Just got home from the game and holy **** that was fun to watch in person. Had some little astro kid screaming in my ear after the first inning…..but was pretty quiet after the fourth. ****er.

I think their team really implodes after this. You could see the cracks opening last night. I think this game marks the end of their so call mini dynasty and they go back to the cellar.

I'd be happy to see us follow through on one of these scuffles this time in the postseason rather than wind up being the big losers (Toronto series).

I don't think last night really necessarily marked the breaking point or anything like that for either team, just once again showed that we are capable of beating anyone. They still took 2 of 3 though, so it ain't gonna be easy. Few more days and we'll have survived the toughest stretch of the season (San Diego likely won't make the playoffs, but they are still a pretty stacked roster).

Angels trade I'm not sure is a great signal of anything. Doesn't benefit you to show your hand so saying he's not available isn't going to stop the calls, and the pitchers they nabbed could be reinforcements for the current rotation or they could be guys they slot in if Ohtani is moved and simply make his trade value a little bit higher by thinning out the market.

But I think it's going to wind up being what some of us hoped for a few weeks back when the talks started -- that LAAA would play just well enough to not be clear sellers and therefore almost have to hold onto him for the stretch run. IMO Ohtani is not a good fit for our team as currently constructed, so to see him A) Not go to a likely playoff contender and B) Not return any great trade haul for our division foe is a short-term and long-term win for us. Their last week or two in September actually setup nicely if they are still in contention, but they've got 9 more on the road before coming home for a series with Seattle and San Fran then back on the road for @TEX and @HOU. That's a damn tough schedule so there's a good chance that shortly after the trade deadline they are back out of contention. Fingers crossed.

2nd half Lowe is real.

Since the ASB he's slashing at a .429/.538/1.276 pace

fc2112 said:

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BTW - didn't notice this last night but Maldonado decided to also jaw at Garcia and yeah that's a poor choice.

Got a problem? pic.twitter.com/xW4Xfm7Gob

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) July 27, 2023

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Haha Semian was right in Moldy's ear the whole time. If you've pissed off Semian you've majorly done something wrong.

TefIon Don said:

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Just got home from the game and holy **** that was fun to watch in person. Had some little astro kid screaming in my ear after the first inning…..but was pretty quiet after the fourth. ****er.

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Baseball is a game taught by dads to sons before age 12. Back when the Astros were tanking, some of you might not know this, but they weren't even on t.v. for most of Houston. I could get the Rangers on FSSW, but not the Astros. I thought for the longest time that Hoston would pay for not televising their local team, but with 4 million people, winning cured all of that. However, I think there is just a lot of baseball ignorance now with young people who never learned the game. My son's friend was insisting that Alvarez was hit on purpose. He just kept doubling down on it. I told my son to just ignore him. Baseball is like a foreign language. If you wait until you're 17 to learn it, you'll likely never speak it very well.

There's also a lot of "unwritten rules" in baseball that make zero logical sense so it's tough for some people to know what's going on.

Logically throwing at the guy AFTER the guy who hits the homerun doesn't make a lot of sense... You're throwing at a guy who didn't hit it? Why would you be throwing at a guy for doing at his job well? Why would you put a guy on base, does that really stick it to the other team?

But it happens... so I can see where a fan not paying attention to the particulars of the game might think that Heaney plunking the guy right after a 3-run-bomb might be on purpose without realizing you wouldn't do that on an 0-2 count.

But who really knows these days... I can see Valdez throwing at Semien, sure... but one of the unwritten rules that trumps the other unwritten rules is you don't throw at a guy's head so at the very least I have a hard time believing the location was on purpose. You purposely throw a 95 pitch at a guy's head and you don't get pats on the back from your teammates (even Astros). I assume he may have been trying to hit him but it also got away from him.

Or maybe he's a guy who when he gets frustrated just doesn't give a **** anymore ala Vicente Padilla of yesteryear.

"Headhunting is a coward"

GiggityAg01 said:

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I think their team really implodes after this. You could see the cracks opening last night. I think this game marks the end of their so call mini dynasty and they go back to the cellar.

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They aren't done, they'll be in the playoffs. With an aging core, it'll be interesting to see if they go all in at the trade deadline for another playoff run push. They don't have much by way of top prospects, so they'd likely have to take on salary for any significant bump to their roster.

Gotta laugh at the Astro fans reading **** in our thread than going to their thread and posting about what we're saying, then turning around and flipping out like 12 year old middle school girls "why are you reading our thread?"

Some of them have this excuse that they're used to being the "only" active baseball thread because of the last few years and they're not used to "sharing the space" so they accidentally click on our thread, but that's total bull***** If that's true, you guys have horrible self awareness or just need to go to an eye doctor because you're blind as a bat not knowing what thread you're clicking on a message board.

I actually agree with some of them about the Bautista ***** We overhyped it and gave odor a contract he wasn't qualified for because we could make money off the incident and sell tickets / jerseys for a few years while the team really sucked.

No…..Heaney didn't throw at Yordan on purpose. Yes obese Framber hit Semien hard and on purpose. Maldy talking **** to Garcia and Semien after hitting big home runs while wearing a full set of protective gear and not really having a track record of hitting success of his own is sad and pathetic. Garcia has probably hit more home runs in 80 games than Maldy has in his life.

Why do we call Framber obese? Look it up….. the guy is a fat lard. He's listed as 5'11 and 240 lbs. He injured his ankle in the dugout and his weight probably had something to do with it because it's not a common time or place to injure one's self.

I'm moving on and won't talk about them much until we play them again in September. It's a slow off day so forgive the Astros post please.

Proposition Joe said:

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But it happens... so I can see where a fan not paying attention to the particulars of the game might think that Heaney plunking the guy right after a 3-run-bomb might be on purpose without realizing you wouldn't do that on an 0-2 count.

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Pudge tells a great story about Nolan Ryan - middle of a meaningless game against the A's - he's down 3-0 to a guy with 2 outs, no one on base - and Ryan just DRILLS the batter with a + heater.

Pudge calls time and trots our and says "damn Nolan - you do that on purpose". "Yeah" Ryan said - "I's probably gonna walk him - figured I'd make him pay for it."

94chem said:

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Yeah, I think Framber meant to hit him on the butt, and was upset that he got the rib cage.

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I don't think Semien would have gotten so worked up if they hit him low - I mean, it's kind of a compliment - we hit their best hitter so they hit ours - it was going high that upset him.

South Platte said:

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GiggityAg01 said:

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I think their team really implodes after this. You could see the cracks opening last night. I think this game marks the end of their so call mini dynasty and they go back to the cellar.

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Wishful thinking. They are going to be really good for a very long time. There is seemingly no end to the talent that Luhnow stockpiled into their system.

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If you look at the MLB top 100 prospects list, they have exactly one (Drew Gilbert, #69). By comparison, the Rangers have 6 (Carter, White, Acuna, Porter, Leiter & Wolcott). Their farm system is ranked 30th in MLB.

The battered Ranger syndrome and mindset that the Astros have some amazing farm system is simply not accurate. Not sure where you're getting the idea that their system is "stockpiled", but your sources are completely wrong.

Absolutely, and I wouldn't dispute that. However, not having a strong farm system limits your ability to make trades for MLB players/upgrades. If they need a SP, they're likely going to have to trade away some of their young MLB players because they don't have the prospects to offer. They better hope they stay healthy or they'll fall off a cliff in a year or two.