Farmer1906 said:

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Wabs said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I still don't understand what happened....

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We played a better team. That will happen from time to time.

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I don't want to be that guy who says "the better team didn't win", but I'm going to walk that line. We were by most metrics every bit as good or better than Boston. They simply outplayed us in the series this week. They earned it, no doubt about it. But if we play them again in 2 weeks we might sweep them. Play 2 weeks later and then it goes 7. Playoff baseball is just like that.

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Yep, that's the problem; we had different strengths and our biggest advantage didn't perform.

Boston is a much better hitting team; their pitching is not great. Their hitting lived up to its billing and their pitching was much better than expected.

Our pitching failed fairly miserably, and our hitting was about as expected.

Our pitchers had an ERA of 3.18 during the regular season; and 5.5 in the LCS.

Philip J Fry said:

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I still don't understand what happened....

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Cora leaving played a bigger part than we are giving credit. He my have been handed a talented team, but he also had a full list of our strengths and weaknesses along with working knowledge of the team.

I disagree....Him leaving probably played about a 2% part of the Astros losing the series

Harry Dunne said:

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SIAP - Great article, sums up the series perfectly you have to be lucky AND good.

The unlucky legacy of the 2018 Houston Astros

What a kick the nuts

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This is true of the ball Alex Bregman hit in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday, with two outs and the bases loaded. Statcast says it's a hit 79 percent of the time. You don't have to believe that number specifically to agree Bregman went to the plate trying to do something, did something very close to what he was trying to do, and but for a matter of inches would have won an entire baseball game instead of losing an entire baseball game. The luck isn't whether the diving Andrew Benintendi catches or doesn't catch it; that's the sport. The luck is in how we keep score. Bregman gets nothing.

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that's what the most depressing thing about watching the ALCS was, it felt like we just couldn't win and the Sox just couldn't lose. We wouldn't get hits in the right situations, and the red sox were RBI machines with two outs.

Every bounce seemed to go their way. They'd score like 9 runs on 7 hits, and we'd get 13 hits and score 6. They out sequenced us and every coin flip for them landed heads; and all of ours landed tails.

I had 7 Sox fans sitting right behind me and they got more insufferable as the game went on. Didn't help that the drunk fan at the back of the section kept screaming "Let's send that to New York for review!!!!" every five minutes.

Very true, my guy.

People also forget just how many great breaks we caught last year. When you win, it feels good to tell yourself that you were the best and were destined to win, but everything rolled our way and we could have easily lost each series. This series felt like what it must've been like to be on the other side last year.

It sucks to be on the wrong end of it, but it's also what makes baseball fun as opposed to knowing we are going to see the Warriors beat the Celtics in the NBA finals.

irish pete ag06 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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Wabs said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I still don't understand what happened....

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We played a better team. That will happen from time to time.

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I don't want to be that guy who says "the better team didn't win", but I'm going to walk that line. We were by most metrics every bit as good or better than Boston. They simply outplayed us in the series this week. They earned it, no doubt about it. But if we play them again in 2 weeks we might sweep them. Play 2 weeks later and then it goes 7. Playoff baseball is just like that.

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Yep. The ALCS is less than 5% sample size compared to the full regular season.

Any team in the league can lose 4 of 7 to any other team if the bounces go certain ways.

Edit to say a 7 game series is 4.3% of the regular season.

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Hell we just took 3/4 from Boston at Boston just over a month ago. Baseball can be a cruel beetch sometimes.

Alright.. here's what I've got. It's assuming every FA walks and every option is picked up.

Do y'all think we keep Harris at $5million a year?

I doubt it. Between FA pickups and ready arms in the minors, I bet we let him walk.

Bregs at $599k

Sullys Guy said:

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Do y'all think we keep Harris at $5million a year?

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For sure. He finished strong and there's no reason to think he wouldn't have a better season next year.

Even only with his production this year, he would be a good value at $5M. If he returns to form he would be a bargain.

Altuve/Sanchez comes to mind

I can't imagine McCann would have a $15M option picked up after only playing 63 games in the regular season with a .212 average and then going 0-8 in the postseason with 3 K's. Perhaps, they try to negotiate something less.

He gone

Nvm

He knew exactly what was going to happen when he hired Boras.

In games 4 & 5, Hinch completely whiffed by putting Bregman in the lead-off position.

I would imagine they'll work on a deal that buys out a few years of arbitration. He's underpaid and they know it.

AgFan1999 said:

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I would imagine they'll work on a deal that buys out a few years of arbitration. He's underpaid and they know it.

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yeah, that's what I'm thinking but probably not for 2 years or so. Then he'll probably get like a 7 year 200 million dollar contract or whatever.

I put my phone away when the game started yesterday, and I've just caught up on the last day's worth of posts.

I don't know which team was baseball's best last year. I'm pretty sure the Astros were in the top 3, but I also don't think they were #1. This year lacked last year's drama with the hurricane, last-minute Verlander deal, and postseason run through three of the biggest franchises in the MLB, but this year's team was better. It was certainly the best Astros team to have ever taken the field, and I'm pretty sure it was the best team in either league. This was an outstanding season, and I'm so happy to have been in the stands for most of it.

Last night, we just got beat, and I a little bit relieved by that. Wednesday night's game made me angry in a way that sports never have before ("and remember," I told some friends, "I'm an Aggie"). I'd rather see the season end by getting outplayed than by getting robbed.

That being said, I'll probably never forgive Joe West. I'd put his picture on my dartboard next to Dave Yeast's, but I don't own a dartboard.

Tip of the cap to Boston: they played an excellent series. A few gifts from MLB doesn't change the outstanding plate discipline or the bottom-of-the-lineup guys picking up the struggling stars (that's what we were supposed to do). I'll be rooting for the Sox next week (because screw Bud Selig). I have to be honest, though; there was a little part of my mind that thought Cora was trying to do us some favors by running Kimbrel out every night.

That was a fantastic season with a frustrating end, but this team is built to compete for years to come. See y'all on the thread (and hopefully some of you at the ballpark too) in the spring!