No it's not

This offense has scuffled for a while now. The Dodgers had their way with them, the As dominated them, and they've made scrubs look good all year.

I'm being realistic.

This team is not playoff quality. They hover around .500 and if not for the stupid rule they'd be outside looking in anyways.

Ag_07 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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This offense couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag. If Tucker doesn't carry this team for that 3 plus week stretch they would be looking at the playoffs from the outside.

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At this point just miss the playoffs all together.

Save us all the pain and let JV get his TJ surgery now.

They're not going anywhere.

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What's the track record for pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery at age 39?

Ag_07 said:

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I'm being realistic.

This team is not playoff quality. They hover around .500 and if not for the stupid rule they'd be outside looking in anyways.

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Normally a .500 should not sniff the playoffs, but this is not a normal season. This is a 60 game garbage season with new rules, no spring training, no fans, and a bunch **** thrown in for fun.

But if you can't see the core of this team are the same guys who have won like 330 games the last 3 seasons. There is still a chance we got hot and make a run.

Normally I'd be sitting here saying get in and anything can happen but I don't see this team as capable of catching lightening in a bottle and making a run.

They're under .500 and consistenly flat with no urgency. They've lost all swagger. The BP is awful and the lineup is constantly under achieving.

I'll be here watching until it's over but nothing I've seen this year gives me any hope that they get it together with 11 games left and make a run.

PSully97 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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This offense couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag. If Tucker doesn't carry this team for that 3 plus week stretch they would be looking at the playoffs from the outside.

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At this point just miss the playoffs all together.

Save us all the pain and let JV get his TJ surgery now.

They're not going anywhere.

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What's the track record for pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery at age 39?

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IDK that it's ever been done. I've been thinking a big reason why he's working so hard to come back and pitch this season is because he knows this is it.

The Nationals didn't limp in.

IIRC they had the best record in the league for the 2nd half of the season.

Harry Dunne said:

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The bats are going to wake up. That's inevitable. The bullpen I'm not too sure about.

Lance's gem tonight didn't give you a little hope? If he can pitch like that and JV can come back plus ZG we have a puncher's chance against anyone.

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I've been waiting on this offense to show some consistency. I'm still waiting.

I'm still holding out hope if we can get a consistent line up the rest if they way out that maybe we can put it together...

That's exactly it...I'm not ready to jump on the back of LMJ and JV coming back from injury. And we've been waiting on the bats all season and besides one 8 game win streak it hasn't really happened yet. Lance and Justin and Zach can pitch 7 innings of shutout ball but as long as the BP has to throw a pitch it's a crapshoot.

Yeah punchers chance. Don't disagree there but realistically I'll be surprised if we make it past the first round.

Maybe they get hot starting tomorrow and get some momentum against TEX and ARI then go sweep the Ms on the road but c'mon. You honestly think they have that in them?

Is Lance even good outside of MMP anymore? They've been through wringer this year, but they just seem soft.

Astros......24-25
Mariners...22-27

Just how bad was that strikezone.

Don't get me wrong, it was bad. But he was consistent. Well, until the top of the 9th when he decided to squeeze pressly then expanded again in the bottom of the 9th to Brantley.

htxag09 said:

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Don't get me wrong, it was bad. But he was consistent. Well, until the top of the 9th when he decided to squeeze pressly then expanded again in the bottom of the 9th to Brantley.

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He consistently made some bad calls but he didn't call them all that way. It was a 50-50 shot of a low breaking ball being a strike or a ball.

It's amazing that they can't put together a complete game. If the team is hitting well, the pitching stinks and vice-versa.

3 singles and a double against a 1-5 pitcher with a 5+ ERA. That's with the full lineup.... Baffling.

What made last night even more bizarro was Josh James having a good inning. 1H 2SO 0 ER.

McCullers is now sporting a 1.42 ERA at home this year.

scrimp said:

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It's amazing that they can't put together a complete game. If the team is hitting well, the pitching stinks and vice-versa.

3 singles and a double against a 1-5 pitcher with a 5+ ERA. That's with the full lineup.... Baffling.

What made last night even more bizarro was Josh James having a good inning. 1H 2SO 0 ER.

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We should not have made him look like a CYA candidate, but he's not a scrub. What did they say last night - he's one of only 5 or 6 guys in the league to have started 25 games 6 years in a row? He's like Ivan Nova or Clay Buchholz if they had pitched in Minnesota and no one knew who they were.

We need to hit much better than that against much better pitchers than that, but this guy was a solid pitcher having a career night.

I didn't say he was a scrub by any means. I understand all major leaguers are in the show because they are good. Gibson absolutely had a career night, but he's a average MLB pitcher at best. 8 year vet with a sub .500 W-L and 4.55 ERA, and the Astro's "stacked" lineup made him look like an all-star.

Ag_07 said:

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The Nationals didn't limp in.

IIRC they had the best record in the league for the 2nd half of the season.

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Just checked their 2nd half results from 2019, you are correct, they came rolling into the playoffs. Not sure why I remembered it differently.

With that, I will still be very happy for us to get into the playoffs and see if we can get on a roll.

That's the only reason they made it in.

I remember before deadline they were so far back there was speculation if they would be selling Strasburg and/or Scherzer.

They stayed the course and hit their stride right before the deadline convincing them to stay put and then played some damn good ball down the stretch.

scrimp said:

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I didn't say he was a scrub by any means. I understand all major leaguers are in the show because they are good. Gibson absolutely had a career night, but he's a average MLB pitcher at best. 8 year vet with a sub .500 W-L and 4.55 ERA, and the Astro's "stacked" lineup made him look like an all-star.

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I think he's better than you think he is. I don't think W-L or ERA are good metrics by which to judge a pitcher. Beyond that I think the less time we spend talking about arlington pitchers, the better.

But like I said, I agree with you that career night or not, we need to do better against a guy like that.

Harry Dunne said:

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scrimp said:

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I didn't say he was a scrub by any means. I understand all major leaguers are in the show because they are good. Gibson absolutely had a career night, but he's a average MLB pitcher at best. 8 year vet with a sub .500 W-L and 4.55 ERA, and the Astro's "stacked" lineup made him look like an all-star.

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I think he's better than you think he is. I don't think W-L or ERA are good metrics by which to judge a pitcher. Beyond that I think the less time we spend talking about arlington pitchers, the better.

But like I said, I agree with you that career night or not, we need to do better against a guy like that.

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W/L isn't a good metric, but ERA absolutely is.

Problem is it's not just that guy.

We've put up some ugly numbers against a handful of ho-hum pitchers throughout the year.

Just last series against TEX that Allard guy pitched 7 innings of 2 hit ball.

tjack16 said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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scrimp said:

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I didn't say he was a scrub by any means. I understand all major leaguers are in the show because they are good. Gibson absolutely had a career night, but he's a average MLB pitcher at best. 8 year vet with a sub .500 W-L and 4.55 ERA, and the Astro's "stacked" lineup made him look like an all-star.

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I think he's better than you think he is. I don't think W-L or ERA are good metrics by which to judge a pitcher. Beyond that I think the less time we spend talking about arlington pitchers, the better.

But like I said, I agree with you that career night or not, we need to do better against a guy like that.

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W/L isn't a good metric, but ERA absolutely is.

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ERA like W/L tells part of the story, so in that sense it's "good", but it is arbitrary and subjective (and therefore flawed) and isn't nearly the best way to judge the effectiveness of a pitcher. Probably an off day (or offseason) argument though.

Gibson is clearly below avg. These #s are after his performance last night. Outside of his change up most of his pitches are below avg movement and velo wise.

He is having a below average season. I don't think he's a below average pitcher. I think he's an average (and I mean that as a compliment) and extremely durable starting pitcher who had a career night against an ice-cold offense.

Lance is obviously a far more talented pitcher...but Lance will probably never start 25 games six years in a row and showing up and eating innings is definitely a part of being "good".

That's really as far as I want to go on this. Let's just save it for the off-season...or for never.

He can be a serviceable innings eater. I can agree to that.