bearkatag15 said:

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Bauer has some interesting shoes on in this clip

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He would given his left _____ to have been traded here

bearkatag15 said:

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Bauer has some interesting shoes on in this clip

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Clevinger having some real loser denial, you can see him getting picked on in high school at the 10 sec mark

dshedd41 said:

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McHugh outsmarts them all. He won't have to apologize in Boston... hell, they'll pat him on the back.

The other article about Bauer was even better. My favorite part of that one was the reveal that during his last several starts, Bauer himself cheated in order to drastically increase his spin rate - but it's ok because he was doing it to make a point.

CFTXAG10 said:

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Hard to judge pitchers on ST performance, because like we saw with Verlander it could be a variety of factors, but if this keeps up and he has a down season the Yanks are in trouble.

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And that is why you don't for great performers to shave their beards. It's where greatness is stored

CFTXAG10 said:

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Hard to judge pitchers on ST performance, because like we saw with Verlander it could be a variety of factors, but if this keeps up and he has a down season the Yanks are in trouble.

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dshedd41 said:

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Cheating is cheating, right Mike?

Same thing someone should ask Lebron. Does this seem legit?

https://www.facebook.com/sportsnation/videos/1052693535113554/

. . . said:

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I like what Javier has done so far.

mathguy86 said:

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dshedd41 said:

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So he Angels home clubhouse manager was supplying illegal substances to pitchers and the away clubhouse managers was supplying illegal substances to pitchers. Huh.

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Was the Angles home clubhouse manager supplying illegal substances? I would assume so, since they were providing vistors, but the article doesn't mention the home clubhouse manager and specifically says the guy acted alone and no one else was believed to be involved.

I'm a little disappointed with Collin's comments, but he's with a new team. Good luck to him. It seems he and his wife really enjoyed being part of the Astros and the city of Houston, even after the team didn't re-up his contract.

I didn't have too much of a problem with McHugh's comments especially after seeing this:

Quote:

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"Sign stealing is universally, across-the-board bad for pitchers. And we know that. It made our jobs harder," McHugh said. "And we truly believed -- or we were made to believe -- that it was happening to us, too.

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So basically he is saying they were doing it because it was being done to them. Not that it makes it right, but they would have been at a disadvantage going up against other teams who were stealing signs, like I don't know the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers.

Sample sizes are starting to grow for a few of our pitchers fighting it out for spots in the rotation or on the roster. Obviously still very early but here's a few interesting stats:

Good

Josh James - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB (if he's eliminating walks this year, watch out)

Framber Valdez - 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 9 K, 3 BB

Bryan Abreu - 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 12 K, 2 BB (I'd say he's sneaking in the backdoor of the fifth starter competition if James/Valdez weren't throwing so well. Regardless, seems like he's going to play a role this year)

Blake Taylor - 5.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 K, 5 BB (needs to get the BB total down but making strong case to be lefty out of the pen)

Meh

Pruitt/Urquidy/Javier/Sneed

Tough start

Whitley - 2.2 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 3 K, 2 BB (hope he can get things figured out at Round Rock)

Hughes - 2.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 0 K (not making a good case for a roster spot)

Biagini - 3.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 H 1 K, 2 BB

I've always liked Abreu and the stuff he's got.

On the other hand it's so frustrating not seeing Whitley step up into the role.

Honest question. Who was the last "untouchable" prospect for the Astros to pan out not already on the big league roster? Seems like the last batch haven't panned out at least yet.

Reed (traded at low value)
Martes (PEDs)
Paulino (maybe he wasn't untouchable)
Whitley (so far)
Tucker (flashes but hasn't put it together yet)

Seems like the less heralded guys have been the bigger contributors. Hopefully tucker and Whitley can be the next big ones to hit

I like Javier and Abreu more than Whitley at this point

AustinAg2K said:

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MosesHallRAB04 said:

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Honest question. Who was the last "untouchable" prospect for the Astros to pan out not already on the big league roster? Seems like the last batch haven't panned out at least yet.

Reed (traded at low value)
Martes (PEDs)
Paulino (maybe he wasn't untouchable)
Whitley (so far)
Tucker (flashes but hasn't put it together yet)

Seems like the less heralded guys have been the bigger contributors. Hopefully tucker and Whitley can be the next big ones to hit

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Bregman and Correa have worked out.

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I should have clarified. Prospects who weren't on the 2017 roster.

cpsencik04 said:

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That's a pretty stupid argument.....

"Hey aside from the last few guys who have made it.... who was the last person who actually panned out!?!"

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It is a little over reaching. Reading about Whitleys struggles got me thinking. Mainly about pitching prospects at first. I guess I tend to remember the ones that don't work with all the trade rumors and talks of untouchable prospects.

Study other teams like you do the Astros and the hit rate would probably be worse.

MosesHallRAB04 said:

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cpsencik04 said:

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That's a pretty stupid argument.....

"Hey aside from the last few guys who have made it.... who was the last person who actually panned out!?!"

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It is a little over reaching. Reading about Whitleys struggles got me thinking. Mainly about pitching prospects at first. I guess I tend to remember the ones that don't work with all the trade rumors and talks of untouchable prospects.

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It seems like Tucker and Whitley have been the only untouchable guys recently. We had a high price on Martes & Bregman before that then Correa & McCullers and Singleton & Springer. Our top top guys have panned out a great clip.

We've had a few guys made the big leagues we traded away. Hader is a star. Folty has been decent for several years. Mengden been up and down with the As for a couple years. Thornton started most of the year last year. That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure we've had other pitching prospects do alright.

Also you gotta remember TINSTAAPP.

MosesHallRAB04 said:

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Honest question. Who was the last "untouchable" prospect for the Astros to pan out not already on the big league roster? Seems like the last batch haven't panned out at least yet.

Reed (traded at low value)
Martes (PEDs)
Paulino (maybe he wasn't untouchable)
Whitley (so far)
Tucker (flashes but hasn't put it together yet)

Seems like the less heralded guys have been the bigger contributors. Hopefully tucker and Whitley can be the next big ones to hit

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Eric Anthony

Quote:

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McHugh said. "And we truly believed -- or we were made to believe -- that it was happening to us, too. And we don't know if that was true or not, but that's not justification for doing anything. Just because you think they're doing it is not justification for doing something you know is not right."

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To me, this is the explanation I've been looking for to make sense of it. Even if not that many teams were doing it, certain voices in the club, likely that of veterans like Beltran were convincing them that a lot of teams were.
Seeing Kershaw's comments though I think most teams never imagined there was any threat of batters getting sign info without a runner on base. That's why Kershaw didnt think to change up his signs.

The more I read the more pissed I get at Cora and Beltran.

Texaggie7nine said:

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Quote:

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McHugh said. "And we truly believed -- or we were made to believe -- that it was happening to us, too. And we don't know if that was true or not, but that's not justification for doing anything. Just because you think they're doing it is not justification for doing something you know is not right."

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To me, this is the explanation I've been looking for to make sense of it. Even if not that many teams were doing it, certain voices in the club, likely that of veterans like Beltran were convincing them that a lot of teams were.
Seeing Kershaw's comments though I think most teams never imagined there was any threat of batters getting sign info without a runner on base. That's why Kershaw didnt think to change up his signs.

The more I read the more pissed I get at Cora and Beltran.

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Verlander was convinced the Nationals were stealing signs and relaying them via whistling from the dugout during game 2 of the WS.

MosesHallRAB04 said:

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Honest question. Who was the last "untouchable" prospect for the Astros to pan out not already on the big league roster? Seems like the last batch haven't panned out at least yet.

Reed (traded at low value)
Martes (PEDs)
Paulino (maybe he wasn't untouchable)
Whitley (so far)
Tucker (flashes but hasn't put it together yet)

Seems like the less heralded guys have been the bigger contributors. Hopefully tucker and Whitley can be the next big ones to hit

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I don't have any numbers or macro MLB perspective to back this up but it seems like there's a difference between bringing up top prospects on a team where every win is critical and a team that's still kinda rebuilding.

For example, Correa was brought up in 2015 when we were a year ahead of schedule and playing with house money. We told him SS was his and let him work through any issues.

When we called up Bregman in 2016, we knew it was possible we could back into a playoff spot but we didn't really see ourselves as contenders (hence, no deals for deadline help). So we were in a position to let him struggle a bit before figuring things out.

All our recent prospects were basically expected to come in and perform on a 100 win, World Series favorite team. Lots of pressure for a young guy. And only so much latitude can be given to let him sort it out on the job.

Obviously there's special prospects like Walker Buehler who buck this theory. But it seems possible that stage of a team's "win now" cycle can effect the development of prospects.