Just thinking back, I know there were more totally dominant combos, but outside of Unit and Jackass with AZ, the last one that really came to mind was Koufax and Drysdale, but I'm not even sure Drysdale was that good. Not just results, but the combo of overpowering stuff plus results.
Osuna has looked really good recently. As pointed out by the booth, he stopped messing with his delivery and it seems to have paid off, as he is locating much better.
JV should easily be at 22 wins by now, I recall 2-3 games where he was awesome and the offense was a no show
Crazy that Correa is as talented as he is, and that this Astros team chugs along fine with him and without him. Bregman called it a few years ago after he was called up from the minors, he said something like, “people will look at these Astros teams and be in amazement that they all got to play as teammates, and wonder how they could afford it....”. Springer, Bregman, Correa, Altuve, Keutchel, Verlander, Cole, are all “Face of a Franchise level players” they are MVP and Cy Young quality players... (I know he’s gone but, Keutchel was a part of that initial group of guys Bregman was talking about.) McCullers, Gurriel, Brantley, Morton, Alvarez, Tucker, are all are All star rotation guys... As talented as Correa is, Luhnow has to maximize talent value onto this team. The team has a plethora of Elite players, it’s time to see which will get signed long term. We’ve seen what MVP and CY young players earn, and it’s a mint...
I enjoy switching over to the Rangers broadcast post game after we win and listening to their announcers have to begrudgingly talk about how dominant the Astros are.
Majority of fans love Correa, but his absence has hurt the last two seasons. When we were in the dark times of no Astros games available outside of Houston due to Root sports I hated their broadcast. Had to mute it every time.
You mean like that complete game he pitched...and lost? I do hope the team gets both JV and Cole to 20 wins. They're going to have to win out with Cole's starts, but they just need to do that anyway. They owe it to those guys, though, for the lack of run support over the past two years.
Xfinity always tries to make my life easier by popping up a reminder that the Astros vs. Rangers is on. But then when I click through it, it takes me to channel 37 which is the Rangers broadcast instead of channel 39 which is the Astros broadcast. And I sit there half-paying attention until I realize that the graphics are different and that the broadcasters have no energy or happiness to them. Then I realize my stupid box has diddled me again.
Gerrit Cole has received the most run support over the last two years. Verlander, while getting less run support than other Astros pitchers, is getting better run support than most pitchers in baseball. When a pitcher throws 20 something starts with 2 or less runs, odds are the offense will have some duds along the way. Verlander is just too great too often to get quality run support every time he has a great game.
Maybe if you just lump all the runs together, but Cole had like half a dozen starts last year (I counted and posted it on here somewhere) where he pitched well enough to win (I think I set the bar at two runs allowed) and just got no run support. It was egregious. Even worse than JV got it last year, but not worse this year than JV's getting it this year. I'm interested in game-by-game support, not total numbers. A few games would be within reason, but there have been many more than a few games where the bats have not shown up for those guys.
Considering how often Cole was great last year, a half dozen starts when he pitched well enough to win, but didn't get enough run support to qualify for the win doesn't sound egregious to me. Egregious would be when it happens 17 times (Mets).
Tonight is like when you use bamboo air spray and all of the sudden a whole panda family shows up out of nowhere looking for free bamboo, and a bottle of wine into the experience, you learn that their uncle Leo is a drunk and has been Panda shiotting in your backyard.
Whenever the subject of run support comes up, I think of Nolan's '87 season. Led the NL in ERA & ERA+. Led MLB in strikeouts, FIP, and K/9. And had an 8 - 16 won/loss record. In 34 starts he had 16 with 2 runs or less in support, 11 with 1 run or less and 3 shutouts. He was 5th in Cy Young voting. An absolute travesty.
