2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

[Fozzz 152]

That would make a lot more sense than him playing "through" a torn UCL.  Still, I don't remember him showing any signs that he was in pain following his last appearance.  Hopefully it's a just a grade 1 sprain or something that needs to be checked out before they decide what to do.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Fozzz

[utxmike05 1833]

11 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

time to take a baseball break for a while.  nice to be able to care about the astros until october 18th.  it used to not be like this.

 

But....I don't want it to end....love this team.  It is greedy to expect to repeat as WS champ, but they had all the tools and fully capable this year.   I would have been OK having them go out in 6 or 7, just not like this.  

[FondrenRoad 4378]

30 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

I think they were better than last year, even with their injuries.  They just came up a little short and the wave of injuries in the second half didn't help.  The AL is also pretty tough right now with the accumulation of talent among a handful of super teams.  

The AL is great at the top, but it drops off quick and it feels like half the league is trying to tank to replicate the Astros success. That allows pitchers to put up gaudy numbers in the regular season while getting rocked in the playoffs. 

I still think last year's team was better. JV wasn't on it long. He may have tipped the W-L, team ERA, and run differential in 2017s favor had he been. Hitting was absolutely better last year. Marwin and Reddick hit over 300 and Gurriel hit 299. Marwin also led the team in RBIs and should have been an All Star. This year, all 3 of those guys were mediocre at best. Altuve was down but still Altuve. Correa was bad. Springer was also down. We relied almost completely on Gattis for a while and White for another while. Im still not sold on White as a player in spite of that. Only Bregman is better this year and it isnt like he went from worst to first. He was good last year too.

Springer is a playoff beast though. He could go 0 for the season, and I would still start him in the playoffs. Altuve will also always bring it even if on one leg. 

[Planet Houston 4949]

59 minutes ago, kevwun said:

It is also possible he re-injured it in his last appearance and needs the surgery now.

51 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

That would make a lot more sense than him playing "through" a torn UCL.  Still, I don't remember him showing any signs that he was in pain following his last appearance.  Hopefully it's a just a grade 1 sprain or something that needs to be checked out before they decide what to do.

Doubtful.  Bregman said "Lance is playing through a . . . well, I don't think I'm allowed to say what he's playing through" or something to that effect.  

[LTtxfan 49909]

40 minutes ago, utxmike05 said:

But....I don't want it to end....love this team.  It is greedy to expect to repeat as WS champ, but they had all the tools and fully capable this year.   I would have been OK having them go out in 6 or 7, just not like this.  

Yeah, 3 Straight Losses at home vs bosux...... Tough to Watch

[Fudge Nuggets 19407]

2 hours ago, Fozzz said:

The Astros accumulated more WAR and had a markedly better third order winning percentage and BaseRuns winning percentage than the Red Sox, each of which are far better measures of which team was better this season than overall record, which is more subject to noise from run/hit clustering.  The reference to JBJ and Devers is meant to illustrate that the result of this series is also not a good basis for concluding that the Red Sox are better.  

Do we get to hang a banner for WAR and third order winning percentage?

[Limp Brisket 549]

16 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Do we get to hang a banner for WAR and third order winning percentage?

/thread

[Fozzz 152]

28 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Do we get to hang a banner for WAR and third order winning percentage?

Do you think the Royals were the "best" team of the 2015 season? 

[Fudge Nuggets 19407]

1 hour ago, Fozzz said:

Do you think the Royals were the "best" team of the 2015 season? 

Probably not, but they also only had the 4th best record in baseball that year.  Boston had the best record this year and was a juggernaut all season.

[Fozzz 152]

Did Boston get a ring for winning the most games? 

[Guadaloopy 11129]

Last season, the Dodgers had the most wins in baseball combining regular season and postseason wins.  But our boys got rings.

We should stop it with the "Leinarting."  Being the "best" on paper doesn't make a difference when the hardware is handed out.

[Guadaloopy 11129]

Hard to believe how much has changed in the last 72 hours.

I did my "took hours to fall asleep" night after the Game 4 loss.  Haven't felt like that after a loss since the '08 Tech game.  I was weirdly calm about the end last night.  Just kind of shrugged my shoulders and tipped the cap to the Red Sox.  

I'm still going to watch the rest of the NLCS and the WS because I love baseball, and the Astros are still a part of this story however it plays out.  

[mbtex 684]

3 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

I did my "took hours to fall asleep" night after the Game 4 loss.   I was weirdly calm about the end last night.  Just kind of shrugged my shoulders and tipped the cap to the Red Sox.  

Kind of felt the same. My gut told me after Altuve was robbed of the HR that it just was not going to go our way held out hope but lady luck was not on our side this year. 

[Planet Houston 4949]

10 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

I'm still going to watch the rest of the NLCS and the WS because I love baseball, and the Astros are still a part of this story however it plays out.  

I'm gonna go watch my World Series DVD, and Game 5 in full, again.

[ChickenSandwich 9918]

Big change this season was Seattle and Oakland. They pushed us in both parts of the season and never allowed us to get much needed rest for the pitchers and players. It was a stressful dog fight all year. 

Yankees and Red Sox, not so much. 

Last years team had 5 big time hitters most of the season and into the playoffs. Much less pressure on the bottom of the order to get clutch hits. 

I think not being able to have Mccan behind the plate calling pitches hurt our staff all year. 

I think the lack of clearly defined bull pen roles killed Hinch in the post season. He didn’t have a clear plan with a wild card addition (last season with Peacock/Giles etc + Morton wild card). 

Need to get better at DH, Left field, catcher

7/8/9 - defined roles. 

Do the Astros flirt with a six man rotation at some point to keep healthy pitchers fresher towards the end of the season? Hated seeing all of those inning thrown stats by starters all year  

Astros need to find a way to implement some spurs rest strategy with their hard throwing pitchers. 

 

Great year. Great team. Disappointing finish. 

Run it back. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by ChickenSandwich

[Fudge Nuggets 19407]

1 hour ago, Fozzz said:

Did Boston get a ring for winning the most games? 

They will if they win four more games.  I guess they were just lucky for six and a half months.

Are you the same guy that back in May said our run differential had us on pace for 127 wins?  Because I never could figure out if the poster that wrote that was serious or trolling.

[ckhorn 208]

33 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Big change this season was Seattle and Oakland. They pushed us in both parts of the season and never allowed us to get much needed rest for the pitchers and players. It was a stressful dog fight all year. 

Yankees and Red Sox, not so much. 

Last years team had 5 big time hitters most of the season and into the playoffs. Much less pressure on the bottom of the order to get clutch hits. 

I think not being able to have Mccan behind the plate calling pitches hurt our staff all year. 

I think the lack of clearly defined bull pen roles killed Hinch in the post season. He didn’t have a clear plan with a wild card addition (last season with Peacock/Giles etc + Morton wild card). 

Need to get better at DH, Left field, catcher

7/8/9 - defined roles. 

Do the Astros flirt with a six man rotation at some point to keep healthy pitchers fresher towards the end of the season? Hated seeing all of those inning thrown stats by starters all year  

Astros need to find a way to implement some spurs rest strategy with their hard throwing pitchers. 

 

Great year. Great team. Disappointing finish. 

Run it back. 

Good Post

[Fozzz 152]

23 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

They will if they win four more games.  I guess they were just lucky for six and a half months.

Are you the same guy that back in May said our run differential had us on pace for 127 wins?  Because I never could figure out if the poster that wrote that was serious or trolling.

Using a month’s worth of run differential to project the rest of the season would be pretty silly. Better to rely on the underlying projections for each player, which are based on multiple preceding seasons.  Maybe whoever posted that wasn’t intending to use it as a RoS projection, but was remarking on how dominant the Astros were during that period. 

[Underdog 29102]

Congrats on a great season, run it back next year.