tjack16 said:

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Since I was 11 and 12 during that 2004-2005 run,

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The word glorious comes to mind.
Roof closed G1, should be open G2. pic.twitter.com/MqKWG1OLFk

— Charlie Pallilo (@Pallilo) October 27, 2022

Prosperdick said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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https://instagr.am/p/Cj6IufYvshX

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Really hope I get to post her AOFA later tonight...I went back and checked and since I've posted her after wins since August 11th we are 38-15 for a .716 winning percentage. Not too shabby and better than our regular season winning percentage.

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Updated to include the 4 wins against the Yankees...since I first posted her on August 11th we are now 42-15 for a .736 winning percentage. I really hope I get to post her AOFA later tomorrow night.

The Porkchop Express said:

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tjack16 said:

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Since I was 11 and 12 during that 2004-2005 run,

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I was 13.

Also, why does tomorrow feel further away now than it did on Monday?

I wish we had better knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes. From a position player standpoint, our core is still pretty strongly linked to Luhnow IMO. From a pitching standpoint, given where Luhnow left our staff post 2019 and where it is today, I give alot of credit to Click.

Click built our pitching foundation with alot of Luhnow picks/signees, but those guys did most of their big league developing under Click's watch. Also worth remembering that Luhnow was on a pretty stanky run of pitching prospect performance at the big league level when he left (Corbin Martin, James, Cio, Framber struggled bad during his tenure).

I'm sure Click brought all his Rays pitching secrets over from Tampa, but those are largely integrated by now. He's got some baseball chops and has made some good moves to help us win, but does he have the organizational leadership/work ethic chops that Crane demands? That's what I'm not sure about.

I'm also not sure if Crane is starting to think he's got a handle on things and wants to run more of it himself. That could be good, as he's the constant behind the scenes in the Luhnow vs Click "debate". Something in our org is obviously working very well regardless of GM. Maybe he's a bigger part of our brainpower than we know.

The fear is that maybe Crane has some Jerry Jones in him. That he's starting to think he gets it more than he actually does, wants more input into baseball ops and more credit for our success. I don't think this is the case but ya never know I guess.

Regardless, I think we're going to learn alot about Crane this offseason.

Congratulations to our FIVE #SilverSluggerAward finalists! pic.twitter.com/lipCmpKV67

— Houston Astros (@astros) October 27, 2022

Maldy!

I think this speaks more to the terrible hitting of catchers league-wide than anything else, but I still love it!!!

The roof will be closed for World Series Games 1-2 at Minute Maid Park.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 27, 2022

Yordan & Altuve should win it.

Tucker will be behind Judge, Trout, & Rodriguez.
Bregman behind Ramirez.
Maldy behind all the other finalists.

Farmer1906 said:

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The roof will be closed for World Series Games 1-2 at Minute Maid Park.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 27, 2022

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The roof open/closed tweets and everyone being upset about it is such an odd thing to me every playoffs

We'll want to see him fail, but you have to love Kyle Schwarber for being the guy who finally lost his **** and lit into Angel Hernandez and his BS.

Don't mind me. I'll just be sitting here waiting for 7:03 pm first pitch…

From the Astros: RHP Justin Verlander has been named as the Astros Game One starter on Friday night.

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) October 27, 2022

Ags #1 said:

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What is the twitter page that does those umpire scorecards after each game? Thanks!

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Umpire Scorecards

EastCoastAgNc said:

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From the Astros: RHP Justin Verlander has been named as the Astros Game One starter on Friday night.

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) October 27, 2022

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The Porkchop Express said:

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We'll want to see him fail, but you have to love Kyle Schwarber for being the guy who finally lost his **** and lit into Angel Hernandez and his BS.

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I know we hate Jomboy but this is a good breakdown.

Postseason off days…

should just start leaving the world series decorations up so they dont have to put em up every year. Like christmas lights in east texas.

Ragnar Danneskjoldd said:

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should just start leaving the world series decorations up so they dont have to put em up every year. Like christmas lights in east texas.

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4 straight years game 1 is in Texas.

Harry Dunne said:

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I know you're kidding and when I saw Maldy on there, initially I thought it was a joke as well.

Catcher is by far the hardest position to evaluate, because they haven't come up with a way to quantify how much leadership and calling a game is worth (or they have and they're not sharing it yet). It's obviously worth a lot.

I'm not sure if it was ever a serious consideration, but that's why I was so in favor of trading Tucker for Realmuto. I have grown to love Tucker and his best baseball is ahead of him while Realmuto at almost 32 is probably headed for either a sharp decline or a position change...but imagine that this whole time instead of having a liability at the plate, we had a guy just as good as Maldy defensively who is nearly as good of a hitter as Tucker is.

Who knows who we'd have in RF at this point, but he'd be miles better offensively than Maldy. Would that have been enough to make a difference in 2019 or 2021 (we would have never picked up Chirinos)?

OR is Maldy so good calling a game that he makes up for it?

I always go back to the fact that Evan Gattis was a pretty consistent high .700s OPS guy with lots of pop who wasn't good defensively but also didn't rate atrociously and no teams even gave him a shot. He's Johnny Bench at the plate compared to Maldy. Seems like a good dude and the only thing I can come up with is that he's absolutely vile at calling a game.

Anyway, those are my off-day catchers musings.

Congrats to Maldy for sucking less than many other catchers.

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Fair post. You're right, I was definitely kidding and making fun of myself more than anything.

Agree with your comment about catcher in general. With every other position on the field, you can look at offense/defense metrics and be able to tell in most circumstances who should be playing. Catcher is a little more difficult.

My personal perception is that Maldy's ability to make reads in-game/in-at bat, make the right calls and give our pitchers (especially young pitchers) confidence that he's got things under control is a value-add that more than makes up for his offensive limitations. IMO, part of our pitching staff secret sauce is that they can outsource real-time decision making to Maldy and are freed up to just focus on execution.

That ability takes a time and trust to develop (in both directions). The pitchers have to trust Maldy and Maldy has to 1) know exactly what the pitcher is capable of throwing and 2) trust that the pitcher can execute in a certain spot. But when it's synced up, it can be beautiful.

Also think Vazzy was a perfect add because I think he's got the right pedigree to pick that stuff up quicker than 98% of catchers out there. I really hope we find a way to bring him back next year and let Maldy transition 1A duties to him.

Lots of room for reasonable minds to disagree here though. You're a good poster Harry and I respect your takes.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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From the Astros: RHP Justin Verlander has been named as the Astros Game One starter on Friday night.

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) October 27, 2022

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I guess you give the kid a chance and see what he can do. he's on a decent hot streak since August 2017.

One thing to keep in mind. If the JT trade happens in 2019. You get JT for 2 seasons and he's a FA. I would take 19-20 JT over 19-20 Tucker. But Tucker is gunna be here for 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25.

Does he make the difference in 19? Maybe. He can't make the difference in 21. Who's to say we even make it in 21 without Tucker's .935 OPS and 15 RBI in the DS+CS.