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2023 Houston Astros Thread


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7 hours ago, dr99 said:

More proof that Dusty is an idiot

Well, in defense of the Astros pitching coaching squad, they tend to get things figured out for pitchers. I'd have been OK taking a run at 105, too. 

Edited by Slacks
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The Yankees have brought up a lot of their minor league prospects. You’ll see some AAA lineups from them on which there are 4 or 5 players with considerably less than a year of MLB experience. And we miss Cole. No excuse to not roll over them. 

Edited by TonyTexas
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What a day to be an astros fan. After a pretty lousy first 5 months of the season with all the injuries and poor performances and terrible lineups we hit the bell lap on this marathon in tied for first place. And we still have 3 games with Seattle and Texas that will help us control our own destiny, and the Astros schedule is easier than anyone else’s this month. 
 
Win the division in September and that gets you the bye and puts everything about the season into a box of “doesn’t matter”
 
Goals for September:
Clinch playoffs 
Clinch division
Figure out if Javier is rosterable for post season
Sort out 3rd and 4th starter
Stay healthy
Just once play this lineup so all of Houston can orgasmically explode: Altuve/Bregman:Yordan/Tucker/Chas/Diaz/Brantley/Abreu/Peña. 
It doesn’t have to be in that order (Bregman and Alvarez should be flip flopped and then it would be perfect) but just play those 9 guys together 
Diaz needs to catch JV and Framber a couple times so they can see that they can pitch to him before the playoffs start. You don’t want to lose in the playoffs sporting any thing but your best lineup- the nerd cave knows that and has TONS of input in the playoff lineup, so you might as well get Diaz a couple games behind the plate now. 
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2 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

What's hilarious is Maldonado is one of the worst framing catchers in baseball if not the worst. There is literally nothing he does at a below average level on the baseball field anymore. It's all abysmal or worse.

i knew that part would get y'alls attention, especially @Wulaw Horn

Edited by Gourmand
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It’s not just them- I literally picked the best 3 hitters of the last 10 years and showed they all hit 2nd. 
Cleveland hits Ramirez 2nd 

Baltimore hits Santander 2nd (probably best hitter- highest ops anyway)

Pads hit Soto second

cards hit goldy, rays araozarena, rangers Seager, dodgers Freddy freeman  then there are like 6 or 8 teams I can’t identify a best hitter  so probably more teams than not hit their best guy second  if not more teams then not than it’s at about parity with any other spot  

it’s not some sort of weird one off. 
id also be fine with Altuve/Tucker/Bregman/Alvarez or Tucker/Altuve/Bregman/Alvarez  

hell- any order you want to hit those guys in is fine with me as long as those are the 9 you play 

 

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25 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

What's hilarious is Maldonado is one of the worst framing catchers in baseball if not the worst. There is literally nothing he does at a below average level on the baseball field anymore. It's all abysmal or worse.

Hit against LHP. He’s probably in the top half of catchers at doing that. I’d also say hit HR’s and draw walks. He’s also probably in the top half of catchers at doing that too. Everything else is excrement. 

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Just now, tx 3 putt said:

Analytics isn’t always right 

“Analytics” in this case is about describing probabilities.

“it isn’t always right” doesn’t really mean anything at all. The most elite hitters in baseball make outs 60% of the time. But the odds of scoring more runs are enhanced by giving your best hitters - those with the best odds of not making an out/hitting the ball hard - more opportunities in situations that are more conducive to scoring. It’s really not that complicated.

Increasing your odds of scoring increases your odds of winning. Even increasing the odds by what may seem like tiny amounts makes actual differences over a large enough sample. (Like the scheme in Office Space where they take fractions of pennies off of every transaction.)

So yeah, you can agree with Jeff Bagwell when he makes fun of of exit velo - because anecdotally someone hits the ball hard and it’s an out - but to do so obviously misses the entire point, which is that the harder a guy consistently hits the ball, the better he is likely to produce. It doesn’t mean the hardest hit balls always have the best results. It doesn’t seem like it should be necessary to even have to explain that. 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

 

So yeah, you can agree with Jeff Bagwell when he makes fun of of exit velo - because anecdotally someone hits the ball hard and it’s an out - but to do so obviously misses the entire point, which is that the harder a guy consistently hits the ball, the better he is likely to produce. It doesn’t mean the hardest hit balls always have the best results. It doesn’t seem like it should be necessary to even have to explain that. 

 

 


the Yankees just fired their hitting coach that was all about analytics and exit velocities. He loooooved exit velocities, but an exit hit / bloop single, will trump any exit velocity. The angels bat ohtani second because that’s all they have 

in the Astros case, we have a couple of top hitters that can hit #2, but bregman is my choice for that #2 spot 

the batting title goes to the highest batting avg, not the highest exit velocity, for a reason 

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56 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Hit against LHP. He’s probably in the top half of catchers at doing that. I’d also say hit HR’s and draw walks. He’s also probably in the top half of catchers at doing that too. Everything else is excrement. 

He sometimes can lay down a decent bunt. 

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3 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

The Mariners guaranteed that they’ll be swept by the Mets this weekend . Very reminiscent of the Texans’ letterman jacket debacle. 

 


those jackets were bad ass 

 

that’s good team building / Locker room mojo for Seattle, imo 

Edited by tx 3 putt
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I'm with Putt on this one.  The jackets were bad ass.  A bunch of whiny old fucks, same people that worry about what another man wears, didn't like them.  Unfortunately Brady and the Patriots were just a better team.  That happens.  Doesn't change that the team was working to create an identity and trying to remember old school hard work when you played the game just because it got you some ass and you loved it wasn't the issue.  

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back to the lineup - while i agree you put your best hitter 2nd (and would love to see yordan 2), a scorching-hot bregman there certainly doesn't bother me.  he handles the bat well and knows the zone.  in 2018-19 i might've called him our best hitter, and we've seen signs of that resurgence ever since he's been back in the 2-hole.

once again, put the right guys in the lineup and the order doesn't really matter.  a month ago, when envisioning the astros lineup, i never even considered bregman would be raking, along with possibly having a fresh brantley and a pena that has kinda found it?  not to mention altuve partying like it's 2017.  put those guys in with yordan, tuck, chassy, and yainer and yeah, we'll be just fine.

@ boston was supposed to be our roughest series remaining outside the division ones, and we dismantled them.  we blew g3 home vs boston and g1 @ detroit.  we should be on a 9-1 stretch following an embarrassing home sweep vs seattle.  but we're not and that's fine.  the takeaway is that schedules don't matter and never have with this team.  when we're playing well, the opponent isn't an issue.

i say we go 19-8 and win 96 games.  that should get us where we need to be.

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I like Alvarez and Tucker lower in the lineup because it seems like it just wears the fuck out of pitchers after they have faced Altuve, Bregman, et al.  That kind of pressure pays off in sports.  How many times this season have witnessed the 7-8-9 holders getting ona roll?  Just one guy’s none sabermetric opinion.

And  LOL at ‘all of the other teams do it.’  WGAF?  After the Braves, I don’t really care how those other squads set their lineups.

Edited by slorch
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