It will be interesting to think about this later in life if the transition of rooting interest has completely shifted to player only rather than team only, which is certainly gaining momentum with kids, and with an ever more interconnected world without borders.
I get the context for sure. It's a little too all or nothing for my taste. In 2013, I'd imagine complaints would've been in the range of "I've been a fan forever--this team can't suck again. WTF is this garbage?" Rightly so.. but the team has been competitive for 3 years now, and improved within that state. They've satisfied the complainers' issues, and even moved forward after satisfying them (with a solid future ahead, likely). But instead of any satisfaction gained, people move on to "but that's not enough because you didn't make trades". It feels like many fans (not saying you specifically) quickly forget the improvement and dismiss anything positive, and only focus on what the team hasn't yet done. And I'm not sure if I think that's a bad fan, or if I just feel bad for the fan who endures that near-perpetual negative state.
I don't disagree with anything you just said. I think, clearly, they've assembled an amazing collection of talent...and I think Luhnow has done a great job, overall.
Had to comment on this because it's very well stated. Not sure if it is just this message board (I don't read any other Astros fan sites), but so many fans are so quick to go nuclear if the team has a bad inning, a bad game, a bad series, or (heaven forbid) a bad week or month. I love the passion but I don't understand the rationale all the time. Playing almost a month of .500 ball with the injuries we've had is exceptional in my mind. I guess I'm geared a little differently. Now, if we had to trot out the same lineup that we saw last night every game for a week, I might become unhinged myself. That lineup was terrible and it showed against a bad pitcher for the Rays. All of that said, we're 30 games over .500. 30! There isn't too much to get upset about if looking big picture.
The Astros are currently one of the the 2-3 best positioned teams in baseball for the short and intermediate long term. The only negative being payroll, and some of that is not controllable. The dismissal of everything that the Astros have done is foolish. I have been very vocal about the fact that the trade deadline was a bad one for the Astros but that doesn't mean the Astros season is over. The Astros had an amazing off season and deserve credit for that, and they have a farm system that is underrated by their own fans. The Astros have the deepest farm system, players at all levels about to explode. Right now the Astros need to play better and get healthy........ a couple of shrewd moves in August wouldn't hurt either.
As so many have pointed out, this is not the same team that played in May-June. Can the pitching become better without infusion of new talent? Not confident about that anymore. Bullpen seem to be regressing to the mean--this is who they really are. Past months, they were bailed out by offense taking advantage of others' weak bullpen. But hitters have not scored well against ace pitching even at full strength. Our eyes are on the prize--the WS. Massive disappointment if we don't get there after leading the MLB almost up to the ASB. "Trying hard" is no longer enough for this fanbase. And the players.
This point in the season, right now, is turning into a massive case of blue balls for this fanbase. And blue balls hurt. Like a mammajamma.
shouldn't be getting blue balls when we're only at the 2/3ish point. Everything's still in progress! Don't anticipate/assume blue balls already!
If the bullpen is "regressing to the mean" - that would require them to be playing *below* average right now. And you think that's who they really are?....... Who they really are would be the mean - so not as good at April - June; but not as bad a June - July.
The fans and posters implying that the only satisfying outcome for this season is a WS title and and anything less would be considered a failure is a sure recipe for disappointment. Ditto for needing to win every series. Ditto for thinking our performance in May is our new median and anything less meaning something is wrong with the team or the GM.
Except, of course, that this isn't remotely true at all. Just apparently completely made up out of thin air.
