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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

By 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

TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10,482

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The more I watch and read about these playoff teams, the more convinced I am that the Astros are the best team and will win the whole thing again. This is a team with no real weaknesses (maybe baserunning) unlike the Red Sox (bullpen), the Yankees( starting pitching) the Brewers (pitching) the Indians (bullpen) I’m not even going to address the Rockies and Braves. They’re done. The only team that approaches a complete team are the Dodgers. And they aren’t as good as the Astros in any phase of the game. Anything can happen in baseball but I really like our chances.

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WBT

WBT 20,420

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11 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Stark on JV.

Must read. So many great lines/ stats:

 

 

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He could have been a Dodger. He could have been a Cub. He could have been a Yankee. But that isn’t how life turned out for Justin Verlander.

 

There are trades that work and trades that don’t, trades that fizzle and trades that sizzle. But you know what the trade that sent Justin Verlander to Houston did? It changed the baseball world. That’s all.

 

We know that now, 13 months and one week after the midnight deal that made Verlander an Astro on Aug. 31, 2017. We know it altered the fate of his franchise. It’s fascinating to ponder how it also might have altered the fate of the franchises that said, “No, thanks,” and watched him lead the Astros to the parade floats.

 

And on a Friday afternoon in October, on the kind of afternoon he lives for, Verlander did more than merely pitch the Astros to a 7-2 thumping of the Indians in Game 1 of their American League Division Series. He taught us two valuable lessons:

 

1. He reminded us again that The Big Deal matters. It matters to the team that makes it. It matters to the teams that don’t.

 

2. He reminded us, too, that, in an age when bullpenning and Openers are the trendiest topic in all the land, great starting pitchers still matter. And if he has anything to do with it, they always will.

 

“I’m a believer in starting pitching,” Verlander said Friday, on the day he won the 12th postseason game of his Hall of Fame career, tying him with Roger Clemens for fourth-most of all time. “I think you need it. I think the more relievers get used every single day, it has an effect, in my opinion.

 

“Whether you can sustain that for a year, two years, three years, throughout October, I don’t know,” he went on. “I don’t have the answers. But I do believe in innings. I believe in protecting the bullpen. And I believe in [the] starting pitcher.”

 

His manager, A.J. Hinch, called his ace “one of the most dominant postseason pitchers of all time.” And it’s getting hard to argue. The numbers paint this picture. And at this point, that picture should be hanging in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

 

Only Andy Pettitte (19), John Smoltz (15) and Tom Glavine (14) have won more postseason baseball games than Justin Verlander has.

Among active pitchers, just CC Sabathia (10) and Jon Lester (six) have even won half as many games as Verlander has.

And among all the pitchers in history who have started as many October games as he has, only Jon Lester (2.51), John Smoltz (2.67) and Whitey Ford (2.71) have a better postseason ERA than Verlander (3.07).

But Verlander also reminds us every time he takes the mound that it’s not just about talent, not just about his elite, still-evolving stuff. It’s also about mindset.

 

“I’ve always enjoyed the moment,” he said. “I think it’s something that you don’t take for granted.”

 

But his seven trips to this tournament have helped him understand there is even more to it than that, he said. There is a method to handling that moment and channeling the energy that wells up. And now that he has completely processed all that goes into that, he has owned nearly all his October moments over the past five years.

 

Since he got hammered in The Pablo Sandoval Game, in the opener of the 2012 World Series, Verlander has pitched in 11 postseason games. He is 6-2 in those games, with a 2.04 ERA and 70 strikeouts (but just 40 hits allowed) in 66 1/3 innings. His team has lost four of his starts in that time. But even in those losses, his ERA was 2.08, and he averaged nearly 6 2/3 innings a start.

 

There is a responsibility that comes with acehood. And those numbers, in the biggest games of his life, are a statement on how much Justin Verlander has always embraced that responsibility. It allows him to put his own inimitable stamp on games like this. And on Friday, once again, he did exactly that.

 

“He’s a big-time, big-adrenaline pitcher that never ceases to surprise you or amaze you,” Hinch said.

 

Look, we understand that there is more than one way to win in baseball and more than one way to win in October. So more power to the teams that try to bullpen their way through the postseason minefield. If it fits for them and works for them, hey, that’s cool.

 

But if you polled 30 general managers, we guarantee all 30 would rather hand the ball to one of the great starting pitchers of his generation and watch him do what Verlander did Friday – kick off his team’s postseason by spinning off five hitless innings.

 

“That’s just what we expect him to do,” quipped his grateful teammate, Josh Reddick. “I actually expected him to go nine and pitch a no-hitter.”

 

OK, not this time. Instead, the Indians were able to wear Verlander down and get him out of this fray in the sixth. But he’d already left his mark – in a way that only aces can.

 

“Justin always seems to show up when we really need him,” said fellow pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., “whether it’s during the season, we’re on a little bit of a losing streak, or when the bullpen is kind of banged up and he goes deep that day. But you saw it last year when he came over here. We needed a little bit of a spark, and he supplied that spark.”

 

Ah, but this was no spark. This was a five-alarm inferno. And it’s still blazing.

 

Verlander now has been to the mound 46 times as an Astro, counting the postseason. He is 26-10 with a 2.32 ERA. And as the stage gets more humongous in September and October, he’s the ultimate big-game monster. In two seasons of September and October baseball in Houston, he has gone an incredible 14-1, 1.80.

 

Feel free to swirl that around your brain one more time – 14-1, 1.80.

 

That big-game brilliance has already put World Series rings on his teammates’ fingers once. And a year later, his immense presence, as the centerpiece of one of baseball’s most dominating rotations of modern times, has the Astros in good position to win again.

 

So take a step back and play the what-if game. What if he had become a Dodger 13 months ago? What if he had become a Cub? What if he had become a Yankee?

 

All those teams inquired. All those teams kicked his tires. All those teams pondered whether they really wanted to pay the steep price the Tigers had placed on the then-34-year-old. Every one of those teams took a pass – once in July, then again in August when they allowed Verlander to clear waivers and make that deal to Houston possible.

 

So think about this: How different would life be, would baseball be, would the Astros be, if he’d landed in one of those destinations instead of Houston?

 

“Oh, we’d have figured him out and raked him anyway,” Reddick deadpanned. “That’s the obvious answer from me. But I’m just happy he didn’t [go somewhere else]. I’m just happy this front office went out and got a guy like that – not just for what he does on the mound but what he does in this clubhouse.

 

“He brings a lot of respect,” Reddick said. “And a lot of guys look up to a guy like that. Even myself, and I’m an outfielder. But he’s a guy you can talk to about anything – whether it be hitting, baseball or other stuff. He’s just been a great guy to have around.”

 

He sometimes feels like an ace who rode in on a time machine from the 1970s. But when you watch him on these electric October afternoons, he’s a reminder that aces never go out of style. And the Houston Astros, a team built around a rotation that would have felt totally at home in the ‘70s, are grateful for all the aces they’ve collected – but especially this one.

 

“He’s been the cornerstone for us,” McCullers said of the great Justin Verlander. “He’s the guy we rely on to pitch the big game – and you saw it again today.”

 

 

Strange to write that after a game he didn't get out of the 6th.  JV was good but it wasn't up to his usual postseason standard 

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22 minutes ago, WBT said:

Strange to write that after a game he didn't get out of the 6th.  JV was good but it wasn't up to his usual postseason standard 

I bet the Indians’ expectations were exceeded...

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10,482

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Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, Telegraph_it said:

It would be a nice explanation for what we have witnessed. He is due for a HR. Let’s do it in this game. 

He’s only had 6 XBHs in 140 at bats since he came back. OPS around .500. Really bad. His few sharply hit balls have been to the right. I don’t think he’s trying to go oppo but simply late on everything  

Edited by TonyTexas
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