2023 Houston Astros Thread

[Harrison Stafford 3335]

5 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

some perspective from the coroner. 

Death by Dusty.

[henrygandorf 29192]

38 minutes ago, Mitch Hedberg said:

Watching San Diego and Colo on MLB. I really wish there were some way to get Hader back on the Astros but unless Crane goes full Cohen there’s no way with everyone we have to pay. Sure would like another late arm next year.

there are nasty 7th/8th inning type guys on every roster or at least in every organization who are walking around being closers and don't even know it. 

we targeted pressly, a middling reliever in minn because of his spin rate, and we turned him into a top closer.  i know strom is gone, but hopefully there's somebody on the payroll who can do the same and either go get a guy, draft a guy, or take one of our current guys and make him into the next guy.  or just have lance do it.

either way, closer is the absolute last place i would spend my money.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

Nine games to go. Time to nut up or stay home in October.

[tx 3 putt 77060]

12 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Nine games to go. Time to nut up or stay home in October.

Astro shop has a lot of $10 caps to make space for playoff gear 

[tx 3 putt 77060]

2 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

 

we need 3 studs 

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

4 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Nine games to go. Time to nut up or stay home in October.

I vote for nut up.

 

[tx 3 putt 77060]

I’m going down with the ship. Do or Die. If we get the pitching, I like our chances 
 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Gut Wagon 8083]

8 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m going down with the ship. Do or Die. If we get the pitching, I like our chances 
 

 

 

We're all hopeful. But I must admit I've nearly forgotten what it's like to get pitching, hitting and defense all in the same game. 

[Ojo Rojo 1965]

14 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

there are nasty 7th/8th inning type guys on every roster or at least in every organization who are walking around being closers and don't even know it. 

we targeted pressly, a middling reliever in minn because of his spin rate, and we turned him into a top closer.  i know strom is gone, but hopefully there's somebody on the payroll who can do the same and either go get a guy, draft a guy, or take one of our current guys and make him into the next guy.  or just have lance do it.

either way, closer is the absolute last place i would spend my money.

Abreu would be my horse.  But I'm not ready to give up on Pressly yet.

We get McCullers and Garcia back next season.  That makes for some really good pitching depth, assuming no other injuries.  A couple of our current starters would likely improve our bullpen.

We need to sign Tucker and Bregman to extensions this offseason, bigtime.

Despite the up and down regular season, I'm expecting big things in the postseason.  We've shown up against the good teams. That trend will continue in the playoffs where they are all good teams.

[Macklemore 2872]

9 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m going down with the ship. Do or Die. If we get the pitching, I like our chances 
 

 

 

I’m with you but would like to throw Captain Dusty off the ship first, Mutiny on the Bounty style.

[Guadaloopy 10973]

9 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m going down with the ship. Do or Die. If we get the pitching, I like our chances 
 

 

 

Fuckin’ DGUTS.   LFG!

[kevwun 15797]

We get Lance McCullers back until he has another season ending injury.  That ship has sunk.

[tx 3 putt 77060]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

We get Lance McCullers back until he has another season ending injury.  That ship has sunk.

he’ll be in the bullpen next season 

[kevwun 15797]

His velocity was down last year when he was back and there's a good chance it's gonna drop again after this latest injury.  If it does, he's gonna be sitting somewhere 90-92.  I don't expect anything out of him.

Edited September 21, 2023 by kevwun

[Guadaloopy 10973]

6 minutes ago, kevwun said:

His velocity was down last year when he was back and there's a good chance it's gonna drop again after this latest injury.  If it does, he's gonna be sitting around 90.

Maybe he got the Henry Rowengartner procedure?

[BrazilHorn 6612]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

We get Lance McCullers back until he has another season ending injury.  That ship has sunk.

I just think you need to trade/cut bait here. Cannot rely on him coming back and staying healthy. 
 

Unfortunate but just too risky

[kevwun 15797]

No one is taking his deal without the Astros paying for most of it.  He's still owed 53 million dollars.

[David Dennison 18922]

2 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

I just think you need to trade/cut bait here. Cannot rely on him coming back and staying healthy. 
 

Unfortunate but just too risky

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/lance-mccullers-17540/

[henrygandorf 29192]

[Gut Wagon 8083]

37 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

Maybe he got the Henry Rowengartner procedure?

Dr. Emil Schaffhausen could have done as much good. 

[HtownHorn 14724]

2 hours ago, kevwun said:

His velocity was down last year when he was back and there's a good chance it's gonna drop again after this latest injury.  If it does, he's gonna be sitting somewhere 90-92.  I don't expect anything out of him.

It's always the 2nd year when the velocity comes back after TJ surgery, the problem is that his arm fell apart in year two. He needs a year in the bullpen to help his arm, it worked for McHugh, the problem is paying a middle reliever $18M.

Verlander and Framber are the only 2 that are regular starters. You piggyback McCullers, Garica, Brown, Javier, France, and Urquidy for half the season.

That leaves room for 5 relievers. You have Graveman, Montero, Pressly, Abreu, and Neris (unless he opts out).

Edited September 21, 2023 by HtownHorn

[tx 3 putt 77060]

Neris is gone 

brown and France will be stronger next year and know how to better handle a full mlb season 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[tx 3 putt 77060]

The Astros pitching staff and development is top notched. Hasn’t missed a step since Strom left 

[henrygandorf 29192]

15 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

It's always the 2nd year when the velocity comes back after TJ surgery, the problem is that his arm fell apart in year two. He needs a year in the bullpen to help his arm, it worked for McHugh, the problem is paying a middle reliever $18M.

no, the problem is not getting anything out of him at all.  if he can be an effective high-leverage multi-inning guy, he can earn his money.  it doesn't matter if it's $5mm or $25mm, there's no cap and it's not my money.  but we need to get something out of it.

[tx 3 putt 77060]

2 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

no, the problem is not getting anything out of him at all.  if he can be an effective high-leverage multi-inning guy, he can earn his money.  it doesn't matter if it's $5mm or $25mm, there's no cap and it's not my money.  but we need to get something out of it.

Maybe he can be an amazing set up man. Just come in and throw off speed breaking filth for one inning 

[tx 3 putt 77060]

4 hours ago, kevwun said:

We get Lance McCullers back until he has another season ending injury.  That ship has sunk.

wE get all star and healthy lmj back, but he only wants to pitch to maldy 

 

surly thread :

Edited September 21, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Wulaw Horn 19096]

42 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

It's always the 2nd year when the velocity comes back after TJ surgery, the problem is that his arm fell apart in year two. He needs a year in the bullpen to help his arm, it worked for McHugh, the problem is paying a middle reliever $18M.

Verlander and Framber are the only 2 that are regular starters. You piggyback McCullers, Garica, Brown, Javier, France, and Urquidy for half the season.

That leaves room for 5 relievers. You have Graveman, Montero, Pressly, Abreu, and Neris (unless he opts out).

This would be so smart that we won’t do it now that we are a dumb organization. But it should be what we do. No doubt about it. 

[LCHorn 2620]

20 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

I know strom is gone, but hopefully there's somebody on the payroll who can do the same and either go get a guy, draft a guy, or take one of our current guys and make him into the next guy. 

I think we all know that the Messiah of which you speak is named Whitley.  

[tx 3 putt 77060]

7 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I think we all know that the Messiah of which you speak is named Whitley.  

fuck me, how did I forget about Whitley 

he’ll be ready for the 2024 season 

[henrygandorf 29192]

altuve also missed most of july. 

[Wulaw Horn 19096]

34 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

altuve also missed most of july. 

So did Yainer. As well as august and September  or he’d be on the list too. 

[Scraps 13562]

Was telling 3putt the other day at the game that Altuve would be in MVP talk if he played all season. His numbers are pretty fucking good for half a season.

[Jshep34 2316]

In dustys world if you play 81 games that's the same as a full season

[tx 3 putt 77060]

24 minutes ago, Scraps said:

Was telling 3putt the other day at the game that Altuve would be in MVP talk if he played all season. His numbers are pretty fucking good for half a season.

If we had Altuve all season, we’re up by 8 to 10 games 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Js1 85407]

Or clinched already   

Edited September 22, 2023 by Js1

[henrygandorf 29192]

ok, so captain obvious here, but tomorrow is the biggest game of the season.  let's discuss.

the magic number for playoffs is 6, division is 10.  i know toronto is losing 3-0 in the 6th, but let's ignore that for now.  seattle and texas play each other.

so if we can just fucking win the game tomorrow, we will be half a game up on someone and 1.5 up on the other.  the playoff magic number will go to 4 (right?) and the division magic number will go to 9.  a playoff magic number of 4 with 8 to play sounds manageable, even for this bunch.

if we lose, we're in 2nd place.

[UTexasFight 9497]

2 hours ago, Scraps said:

Was telling 3putt the other day at the game that Altuve would be in MVP talk if he played all season. His numbers are pretty fucking good for half a season.

Yeah, I feel like there has been very little talk about what he’s done when healthy this year, but he’s been incredible at the plate.

In half a season (exactly 81 games), 100 hits, 20 2Bs, 17 HRs, 48 RBIs, 74 Runs, 13 SB.

double those numbers and that rivals 2017.

 

 

[Dutchrudder 11141]

19 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Yeah, I feel like there has been very little talk about what he’s done when healthy this year, but he’s been incredible at the plate.

In half a season (exactly 81 games), 100 hits, 20 2Bs, 17 HRs, 48 RBIs, 74 Runs, 13 SB.

double those numbers and that rivals 2017.

 

 

Just think about how many more RBIs he would have if Chas and Yanier were batting 7/8th every day too...

[Hank Chinaski 6315]

27 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Yeah, I feel like there has been very little talk about what he’s done when healthy this year, but he’s been incredible at the plate.

In half a season (exactly 81 games), 100 hits, 20 2Bs, 17 HRs, 48 RBIs, 74 Runs, 13 SB.

double those numbers and that rivals 2017.

 

 

And he was this good last year too. He’s kept this up for a season and a half now, at ages 32-33. 

[tx 3 putt 77060]

36 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

And he was this good last year too. He’s kept this up for a season and a half now, at ages 32-33. 

 

the WBC double fucked us : altuve's injury and ramping up pressley way the fuck too early in the spring

[Honeysucklerose 990]

ok, so captain obvious here, but tomorrow is the biggest game of the season.  let's discuss.
the magic number for playoffs is 6, division is 10.  i know toronto is losing 3-0 in the 6th, but let's ignore that for now.  seattle and texas play each other.
so if we can just fucking win the game tomorrow, we will be half a game up on someone and 1.5 up on the other.  the playoff magic number will go to 4 (right?) and the division magic number will go to 9.  a playoff magic number of 4 with 8 to play sounds manageable, even for this bunch.
if we lose, we're in 2nd place.

The most the division magic number can decrease tomorrow is by 1 because they are playing each other.

Win and the division magic number is 5. Lose and we are in second place.

[Honeysucklerose 990]

The most the division magic number can decrease tomorrow is by 1 because they are playing each other.

Win and the division magic number is 5. Lose and we are in second place.

I suppose, thinking about it, if Texas wins and we win tomorrow the magic number would be 4 because we own the tiebreaker with them so we technically only need to tie them after 162.

[henrygandorf 29192]

47 minutes ago, Honeysucklerose said:

The most the division magic number can decrease tomorrow is by 1 because they are playing each other.

Win and the division magic number is 5. Lose and we are in second place.

you're confusing the playoff number with the division number.  pretty sure my summary is correct here.  and i only notched the division down one number with a win tomorrow, from 10 to 9.

toronto lost and i believe we now have identical records, which means toronto is also 0.5 up on both texas and seattle and they go to tampa this weekend, who trails balt by 1.5 after balt lost to cleveland.  the schedule makers earned their $ this year.

[tx 3 putt 77060]

[UTHornFan014 710]

6 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

ok, so captain obvious here, but tomorrow is the biggest game of the season.  let's discuss.

the magic number for playoffs is 6, division is 10.  i know toronto is losing 3-0 in the 6th, but let's ignore that for now.  seattle and texas play each other.

so if we can just fucking win the game tomorrow, we will be half a game up on someone and 1.5 up on the other.  the playoff magic number will go to 4 (right?) and the division magic number will go to 9.  a playoff magic number of 4 with 8 to play sounds manageable, even for this bunch.

if we lose, we're in 2nd place.

I think the most the WC magic number can be reduced is 1 game with the Mariners/Rangers playing each other... and that assuming we win tomorrow. If we lose I think it stays at 6.

Pretty sure they are already including a guaranteed 4 losses for our competition in the WC calculation since one of the Rangers/Ms are guaranteed to lose at least 4. 

But, I also could be too drunk right now to really figure it out

[UTHornFan014 710]

Leaving Toronto out of this scenario for simplicity.

But say the Mariners go 6-4 (winning 4 out of 7 against Tex and 2 against us), the Rangers 6-4 (sweeping the Angels and losing 4 of 7 to the Ms), and we go 5-4 (Winning 2 against the Royals and DBacks and 1 against the M's). That would leave us all at 90 wins. 

I think the Mariners would win the division in that scenario and we would win the tie breaker against the Rangers for a wild card spot. 

Don't even want to think about what happens if all 4 teams (Toronto, Seattle, Texas, and us) finish at 90 wins. Maybe intradivision would come into play there and Toronto would miss out? 

But, what all that shows is that the wild card magic number of 6 means that we need to win 6 games to guarantee a playoff spot. So, don't count on the wild card magic number dropping by two if we win and another team loses.

If we win only 5 games there is a possibility we miss the playoffs. Win less than 5 then we better hope that one of the Ms/Rangers sweep the other (or that the Blue Jays fall apart)

I think I need another drink after all that...

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

Today is nut up day.

 

Stro's maintain 1st place into next week.

 

 

[WBT 20614]

12 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

ok, so captain obvious here, but tomorrow is the biggest game of the season.  let's discuss.

the magic number for playoffs is 6, division is 10.  i know toronto is losing 3-0 in the 6th, but let's ignore that for now.  seattle and texas play each other.

so if we can just fucking win the game tomorrow, we will be half a game up on someone and 1.5 up on the other.  the playoff magic number will go to 4 (right?) and the division magic number will go to 9.  a playoff magic number of 4 with 8 to play sounds manageable, even for this bunch.

You confused me saying the playoff magic number is already 6 but I think I'm following now.

Neglecting tiebreakers for now, because all 4 teams have 68 losses, the magic number to finish a game ahead of each team is:

Jays 10

Rangers 10

Mariners 10

To make the playoffs, we only have to finish ahead of one of those 3.  If you consider us just making the playoffs, one of the  Rangers/Mariners will have at least 4 losses out of their 7 h2h games.  If we precount those 4 losses, our playoff magic number goes to 6.

But as to your last comment, if we win today our playoff magic number would drop to 5 but not to 4.  You're already precounting 4 losses from the Rangers/M's h2h.  If one of them gets to 5 losses or more in those 7 h2h games, then you would start counting those losses but you can't doublecount the first 4 losses that you're already precounting.

Does that make sense or did I miss something?

[Scraps 13562]

10 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Yeah, I feel like there has been very little talk about what he’s done when healthy this year, but he’s been incredible at the plate.

In half a season (exactly 81 games), 100 hits, 20 2Bs, 17 HRs, 48 RBIs, 74 Runs, 13 SB.

double those numbers and that rivals 2017.

 

 

The number that is really kind of crazy to me is the 74 runs.  League leader Acuna has 140 right now, so he would most likely be close to having the league lead.  AL leader is Semien with 115, which he would definitely have.  

He would also be leading the AL in hits, close in doubles, top 5 in homers 

 

How anyone doesn't think he will get to 3000 hits is beyond me.  After this season he would need to average like 158 hits for 6 more seasons.  So what he did in 2022.   When he has played at least 140 games in a season the lowest he has in a hit total is that 158.  Obviously health is going to be the biggest role in it.  Really wish 2020 and the start of this year didn't fuck him out of 200 or so hits.  

Anyway back to division battle/playoff baseball.  

[Scraps 13562]

I don't care who gets in other than us, but I guess the easiest path is rooting for the Rangers so that we can double penetrate Seattle and knock them out of the playoffs.