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Posted

I think it's time to bring up Matthews and DFA Rodgers. We tried to fix him, I just think he's unfixable at this point. Would love to see Melton and Matthews at the bottom of the order reeking havoc on the bases.

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Posted
19 hours ago, WBT said:

Hypothetically, when is the last time we won back to back 1-0 games?

 

18 hours ago, PGFrog said:

Hmmmm...maybe 1980 with Nolan and  JR Richards?

Close.

May 26 and 27, 1981. 1-0 shutouts of the Padres in the Dome.

Ryan went 7 in the first game and Sambito pitched the final two innings in a 5 hit shutout.

Knepper followed it up with a 2 hitter in 1:50 the following night.

 

June 8 and 9, 1983 matched our last two games.

1-0 win started by Niekro (pitched 10 of 11 innings)

followed by 3-0 shutout by Knepper (another 2 hit shutout).

both games against the Giants in the Dome.

The next time through the rotation, Ryan fired a CGSO in a 2-0 win on June 12 and June 13 Niekro and Frank DiPino combined on a 3 hit 2-0 shutout. Both again the Padres in the Dome.

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Posted

At Clemente Museum today and they have this American flag display of signed baseballs and he just put in Altuve, Pena and McCullers. He said that he gives the players all wine and the team was here and he asked LMJ if he wanted some and he declined. Guy kinda asked why and LMJ said "Cause I am starting tomorrow!"

Owner said that was first time a pitcher had came to the museum the day before he started.

He also said 2 people touched Clemente's bat two days ago....LMJ and Walker


990af172727b701b0e6bc2e4720fc730.jpg

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Posted (edited)

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/dusty-baker-2022-world-series-moves-unpopular-20361087.php

Spoiler

Dusty Baker says he went against wishes of Astros' brass during 2022 World Series championship run

By Greg Rajan,

Staff writer

June 4, 2025

 

Dusty Baker led the Astros to the 2022 World Series championship. In a new book, he said the team's baseball operations department challenged some of his lineup decisions during the postseason.

Dusty Baker led the Astros to the 2022 World Series championship. In a new book, he said the team's baseball operations department challenged some of his lineup decisions during the postseason.

Dusty Baker finally won the championship that had long eluded him as a manager with the Houston Astros in 2022.

In a new book, he reveals he made moves during the 2022 playoffs that went against the wishes of the team’s baseball operations department.

In veteran baseball writer Scott Miller’s “Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter (and Always Will),” Baker and Cito Gaston, his longtime friend and former teammate, are profiled in a chapter about baseball’s dearth of Black managers — there are just two in 2025 — and the lack of opportunities they’re given. Baker and Gaston, who led Toronto to championships in 1992 and 1993, are two of the three Black managers to win the World Series, with the Dodgers' Dave Roberts the other.

Baker said he heard from Houston’s baseball operations people throughout the 2022 World Series against the Phillies, which the Astros won in six games. He stuck with some of the team’s mainstays despite the trade-deadline additions of players such as catcher Christian Vázquez and first baseman Trey Mancini.

“Nobody wanted Yuli Gurriel to play,” Baker told Miller. “Nobody wanted Maldy (Martín Maldonado) to catch. The operations people didn’t want (Jeremy) Peña to bat second, either. But I’ve got to do what I think is right. You know, I’m a numbers man, too. I’ve always used numbers. Always.

“But I don’t used them 100 percent. There are no absolutes in this game, period. Whether I go with my feelings or whether I go with numbers, there are no absolutes because the opposition can change your absolute formula by a homer or blooper or walk or whatever it is.”

As for the players whose roles or lineup spots were questioned, Baker’s faith in them largely paid off.

Gurriel, whose regular-season average in 2022 dipped 77 points after leading the American League in batting at .319 the season before, hit .347 in the 2022 postseason, including .316 in the five World Series games he started at first base before being lost to injury late in Game 5. 

Maldonado, the light-hitting veteran catcher held in high regard by the pitching staff for his game-management skills, started 11 of 12 postseason games, the lone exception being Game 4 at Philadelphia, when Vázquez caught a combined no-hitter involving four pitchers. While Maldonado’s offensive contributions in the postseason were meager — he hit just .207 and drove in two runs — he started the winning rally in Game 6 of the World Series when he crowded the plate and was hit by a pitch to start the sixth inning with the Astros trailing 1-0.

Peña, the rookie shortstop, batted second the entire postseason, hitting safely in 11 of 12 games with four home runs and eight RBIs. He became the first rookie to win American League Championship Series and World Series MVP honors in the same postseason.

In the book, Baker said some advice he got from the late former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler about things you can see in a player’s face helped sell him on Peña, who was replacing star Carlos Correa after the latter left for Minnesota in free agency.

“He’s out there with the other young players, and, like Bo said, you can see fear, you can see anxiety, or you can see that the kid doesn’t have a scared bone in his body,” Baker told Miller. “Or you can see is intelligence and you can see his heart. You can see it all by looking at his face.”

As for another one of his memorable decisions from the 2022 World Series, letting Justin Verlander face the Phillies' lineup for a third time in Game 5 with a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, Baker told Miller he recalled the advice of former Dodgers teammate Tommy John: “A good pitcher can get out of trouble twice, a great pitcher three times, a so-so pitcher maybe once.”

After giving up a two-out double, Verlander retired Nick Castellanos after a grueling 10-pitch at-bat to get out of the inning. He eventually got his first World Series win in his fifth trip to the Fall Classic. Baker maintained getting Verlander the elusive win was not why he left him in, but admitted “it was in my heart.” 

Baker did not name the staffers who questioned his decisions. In an atypical move after winning the World Series, Astros owner Jim Crane did not retain general manager James Click, whose contract had expired. Assistant GM Scott Powers was also let go.

Baker and Click worked together for three seasons, but didn’t arrive in conventional fashion. Baker was hired first after Crane fired GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch in January 2020 following MLB’s release of the findings of its investigation into the Astros' electronic sign-stealing operation from 2017-18 and suspended both men for a season. Click was hired shortly after Baker from the Rays' front office.

Baker and Click differed on personnel at times, with the manager lobbying Crane to nix a trade Click had agreed to with the Cubs for catcher Willson Contreras.

Baker returned to the Astros for a fourth season in 2023 but retired after a seven-game loss to the Rangers in the ALCS in which the Astros lost all four home games in the series. He later rejoined the Giants, the first of the record five teams he managed to the playoffs, as a baseball operations advisor.

Quote

Maldonado, the light-hitting veteran catcher held in high regard by the pitching staff for his game-management skills, started 11 of 12 postseason games, the lone exception being Game 4 at Philadelphia, when Vázquez caught a combined no-hitter involving four pitchers. While Maldonado’s offensive contributions in the postseason were meager — he hit just .207 and drove in two runs — he started the winning rally in Game 6 of the World Series when he crowded the plate and was hit by a pitch to start the sixth inning with the Astros trailing 1-0.

Lol

Maldy getting hit by a pitch inspired Yordan to hit one to the moon!

Edited by WBT
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Posted
1 minute ago, WBT said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/dusty-baker-2022-world-series-moves-unpopular-20361087.php

  Reveal hidden contents

Dusty Baker says he went against wishes of Astros' brass during 2022 World Series championship run

By Greg Rajan,

Staff writer

June 4, 2025

 

Dusty Baker led the Astros to the 2022 World Series championship. In a new book, he said the team's baseball operations department challenged some of his lineup decisions during the postseason.

Dusty Baker led the Astros to the 2022 World Series championship. In a new book, he said the team's baseball operations department challenged some of his lineup decisions during the postseason.

Dusty Baker finally won the championship that had long eluded him as a manager with the Houston Astros in 2022.

In a new book, he reveals he made moves during the 2022 playoffs that went against the wishes of the team’s baseball operations department.

In veteran baseball writer Scott Miller’s “Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter (and Always Will),” Baker and Cito Gaston, his longtime friend and former teammate, are profiled in a chapter about baseball’s dearth of Black managers — there are just two in 2025 — and the lack of opportunities they’re given. Baker and Gaston, who led Toronto to championships in 1992 and 1993, are two of the three Black managers to win the World Series, with the Dodgers' Dave Roberts the other.

Baker said he heard from Houston’s baseball operations people throughout the 2022 World Series against the Phillies, which the Astros won in six games. He stuck with some of the team’s mainstays despite the trade-deadline additions of players such as catcher Christian Vázquez and first baseman Trey Mancini.

“Nobody wanted Yuli Gurriel to play,” Baker told Miller. “Nobody wanted Maldy (Martín Maldonado) to catch. The operations people didn’t want (Jeremy) Peña to bat second, either. But I’ve got to do what I think is right. You know, I’m a numbers man, too. I’ve always used numbers. Always.

“But I don’t used them 100 percent. There are no absolutes in this game, period. Whether I go with my feelings or whether I go with numbers, there are no absolutes because the opposition can change your absolute formula by a homer or blooper or walk or whatever it is.”

As for the players whose roles or lineup spots were questioned, Baker’s faith in them largely paid off.

Gurriel, whose regular-season average in 2022 dipped 77 points after leading the American League in batting at .319 the season before, hit .347 in the 2022 postseason, including .316 in the five World Series games he started at first base before being lost to injury late in Game 5. 

Maldonado, the light-hitting veteran catcher held in high regard by the pitching staff for his game-management skills, started 11 of 12 postseason games, the lone exception being Game 4 at Philadelphia, when Vázquez caught a combined no-hitter involving four pitchers. While Maldonado’s offensive contributions in the postseason were meager — he hit just .207 and drove in two runs — he started the winning rally in Game 6 of the World Series when he crowded the plate and was hit by a pitch to start the sixth inning with the Astros trailing 1-0.

Peña, the rookie shortstop, batted second the entire postseason, hitting safely in 11 of 12 games with four home runs and eight RBIs. He became the first rookie to win American League Championship Series and World Series MVP honors in the same postseason.

In the book, Baker said some advice he got from the late former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler about things you can see in a player’s face helped sell him on Peña, who was replacing star Carlos Correa after the latter left for Minnesota in free agency.

“He’s out there with the other young players, and, like Bo said, you can see fear, you can see anxiety, or you can see that the kid doesn’t have a scared bone in his body,” Baker told Miller. “Or you can see is intelligence and you can see his heart. You can see it all by looking at his face.”

As for another one of his memorable decisions from the 2022 World Series, letting Justin Verlander face the Phillies' lineup for a third time in Game 5 with a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, Baker told Miller he recalled the advice of former Dodgers teammate Tommy John: “A good pitcher can get out of trouble twice, a great pitcher three times, a so-so pitcher maybe once.”

After giving up a two-out double, Verlander retired Nick Castellanos after a grueling 10-pitch at-bat to get out of the inning. He eventually got his first World Series win in his fifth trip to the Fall Classic. Baker maintained getting Verlander the elusive win was not why he left him in, but admitted “it was in my heart.” 

Baker did not name the staffers who questioned his decisions. In an atypical move after winning the World Series, Astros owner Jim Crane did not retain general manager James Click, whose contract had expired. Assistant GM Scott Powers was also let go.

Baker and Click worked together for three seasons, but didn’t arrive in conventional fashion. Baker was hired first after Crane fired GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch in January 2020 following MLB’s release of the findings of its investigation into the Astros' electronic sign-stealing operation from 2017-18 and suspended both men for a season. Click was hired shortly after Baker from the Rays' front office.

Baker and Click differed on personnel at times, with the manager lobbying Crane to nix a trade Click had agreed to with the Cubs for catcher Willson Contreras.

Baker returned to the Astros for a fourth season in 2023 but retired after a seven-game loss to the Rangers in the ALCS in which the Astros lost all four home games in the series. He later rejoined the Giants, the first of the record five teams he managed to the playoffs, as a baseball operations advisor.

Lol

 

IMG_4218.jpeg

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Posted
18 minutes ago, WBT said:

Was watching the softball...we couldn't even score off of Shugart?

No. Gusto pitched like a pussy but we were never gonna win this game with Bob Gibson over there for them on the bump. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, WBT said:

A Gusto start where we only give up 3 is about the best you can hope for

Exactly, what they got tonight from Gusto is pretty much what he has given them every time out with the exception of the anomaly against the Padres. 

The biggest problem is he barely goes past 4 so their bullpen gets over worked yet again and I can't believe that don't have some other option somewhere in the organization or off the fucking street or a car wash somewhere in Latin America.

Posted

PITTSBURGH — Houston Astros right-hander J.P. France is scheduled to face hitters in live batting practice Friday, manager Joe Espada said, a step in his return from 2024 shoulder surgery.

France had surgery last July to repair a “capsule tear,” the Astros said at the time. He is scheduled to face hitters at the team’s minor-league complex in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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Posted
15 hours ago, Scraps said:

We lost the game...i won the 50/50

$5300 before taxes

that's awesome, congrats!!!

sidenote: what's the 50/50? I play DK NFL mostly and that pays out basically half the filed to double your money. What was your entry fee?

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Posted
that's awesome, congrats!!!
sidenote: what's the 50/50? I play DK NFL mostly and that pays out basically half the filed to double your money. What was your entry fee?
50/50 is the stadium raffle. Half total raised goes to the charity then other half goes to winner. So the pot was 10,600 total.

I think most baseball teams do it now.

I split a ticket with my friends so we.paid $50 to get 200 numbers.

Highest pots are.obviously opening day and playoff games. This pot we won is pretty low cause Pirates suck and no one is here. I told the lady i would be back tomorrow (tonight now) to win again and she said they once had the same guy win 5 times in a month
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Posted
1 minute ago, Scraps said:

50/50 is the stadium raffle. Half total raised goes to the charity then other half goes to winner. So the pot was 10,600 total.

I think most baseball teams do it now.

I split a ticket with my friends so we.paid $50 to get 200 numbers.

Highest pots are.obviously opening day and playoff games. This pot we won is pretty low cause Pirates suck and no one is here. I told the lady i would be back tomorrow (tonight now) to win again and she said they once had the same guy win 5 times in a month

wow that's incredible. hell yeah

Posted
12 minutes ago, Scraps said:

50/50 is the stadium raffle. Half total raised goes to the charity then other half goes to winner. So the pot was 10,600 total.

I think most baseball teams do it now.

I split a ticket with my friends so we.paid $50 to get 200 numbers.

Highest pots are.obviously opening day and playoff games. This pot we won is pretty low cause Pirates suck and no one is here. I told the lady i would be back tomorrow (tonight now) to win again and she said they once had the same guy win 5 times in a month

Curious what the winners split was the other night in Miami?  

I can see the conversation starting, "What do you mean my split is $15,  I bought $20 of numbers? " 

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Posted

It required a voter approved ammendment to the Texas constitution to make those raffles legal at pro sporting events.

High schools have been doing them at football games as fundraisers forever.  Probably not legal there either if any minister's wife busybody ever complained.

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Posted
4 hours ago, Scraps said:

50/50 is the stadium raffle. Half total raised goes to the charity then other half goes to winner. So the pot was 10,600 total.

I think most baseball teams do it now.

I split a ticket with my friends so we.paid $50 to get 200 numbers.

Highest pots are.obviously opening day and playoff games. This pot we won is pretty low cause Pirates suck and no one is here. I told the lady i would be back tomorrow (tonight now) to win again and she said they once had the same guy win 5 times in a month

I missed opening day one fucking letter. It's somewhere upthread. 53k down the drain 

Posted

I don't think its even going to be hard rain...very pussy. But would rather this than them start....Framber go 2 innings then delay 30 mins and they have to pull him

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