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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

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TexArcher
TexArcher

Bregs is going Crawford Boxes right here.

ERhine
ERhine

Prior to the footage being edited by Bender:

wesleywest
wesleywest

Two Diamond Club tickets available for the Sunday night game.  Free.  Need to pick them up from me in 77027. Rules: Poster must be a big contributor to this thread/last years shag thread.  No gue

Chuckie Finster

Chuckie Finster 22758

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Why?

It’s great.

They’ll have to play roughly a weeks worth of extra games than us in the same amount of time.

Not counting the All Star Break, the Astros have 12 off days the rest of the way vs 9 for the Yankees + the Yankees have 2 doubleheader’s on the schedule (granted, both against the O’s, but still)

Also, the Yankees and Red Sox still have 13 games left against each other.

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19229

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Also, the Yankees and Red Sox still have 13 games left against each other.

Strength of schedule just within the AL is really lopsided for the top 5 teams (Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners and Indians).  Number of games they have played against each other so far is:

Astros played the other four teams 24 times.

Mariners played the other four teams 19 times.

Yankees played the other four teams 18 times.

Indians played the other four teams 17 times.

Red Sox played the other four teams 14 times.

This was done by eyeballing the schedules on mlb.com so I may have missed a game here or there.  While looking through the Red Sox schedule it seemed every other game was against either Toronto, Tampa Bay or Baltimore.  They should get proper fucked after the ASB.

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Posted
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59 minutes ago, kevwun said:

I only saw a clip of the 3 in a row, but sure.

Tuve hit the train tracks again in the following inning.

 

Little Man was batting ‘pissed off.’  It was glorious!

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9556

Posted
Posted
Strength of schedule just within the AL is really lopsided for the top 5 teams (Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners and Indians).  Number of games they have played against each other so far is:

Astros played the other four teams 24 times.

Mariners played the other four teams 19 times.

Yankees played the other four teams 18 times.

Indians played the other four teams 17 times.

Red Sox played the other four teams 14 times.

This was done by eyeballing the schedules on mlb.com so I may have missed a game here or there.  While looking through the Red Sox schedule it seemed every other game was against either Toronto, Tampa Bay or Baltimore.  They should get proper fucked after the ASB.

Yeah, when we ended that “stretch of death” against NYY, BOS, SEA on June 6, a whopping 43% of our games at that point had been against teams in first place (BOS, NYY, CLE, ARI, SEA). That’s absurd.

 

What's great is that we're done with the really cream of the crop.

We have a few against ARI and BOS and then 6 or 7 against the Dodgers, but that’s it against teams near the top of the standings.

My expectation would be playing at least .600 ball against the rest of the schedule.

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Gourmand

Gourmand 7774

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Posted

Those four HRs were all absolute bombs. I know this team fucks good and often but.....was Eovaldi tipping his pitches? Did we steal their signs or kick their ass in the advanced scouting department? Granted, this off-the-cuff observation is based only on fapping to the highlight reel replays, but the middle of the order looked like they were playing softball. Or maybe he just sucks?

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9556

Posted
Posted

The Legend of CFM continues to grow:

https://theathletic.com/401593/2018/06/21/the-time-astros-starter-charlie-morton-moonlighted-as-a-wedding-singer/

The time Astros starter Charlie Morton moonlighted as a wedding singer

On Nov. 11, 2006, at a banquet hall in the Atlanta suburbs, Chuck James and his bride, Julie, danced for the first time as husband and wife to a song relatively few have ever heard. Titled “Foothills of Forever,” it was written and performed by a minor league roommate of James who had become a close friend.

As opposed to hiring a professional, a professional ballplayer could have been viewed as a risky choice. But the James’s wouldn’t have even really cared if the performance was botched. This was Charlie Morton after all, the affable, goofy pitcher beloved in every clubhouse in which he’s stepped foot.

“I remember being really nervous,” Morton recently recalled. “They’re in front of me and everybody else is standing around them. It seemed like there were 30,000 people there. There were probably only like 100.”

This is the same Charlie Morton who 11 years later became a two-time Game 7 hero for the Astros and closed out the franchise’s first World Series championship. As if his injury-riddled, late-to-breakout career wasn’t fascinating enough, it also happens to include a very brief foray into wedding singing.

It turns out that in addition to being able to throw a fastball 98 mph and spin a nasty knuckle curveball, Morton is a skilled musician. The 34-year-old Astros’ starter can play guitar and sing and has written somewhere between 10 and 15 songs, he estimated, including the one for the James’s.

Morton had known James for four-plus years at the time of his fellow pitcher’s wedding. They were both part of the Braves’ 2002 draft class — Morton in the third round, James in the 20th — and shared a rotation at several minor league levels in Atlanta’s farm system.

“Morton’s one of those guys, man, it really wouldn’t have mattered if he would’ve messed it up,” said James, who pitched in parts of five major league seasons, primarily with the Braves, from 2005 to 2011. “It was cool to have him do it. He did really well.”

Back then, Morton was at the height of his singer-songwriter powers. He still plays and sings occasionally but not nearly as much as before he was married and with his wife, Cindy, welcomed three kids. During his minor league tenure, he spent a lot of time alone in the offseasons. He taught himself how to play the guitar early in his pro career, when he was 19 or 20, he said.

In the minors, Morton brought his acoustic guitar to Braves spring training in Orlando and on road trips in the regular season and played for teammates during downtime. As a major league rookie in 2008, he played for his Braves teammates at a team party at Mark Kotsay’s house during a road trip to San Diego.

“He can really pick it and he can sing,” said Astros catcher and ex-Brave Brian McCann, who was in attendance. “It’s a hidden talent. I told him the other night, I need one night with him. Let him wail for the boys.”

McCann is the only known member of the Astros who has seen Morton perform, though Gerrit Cole got a taste of his musical talent during their three seasons together with the Pirates. “I sing with Charlie almost every day,” Cole said before a game last week in Oakland. “We’ll probably sing later.” Informed Morton has sung at weddings, Cole turned to his rotation ‘mate. “Don’t you make enough money?”

Morton nearly played at the wedding of Rays reliever Jonny Venters (another minor league teammate with the Braves) in 2008, but the plan fell through because of the classical nature of the specific song the couple wanted. (Morton can’t read music.) It wasn’t until a couple offseasons ago that the 6-foot-5 right-hander reprised his wedding singer act, covering Mumford & Sons, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Church at the wedding reception for his younger sister, Jennie, in Charleston, S.C.

“Honestly, the problem that I struggle with is probably pretty similar to things I struggled with in baseball before I started getting used to it, like the performance side of things and worrying about what people were thinking,” Morton said. “Because you’re thinking about those things while you’re doing it.”

While with the Pirates, Morton once performed live in studio on the morning show of Pittsburgh radio station 102.5 WDVE. Unfortunately, it wasn’t archived by the station or the team. But one winter Morton performed on stage at PiratesFest at the Pittsburgh convention center, videos of which are available on YouTube here, here, here and here.



“I can’t remember exactly how that happened. But they were like, ‘Hey, it would be pretty cool if you did that.’ I was like trying to find some songs that were not too technical and very family friendly,” Morton said. “I was really nervous. There were a lot of people there.”

Morton fancies himself a fan of all genres of music. During his childhood in southwestern Connecticut, his mother listened to Motown and his father to classic rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd is Morton’s favorite band, Stevie Ray Vaughan his all-time favorite guitarist and Jason Isbell his current favorite songwriter. He warms up for his starts to Isbell’s “Palmetto Rose,” which has earned him a shout out or two on Twitter.



On two occasions when he was in the minors, Morton performed at bars. Here’s how it went down: On an off day, he and teammates would go out to grab a bite at an establishment that featured live music. His teammates would then ask the performer if during his break Morton could take the stage. Morton remembers this happening once in Orlando and again in Jackson, Tenn. At least once, the hired talent returned from his break and jammed with Morton.

“We always tried to pressure him into it because he is really good at singing,” James said.

“I’m okay,” Morton said.

Venters remembers a Dave Matthews Band song being one of Morton’s go-tos. The minor leaguers’ hotel in Orlando for Braves’ spring training was a popular locale for Morton to play.

“It’s been a long time. I just remember listening to him and being like, ‘Golly, man, this is legit,’ ” Venters said. “He’s really good.”

“He’s one of those guys who’s good at everything he does, man,” the Rays reliever continued. “Good at golf. Good at music. Obviously, he’s good at baseball.”

Morton said he “never really got too much into the actual art of playing to people, to large groups.” He was more comfortable when playing just for friends. But he did at one point get into the recording side of things. While with Advanced Class A-Myrtle Beach in 2006, he purchased equipment and began recording in a closet of the room he rented for the season.

Later, Morton would turn his parents’ living room in Connecticut into a studio. One offseason, he booked time at an actual recording studio in Providence, R.I. Some modest internet sleuthing reveals a no-longer functional Myspace page with five Charlie Morton tracks uploaded in October 2007, including “Foothills of Forever.”

“I don’t know where any of this stuff is,” Morton said.

Morton has six or seven guitars at home, all acoustics save for one Fender electric. It’s been a while since he’s written a song, but he said he would “really like” to try his hand at it again. “Some of the stuff I’ve experienced I think would be really good to write about,” he said.

Morton said he would be willing to play for his Astros teammates, a vast majority of whom probably aren’t even aware of his hidden talent. In speaking to his battery mate, it sounds like only a matter of time before it happens.

“We’ve got to lock him in,” McCann said. “We’ve got to tell him to bring [a guitar] on the road.”

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sidis

sidis 9832

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Posted

farther, not further.

so here's something i have been thinking about.  obviously, task number 1 is to keep the angels and mariners (who are proving to be quite the nuisance) off our asses in the AL west and clear the division handily.  however, i have been debating whether we want to finish 1 in the AL or 2.  I think i would rather finish 2 so that the Yankees and Sox have to play each other in the DS and we can play cleveland instead of having to play both again like last year.  the way we have played on the road relative to home, i think i'd rather get cleveland and then go on the road to the yanks/sox winner than have the sox/yanks at home and then the sox/yanks at home afterwards.  that said, we were substantially better at home against both of those teams in the playoffs last year.  tough call...what say you?

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9556

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What 3putt said...but yeah, would not be opposed to 2nd and letting a scenario play out like last year (where the WC beat the #1 and we had HFA in the LCS anyway)

This all also assumes status quo for another 3+ months. Things will look a LOT different on Sept 30 than they do today.
(On August 23 last year, the Indians were 7.5 games back of the Astros and only a game better than the wild card at that point).

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WBT

WBT 20676

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Posted
47 minutes ago, sidis said:

farther, not further.

so here's something i have been thinking about.  obviously, task number 1 is to keep the angels and mariners (who are proving to be quite the nuisance) off our asses in the AL west and clear the division handily.  however, i have been debating whether we want to finish 1 in the AL or 2.  I think i would rather finish 2 so that the Yankees and Sox have to play each other in the DS and we can play cleveland instead of having to play both again like last year.  the way we have played on the road relative to home, i think i'd rather get cleveland and then go on the road to the yanks/sox winner than have the sox/yanks at home and then the sox/yanks at home afterwards.  that said, we were substantially better at home against both of those teams in the playoffs last year.  tough call...what say you?

It doesn't really make a shit.  Last year I badly wanted the best record to play the wc winner in the 1st round and avoid having to beat both Boston and Cleveland as all year it looked like there was a pretty big drop after the top 3.  We see how that worked out.

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29197

Posted
Posted

watching mlb central from this morning, and they're going through possible trade targets, and 2/5 that they showed were lefty relievers (hand and britton).  obviously everyone wants these guys.  but looking at the top al teams, who are the tough lefties you need to get out?  most of the top teams are righty heavy - houston obviously.  betts/jdm/bogaerts for boston.  stanton/judge/sanchez for nyy.  i guess didi is lefty.  cleveland has switch hitters and righties.

i realize we suck vs lefty pitchers and it turns marwin around, but in general, where have all the big lefty bats gone?!

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Scraps

Scraps 13584

Posted
Posted
farther, not further.

so here's something i have been thinking about.  obviously, task number 1 is to keep the angels and mariners (who are proving to be quite the nuisance) off our asses in the AL west and clear the division handily.  however, i have been debating whether we want to finish 1 in the AL or 2.  I think i would rather finish 2 so that the Yankees and Sox have to play each other in the DS and we can play cleveland instead of having to play both again like last year.  the way we have played on the road relative to home, i think i'd rather get cleveland and then go on the road to the yanks/sox winner than have the sox/yanks at home and then the sox/yanks at home afterwards.  that said, we were substantially better at home against both of those teams in the playoffs last year.  tough call...what say you?

Hey english major(or is it English? I give zero fucks) try capitalizing shit that should be capitalized.

 

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WBT

WBT 20676

Posted
Posted (edited)

The bad part about last night was that Giles let Gomez get out of town with his BA back over .190 after that hit in the 9th.

 

5 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Interesting where Boston is. They gotta win now, or they're doomed.

Comes with hiring Dombrowski.  He's torn up farm systems everywhere he's been.

Edited by WBT
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elguapo

elguapo 4586

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

watching mlb central from this morning, and they're going through possible trade targets, and 2/5 that they showed were lefty relievers (hand and britton).  obviously everyone wants these guys.  but looking at the top al teams, who are the tough lefties you need to get out?  most of the top teams are righty heavy - houston obviously.  betts/jdm/bogaerts for boston.  stanton/judge/sanchez for nyy.  i guess didi is lefty.  cleveland has switch hitters and righties.

i realize we suck vs lefty pitchers and it turns marwin around, but in general, where have all the big lefty bats gone?!

To the NL

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/american-league-lacking-left-handed-sluggers/c-267642918

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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted (edited)

Why do you think we suck vs LHP?  All of our best hitters have the platoon advantage against LHP.  I don't think it's critical that we acquire a LH reliever given the presence of Devo and Harris.  Changeups are excellent against opposite-handed hitters while cutters have a relatively small platoon bias.

Edited by Fozzz
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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted

I think NYY/BOS are both superior to Cleveland, but in the playoffs it probably doesn't make much of a difference. There's also going to be at least around a 40% chance that the second wild card beats NYY/BOS in the wild card game.  For instance, Fangraphs currently has Boston with only a 10% advantage over Seattle for winning the wild card game.  

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10535

Posted
Posted
Why do you think we suck vs LHP?  All of our best hitters have the platoon advantage against LHP.  I don't think it's critical that we acquire a LH reliever given the presence of Devo and Harris.  Changeups are excellent against opposite-handed hitters while cutters have a relatively small platoon bias.

Because we don’t. Versus LHP, We hit .285 avg., .805 OPS. Versus RHP, it’s .262, .765.
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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29197

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

Do you think playing against LHP makes our pitchers worse?  Makes the distribution of our successful PAs less conducive for scoring runs?  I don't get the relevance of the question.  

i could be imagining it, but if i had to break it down, i would say we struggle against above average lefties the most.  then above average righties.  then feast on shitty righties, then feast the most on shitty lefties, inflating the small-ish sample size.

like i said, without the w/l numbers or game breakdowns, there's no way to tell if i'm just selectively remembering things, but i could spot the snell game from 10 days out and knew it would be trouble.  just sick of soft throwing lefties like wood/hill in last year's ws mystifying us.

there was definitely a point in the last couple of years where comments were made about how we weren't good against lefties from a w/l perspective, which didn't seem to make sense, since we have a bunch of good rh hitters with seemingly good numbers.

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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thing about hitter reverse platoon splits is that they don't really exist.  Pretty much very RHB is going to hit LHP as well (normally around .020 wOBA points better) than he will hit RHP.  Same for LHB against RHP although their splits are usually larger.  Any time you see a reverse platoon split in a hitter you can write it off as noise.  This is true because the average platoon split for RHB/LHB is greater than the variation in platoon skill for RHB/LHB.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZcnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT112&lpg=PT112&dq=RHB+average+platoon+split&source=bl&ots=Kk581PUcsf&sig=U5VLmqsdA8BVTii8yofjKWxf6TE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU2vCp3OXbAhUP-6wKHRGSC7IQ6AEIVzAI#v=onepage&q=RHB average platoon split&f=false

Edited by Fozzz
woops
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ckhorn

ckhorn 208

Posted
Posted (edited)

If Tucker keeps this pace up. He may be up in about a month or so. Dam, we are loaded the minors. We have three pitchers with big arms who have hardly thrown this year. Possibly the best MiLB org in baseball again. Not bad considering who we have traded or called up the last couple years.

Edited by ckhorn
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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted (edited)

It’s extrmely deep pitching wise but after Alvarez and Tucker it gets pretty thin on the position side. Lot of decent trade pieces in Fresno though. 

Also, Alvarez homered again tonight. Think he has hit five in the handful of games he has played since coming off the DL. The gap in future value between him and Tucker is shrinking. 

Edited by Fozzz
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