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2019 World Series: Houston Astros vs. Washington Nationals

elfenix

By elfenix
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Blotto
Blotto

best part about this is picturing Harper sitting at home with perfectly coiffed hair watching his old team wrecking shop in the series the first year he's gone. 

Beau Vine
Beau Vine
Player
Player

Fuck off Cuntstant. Don’t you have tornado ravaged liquor store to loot?

Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53964

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

I had thought it was 3 days. That's what the whole fucking thing was about. 

Did the Astros lose or not?

Did Pig bellmont make up a bs story about funerals and work conferences on kids bdays or not?

Nats won.  Congrats. I expected it.  You can celebrate by coming over here and sucking my dick since you're obsessed with me. 

Serious bidness.

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Pimphand

Pimphand 5587

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Well without question the biggest choke jobs in baseball this past decade were 2011, 2017, & 2019.

Astros fans need to thank Baby Jesus that Dave Roberts is even crazier than AJ Hinch because had he not blown his bullpen to smithereens and started Darvish twice the state of Texas would still be 0-for-eternity at winning the Fall Classic.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5908

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2 hours ago, Iceman said:

Or you could come on and say something to the effect of, "Great series by the Astros.  Never thought it would go 7 games with the home team losing all of them. WE'll see ya in 2020.  Go Nats!"

There's probably little chance the Nats see anybody in the playoffs in 2020. And I'm fine with that. There are a lot of olds on the team that were pretty clutch, oddly enough in away games.  That's simply not going to happen again next year.  And Max is showing some wear now as well.  

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Pig Bellmont

Pig Bellmont 8679

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12 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:

There's probably little chance the Nats see anybody in the playoffs in 2020. And I'm fine with that. There are a lot of olds on the team that were pretty clutch, oddly enough in away games.  That's simply not going to happen again next year.  And Max is showing some wear now as well.  

For real. The team will look very different next season and definitely won’t have the same chemistry. Plus Rendon likely gone too. Whatever. Worries are for next year. 

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EMAWesome

EMAWesome 101

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4 hours ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Congrats to Nats fans, that was an incredible run.

Don’t know why but I am still struck by not one home win in this series.

It also kind of fucks up everyone's argument on the DH no matter what your position.  Every game the Astros had it they lost.  Every game Washington didn't have it they lost.

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

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15 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

It also kind of fucks up everyone's argument on the DH no matter what your position.  Every game the Astros had it they lost.  Every game Washington didn't have it they lost.

Don't know if the DH was really relevant to who won or lost a game, but the Astros bench was thin.  That problem was alleviated in DC when the pitcher had to hit because they had a DH quality pinch hitter available.  When the DH was in in Houston, they had nobody available.  Marisnick was our top pinch hitter available most home games and he is not a good hitter.  Having a Gattis or even a White available off the bench could have been a game changer in at least one of the home games.

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Iceman

Iceman 2628

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2 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

I was explaining why I wasn’t online over the weekend and missing your circle jerk. Some of us have lives outside the intertron. And if following a team for 13 years through 100 loss seasons and 3 disappointing playoff runs is front running, then call me a front runner. See y’all at the parade Saturday 

Not a frontrunner, as in a team chaser.

 

A frontrunner who runs their mouth in good times and turns into Casper when they lose.

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Iceman

Iceman 2628

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1 hour ago, EMAWesome said:

It also kind of fucks up everyone's argument on the DH no matter what your position.  Every game the Astros had it they lost.  Every game Washington didn't have it they lost.

Watching pitchers bat is and always will be fucked up.

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Iceman

Iceman 2628

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8 hours ago, youdunnf'dup said:

You say this like this is unexpected behavior from anyone...ever. Why would anyone who is the lone fan of a team come on here just to twist the knife even more. I feel like this is exactly what you would do, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’ve been part of this community since 2008- and yes, I’ve engaged in plenty of rivalrous banter.  I don’t disappear when my team doesn’t do well.

you have zero reasons to speculate that way. 

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Dewey

Dewey 3280

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

paranoia or legitimately smart tactic?

Legit smart. Astros proved to be better than other teams at this. It's not cheating to me, part of the game. Opposing players and fans shouldn't bitch, your team should adjust. 

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

Posted
Posted (edited)
18 minutes ago, Iceman said:

I’ve been part of this community since 2008- and yes, I’ve engaged in plenty of rivalrous banter.  I don’t disappear when my team doesn’t do well.

you have zero reasons to speculate that way. 

For example.  You are here right now when your team lost the World Series.  Pig Bellmont would have never come back had his lost.

Edited by FondrenRoad
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Iceman

Iceman 2628

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

For example.  You are here right now when your team lost the World Series.

Lolz.

more like not ditching discussions related to Tech sports campaigns, and calling them a campaign on the football field is generous.  

 

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

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6 minutes ago, immortal13 said:

Karma is a bitch. The Astros got what they deserved after Bregman carried his bat to first base like a douche.

This is a fair take.  But the Nats had a guy who was being a douche every single at bat in every single game and karma didn't get him.  I do wonder why Soto gets a pass.  Bregman can certainly be a douche, but it usually only occurs after he does something good.

Soto is on a whole other level.  His entire game is douchy every time he steps on the field.  Also seems like a nice kid in interviews so no idea why he does that bullshit.  Maybe he cools down with it next year after wearing a few baseballs.

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Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious 516

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, immortal13 said:

Karma is a bitch. The Astros got what they deserved after Bregman carried his bat to first base like a douche.

The Bregman thing is overblown IMO.  Astros got what they deserved for the Taubman fiasco.  Firing Taubman only after all the evidence is out and your organization can't possibly deny it anymore won't appease the public or the baseball gods.  The Astros only grew some semblance of a conscience when it was the only option left to try and salvage anything.

Edited by Captain Obvious
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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52320

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3 minutes ago, Zepol87 said:

Completely agree with this. 

Yep, if you’re doing it from the field or dugout in real time, or from scouting normally available video, that’s part of the game. 

If you’ve got extra cameras pointed where they shouldn’t be, or have a guy with binoculars and a radio like the giants were accused of for the Bobby Thompson hr series, that’s cheating. 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53964

Posted
Posted (edited)
58 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Yep, if you’re doing it from the field or dugout in real time, or from scouting normally available video, that’s part of the game. 

If you’ve got extra cameras pointed where they shouldn’t be, or have a guy with binoculars and a radio like the giants were accused of for the Bobby Thompson hr series, that’s cheating. 

What if you have this mastermind working for you to steal signs?

screen-shot-2018-10-16-at-9-38-18-pm-e15

79933dd5296c15ab39a64f2f7bd84c0a

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52320

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1 minute ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Why is this being touted as some sort of miracle?  Washington has the third highest payroll in MLB at $204MM.

Not that it should be, but:

they started 19-31 or some shit, too big a hole to even win their division 

they were losing late to the brewers with hader pitching, came back  

they were down in the series to the 104(?) win dodgers and came back, winning 2 elimination games after trailing during the games  

they were down in the series to a 107 win Astros team and came back, winning 2 elimination games after trailing during the games

 

 

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YChang

YChang 3430

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

So Verlander is now 0-6 with a 5.68 ERA in 7 WS starts. 

Why is he not getting the Kershaw treatmeant as a "postseason choker?"

My opinion is that maybe JV had that dip in his performance pre-Astros career and Detroit kind of dropped out of the playoff hunt fo awhile. While Kershaw has maintained a long period of excellence. Which may have brought in greater expectations since the Dodgers keep getting to the playoffs recently. 

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19118

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52 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

So Verlander is now 0-6 with a 5.68 ERA in 7 WS starts. 

Why is he not getting the Kershaw treatmeant as a "postseason choker?"

Because the postseason is made up of division series and league championship series as well?  Verlander is getting the World Series choker treatment (deservedly), but he's a lot better than Kershaw in the other postseason series.

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Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious 516

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4 minutes ago, NowThis said:

why?

Wore a Boras Corp hat in an interview after Game 7, asked if he still had to do the interview as he's technically unemployed, and used the past tense when talking about Houston.  Doesn't mean he's 100% gone, but it certainly doesn't sound like he's attached to the team/city.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53964

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Gammons, lulz at the bolded:

Quote

This wasn’t the first time a sitting president was loudly booed at a World Series game. In 1931, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, with the nation mired in the Great Depression, a former Stanford shortstop named Herbert Hoover was derided and showered with the chant, “We want beer!” Baseball and Prohibition didn’t mix.

This time, an Astros front-office executive had become one of the storylines of this Series for displaying anti-social misbehavior toward a highly respected journalist, compounded by a team release claiming that the story reported in Sports Illustrated was fake news, when it soon turned out that the release was, in fact, fake news.

We had hours of robot umpire strike-zone discussion, a baserunner interference controversy and mediocre television ratings. There were two four-hour games amidst seven that averaged 3:40, a flashing incident and a bat-carrying controversy centered on baseball etiquette. (Forget the beginning of the Oakland A’s three-year championship run when, in the second game of the 1972 American League playoffs, A’s shortstop Bert Campaneris threw his bat at pitcher Lerrin LaGrow. Then after Oakland won the deciding fifth game, 2-1, thanks to four scoreless relief innings from Vida Blue, when Blue got to the clubhouse celebration, in full view of the media, he made a choking sign at starter Blue Moon Odom, who had pitched only five innings, and the two ended up rolling on the floor in a brawl.)

Ah, if there’d only been Twitter and sports-talk television. There would have been an assistant GM social-media story then too, since during the World Series A’s owner Charlie Finley had his assistant GM John Claiborne helping to distribute box lunches in the press box.

Granted, Game 1 of the 2019 World Series was the only one-run contest in the Series. And, with the exception of Howie Kendrick’s home run off the foul pole in Game 7, there were no magical moments. Because not a single game was won by the home team, there was none of the raucous celebratory energy that we felt in the Metrodome in ’87 and ’91.

But, in the end, we watched three Cy Young winners — likely four when Gerrit Cole is crowned next week — pitch their hearts out. And we saw two third basemen who may be 2019 MVPs (Alex Bregman and Anthony Rendon), two future MVPs (Juan Soto and Yordan Álvarez) and an Impossible Dream story of a Nationals team that in May had a statistical 1.5% chance to win but finished by beating the 106-win Dodgers and 107-win Astros. At a time when the country is as fractured as it has been in decades, when immigrants are targeted, the two teams that took us to Halloween were comprised of players from the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Brazil, and the winning manager is a proud Puerto Rican American. For 10 days in October, we could be reminded that baseball is, indeed, our national pastime, that it is the sport that brought in Jackie Robinson before the military was integrated, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education.

There was controversy surrounding this Series from the beginning, personified by Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman, who had no baseball background. “He was a fantasy league expert,” one other team executive said. During September 2018, another club executive scouting for the postseason said, “I sat in front of him and for an entire game he talked to a guy next to him about how awful A.J. Hinch managed.”

The Astros do little eyeball scouting, while the Nationals have always been a scouting organization, right back to when they picked Ryan Zimmerman with the fourth pick in their first draft, 2005. Right after the clincher, one former Marlins employee texted, “Jim Cuthbert (the former Miami pro scouting director, now an advance scout for the Nats) deserves so much credit. His live advance this season has been a game-changer. Washington is one of about five or six teams that still has a live advance scout.”

In Game 1, instead of having Cole study Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright’s approach against the Nationals, the Astros’ analytics insisted that Cole could just get by with high fastballs, two of which were hit out by Zimmerman and Soto.

But while there was a Zoroastrian aspect to this series, this was not good v. evil. The Astros were really good, and winning “only” one World Series in three dominant seasons reminded us that the same thing happened to the 1969-71 Orioles and 1988-90 Athletics, two of the best three-year teams since the Korean War.

And the players are not only exceptionally talented, they are really good teammates. Jeff Luhnow’s deals for Cole, Zack Greinke, Álvarez (Josh Fields Forever) and Yuli Gurriel were brilliant. They won in five grinders against Tampa Bay, won in six grinders with the Yankees, and lost a Game 7 against Washington.

Before Kendrick’s grand slam against Los Angeles in Game 5 of the NLDS, Dodgers people worried about the Nationals more than any other National League team. Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer started 10 games in October; the Nats won every one. They relieved in two. They were Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling revisited, going back to that stunning 2001 postseason in which that duo won nine of Arizona’s 10 victories.

Rendon, who homered in Games 6 and 7, is a star. Trea Turner is great. Adam Eaton is Brad Marchand. Soto is from another planet. Patrick Corbin did anything and everything asked.

In many ways, Strasburg defines this moment in Washington baseball history. He was the Wunderkind, but after Tommy John surgery in 2010, he was shut down, per advice of his doctors, in September 2012 with 15 wins and 159 1/3 innings, and had to watch his teammates lose in the playoffs. In the talk-radio and social-media worlds, he was often characterized as someone who took the money and protected himself.

“There were times when it bothered me,” he says. “But, in time, I learned to focus on who and what I know I am. “

Since then, including the playoffs, he is 97-50. This regular season: 18-6, 251-56 strikeout-walk ratio — plus five starts and five wins and a 47-4 K-BB ratio in the postseason. Anytime someone is labeled as being too civilized, too thoughtful, too modest, they can watch Stephen Strasburg and say, “The most valuable player in the 2019 World Series is civil, thoughtful, modest.”

And that MVP has one of the great changeups of this century. He had a 45% swing-and-miss rate on his changeup, and 80% of those 169 swings-and-misses were out of the strike zone, because when someone throws 96 mph with a buckling curveball, one cannot sit on the change.

From May 23 through October 30, these were the two best teams in baseball. They both were precocious, they were intrepid, and they had five of the best pitchers of the last decade.

So, no longer will we hear that Washington is “first in war, first in peace and last in the American League.”

 

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Victor Lazlo

Victor Lazlo 1742

Posted
Posted

personified by Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman, who had no baseball background. “He was a fantasy league expert,” one other team executive said. During September 2018, another club executive scouting for the postseason said, “I sat in front of him and for an entire game he talked to a guy next to him about how awful A.J. Hinch managed

 

That is funny. A fantasy league “expert” critiquing a Major League manager’s moves. 

Kind of like I was doing last night. 

spacer.png

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19118

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17 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Not that it should be, but:

they started 19-31 or some shit, too big a hole to even win their division 

they were losing late to the brewers with hader pitching, came back  

they were down in the series to the 104(?) win dodgers and came back, winning 2 elimination games after trailing during the games  

they were down in the series to a 107 win Astros team and came back, winning 2 elimination games after trailing during the games

Oh I get it that this was an improbable run and they may have been the most "clutch" team in postseason history; I won't argue against that.  But in the end it's more like they finally started living up to expectations than it being a miracle.  In my eyes, a miracle would have been some absolute shit team like the Marlins, Orioles, Tigers making it to the postseason and winning it all.

 

17 hours ago, Quagmire said:

Lol since when has payroll guaranteed shit.

 

It doesn't guarantee anything, but of the last 10 teams to make it to the World Series, five of those teams have had a top-5 payroll.  There will always be outliers such as 2016 Cleveland (26th ranked payroll) and 2015 Mets (21st ranked payroll), but odds are more in your favor if you have a top-5 payroll.

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spystud13

spystud13 2371

Posted
Posted
On 10/24/2019 at 2:52 PM, spystud13 said:

MLB Net did a badass episode on that team awhile back, can’t find any upcoming replays at the moment though. Damn worth a watch if you can find it. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10670168/?ref_=ttvi_tt

@Underdog 

Replays @ 8a E/7a C this Sunday morning on MLBN. Highly recommend. 

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