2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

[UTexasFight 9,380]

I've been thinking that Rondon maybe should be the odd man out but that they wouldn't do it because he was the big money FA this offseason

I think we all were

It’s like we have smart analytical minds in the FO that don’t let emotions always drive decisions

[WBT 20,422]

3 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

I know the competition has improved significantly and bullpens can be fickle, but damn 2017 looks so ugly against what was announced today:

2017 ALDS
Devo
Giles
Gregerson
Harris
Peacock
Musgrove
Liriano

Verlander
Keuchel
LMJ
Morton


2018 ALDS
Osuna
Pressly
Harris
James
McHugh
Sipp
LMJ

Verlander
Cole
Keuchel
Morton

I felt good about last year's playoff pen until the games started 

[tx 3 putt 76,400]

Hell yes !!!

[ckhorn 208]

2 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

Do your research. Harris has had about 6 bad games out of 61 appearances but other than that, he’s been great. Last 19 appearances, he’s pitched 20 innings with a 1.33 ERA.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=harriwi10&t=p&year=2018

No. He has been shit for a good part of the middle of the season. He has been strong for the last month. I give the guy his due, he has worked his way back on the play-off roster, while others worked there way off. Another plus, he is effective against right and left hand hitters. Lets hope they made the right choice.

 

[ckhorn 208]

20 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

I know the competition has improved significantly and bullpens can be fickle, but damn 2017 looks so ugly against what was announced today:

2017 ALDS
Devo
Giles
Gregerson
Harris
Peacock
Musgrove
Liriano

Verlander
Keuchel
LMJ
Morton


2018 ALDS
Osuna
Pressly
Harris
James
McHugh
Sipp
LMJ

Verlander
Cole
Keuchel
Morton

LMJ being able to work through a 6th-7th inning scenario really makes this relief core a plus-plus.

I just hope the real Kuechal shows up.

[runthebone 7,932]

1 hour ago, ckhorn said:

LMJ being able to work through a 6th-7th inning scenario really makes this relief core a plus-plus.

I just hope the real Kuechal shows up.

Who is the real Keuchel?  Not the 2015 one...

[TonyTexas 10,482]

No. He has been shit for a good part of the middle of the season. He has been strong for the last month. I give the guy his due, he has worked his way back on the play-off roster, while others worked there way off. Another plus, he is effective against right and left hand hitters. Lets hope they made the right choice.

 

You’re wrong. Look at the game logs in my link

[TexArcher 37,519]

So pumped.

So.  Fucking.  Pumped.

[ckhorn 208]

22 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

You’re wrong. Look at the game logs in my link

You can look at the game logs or watch the games, but he had a bad stretch through a good part of the season. Matter of fact, Even Hinch quit using him in high leverage situations.

[TonyTexas 10,482]

You can look at the game logs or watch the games, but he had a bad stretch through a good part of the season. Matter of fact, Even Hinch quit using him in high leverage situations.

Ah ok.  I try to give you objective data so you can properly evaluate but you insist on sticking with the old eyeball test with a heavy dose of selective memory. Go ahead and stay ignorant, my friend. 

 

[Mez2 4,021]

1 hour ago, TexArcher said:

So pumped.

So.  Fucking.  Pumped.

So much this. Boys, the biggest game of the season is tomorrow; the race for 11 starts at home.

let your hung, swang and bang, grip wood grain. See you boys tomorrow. 

 

 

[TonyTexas 10,482]

Not surprised but I still don’t have to like it. Zero prime time games for the defending World Champions!

 

 

 

[Okie State 3,788]

That's some bullshit.

[UTexasFight 9,380]

That's some bullshit.

What’s bullshit is MLBs insistence on having games overlap as little as possible.
Play em both in prime time at the same time or closer to it.
Baseball is such a regional sport anyway.
I’d rather “sacrifice” my ability to watch a game 5 Red Sox/ Yankees game in primetime so I could watch the Astros/Indians in primetime. As it is now, I have to potentially take 4 half days off work to catch every inning?!

Stupid

[ckhorn 208]

1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

Ah ok.  I try to give you objective data so you can properly evaluate but you insist on sticking with the old eyeball test with a heavy dose of selective memory. Go ahead and stay ignorant, my friend. 

 

OK. So an ERA for May of 6.00. ERA for June of 5.06 and for July of 5.63. Can you guess which Astro I am referring too. Obviously math is not one of your stronger points.

Dumb ASS

[TonyTexas 10,482]

OK. So an ERA for May of 6.00. ERA for June of 5.06 and for July of 5.63. Can you guess which Astro I am referring too. Obviously math is not one of your stronger points.
Dumb ASS

You’re playing checkers. Take away his 3 worst games out of 32 appearances during that period and his era was 2.70.

[ckhorn 208]

Just now, TonyTexas said:

You’re playing checkers. Take away his 3 worst games out of 32 appearances during that period and his era was 2.70.

Okay Mrs. Harris. Stand by your man.

You know if our football team wouldn't have had one bad game. We would be 5-0.

[Guadaloopy 10,926]

I’m cool with the schedule.  Astros were 37-18 in day games this season.  

[David Dennison 18,660]

1 minute ago, Guadaloopy said:

I’m cool with the schedule.  Astros were 37-18 in day games this season.  

Same. You can't expect tee vee not to milk every bit of ad money from NY/Boston.

[runthebone 7,932]

25 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

What’s bullshit is MLBs insistence on having games overlap as little as possible.
Play em both in prime time at the same time or closer to it.
Baseball is such a regional sport anyway.
I’d rather “sacrifice” my ability to watch a game 5 Red Sox/ Yankees game in primetime so I could watch the Astros/Indians in primetime. As it is now, I have to potentially take 4 half days off work to catch every inning?!

Stupid

2 half days, bro.  2.  1 if you get Columbus/NAA Day off. 

[runthebone 7,932]

I know it's not popular to say it, but Red Sox-Yankee games are awesome.  The Astros' not having any prime time games sucks, though. 

Edited October 5, 2018 by runthebone

[UTexasFight 9,380]

2 half days, bro.  2.  1 if you get Columbus/NAA Day off. 

I don’t. But I get it. Just bitter...and cranky waiting all week for Friday to get here...and playing the long game trying to save my powder for the ALCS/WS. I’m in Austin and will try to get down for 3 of 4 of those, all of which will be on a Tue, Wed or Thu (if Red Sox win).

Last year all 7 LCS/WS games in Houston were on a Fri, Sat or Sun.

 

#defendingchamproblems

 

[CrownKing 55]

With all the day games, where should a guy go for a extended lunch if he works across from the Domain (in Austin).  Any Astros-centric sports bars there?

[UTexasFight 9,380]

With all the day games, where should a guy go for a extended lunch if he works across from the Domain (in Austin).  Any Astros-centric sports bars there?

You could do a lot worse than Bone Daddy’s which isn’t too far from there
Actual Astros-centric bars???
Man, if you find one let me know. For all of the bandwagon Astros gear-wearing fans that came out of nowhere in 2018, I sure don’t know where they actually watch the games.

[tx 3 putt 76,400]

Like Mez said, the most important game of the season is tomorrow.

 

[UTexasFight 9,380]

Nsiap.

It’s getting real!!!

[UTexasFight 9,380]

Kaplan news and notes on the roster decisions, especially Harris over Rondon:

In the end, the Astros’ decision-makers weren’t lying in their stated intent to tailor their postseason bullpens to their opponent.

Even if it meant leaving off one of their most valuable relievers from the regular season.

Héctor Rondón’s omission and Will Harris’ inclusion in the seven-man bullpen the Astros will carry in their ALDS against the Indians was by far the biggest surprise of the decisions manager A.J. Hinch revealed Thursday at Minute Maid Park on the eve of Game 1. A struggle-filled September marred Rondón’s otherwise great season, but there had previously been no indication it would cost the hard-throwing right-hander his spot in October.

“He had a tough month,” Hinch said. “September [was] really his only bad month. He wasn’t great in the second half as a whole, but most of that is weighted into September. And honestly, this is a very difficult offense to match up with, and some of the things that he does and some of his execution that he does didn’t match up very well with very many areas of the lineup with the Indians.”

Astros ALDS bullpen
RHP Roberto Osuna
RHP Ryan Pressly
RHP Collin McHugh
RHP Lance McCullers
RHP Will Harris
LHP Tony Sipp
RHP Josh James
Conversely, the Astros like how Harris’ cutter-curveball combination matches up against the Indians, who feature a bevy of left-handed and switch-hitters. Though his numbers didn’t reflect it this season, Harris has traditionally been more effective against left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters.

Harris with Houston Opponents’ OPS vs. RHB Opponents’ OPS vs. LHB
2015 .586 .455
2016 .603 .513
2017 .619 .606
2018 .506 .672
Harris also quietly finished the season strong after working his way out of leverage earlier in the year. His final 13 appearances, dating to Aug. 15, were scoreless — a 13 1/3-inning span in which he limited lefties to three hits (all singles) and two walks in 22 plate appearances: a .150/.227/.150 batting line.

Overall, Harris finished the regular season with a 3.49 ERA but a 2.44 FIP that suggests some bad luck over his 56 2/3 innings. Rondón, the Astros’ closer from early June to mid-August, finished with a 3.20 ERA and a 2.79 FIP in 59 innings.

2018 season G IP ERA FIP WHIP BB/9 K/9
Héctor Rondón 63 59.0 3.20 2.79 1.322 3.1 10.2
Will Harris 61 56.2 3.49 2.44 1.094 2.2 10.2
“I kind of just kept my head down and realized that the stuff I was doing in April and May and June was who I’ve been my whole career and eventually the tides would turn,” Harris said. “They did there toward the end of the year. It was basically a lot of the same stuff. I just was able to have better fortune here and there.”

As far as this year’s righty-lefty splits, Harris chalked it up to the randomness that comes with the relatively small sample size of a reliever’s season. “I’d be willing to bet the lefties were a bunch of singles and righties were hitting balls at people,” he said. “It’s just kind of the way it works out. That’s the way relievers are. You only get 50 to 60, 65 innings, so sometimes the numbers can be a little bit misleading.” (Indeed, 23 of the 28 hits Harris allowed to left-handed hitters were singles.)

“When you look at Harris’s weapons and his curveball and how it typically performs against lefties and what his repertoire looks like against the particular players in the Indians’ lineup, it became a pretty clear answer for us that Harris needed to be a weapon that A.J. could rely on,” Astros president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow said.

Harris doesn’t have a substantial sample size of experience against any of the Indians’ hitters save for ex-Athletic Yonder Alonso, whom he’s held to a .154/.154/.385 in 13 plate appearances. Alonso and those likely to bat after him — Melky Cabrera, Yan Gomes and Jason Kipnis — probably represent the pocket of hitters Harris could face.

The odds of Hinch deploying Rondón, the Astros clearly concluded, had reduced in recent weeks as his performance dropped out. His chances would’ve been better against a more right-handed heavy opponent like the Yankees. Ditto for sidearmer Joe Smith, who’s had a lot of success against New York’s right-handed hitters.

Smith missed the cut largely because of the emergence of Josh James, the flamethrowing rookie the Astros decided to carry because his ability to bridge multiple innings serves as protection for their two pitchers who only recently returned from injury: Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers Jr. Smith would have been a right-handed specialist and an option for only one inning at most.

“We sat down, we talked, [Hinch] explained everything and it all makes sense,” said Smith, the ex-Indian. “Obviously we all want to play, and with as deep as this team is it’s just not possible. And obviously I want to play against them for a lot of reasons. But the roster we’re running out there is really good, and it gives us the best chance to win.”

Other takeaways from Thursday’s workout:

— Hinch indicated the Astros won’t have Morton available in their bullpen for Games 1 and 2 despite him not being lined up to start until a potential Game 4 on Tuesday in Cleveland. He cited Morton’s recent injury-related layoffs and the presence of relievers who can pitch multiple innings (McHugh and James) as reasons.

“Given he’s thrown only a few innings in the recent weeks, he’s not somebody that I would feel comfortable using in the first couple games and then bringing back for Game 4,” Hinch said of Morton. “So I’d expect to see him in Game 4.”

— Myles Straw’s elite speed and the threat of him stealing a key base outweighed the insurance Max Stassi would have signified as a third catcher behind Martín Maldonado and Brian McCann.

“He is so fast he forced a third catcher off the roster,” Hinch said of Straw, whose story The Athletic detailed last month. Carrying Straw will allow Hinch to insert Jake Marisnick as a defensive replacement without worrying about losing his best pinch-run specialist. He can also use Tony Kemp as strictly a pinch-hitter in a pivotal spot against a right-hander.

“He’s a virtual upgrade [as a runner] on every single player on our offense,” Hinch said. “I won’t run for [José] Altuve. I likely won’t run for [Alex] Bregman or [George] Springer, but he’s probably faster, and that type of weapon in these type of games can pay huge.”

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19,151]

1 hour ago, Guadaloopy said:

I’m cool with the schedule.  Astros were 37-18 in day games this season.  

I’m cool with it to.  These games start around 7:00 my time.  Prime time games start at 1:00 AM.

[Fudge Nuggets 19,151]

6 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

You’re playing checkers. Take away his 3 worst games out of 32 appearances during that period and his era was 2.70.

That's fucking stupid.  Take away Rondon's three worst games and his season ERA is around 1.75 but you don't get a do-over on your worst games. 

Out of the two, Harris has the hot hand at the moment and probably deserves the spot over Rondon.  But to say Harris was better all year long is wrong.

[Mez2 4,021]

Troubling to hear about CFM not being able to throw until game 4, that's basically a wasted roster spot until the 4th game. Not sure I'd agree with that, but these guys know way more than I do

 

 

[UDontKnow 10,439]

8 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

You’re playing checkers. Take away his 3 worst games out of 32 appearances during that period and his era was 2.70.

Lol. I member you calling me an idiot for saying Rondon shouldn't make the playoff roster. I see you continue to double down on your idiocy. Never change.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mez2 said:

Troubling to hear about CFM not being able to throw until game 4, that's basically a wasted roster spot until the 4th game. Not sure I'd agree with that, but these guys know way more than I do

 

 

Indeed.

They can reshuffle the roster for Game 4, since that’ll be the start of the ALCS...

Edited October 5, 2018 by slorch

[UTexasFight 9,380]

Troubling to hear about CFM not being able to throw until game 4, that's basically a wasted roster spot until the 4th game. Not sure I'd agree with that, but these guys know way more than I do
 
 

I agree with the “troubling” comment, but not with the rest. Would you argue cole is a wasted roster slot for game games 1, 3 and 4? Keuchel for 1,2, and 5?

I get Morton has shown the ability to be successful out of the pen, but there is no way you’re going to use him in games 1 or 2 coming off an injury and threaten his ability to be as close as possible to 100% for game 4. If LMJ, James,McHugh can’t fulfill whatever role Charlie would have filled in a game 1 or 2 we’re hosed anyway.

[DoobieWah 1,412]

12 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

 Look at the game logs in my link

YOU look - Blummer

[TexArcher 37,519]

Happy Playoff Opener Game Day, you magnificent sons of bitches.

 

[Guadaloopy 10,926]

Verlander v. Kluber.  The first real pitching matchup of the postseason.   No openers or “initial out getters.”  Real, bonafide starting pitchers.   Can’t wait.  

[Mez2 4,021]

1 hour ago, UTexasFight said:

I agree with the “troubling” comment, but not with the rest. Would you argue cole is a wasted roster slot for game games 1, 3 and 4? Keuchel for 1,2, and 5?

I get Morton has shown the ability to be successful out of the pen, but there is no way you’re going to use him in games 1 or 2 coming off an injury and threaten his ability to be as close as possible to 100% for game 4. If LMJ, James,McHugh can’t fulfill whatever role Charlie would have filled in a game 1 or 2 we’re hosed anyway.

I'd argue that CFM not able to pitch is "worse" than having another healthy reliever able to pitch, or bring in in certain situations over the first 3 games. 

I mean the fact we nitpicking over one of the last spots with guys who were with us last year, brought up this year, and signed this year is really a testament to our organization. 

Headed downtown in about an hour, see you boys down there. Hit me up if you're down there. 

[UTexasFight 9,380]

Let’s do this!!!

[Horns RD Standard 62]

Todays’s Lineup:

Springer
Altuve
Bregman
Yuli
Marwin
Correa
Da “Great White”
Reddick
Maldonado


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fudge Nuggets 19,151]

Got my Astros polo shirt on and Fat Pat bumping in the background. 

People in the office know better than to ask me to do a damn thing for today this month.

[Hank Chinaski 6,310]

Seems like at no point during the season were Springer/Altuve/Bregman/Correa hot at the plate at the same time (though you can't fault Bregman). This would be a hell of a time for that. 

 

[Scraps 13,542]

Just sweep these fucks so we dont have to worry about day games

[Bender Bending Rodriguez 1,669]

 

[TonyTexas 10,482]

JV handling the 1st 3 in Indians’ lineup is obviously key. Linder, Brantley and Ramirez hitting a combined .326 lifetime against him

[Rip76 4,914]

Lineup card out yet?

[IDIOTsavant 8,449]

2 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

Lineup card out yet?

Yep, 6 whole posts above yours.

[runthebone 7,932]

Let's do an 8-1 win today.  

 

-my heart

[Rip76 4,914]

4 minutes ago, IDIOTsavant said:

Yep, 6 whole posts above yours.

The actual card.

superstition

[IDIOTsavant 8,449]

Just now, Rip76 said:

The actual card.

superstition

Fair enough.

[Seasick Sailor 3,747]

21 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

The actual card.

superstition