2022 MLB Season (1 Viewer)

[ManW_TheUncool]

Correa leaving looking for big $$$ (long term... though he didn't actually get that so far) made enough sense since he's still young and hadn't made nearly that much yet. Verlander's on the opposite end of that and looking for something different like what you mentioned. I don't really see him leaving Houston unless the Astros try to do some serious penny-pinching (they really shouldn't) on him. Letting Cole and Greinke go made sense -- they certainly have enough pitching talent. But not sure also letting Verlander go (w/out a good offer) makes sense at this point (yet), especially after his strong comeback this year. Presumably, he'll want more than just the $25M he's guaranteed thru his triggered player option for next year though...

_Man_

 

[David Norman]

I'm absolutely exhausted at the end of G5. I have no idea how Phillies or Astros fans aren't in the ER with irregular heartbeats or no heartbeat at all

Verlander pitched Ok and glad he picked up the win. Most of the relievers on both teams continued to do a great job.
Hiitters continue to struggle to get to any hits with runners on base

Back to Houston for G6 Saturday Night-- Wheeler and Valdez

 

[Walter Kittel]

I'm absolutely exhausted at the end of G5. I have no idea how Phillies or Astros fans aren't in the ER with irregular heartbeats or no heartbeat at all

Very, very nerve-wracking contest this evening. I thought the Astros' inability to get some of their base runners home might cost them the game. Some really great defensive plays (which have been one of the Astros' strengths all season) helped secure the win. (Mancini's snagging Schwarber's blast down the line at first base in the 8th, and McCormick's catch at the wall in the 9th.)

Verlander settled in and pitched well enough to hold a lead. Montero seemed a little bit off and didn't have good control. Ryan Pressly once again demonstrated that he is worth every $ the Astros pay him with 1 and 2/3 innings to close it out.

Game six Saturday with Wheeler vs. Valdez.

- Walter.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Syndergaard out as starter (possibly for entire WS):

Shoulda stuck with that!

 

[Lord Dalek]

Rematch of Game 2? Astros better get the Tarps ready.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I just looked at the Phils stats- almost half of the starting lineup is hitting well below
.200, and the team is hitting .174
25% of their hits have been the long ball.
A bit of a surprise that there’s even a game 6 in this series.

 

[David Norman]

I hate it for the resident Phillies fans, but I'm sure happy to see Dusty Baker get his Ring as a manager.

Alvarez's HR claimed 450ft, but I'll calling BS on that. 410 to dead center and he hit the ball 50 feet over and I don't think it was coming down that fast. It would have had to hit the roof to be coming down at that angle.

Astors allowed 9 hits combined in G 4/5/6. If not for Schwarber it would have been really ugly.

 

[TonyD]

Well that despite the ending as a Phillies fan it was a special little run they had.
As bad as they were during stretches this year they managed to get to a 2-1 lead in the World Series.
The Astros even though they still seem a little sketchy were a great team and that pitching made the difference.

Also as a looong time Phillies fan who saw Dusty Baker be the NLCS mvp in ‘77 I have no feeling for him and don’t give a darn about him finally winning a WS (He won as a player in ‘77)

 

[David Norman]

Well that despite the ending as a Phillies fan it was a special little run they had.
As bad as they were during stretches this year they managed to get to a 2-1 lead in the World Series.
The Astros even though they still seem a little sketchy were a great team and that pitching made the difference.

Also as a looong time Phillies fan who saw Dusty Baker be the NLCS mvp in ‘77 I have no feeling for him and don’t give a darn about him finally winning a WS (He won as a player in ‘77)

Dusty won the WS as a player for the Dodgers in 1981. Dodgers lost the WS in 77 and 78 when Dusty was a player there

Phillies did have a great run the last 6-7 weeks with virtually nobody picking them to even get through Round 1, much less pushing the WS to 6 games.
Was quite happy to see Harper have a productive season and spectacular postseason run after seeing his season almost over early. Really nice to watch him turn from somewhat
brash teenager to become such an almost humble superstar -- would never have thought it 10 years ago.
Schwarber was one of my favorite players to watch as a Cub coming back from that horrendous knee injury and dominated in that postseason too.

I really hoping teams are paying attention to the success of guys like Snitker and Thomson that last couple years and start looking for longtime team men instead of the Public Figure superstar for managers positions. The guys who have actually done the day to day hard work of coaching/managing for decades almost to the point of giving up on the idea of being a Major League manager.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Congratulations to Dusty Baker and the Houston Astros.

They have established themselves as the closest thing to a dynastic sports franchise that the city of Houston has ever had. No other Houston team (collegiate or professional) has approached the excellence this team has displayed over the past six years. (There have been successes to be sure, the Rockets of the early '90s, the Houston Aeros in the early '70s in the WHA, and the original AFL Oilers of the early '60s, but mostly it has been a lot of near misses and brushes with greatness in Houston.) This makes the Astros and what they have accomplished very special to folks in Houston. I love the team wholeheartedly and loved seeing them close it out Saturday evening.

- Walter.

 

[TonyD]

Ah right. Yankees won in 77/78
Dusty and the Dodger in 81.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I'm sure Hammerin' Hank is smiling from Heaven on Dusty on getting this one last milestone.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Congrats to Dusty and this particular Astros team!

I've been a critic of the franchise and some past iterations of the team before, especially w/ the scandal of a few years ago (though not just only that) that tainted their last championship. Now, most of the people (most) involved in that scandal are gone (though I remain quite skeptical of Bregman, but definitely much less so of Altuve, and of course, not at all of Verlander).

These Astros (and Dusty) really do deserve it! But let's see them continue their success (untainted) and maybe legitimately win another one before crowning them as some sort of dynasty, LOL... though I do agree they certainly seem to have most/all the right ingredients to get there...

_Man_

 

[Walter Kittel]

Don't take my word for it.

Dynasty! Love 'em or loathe 'em, the World Series champion Astros are an all-time team

Amid both scandal and success, Houston has built a modern-day juggernaut.

www.espn.com

- Walter.

 

[TonyD]

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Don't take my word for it.

Dynasty! Love 'em or loathe 'em, the World Series champion Astros are an all-time team

Amid both scandal and success, Houston has built a modern-day juggernaut.

www.espn.com

- Walter.

Nah. He sounds a bit too much like a homer trying hard to gloss over the scandal (and its implications), LOL. Just the comparison he made of the Astros winning 2x vs the Dodgers winning once during this stretch (w/out qualifying/conceding at all about the scandal quite possibly tilting that comparison) illustrates that. I'm not saying the Dodgers have clearly been better than the Astros or anything, but his (seemingly necessary) glossing over such details definitely highlights the problematic claim of the Astros already being worthy of the dynasty title.

It may simply be unfortunate the scandal has cast such a pall on their otherwise excellence during this entire stretch so far, but if you're gonna laud them as a dynasty (that stretches back to/circa that scandalous 2017 championship run), then it's not so much about forgiveness of past transgression as whether they're simply worthy based on the facts, which include the scandal (that's almost certainly not only limited to their 2017 championship run). Forgiveness doesn't at all mean something didn't actually happen or has no consequences afterall regardless of what MLB officially endorses.

Like I said earlier, let's see what they do from here forward before lauding them w/ the dynasty title. And I do actually think/believe they have most/all the right ingredients for that and hold no ill-will toward this recent iteration, except possibly for Bregman (and he might yet win me over enough perhaps... though it's unlikely he'll ever convince me his much higher level of performance/production before 2020 was actually completely legit)...

_Man_

 

[MartinP.]

From the perspective of a Dodgers fan, the 2017 run and then the World Series through the loss in Game 7 was a real heartbreaker and "of course it was" for Dodgers fans and something all teams fans have gone through before. But then to find out after processing that loss and getting over it that a possibility was introduced that you might have lost because the other team was cheating -- the possibility that without that you might have won and not gone through that loss, and the very real thought that you're never going to know, but you know the possibility exists, plus the fact that the players involved received no official consequences for it and hardly expressed any remorse or contrition for their actions, except to show they were annoyed at having to deal with the repercussions. Where was an apology to the fans? An "I'm sorry." After the 2017 WS the Dodgers organization took out a full page color ad in the Houston Chronicle congratulating their opponents. When I mentioned this one time to some Houston fans online their response was: "Suckers!"

 

[Walter Kittel]

When I mentioned this one time to some Houston fans online their response was: "Suckers!"

Every team has asshole fans and Houston is no exception. As far as the scandal goes I think most Houston fans wish that it had not happened. I personally think it was an ethical lapse by the organization and the players and there should have some punishment levied out against the players, but that did not happen.

I've seen statistical interpretations that argue there was an advantage at home, but I also know that the Astros had a better win/loss ratio on the road vs. at Minute Maid park during the regular season. 48-33 at home (.592) vs. 53-28 on the road (.653) Additionally, the Astros defeated the Dodgers twice on the road at Dodger Stadium, including the pivotal game 7.

Were they wrong. Yep. Should there have been more punitive action. Yep. How much of an advantage did it give an already good team? I honestly don't know.

Being a Houston sports fan, I've seen my share of close and blowout losses in big games over the year, including the Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott Astros losing in the playoffs, and the Oilers losing to the Steelers in the playoffs and their monumental collapse in Buffalo. So yeah, not fun.

- Walter.

 

[MartinP.]

Being a Houston sports fan, I've seen my share of close and blowout losses in big games over the year, including the Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott Astros losing in the playoffs, and the Oilers losing to the Steelers in the playoffs and their monumental collapse in Buffalo. So yeah, not fun.

But those things were not the result of a cheating scandal and I'm very sure that you wish this whole thing had never happened as well, but it did and nothing you said as a fan is any kind of commiseration for the fans of the team that your team affected.

I wrote this two years ago:

As a Dodgers fan, here's the biggest reason I haven't moved on: Clayton Kershaw, who had pitched a fantastic Game 1, in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series in Houston, threw 51 curveballs and sliders and registered not a single swing and a miss by an Astros player. A math expert calculated the probability, based on data from Kershaw's entire 2017 season -- minus one day not available, of not getting any swings and a miss on 51 curveballs and sliders at 0.009%. (Two days later he pitched in L.A. as a reliever and threw 19 and got 3 swings and misses.) In that game 5 the Dodgers were battling with the Astr*s while not cheating and scored 12 runs, losing in the 10th to the Astr*s 13. That statistic with Kershaw's pitches and the fact the Astr*s knew what pitches were coming (there's youtube videos of the montage of 51 pitches, and videos of the Game 5 trash can banging), plus the fact that none of the players suffered any punishment from MLB [...]

 

[Walter Kittel]

And on that note, I am out.

See everyone in the 2023 thread.

- Walter.