Ag_07 said:

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Because Cole on 2 days rest out of the pen is a BIG unknown. And it's not like the pen was full of scrubs who had struggled.

We had gone out of our way ALL season and postseason to keep Cole on schedule for a reason.

If Harris doesn't give up the lead I think we'd have seen Cole. That Kendrick HR completely flipped the script.

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This. I understand the frustration, but I don't understand everyone assuming Cole would have been his "normal, 4th inning, dealing" self.

He has never pitched out of the pen, meaning he has never started an inning from the stretch.

Big Al 1992 said:

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You're doing something he's never done. Osuna in the 7th?? You have Cole and Urquidy.
The vibe here just went to s h it.

Hope I'm wrong.

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Welp I wasn't wrong.

Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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Grandal is a FA. Lets go get him

BMX Bandit said:

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Oh I think we would trade Reddick for a bag of baseballs. Its finding someone willing to get rid of the baseballs.

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You're undervaluing Reddick. He's no Aaron Judge but a lot of teams would love to have a veteran leader who plays the game the right way and a solid value salary-wise.

My point is that I think a lot of teams would trade for Correa. It would be a dumb move for us either way. Every time a national got to first base it reminded me that 100 games of Carlos with Straw and others filling in is still way > Tim Bogar.

If that's true about Reddick, then surely he would be traded. Do you think that happens?

Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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Chirinos is a damn professional baseball player, and he broke 2 of the major rules of bunting:

1) bunt strikes
2) don't pop it up

Shlt you learned in little league.

Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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That's not on Hinch. You never chase up on a bunt. You learn that in little league. The result of his bunt is the exact reason why.

03_Aggie said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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That's not on Hinch. You never chase up on a bunt. You learn that in little league. The result of his bunt is the exact reason why.

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you're right, Hinch wasn't the one out there waving the bat around like Hermione Granger, but he's also not putting his guys in a great position to succeed, at least agree on that.

BMX Bandit said:

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JCA1 said:

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My biggest complaint was letting Greinke start the inning while not having any confidence in him at the first sign of a struggle. You knew the heart of their lineup was coming up and these would be tough outs. Either have confidence that your guy will find a way through it or don't let him take the mound to start the inning. Since he clearly did not have confidence in Greinke, he should have just went to Cole to start the 7th.

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I don't understand this take at all. Greinke was doing fantastic. Why wouldn't you send him back out?

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I agree that he was fantastic and I would have let Greinke continue to pitch the 7th if it was up to me. I think he earned the right to try and get out of the jam. But Hinch clearly disagreed. He wasn't willing to let Greinke pitch his way out of it and pulled him.

My point is that, by his actions, Hinch clearly did not have any confidence in Greinke at the first sign of trouble in the 7th. If he wasn't going to let Greinke continue at the first sign of trouble, and he had warmed up Cole but wasn't willing to insert him in the middle of an inning with runners on, then you end up where we were. Thus, to me, the critical decision was who to let take the mound to start the 7th. By letting Greinke take the mound, he should have given him more rope. If he wasn't going to give him any rope, he should have just gone with Cole to start the inning.

Hulla Baller said:

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The reason for our game 7 demise is simple.

Matthew McConaughey should not have been allowed in MMP last night. Who the **** invited that guy to our game?

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Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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Chirinos is a damn professional baseball player, and he broke 2 of the major rules of bunting:

1) bunt strikes
2) don't pop it up

Shlt you learned in little league.

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that's true, but if you want to stay sharp at anything regardless of when you learned it, you need to have a chance to practice it. He bunted twice all year and the last time was in April. Our whole team sucks at bunting, and it's not shocking. Urquidy out there waving the bat like he's trying to cast an Expellirmus spell instead of using his legs. He has obviously received very little instruction or very little practice which is understandable, but if you expect to bunt in the World Series you need to be prepared to bunt in the World Series.

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You know professional baseball players take batting practice, right? Part of which is to work on bunting.

Harry Dunne said:

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03_Aggie said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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That's not on Hinch. You never chase up on a bunt. You learn that in little league. The result of his bunt is the exact reason why.

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you're right, Hinch wasn't the one out there waving the bat around like Hermione Granger, but he's also not putting his guys in a great position to succeed, at least agree on that.

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That's just where I agree to disagree. If you're expecting someone like Altuve to go bunt for a base hit thats one thing. This was a sacrifice bunt and is something everybody on a major league roster should be able to do without having to practice it or utilize it once a series.

God. We are going to spend the rest of our astros fandom, the rest of our lives trying to convince ourselves that "next years team will be just as good as that 2019 team"

...and none of them ever will be. We just lost the World Series with easily the most talented roster in the league, maybe for the last decade or two. Not winning the World Series was a travesty.

Honestly, managing this team is easy. Let the players stay loose and have fun, and make decisions based on analytics that are handed down to you. Hinch should face a ton of criticism for the way he managed last night.

03_Aggie said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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03_Aggie said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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Nuke LaLoosh said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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Chirino is a free agent also.

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Good riddance. Couldn't even drop down a bunt in the World Series. 0-4 with two terrible Ks and a foul out on a sac bunt. Pathetic.

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that's on Hinch. Chirinos had not been asked to bunt since April.

If you're going to be Johnny analytics and Mr. big balls and never intentionally walk people and never sac bunt then you've got to die by the sword as well. If you're going to get traditional in the big moments, then you damn well better practice it in the regular season.

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That's not on Hinch. You never chase up on a bunt. You learn that in little league. The result of his bunt is the exact reason why.

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you're right, Hinch wasn't the one out there waving the bat around like Hermione Granger, but he's also not putting his guys in a great position to succeed, at least agree on that.

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That's just where I agree to disagree. If you're expecting someone like Altuve to go bunt for a base hit thats one thing. This was a sacrifice bunt and is something everybody on a major league roster should be able to do without having to practice it or utilize it once a series.

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I hate the guys, and this happens a lot on the hoops forum, that list their playing resume like that is supposed to give them more credibility when it comes to coaching decisions or performance... so I'm sorry to be a hypocrite here, but I suspect those of you talking about how every pro baseball player should be able to lay down a sacrifice bunt proficiently without live reps have never actually laid down a sacrifice bunt.

It is damn hard and most definitely a complicated skill.

Harry Dunne said:

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Not trying to flex nuts here at all, I played high school baseball and was decent at best, but I did have the opportunity to try to hit (and bunt) against future MiLB & college pitchers. It's a lot harder than it looks. I can only imagine what it's like to do it on that big of a stage with two live reps in the past 12 months. There's a huge difference between doing something during BP and doing it in in a game, especially the World Series.

It would be like asking Yordan to play left field in the World Series after only having done so twice in the previous year.

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I also played HS baseball, and bunting is not hard. You don't get to the major leagues without knowing how to bunt and/or having the physical ability to bunt. Chirinos should be ashamed.

Nuke LaLoosh said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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Not trying to flex nuts here at all, I played high school baseball and was decent at best, but I did have the opportunity to try to hit (and bunt) against future MiLB & college pitchers. It's a lot harder than it looks. I can only imagine what it's like to do it on that big of a stage with two live reps in the past 12 months. There's a huge difference between doing something during BP and doing it in in a game, especially the World Series.

It would be like asking Yordan to play left field in the World Series after only having done so twice in the previous year.

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I also played HS baseball, and bunting is not hard. You don't get to the major leagues without knowing how to bunt and/or having the physical ability to bunt. Chirinos should be ashamed.

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I agree that they should all know how to do it and obviously have the physical ability.

I strongly disagree that it is easy.

I disagree that they should be able to do it in the World Series without having more of an opportunity during the season and I disagree with changing tactics in big moments.

Harry Dunne said:

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Not trying to flex nuts here at all, I played high school baseball and was decent at best, but I did have the opportunity to try to hit (and bunt) against future MiLB & college pitchers. It's a lot harder than it looks. I can only imagine what it's like to do it on that big of a stage with two live reps in the past 12 months. There's a huge difference between doing something during BP and doing it in in a game, especially the World Series.

It would be like asking Yordan to play left field in the World Series after only having done so twice in the previous year.

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Oh, it's incredibly difficult. But you suggested that it was Hinch's fault because he hadn't practiced bunting in a game. I was just pointing out that really wasn't a problem.

Nut flex recognized!

Ok I'm done talking about the bunt.

The result would have been the same or worse if he didn't bunt (K or GIDP) so its a wash...

(Which is why the decision to bunt him was correct but I digress).

I agree. All should just step away and concentrate on something positive like Aggie Football. Oh, wait.