I am getting ready to roll with this Astros season. While disappointed in how the Ags have started the year, I am still in. It is disconcerting to me the lack of "rally boobs" on the Aggie baseball threads. Someone please assure me that we are still going to do that here without persecution. I am an old and the simple things seem to add value.
Thanks in advance.
We're going to need Kara McCullers and Kat Pressly to step it up with Kate gone.
I am getting ready to roll with this Astros season. While disappointed in how the Ags have started the year, I am still in. It is disconcerting to me the lack of "rally boobs" on the Aggie baseball threads. Someone please assure me that we are still going to do that here without persecution. I am an old and the simple things seem to add value.
Sources: The Houston Astros are the favorites to sign Cuban OF Kevin Alvarez when a new international period opens January 15, 2025. Bonus sign will be in the $2 M range. Considered one of the best hitters in his class.
Sources: The Houston Astros are the favorites to sign Cuban OF Kevin Alvarez when a new international period opens January 15, 2025. Bonus sign will be in the $2 M range. Considered one of the best hitters in his class.
Trout is somewhere between over-rated and vastly over-rated.
where was he during the Angels' 14-game losing streak last year?
and guess which month of the season, he posted his best numbers?
September...what a shocker
My issue with Trout has always been at some point superstar players have to carry their teams on their back or will them to victory. I realize baseball is different from basketball and football where one player can have a dramatic impact on his team's success but there is still an element of truth.
His teams have never won **** and he does pad his stats a bit, when he's not hurt. He's still a no doubt HOFer but you can certainly make an argument that he's a bit overrated with all the "best player of his generation" talk. Part of being the best is winning and carrying your team when they need you the most. He has never and likely will never check that box.
Trout is somewhere between over-rated and vastly over-rated.
where was he during the Angels' 14-game losing streak last year?
and guess which month of the season, he posted his best numbers?
September...what a shocker
My issue with Trout has always been at some point superstar players have to carry their teams on their back or will them to victory. I realize baseball is different from basketball and football where one player can have a dramatic impact on his team's success but there is still an element of truth.
His teams have never won **** and he does pad his stats a bit, when he's not hurt. He's still a no doubt HOFer but you can certainly make an argument that he's a bit overrated with all the "best player of his generation" talk. Part of being the best is winning and carrying your team when they need you the most. He has never and likely will never check that box.
You can't carry a team on your back in baseball.
Bonds had a 1.422 OPS in 2004 and the Giants didn't make the playoffs. Same for the 73 HR season. No postseason. He had a combined 22.5 WAR those 2 seasons.
Trout is somewhere between over-rated and vastly over-rated.
where was he during the Angels' 14-game losing streak last year?
and guess which month of the season, he posted his best numbers?
September...what a shocker
My issue with Trout has always been at some point superstar players have to carry their teams on their back or will them to victory. I realize baseball is different from basketball and football where one player can have a dramatic impact on his team's success but there is still an element of truth.
His teams have never won **** and he does pad his stats a bit, when he's not hurt. He's still a no doubt HOFer but you can certainly make an argument that he's a bit overrated with all the "best player of his generation" talk. Part of being the best is winning and carrying your team when they need you the most. He has never and likely will never check that box.
Please explain how a CF can carry a team? Does he get to change the lineup, come pitch and play CF, play all positions?
There is only one position that can carry a team and that is a SP, but even they cant score runs and only pitch every 5 games. Go ask Clemens how well it works to be as close to lock down as you can be and yet still lose games because your offense wont score A run, not runs, just a single run
There is only one position that can carry a team and that is a SP, but even they cant score runs and only pitch every 5 games. Go ask Clemens how well it works to be as close to lock down as you can be and yet still lose games because your offense wont score A run, not runs, just a single run
Seriously. Look at 2000 Pedro Martinez, too. One of the greatest single seasons by a SP and the Red Sox missed the playoffs.
Dana Brown on if it's possible the Astros are able to get a contract extension done with someone before opening day: "There's potential. We're talking to agents everyday, so there's a chance we can get something done. We're trying."
So I'm going to double up on the jersey countdown now that someone has exposed me as the math fraud I am.
#30 is the world's greatest lollygagger, the man who Tarpon Chaser once told us "Lollygags around the OF. And his hitting has been for ***** I know he was drafted #5 overall but his swing is straight garbage."
Now 398 games into his professional career, he's lollygagged his way to back-to-back 30 HR seasons, 199 RBI in the last 2 years, two top 20 MVP finishes, his first All-Star Game, and a Gold Glove. He also hit 2 home runs in the World Series.
#30 wasn't the greatest number before King Tuck got it. Luke Scott wore it for a few years in the mid 2000s, Jeff Leonard wore in from 1979-1981 before getting traded, and finished second in the ROY voting in 1979. The Astros wisely traded him for MIke Ivie, who played all of 26 games in Houston, and then got RELEASED. Leonard also looked like he really enjoyed having his photo taken for baseball cards.
#29 gives us a lot of fun times over the years, although recently it's been worn by a bunch of stiffs including Brett Wallace, the first baseman who did not understand how to hit a baseball very far despite being 6'2, 250 lbs, and Woody Williams who the team paid $6 million to at age 40 to go 8-15 with a 5.27 ERA.
From 2001-2004, it was worn by fireballer Octavio Dotel, part of the Astros incredible bullpen of that era.Dotel came to the Astros after the 1999 season when we decided to get Derek Bell out of town and send Mike Hampton away as well because of that certain rumor about you know what.
Dotel was a terrible starter (3-7, 5.40 ERA) in 2000, but when he got moved to the bullpen in the second half of the year and into 2001, the light came on.
Dotel turned into a setup man in 2001, going 7-6 with a 2.66 ERA and 145 K in 105 innings. The net year, 2002, he was 6-4 with a 1.85 ERA and 118K in 97 innings. He was eventually a big part of the 3-way deal that brought Carlos Beltran to Houston in 2004.
One of the most beloved Astros of the 1970s and 1980s also wore #29. As the legendary J Fred Duckett would call it at the Dome, "Now batting, number 29, the third baseman, DENNNNN-Y, WALL-ING!"
Somewhat lost in the hub-bub of Scott and Davis and Bass and Kerfeld and Deshaies in 1986 was the fact that Denny Walling had a career year, leading the team with a .312 average, and finishing second in OBP at .367. He played 130 games, hit 13 HR, the only time in his career with more than 7, and was nails all year long.
He played 18 years in the bigs, 13 of those with the Astros and hit .277 with a .747 OPS for the good guys. He and Phil Garner made a great platoon at third base, and he's one of the best pinch hitters in MLB history - 108 career pinch hits (13th all time). He was also versatile as hell, playing left field and third base and first base.
His best day as an Astro came in the fall of 1981 against the filthy Dodgers in the strike-abbreviated NLDS. Although the Astros lost the series in 5, he won Game 2 with a walkoff single in the bottom of the 11th at the Dome against Dave Stewart for a 1-0 win.
Walling, what a sweet swan song he had. After having been traded from the Astros he bounced around the league for a couple of years and nearly faced the ignominy of finishing with the Rangers. But then he was signed by the Astros where he finished his last season batting .333. That was based on only three at bats, but still, a fitting finish by a really good guy.
Sources: The Houston Astros are the favorites to sign Cuban OF Kevin Alvarez when a new international period opens January 15, 2025. Bonus sign will be in the $2 M range. Considered one of the best hitters in his class.
449 career homers, and damn near none of them came when the game was in +/- 2 runs, or at critical spots in playoff games. Zero clutchness to his game.
Bagwell was at least IN playoff games...and then none of those teams did a darn thing.
I would imagine when Trout signed his mega deal he assumed the team would do more around him, and to their credit they have tried paying big bucks numerous times they just aren't effective at it. Hamilton, Pujols, Rendon. The only other option is to have been demanding a trade but personally I hate when players do that
449 career homers, and damn near none of them came when the game was in +/- 2 runs, or at critical spots in playoff games. Zero clutchness to his game.
Hold on. Let's not sully Bagwell's name for a misleading stat. Bagwell was a much better HR hitter in low leverage, sure. But that doesn't mean he sucked in the clutch during the regular season.
High Lev: .306 / .426 / .556 Med Lev: .302 / .406 / .537 Low Lev .288 / .400 / .536
If you prefer close games only
Tie game: .286 / .416 / .506 Within 1: .297 / .419 / .525 Within 2: .295 / .413 / .525
Angels should have burned it to the ground last year when they realized they couldn't make it happen.
From 7/22
Quote:
It may sound ridiculous, but they should unload Trout, Ohtani, & make someone take Rendon. And while you're at it, trade Iglesias. They have no shot of winning. Their nonexistent window is closing. After 2023 it's no Ohtani and their highest-paid players will be 32 and 34 with 361 M still owed to those 2 alone. Get out of it now. The prospect haul from those 3 with Rendon as a negative would be enough to kickstart rebuild. Lose 100 games in 23 and 24 then start trying to win in 2025/26. That is when you should start opening up the pocket book again.