Astros win 13-12 in 10 !!!!

WhyNotaSooner

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A game seemingly to determine who had the worst relief pitching.
Astros must improve their bullpen this winter.

Absolute must. To be honest, after the trade-in came & went and they got no closer & another starter, I thought they were toast and would not make it to the LCS. But then the Verlander deal went down and it got them to the WS. If somehow the Astros manage to win this series, it's a tribute to Hinch to juggle that pitching roster. He actually has as many pitchers that he does NOT want to pitch as he has pitchers that he does want to pitch, The bullpen is crap.
 
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humblesooner

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CT - You are echoing what I have said this morning. If they are not gathering in a meeting room on Thursday morning and developing a plan for BP help, I'll be surprised.
Giles has a lot of saves for the Astros this year, but only because the Astros also have the best offense in the majors.
Giles comes in with a 3 run lead, he gives up 2 runs and records a save. He comes in with a 2 run lead, Astros win by one and records a save. I would bet that only about 30% of his save opportunities resulted in a 3-up 3-down inning for him. That stat is a relief pitcher stat, not a closer stat.
Liriano was brought in at the trade deadline as a one-hitter, lefty specialist. I'm not sure he recorded one out as an Astro reliever.
The WS "bullpen" consists of Devensky, Harris and back-end starters (Musgrove, Peacock, McHugh).

What's funny about the Series, so far, is the team with the great bullpen (Dodgers) has lost both of the extra-inning games.
Hope Verlander can pitch a no-hitter tomorrow night and end this thing, so I can get some sleep!
 
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CTOkie

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The Astros have the trade chips and finances (for free agents) available to dramatically shore up their relief pitching and even add a decent starter.
 
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CTOkie

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CT - You are echoing what I have said this morning. If they are not gathering in a meeting room on Thursday morning and developing a plan for BP help, I'll be surprised.
Giles has a lot of saves for the Astros this year, but only because the Astros also have the best offense in the majors.
Giles comes in with a 3 run lead, he gives up 2 runs and records a save. He comes in with a 2 run lead, Astros win by one and records a save. I would bet that only about 30% of his save opportunities resulted in a 3-up 3-down inning for him. That stat is a relief pitcher stat, not a closer stat.
Liriano was brought in at the trade deadline as a one-hitter, lefty specialist. I'm not sure he recorded one out as an Astro reliever.
The WS "bullpen" consists of Devensky, Harris and back-end starters (Musgrove, Peacock, McHugh).

What's funny about the Series, so far, is the team with the great bullpen (Dodgers) has lost both of the extra-inning games.
Hope Verlander can pitch a no-hitter tomorrow night and end this thing, so I can get some sleep!
The Liriano deal was too much of a "hail Mary" move, one that reflected the Astros trying to catch lighting in a bottle at a cheap price. I did not like it then and I hate it even more now. He's dead weight. Why the team did not step up to acquire one or two relievers is a mystery to me. Good relievers were available.
All hands should be available Tuesday night, except perhaps for Kuechel who threw 86 pitches in 3-2/3 innings last night.
 
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humblesooner

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The Liriano deal was too much of a "hail Mary" move, one that reflected the Astros trying to catch lighting in a bottle at a cheap price. I did not like it then and I hate it even more now. He's dead weight. Why the team did not step up to acquire one or two relievers is a mystery to me. Good relievers were available.
All hands should be available Tuesday night, except perhaps for Kuechel who threw 86 pitches in 3-2/3 innings last night.

You mention not getting good relievers. Probably had something to do with the cost (damned analytics).
They didn't give up much in the way of prospects for Verlander. His salary is the only thing they have to worry over. And they probably figured, if they somehow fall off, they would be able to trade maybe the 2nd best pitcher in baseball (behind Kershaw). The Verlander deal went down to the wire, literally. I think Detriot realized there wasn't going to be a better offer than the Astros and they knew they were going to fire Ausmus. So they made what appears to be a bad deal for them (except for saving money) to get him off the roster.
 

CTOkie

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All that is true Humble.
But given the Astros’ resurgence over the past three years and their lofty standing this year this team needs to start making high end deals to upgrade weak areas.
All I’m saying is that deals like the Liriano one should not have been even considered.
 

WhyNotaSooner

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Word has it that a lot of GMs believe that Luhnow has established his minor leaguers worth too much. While this should be expected as part of negotiations. There were many teams interested in Fisher. There are reasons that Luhnow came up empty at the trade line. Perhaps he knows something that we don't know. I'm not sure. I think the Lariano deal was to save face. I also hate that Maz doesn't get to partake in the WS. Bum deal for him for sure.
 
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CTOkie

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Word has it that a lot of GMs believe that Luhnow has established his minor leaguers worth too much. While this should be expected as part of negotiations. There were many teams interested in Fisher. There are reasons that Luhnow came up empty at the trade line. Perhaps he knows something that we don't know. I'm not sure. I think the Lariano deal was to save face. I also hate that Maz doesn't get to partake in the WS. Bum deal for him for sure.
Excellent read WNAS.
I expect and hope that the team at least signs a good lefty reliever or talks to San Diego about Hand.
Don’t be surprised if Giles improves next year. I’ve seen many relievers who improve or regress from one season to another. If Giles can regain his Phillies form it would be huge.
 

WhyNotaSooner

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The Defense has been pretty special during the WS, actually entire playoffs. Bregman has really come into his own last past couple of months. The kid is damn good. That infield is set for a long time.
Paulino is the closest pitcher in the minors that's available unless someone develops another pitch over the winter.

Trade bait from the minors would be Kyle Tucker & perhaps a pitcher or two that can't help us yet. Maz, Gonzales & Maybin could be used as well. But Gonzo is a great utility players that can play many positions. Something tells me that want to keep Fisher around. Whatever they do, they really, really need a closer big time.
 

humblesooner

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The Defense has been pretty special during the WS, actually entire playoffs. Bregman has really come into his own last past couple of months. The kid is damn good. That infield is set for a long time.
Paulino is the closest pitcher in the minors that's available unless someone develops another pitch over the winter.

Trade bait from the minors would be Kyle Tucker & perhaps a pitcher or two that can't help us yet. Maz, Gonzales & Maybin could be used as well. But Gonzo is a great utility players that can play many positions. Something tells me that want to keep Fisher around. Whatever they do, they really, really need a closer big time.

Hard to believe Bregman was drafted two years ago.
As for keeping the infield together, depends on if they are willing to spend.
Negative: Analytics says you can get more bang for your buck than signing LARGE deals for Altuve, Correa, Springer, Bregman. These guys are/will be superstars for many years to come.
Positive(hopefully): Winning makes the owner hungry. They did pay Gurriel well.
Just give a W tomorrow night and I'll worry about all this in a few months. :)
 

humblesooner

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Excellent read WNAS.
I expect and hope that the team at least signs a good lefty reliever or talks to San Diego about Hand.
Don’t be surprised if Giles improves next year. I’ve seen many relievers who improve or regress from one season to another. If Giles can regain his Phillies form it would be huge.

Hope you're right about Giles.
But, I know if I were Hinch/Luhnow, we wouldn't get a chance to find out. I'd trade him before the World Series champagne dries on the locker room floor.
 

WhyNotaSooner

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Hope you're right about Giles.
But, I know if I were Hinch/Luhnow, we wouldn't get a chance to find out. I'd trade him before the World Series champagne dries on the locker room floor.

We haven't popped that cork yet! But damn I hope so tomorrow night!
 

JConXtsy_rivals

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Booooo! Hissssss!
Your Smiley Face makes it obvious that you are just yanking chains.
From fans of a team with 50 years of futility, that is a Double Boooooo and Double Hissssss.
Let's go Astros, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.
:)

Somewhat. I'm a Texas Rangers fan, so it's tough to root for the Astros. And I live in Los Angeles now... with them being National League, I've picked them up as my National team while the Rangers remain my American team. I'm still a 'fresh' fan though, so I'm not hanging by any threads or anything.
 

iasooner1

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Gotta consider this as a rare "exclusive Senior Circuit" WS; screw the commish and the system
 

JConXtsy_rivals

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Amazing series. Happy for the Astros fans.

If you would have told any Dodgers fan (or just about any baseball fan) that Kershaw and Darvish were going to pitch 4 games, and Rich Hill and Alex Wood were going to go 2-1, they would have told you this was a hands-down Dodgers series win.

To think Kershaw and Darvish were going to meltdown on the biggest stage and go 1-3 would have been a stretch of the imagination.

As a Rangers fan, I have to admit I hated watching Darvish implode last night. He looked like he didn't even want to be in the stadium. Just wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere.
 
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