I was involved in six Game 7's in my baseball career as an executive (was 5-1 and you all know which one we lost). There is nothing like it. Enjoy it for what it is... the ultimate drama and the chance to create incredible memories. And go @astros !!!

— Jeff Luhnow (@jluhnow) October 23, 2023

The Porkchop Express said:

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Should have Hakeem do the first pitch. Cuz we need some Clutch City tonight.

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Mario Elie. Kiss of death.

I always thought this was year to bring Rudy T in for the first pitch at some point, given that we are trying to repeat

Sorry to hear. Let us know if you need anything or if we can help at all.

As someone who's been laid off twice it's pretty tough but at least for me both times it worked out better in the end and I found myself in better situations when the dust settled.

Keep your head up and reach out if you need to.

Mathguy64 said:

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The Porkchop Express said:

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Should have Hakeem do the first pitch. Cuz we need some Clutch City tonight.

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Mario Elie. Kiss of death.

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Junior year at A&M, watched that, and then watched the Ags beat the piss out of Tech in baseball at Olsen Field.

Mathguy64 said:

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The Porkchop Express said:

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Should have Hakeem do the first pitch. Cuz we need some Clutch City tonight.

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Mario Elie. Kiss of death.

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I looked over and I thought Joe Klein was gonna cry lol.

Game 7s in any sport are so awesome to watch, But man, it's a whole other level of nervousness when your team is in it.

Number of ALCS home runs all-time pic.twitter.com/ZUdOMjYvc2

— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) October 23, 2023

Altuve alone with more than some teams

So what to do about our noticeable decline of run production at home? Players have complained about the batters eye and the Astros front office has made some minor modifications. I hear what the skeptic say - it shouldn't matter since both teams use the same batters eye. My reply is so what! If that's what the players are complaining about then you have to take it seriously and do all that you can to improve batting conditions.

My solution would be to replicate Arlington's GLF batter's eye down to the smallest detail. Same dimensions and same background color. Who cares if we lose a few Budweiser landing zone bar stools on the patio. Those modifications have been fairly recent and the batters eye has been shrinking to the point that it's affecting play. This should be corrected.

The batters eye was nothing but a poor excuse imo

I would put trying too hard, playing "hero ball", or just flat out bad luck way ahead of the batter's eye as an "excuse".

Prior to August 13th loss to the Angels, the Astros were 33-25 at home (57%). Since, they are 7-21 (25%). The Oakland A's won 32% of their games at home. There is no possible explanation for the Astros performance at home other than a voodoo curse.

texasaggie2015 said:

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The batters eye was nothing but a poor excuse imo

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Doesn't matter if it's real or not. Once those guys thought it was a problem, it was.

And let's be honest. It was an extremely busy background with all the various levels, lines, textures, and colors. Looking into and having glare off the glass from setting sun is hard enough. Throw that in and I don't think it was outrageous to suggest cleaning it up some.

bearkatag15 said:

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czechy91 said:

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So what to do about our noticeable decline of run production at home? Players have complained about the batters eye and the Astros front office has made some minor modifications. I hear what the skeptic say - it shouldn't matter since both teams use the same batters eye. My reply is so what! If that's what the players are complaining about then you have to take it seriously and do all that you can to improve batting conditions.

My solution would be to replicate Arlington's GLF batter's eye down to the smallest detail. Same dimensions and same background color. Who cares if we lose a few Budweiser landing zone bar stools or the patio. Those modifications have been fairly recent and the batters eye has been shrinking to the point hat it's affecting play. This should be corrected.

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Some changes I'd make is getting rid of the ivy on the batter's eye and just do a black paint. Expand it to the right and get rid of like half of the Budweiser seating area. Also lose the logo on the batters eye.

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Agreed! They have been greedy trying to maximize advertising dollars to the teams detriment. Lose the damn Budweiser patio and expand the batters eye the full length of where the Budweiser patio is now located. Also paint it black to dark green to maximize contrast between the wall and base ball.

I think I start Dubon at SS and Chas in CF today.

I don't care how much we suck at home, I'm not going to sit here and let someone besmirch the good name of Torchy's Tacos.

So the batter's eye affects our hitters (who play half their games here) more than our opponents? Interesting.

The Porkchop Express said:

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I don't care how much we suck at home, I'm not going to sit here and let someone besmirch the good name of Torchy's Tacos.

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Settle down.

Torchy's does that enough themselves. $6 for a taco should be a crime.

Wabs said:

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So the batter's eye affects our hitters (who play half their games here) more than our opponents? Interesting.

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This will surprise many people. But for all the crap we get about the short porch that is the crawford boxes, Minute Maid is way down the list of 32 parks in runs scored. 20th out of 32.

So yah, considering everyone expects so many homeruns, it does appear that teams struggle to score runs at the Juice Box.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/statcast-park-factors

Jet Black said:

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Sher Thing said:

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I think I start Dubon at SS and Chas in CF today.

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He won't but yep. Chances Diaz gets the start at C?

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In a game 7?

Absolutely none. And we'll thank him for it later.