blows and this clearly won’t go anywhere until the Red Sox report comes out.

That's a great idea -- it would also keep Dennison from fucking up the MLB thread with 100 repetitive posts a day, none of them longer than a sentence.

make it so star trek GIF

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F*cking Veducci going ahead and claiming the Stros cheated Kershaw even though Kershaw says he doesn't want to say that.

 

 

“What did you think that night about that game?” I asked him.

That didn’t come to my mind,” he said, referring to the Astros knowing what he was throwing.

“What did?”

“I just pitched poorly. Lost the game.”

“That was it?”

“Yeah.”

“But you were dealing the first three innings.”

“I don’t have the luxury of looking at it like that, like everybody else does.”

“So your thought was just that you didn’t pitch well?”

“It was a long time ago. I knew we had to fly back to L.A., so I was probably more worried about getting my kids on a plane at that point.”

“But if you look at the breakdown of that game, you threw 39 sliders and got only one swing and miss. The last two batters drew walks on 3-and-2 sliders they spit on.”

“I’m not going there. This interview is not going there. I’m not going there.”

“Can you explain why you don’t want to go there?”

“I can’t. It’s over.”

 

 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/02/20/astros-cheating-scandal-clayton-kershaw

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1 hour ago, Zwylde said:

F*cking Veducci going ahead and claiming the Stros cheated Kershaw even though Kershaw says he doesn't want to say that.

 

 

“What did you think that night about that game?” I asked him.

That didn’t come to my mind,” he said, referring to the Astros knowing what he was throwing.

“What did?”

“I just pitched poorly. Lost the game.”

“That was it?”

“Yeah.”

“But you were dealing the first three innings.”

“I don’t have the luxury of looking at it like that, like everybody else does.”

“So your thought was just that you didn’t pitch well?”

“It was a long time ago. I knew we had to fly back to L.A., so I was probably more worried about getting my kids on a plane at that point.”

“But if you look at the breakdown of that game, you threw 39 sliders and got only one swing and miss. The last two batters drew walks on 3-and-2 sliders they spit on.”

“I’m not going there. This interview is not going there. I’m not going there.”

“Can you explain why you don’t want to go there?”

“I can’t. It’s over.”

 

 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/02/20/astros-cheating-scandal-clayton-kershaw

after kershaw's history in the playoffs, he would look like an absolute joke attributing his game 5 performance to some sort of sign-stealing scenario.  smart move to push back here.

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Don Mattingly was on the Dan Patrick show this morning and  provided a sober perspective on how fans/players should feel about this. The most righteous, holier than thou reactions thus far have been from players who feel as though they have been personally cheated and from dipshit fans who can't grasp how widespread the issue of sign stealing is. The more we hear from people like Mattingly, who isn't emotionally invested in one side or the other, the better. Too bad he didn't provide insight as what the dodgers were up to during his time there. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

So when will mlb release the findings on the Red Sox 2018 cheating? I can’t wait to see the double standard response from all the writers and news media. I’m curious how they couldn’t run a investigation simultaneously on both teams? 

I thought last week they said today would be the day.  Prolly waiting till after 5:00 so it has the weekend to blow over like a weak fart.

 

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Blair Henley is apparently in Baseball America's top 30 ranking of Astros prospects.  He destroyed at Tri-City last year and will be interesting to watch in QC.  Don't know why he didn't have more success in Austin.  

^^^^
Idk but such great memories sitting right behind home plate for this gem:

https://texassports.com/news/2018/6/4/baseball-advances-to-super-regional-with-3-2-win-over-indiana.aspx
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3 hours ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

So when will mlb release the findings on the Red Sox 2018 cheating?

They said they wanted to do it before camps started, but I read that it's going to be late because they "had to go back and interview someone again."  I would presume that this indicates there was some contradictory testimony and that the Red Sox are not spilling their guts like the Astros because immunity doesn't really look that great any more. 

Coming out and announcing that you weren't going to be able to punish players who didn't cooperate while there's still an investigation going on seems like another terrible faux pas by Manfred.

Edited by Beau Vine
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39 minutes ago, TejasPedro said:

I guess when Cole goes back to being slightly above average the Bronx “Never Been Caught Cheating” Bombers will sue the Stros for making Cole look so good and tricking them into overpaying.

They better hope he's as good as he was last year, because their starting rotation is starting to drop like flies.

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Check out the home/road splits from that series and tell me how they look amy different than the Astros. I've got the Astros in my blood. My great grandparents were season ticket holders when the Stros were playing in the Astrodome, I've got their ticket stubs from the first game ever played in the Astrodome. My aunt worked for the team for about 20 years and hooked us up with tickets every summer growing up. For those reasons, I can never give up on my Stros but maybe it's because I'm drunk as hell but it makes me lose all hope for this bull shit league. It's clear that this is a MLB problem and not an Astros problem but you've got irresponsible media propagating all this bull shit and dumb ass fans eating it all up. The NBA has Woj and Shams. The NFL has Shefter. And the MLB is stuck with fuckin hacks like Passan and Olney. Fuck these clowns, I'm embracing the heel role, 2020 World Series Champs, can't wait to enjoy the haters tears as we hoist that "piece of metal" again this year

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

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17 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

 


Manfred issued a memo on the rules in August or September of 2017. The cheating obviously continued beyond that.

 

And apparently didn't inform the players or the union with that memo, just the organizations. Not an excuse for what the Astros did, but the lack of transparency on MLB is bad.

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6 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

And apparently didn't inform the players or the union with that memo, just the organizations. Not an excuse for what the Astros did, but the lack of transparency on MLB is bad.

It was a fucking press release! *I* read it in September, and I have no association with MLB.  

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56 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

I speak only for myself and welcome all haters.

This scandal has been the best thing to happen to baseball in years.

While we all appreciate your dogged defense, I think most here would prefer you did it in the MLB or hate thread and let this thread get back to normal Astros baseball talk. It will help keep the trolls away. 

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29 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

While we all appreciate your dogged defense, I think most here would prefer you did it in the MLB or hate thread and let this thread get back to normal Astros baseball talk. It will help keep the trolls away. 

Why on earth would you want to keep the trolls away? That's boring.

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I'll be disappointed if James doesn't lock down the last spot in the rotation.

Quote

Earlier this week, pitching coach Brent Strom said James had been impressive at the start of camp. Since he went on the injured list last June with a shoulder issue, James has worked on staying more directional to the plate and shortening his arm stroke.

“We utilize [Gerrit] Cole as kind of a model to help with control and direction, and he's taking to it quite well,” Strom said.

James, of course, has a larger build than Cole. While Cole generated more power with his hips, James still needs at least a little bit of body rotation to create power. James clocked six pitches of at least 100 mph in six games in 2018, his first Major League season. The more he can hit his spots with his fastball and pound the zone with breaking pitches while keeping his changeup around the zone, the more he’ll succeed.

“I saw it in my delivery work when I came back from my sore shoulder when I got linear in my arm path. I was able to throw more strikes and be in the zone more,” James said. “My stuff was a little bit sharper. I’m thinking the same thing with my lower half. If I can be a little bit more linear to the plate, maybe I’ll be able to be in the zone a little bit more.”

https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/josh-james-has-eye-on-astros-starting-rotation

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13 hours ago, David Dennison said:

Why on earth would you want to keep the trolls away? That's boring.

What’s boring is your repetitive posting. I now see how you have almost 16k posts. Have a simple thought then copy and paste it a few hundred times. I give up trying to be reasonable. Welcome to ignore. 

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27 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

I'll be disappointed if James doesn't lock down the last spot in the rotation.

https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/josh-james-has-eye-on-astros-starting-rotation

I'm skeptical that he can improve his control so much that he becomes a reliable starter, but I certainly hope I'm wrong. 

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