Everyone points to what the Astros have........ but no one discusses what they lost, which is a lot. Pitching: Cole/Miley....... Harris/Smith/Rondon Hitting: Chirinos Right now they are without Verlander, Urquidy, Pressly... Peacock ..... Alvarez, Diaz.... So there are major holes and then injuries on top of everything else. Not many teams are going to be doing great missing three starting pitchers from the year before, four key relievers and two starting hitters. The positives are that Urquidy, Javier and McCullers appear to be capable of filling some of the slack. If Verlander comes back healthy then the Astros can potentially be a real threat to win it all...... I suspect we try to trade for an arm if needed, but Urquidy and Javier and McCullers can make up some of the loss. The offense will look a lot better with a healthy Alvarez in the middle of the line up, and we will add another catcher.
I am well aware of what we have lost, and it is a lot, especially and almost entirely on the pitching side. In fact, I might even say the pitching staff is OVER-PERFORMING based on the personnel they have. But that doesn't change the fact that as a whole, they are about average in terms of stats TO THIS POINT in the season. The offense is under-performing and I dont see how a solid argument can be made otherwise. Individual stats tell the story. But sure, I am not projecting 6 games of stats as what this team will be over the course of the season. We have have several reasons to think they will get better. Lots of guys potentially coming back.
You cant lose Verlander,Cole,Miley, Smith, Harris, Alvarez, Chirinos, Peacock and Urquidy and expect to not feel it..a lot. We are running an 85-90 win team out there right now, and that may be generous. The good news is we should get a few guys back, and we have a lot of wiggle room with the expanded playoff field. Our offense will be good enough to get us into the postseason this year, we just have to find a way to accumulate enough pitching over the next 2 months. This is basically a 2 month tryout camp for the pitchers. Javier looked amazing yesterday, and I'm a big believer in Urquidy. We have to find some relievers we can trust. At this point I'm ruling out Verlander making an impact, but I'm certainly hoping for good news.
We will make playoffs. All we need to be is hot at the right time. There is no fans in the stands so there is no home field advantage this year. Keeping a positive spin on things. We can win it all with McCullers, Greinke, Javier, Urquidy, They are all capable of getting hot at the right time and pitching a solid 5-6 innings of baseball a game. Our Bullpen could look solid with Pressly, Osuna, Paredes, and a selection from Taylor, Abreu, Sneed, James, Valdes, ect. (who ever is hot at the right time) It's also possible Verlander could still come back. Maybe not as a starter but in the pen. Our hitting will get hot again...just need to be hot at the right time like the Nationals last year. This season isn't over....it could still be a great one.
Is there some unwritten rule that bunting with the runner-on-second rule is a p***y move and you will be ridiculed if you do it? What’s this “they didn’t bunt...we didn’t bunt” BS? We won’t if they don’t?
Bunting isn't easy. Altuve was probably the only one that came up with no outs in extra innings that can bunt. Maybe it gets taught again with this rule, but for the most part the Astros don't have hitters that have needed to know how to bunt for many years.
"it doesn't matter Brian, tied for first in the division Brain, that's all that matters" "It doesn't matter Brian, tied for first in the division Brian, that's all that matters"
Might have been asked before but which catcher do you think the Stros will go after? I would really like Contreras from the Cubs but I doubt they'll trade him this year due to the expanded playoffs.
I don’t think people are grasping the true effects of starting a season cold, I.e., with little to no spring training games right before the season starts. Yelich is hitting .037. Lindor is at .200, Bryant .091, Realmuto .154, Acuña .167, Arenado .222, Harper .222...the list goes on. Players need time to get in sync as frustrating as it is. I’m not worried about our lineup. We’ll get our timing right eventually. Too talented not to. 3-3 isn’t a bad place to be. This team needs a rest day pretty badly. There’s a ton of positives...our team has clicked at different times. As volatile and nervous as our bullpen situation is, they were really nails for most of the first week. Defense is still good...we just need to get healthy.
Two of our losses can be attributed to bad decision-making... if Bregs didn't throw home... and if Dusty embraced his NL roots and ordered a bunt for Tucker.
Astros disabled comments on this latest tweet. As ugly as people have been in the comments section I wonder if this will be a new trend.
The fans, the media, hilariously out of control. I avoided it the best I could but some of the takes are just so over the top and some are so low class. Have humans really come to this regarding baseball? F*cking baseball? So much hypocrisy in all this. I have a feeling before my end of days this game, the media, the other fans will have something come their way. I don't know what and I don't know when but I see something pushing back at some point.
We did not lose the past two games for solely those two decisions or even bad decision making as a whole. We lost because, despite countless opportunities, we failed to execute. Are you serious? The league is rife with MVP and all-star caliber players struggling. It seems pretty obvious that the struggles are tied with not having a proper Spring Training than...not not having Hinch. What’s Yelich and Bryant’s excuse for hitting under .100? David Ross?
It's early and with the crazy modified spring training I'm not surprised hitters are struggling. However, I believe Springer, who normally starts the season hot, is pressing more because his performance the next 2-3 months will determine how rich he is the rest of his life. Springer has always been an emotional player and I'm sure between having to prove he can play without cheating, the pandemic, and the looming free agency he is probably at a very high stress level right now. Hopefully he turns it around soon... and same goes for Bregman, Altuve, Yuli, Reddick, and Tucker.
