The Astros have parted ways with assistant general manager Bill Firkus and farm director Sara Goodrum. More @TheAthletic - https://t.co/QnxN6gHKrF

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 9, 2023

Firkus has been with the team since 2013 and Goodrum was hired by Click. Not that I care too much, but I wonder what led to it. (I don't have the Athletic, anymore)

redline248 said:

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Firkus has been with the team since 2013 and Goodrum was hired by Click. Not that I care too much, but I wonder what led to it. (I don't have the Athletic, anymore)

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Dana had already mentioned about 6 promos were coming in the front office, so this is likely something he would have done last offseason had he been hired early enough. Setting up the front office with his people.

Being at the game it's hard to get a sense about everything that happened with Framber.



He clearly had a few go against him.



It looks like he couldn't get his curveball where he wanted. Either too good or uncompetitive.

His cutter was much less spinny and had more velo. No where near the vertical break is normally has.

I do like the gameplan to throw a ton of change-ups. The #s showed they're not a great offspeed-hitting team.

I think the choice for game 5 is pretty simple now. Even though Framber looked like a good match up on paper, if it goes 5 its all JV.

I haven't been too impressed with our farm development the last two years but to be fair to Goodrum the lack of draft picks combined with trading off prospects has significantly impaired the system.

No comment from either party. Seems like it's just more cleaning house from previous regimes, Goodrum was hired by Click. This off-season, whenever it starts, will be pivotal for the franchise moving forward.

These are a few of the moves I was alluding to a while back when I posted that there would be some shakeups in the front office/scouting/baseball ops departments.

This is mainly just a clean up of some of the hires from the previous regime that didn't mesh well with Dana. It wasn't about their work as much as it was about differing philosophies and Dana wanting to fill these spots with his people. Not sure if the roles will be filled internally (there's people already in the organization who he thinks very highly of) or externally.

linkdude said:

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The Astros have parted ways with assistant general manager Bill Firkus and farm director Sara Goodrum. More @TheAthletic - https://t.co/QnxN6gHKrF

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 9, 2023

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Will they still get their ring when the Astros win the World Series this year?

Off day after an L hurts. Hope Braves-Phillies is electric and the Dodgers lose.

I assume it will be Gray and then Joe Ryan in Minnesota vs Javi and then Johnny Fullstaff. Does not favor us.

Need to bring the bats and get out ahead early to neutralize the crowd. But I realize Dusty cares more about his pride than winning, so I'm feeling less optimistic the more I think about seeing Maldy in every game and not changing tactics in general.

Any chance we throw JV on 3 days rest in the event we lose tomorrow? Framber would be fully rested for game 5. Yeah yeah, he didn't pitch great, but he has come up clutch so many times in the post season he is still your ideal bet.

JDUB08AG said:

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Any chance we throw JV on 3 days rest in the event we lose tomorrow? Framber would be fully rested for game 5. Yeah yeah, he didn't pitch great, but he has come up clutch so many times in the post season he is still your ideal bet.

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I really hope not. JV has a horrible record on short rest. That went so poorly the last time they tried it (game 4, 2019 alds), and it probably was the beginning of his elbow issues. He was never the same after that in that postseason.

Farmer1906 said:

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I am weirdly confident in Javier. The flashes at the end of the year have me feeling like he's going to do something special in Minnesota tomorrow. Maybe just blind homerism.

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I have the same gut feeling. We shut them out tomorrow.

BadAggie said:

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Beau Holder said:

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Off day after an L hurts. Hope Braves-Phillies is electric and the Dodgers lose.

I assume it will be Gray and then Joe Ryan in Minnesota vs Javi and then Johnny Fullstaff. Does not favor us.

Need to bring the bats and get out ahead early to neutralize the crowd. But I realize Dusty cares more about his pride than winning, so I'm feeling less optimistic the more I think about seeing Maldy in every game and not changing tactics in general.

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Hmmm. Urquidy gave six scoreless v a playoff team in his last outing, probably the game 4 starter

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While that was impressive, I do wonder how much of Urquidy's success in that game was due to the dbacks preparing for a different starter (remember that was the start France got scratched from). I think Urquidy is gonna have to go in long relief with Javier.

The 3pm start time in Minnesota is brutal. That place is notorious for the shadows in the afternoons. Makes it tough to see the baseball as a hitter.

texasaggie2015 said:

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The 3pm start time in Minnesota is brutal. That place is notorious for the shadows in the afternoons. Makes it tough to see the baseball as a hitter.

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https://www.mlb.com/news/martin-maldonado-has-trouble-with-shadows-in-loss-to-twins

From earlier this year...

The Porkchop Express said:

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Marvin said:

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The Porkchop Express said:

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The point, and one I think you know despite the snarky meme, is that the Astros are not even a .500 team at home. No playoff team, no team that won 90 games, should be this bad at home.

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But that's precisely what they are, with an 81-game sample to prove it. The Rangers were 40-41 on the road and they also won 90 games and made the playoffs. Being better at home makes sense, but home field advantage in baseball has never been the advantage it is in the other 3 big sports.

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18 of 30 teams had a positive home record this year and last year, while 2021 saw 20 teams with winning home records. 2019 was also 18 of 30. I'd say home field is typically a definite advantage, even if not as extreme in other sports.

I'm not going to die on this hill, and I agree that Houston consistently was average at best at home. No reason to expect different in the playoffs, but that doesn't mean it is acceptable or even the norm. Carry on.

Bregxit said:

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Framber's cutter has been an enigma this season. If I recall, it has been most effective when he uses it at lower velos. It's when he is pumping it in there at 96-98 that he gets in trouble with it because it flattens out. When he takes a bit off it dances all over.

Again just going off what I think I remember from earlier this year.

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One of the guys on broadcast said this about his pitches last night.

Beau Holder said:

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Off day after an L hurts. Hope Braves-Phillies is electric and the Dodgers lose.

I assume it will be Gray and then Joe Ryan in Minnesota vs Javi and then Johnny Fullstaff. Does not favor us.

Need to bring the bats and get out ahead early to neutralize the crowd. But I realize Dusty cares more about his pride than winning, so I'm feeling less optimistic the more I think about seeing Maldy in every game and not changing tactics in general.

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It's almost like he's deathly afraid of Diaz contributing heavily to a win because he knows he will be second guessed big time. Simple solution, don't play Diaz or sub him so late in the game that even if he hits one out it won't make a difference.

The only silver lining if we do get bounced early is no more Donkey, period, full stop.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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The 3pm start time in Minnesota is brutal. That place is notorious for the shadows in the afternoons. Makes it tough to see the baseball as a hitter.

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https://www.mlb.com/news/martin-maldonado-has-trouble-with-shadows-in-loss-to-twins

From earlier this year...

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Well luckily both teams have to deal with it

texasaggie2015 said:

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True, but one team has played a lot more games there and is a lot more used to dealing with it.

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If we lose and that's the excuse… then that's Aaron Boone roof open level of lame

texasaggie2015 said:

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True, but one team has played a lot more games there and is a lot more used to dealing with it.

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Kind of like our batter's eye, right.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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BadAggie said:

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Beau Holder said:

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Off day after an L hurts. Hope Braves-Phillies is electric and the Dodgers lose.

I assume it will be Gray and then Joe Ryan in Minnesota vs Javi and then Johnny Fullstaff. Does not favor us.

Need to bring the bats and get out ahead early to neutralize the crowd. But I realize Dusty cares more about his pride than winning, so I'm feeling less optimistic the more I think about seeing Maldy in every game and not changing tactics in general.

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Hmmm. Urquidy gave six scoreless v a playoff team in his last outing, probably the game 4 starter

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While that was impressive, I do wonder how much of Urquidy's success in that game was due to the dbacks preparing for a different starter (remember that was the start France got scratched from). I think Urquidy is gonna have to go in long relief with Javier.

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Then make it sound like it'll be France and then make late scratch for Urquidy

EastCoastAgNc said:

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texasaggie2015 said:

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The 3pm start time in Minnesota is brutal. That place is notorious for the shadows in the afternoons. Makes it tough to see the baseball as a hitter.

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https://www.mlb.com/news/martin-maldonado-has-trouble-with-shadows-in-loss-to-twins

From earlier this year...

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The Twins were 21-17 in home day games with an average score of 4.87 to 4.13.

The Twins were 26-17 in home night games with an average score of 4.81 to 4.07.

Similar records and identical run differential between day and night games. I'm not sure this will matter much.

it will be interesting to see if the intentional walk is used as a weapon in games 3 & 4

the Twins can't let Yordan beat them -- have to make Tucker or Abreu do it

likewise the Astros can't let Carlos keep getting big hits -- make the next guy do it

texasaggie2015 said:

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True, but one team has played a lot more games there and is a lot more used to dealing with it.

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The Twins have had just 2 home games all year start at 3pm.

He uses it because he needs something to work inside on righties. Otherwise they start slapping that sinker the other way like we saw several times last night. It's also why typically a lefty sinker ball pitcher uses a slider rather than a curve as their primary offspeed pitch.