AustinCountyAg said:

---

touche

---

You're not even using touche right. At least be condescending correctly.

Sucks, but the problem with "what-if's" is baseball is high variance and it's not always going to work out. Quite frankly, with the way the bats went cold, it felt like they were lucky to even be in the WS. I wouldn't have pulled Greinke, but also have a hard time blaming Hinch.

MANY what-if situations where we don't get to celebrate in 17 or get knocked out earlier this postseason. Would feel worse if this was the end of an era with no rings, but still a great team.

Good post and exactly right.

I don't mind going through the what if's as a part of the "grieving process" and I also disagree with a lot of the moves but AJ is a hell of a manager in this is a hell of a team.

A few breaks here and there and a couple of the guys that were cold get hot and we have three rings in a row, but Tony La Russa was a hell of a manager and the 8890 Oakland A's can say the same thing.

Nuke LaLoosh said:

---

The Ragonk Strikes Back said:

---

---

People act like Mac is some hero. Yes he bet a lot of money, but it was a pure hedge. He would have been an absolute dumbass not to.

Business is business. Helps though if it makes you a town hero I guess.

---

Yeah. Go **** yourself with that take. He is most certainly a town hero.

AustinCountyAg said:

---

I have no idea why you're trying to call me out by saying I'm "condescending"? You're actually one of the posters who is posting some sense right now. Calm down buddy.

---

announcing that you're avoiding the forum until the "baseball idiots" are gone is the definition of condescension.

Firing off emotional takes is pretty natural when you just got gutted in a WS g7. You can jump in the conversation and educate the newbs or if the baseball IQ is not to your liking you can ignore it, but I don't think pointing out how stupid people are without making any other point than that you are above all that is any better than the worst of the opinions.

maybe we don't want home field advantage next season

This post is more just therapy for me as I move through my grief stages. If you've already moved on and don't really want to think about last night's game anymore, this post probably isn't for you.

We had the best team in baseball this year and maybe the best team on paper that the Astros will have in my lifetime. Unfortunately that doesn't mean much in the playoffs. I posted something a few months about the Cardinals during the Luhnow era. They went like 10 years with a very high level club. A few years (like 2004), they probably had the best team but didn't win the World Series. Then they won the World Series in 2006 with a team that barely won 80 games because they got hot at the right time.

I suspect the ~10 year run that we're in the midst of will end up looking similar to that. A few years we're going to have the best team but not win. Then a few years we're going to get hot at the right time and win. Needless to say... thank god we have the 2017 title in our back pocket. I can't imagine losing last night if we were still ringless.

Anyway, despite being the best team in baseball this year, it's almost a miracle we made it to game 7 of the World Series given how bad we were on offense for most of the playoffs. After having 7 guys finish the regular season with OPS ~.900 or better, we only had 2 guys finish the playoffs with OPS .800 or better. Failure to get the offense going and hit with RISP is what led to our demise in the bigger picture.

However, that's not what gnaws at me most about losing last night.

I had one goal going into last night's game: Get the ball to Gerrit Cole in the 7th inning and then ride him home. He's the best pitcher in baseball and chances are he takes us to a ring. But if he blows it, it at least we went down with our best bullets fired.

(NOTE: Please don't bring any "he only had two days rest" takes. Just look at the past few World Series. MadBum and Kershaw were plenty effective in long relief on two days rest. It's game f***ing seven. There's always something in the tank.)

I don't know if this has been or will ever be confirmed, but I think AJ had a similar goal: Ride Greinke as long as he could, bridge the middle innings, and then get Cole in with a fresh inning with the lead. But something unexpected happened and threw a wrench in the plan: Greinke was too damn good.

So sitting there before the top of the seventh, I think Hinch needed to do one of two things and he did neither.

1) Take Greinke out and let Cole start the 7th. It would have been mega ballsy to pull Greinke while he was throwing a gem, but if you drew up a scenario where you have a two run lead, need nine outs and the best pitcher in baseball is ready to go... to me that's exactly how you'd draw it up and you have to consider that option. However, I understand this wasn't practical because Greinke had been so good, so...

2) Let Greinke take the 7th and let him work through any trouble (no quick hooks).

At this juncture of the game, Hinch needed to ride or die with Greinke or Cole. The worst case scenario was what ultimately played out...

3) Hinch let Greinke start the 7th but quick hooked him. The quick hook is easy to second guess in hindsight but was easy to second guess at the time too. Greinke got Eaton to start the inning, challenged Rendon (which was fine with a 2 run lead and bases empty), then walked Soto (which was fine with a 1 run lead and bases empty). Now he's through their two elite threats and gets to face Kendrick and Cabrera to get through the inning. That wasn't the time to take Greinke out.

In a vacuum I think you could justify the move, but Harris had pitched alot and gotten hit hard the previous night. But more than anything, we had the lead with 8 outs to go in game 7 of the World Series. We had a hall of fame starter on the mound who was dealing and the best pitcher in baseball loose in the bullpen. You can't risk going down without one of those two guys on the mound.

It's hard to even be that mad about the way Harris performed. He threw a good pitch but Kendrick put a once-in-a-lifetime swing on it. But it hurts sooooo bad wondering what would have happened if we had gotten Cole in the game (or stuck with Greinke).

So then we get out of the 7th with Osuna and only down by one run. WHY THE F did we not bring in Cole to start the 8th? That's what gets me. If we were going to use Cole with the lead, WHY THE F were we not willing to use him to preserve a 1 run deficit? I guess it didn't matter in the end because the offense was inept.

With all that said, I love AJ Hinch and think he's a great manager. He had great feel in guiding us through the 2017 playoffs and pressed the right buttons for the most part this year. However, I think he did the manager equivalent of 0-4 with 4 strike outs last night.

(I feel a little better)

Quote:

---

I don't know if this has been or will ever be confirmed, but I think AJ had a similar goal: Ride Greinke as long as he could, bridge the middle innings, and then get Cole in with a fresh inning with the lead. But something unexpected happened and threw a wrench in the plan: Greinke was too damn good.

---

I don't think there is any doubt this is what happened

regarding Reddick...

the Astros were 1-4 in the 5 WS games in which he started.

2-0 when Reddick sat.

Reddick can be traded, but the Astros will have to eat some of his $13 MM salary. Perhaps as much as $5 MM. It would be worth it to free $8 MM to help the bullpen

Deluxe said:

---

We had the best team in baseball this year and maybe the best team on paper that the Astros will have in my lifetime.

---

and as good as the Astros were, the Nats matched them over the last 125+ games. That's not a small sample size, and they didn't just get hot in the postseason.

I know it's being painted as a choke job, but sometimes it also helps to give some credit where credit is due. They had great pitching and clutch hitting.

I got a wild hair yesterday morning and bought 3 tickets to Game 7. We left San Antonio around 2:30, and me, my son and son-in-law had a fantastic experience at Minute Maid!! The game result was extremely disappointing, but the memories were worth it. As a lifelong fan who used to listen to the Astros on my transistor radio in the late 60's, the loss is heartbreaking, but the experience of Game 7 was unbelievable.

AustinCountyAg said:

---

my god the amount of full blown baseball idiots posting on this thread right now is overwhelming. reading this thread for the past two minutes helps me remember why I've avoided it for the most part this world series run.. I will try again in a few days when the newbies leave.

---

I'll have you know I've been posting idiotic takes all season, and I'll continue long past a few days from now.