Yea. We had some really good ABs tonight, but had our worst ones when we needed them most.

Beat40 said:

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The Tucker hard hit DP really hurt tonight, but that's just baseball.

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It really was huge. Would have put Snell on the ropes early. Baseball gods owe us a good break.

Wonder if day game tomorrow will help our bats

Listening to the interview of Snell he sounds like he's got an IQ of 92.

Gotta have smarter ABs against this pitching. Swinging at first pitch breaking balls killed us tonight. It's giving them what they want. I know "that's our game" but it's not going to work and we've got to adjust.

Can someone briefly explain to me the rise of Framber Valdez? For a couple years he seemed like a so-so reliever, now all of a sudden he's like our new Gerrit Cole. Is this a fluke or just his natural development as a great pitcher?

redline248 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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Listening to the interview of Snell he sounds like he's got an IQ of 92.

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Isn't he the guy on a twitch stream talking about not risking his life for the owners? Sounds like he's out of the trailer?

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I mentioned last year Snell looks like FAS.

Framber has always had great stuff--great thrower, but not a great pitcher. In '18 he did great for a rookie in a limited role. In '19 was walking too many batters to be really effective (which was a problem in a rookied season, as well). His walks/9 was 5.6.

This year, the coaching staff has mentioned that he came in more mature. Not sure if that is just being a year older, or more coaching with Strom, or what exactly, but he his attacking hitters more and keeping the walks down and is looking like top-end-of-the-rotation guy.

Decent article with more details.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/Astros-insider-The-emergence-of-Framber-Valdez-15469800.php

scrimp said:

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Framber has always had great stuff--great thrower, but not a great pitcher. In '18 he did great for a rookie in a limited role. In '19 was walking too many batters to be really effective (which was a problem in a rookied season, as well). His walks/9 was 5.6.

This year, the coaching staff has mentioned that he came in more mature. Not sure if that is just being a year older, or more coaching with Strom, or what exactly, but he his attacking hitters more and keeping the walks down and is looking like top-end-of-the-rotation guy.

Decent article with more details.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/Astros-insider-The-emergence-of-Framber-Valdez-15469800.php

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One of the recent broadcasts also mentioned he saw a psychiatrist in the offseason to help prepare himself mentally while on the mound.

Sassy Lance on the mound today

Gonna get nasty

New day. New game. Keep hitting. LFG!!!

astros4545 said:

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Sassy Lance on the mound today

Gonna get nasty

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Agreed! Wanna see Lance get sassy, moody, nasty on the mound today!

I think this series will go to 6 or 7

Which means a lot of high stress and over reactions on this board (me included). Gotta prepare for anything and everything this week

Win tonight and I have all the confidence in the world that we take the series.

Ags #1 said:

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Brett strom happened.

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Brent Strom? Not sure if I'm missing a joke...

AggieLit said:

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Ags #1 said:

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Brett strom happened.

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Brent Strom? Not sure if I'm missing a joke...

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I had a friend in high school named Brent. He found out one of our coaches was going to name his newborn son Brett. My friend told the coach, "he's gonna hate it." Coach gave him a weird look and said "but it's not Brent..."

Funny observation. During our final game against the A's I got sick of the crybabies when we were down early and for the first time ever I used the ignore button....noticed last night that I wasn't "missing" any posts that were being ignored.

Funny how that works

A great day to bounce back!

07ag said:

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I'm far too young to have watched him play but I have one of his t shirt jerseys. So sad

07ag said:

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Sad day.

One of the best, funniest and most informative baseball blogs ever to exist was FireJoeMorgan.com

The Highlight of my day was always logging in to see if Ken Tremendous, DAK and the rest had anything to say.

Mr.Bond said:

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07ag said:

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I'm far too young to have watched him play but I have one of his t shirt jerseys. So sad

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An old school Astro before he joined the Big Red Machine. Great ball player, great announcer, great man.

Yeah him too. My bad

Deluxe said:

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astros4545 said:

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Sassy Lance on the mound today

Gonna get nasty

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Agreed! Wanna see Lance get sassy, moody, nasty on the mound today!

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Someone get lance some midol?

A look at the umpiring accuracy last night.

Big Al 1992 said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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07ag said:

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I'm far too young to have watched him play but I have one of his t shirt jerseys. So sad

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An old school Astro before he joined the Big Red Machine. Great ball player, great announcer, great man.

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Man this is such sad news. Watched him play for the Astros when I was a kid. Never could understand why we traded him to the Reds. Sad day, Joe was a legend.

Can we get protection detail on Biggio and Bagwell and Nolan ASAP

hall of famers are dropping like flies

redline248 said:

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AggieLit said:

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Ags #1 said:

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Brett strom happened.

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Brent Strom? Not sure if I'm missing a joke...

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I had a friend in high school named Brent. He found out one of our coaches was going to name his newborn son Brett. My friend told the coach, "he's gonna hate it." Coach gave him a weird look and said "but it's not Brent..."

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"Brent's" have little brother syndrome