DallasAg 94 said:
agproducer said:
DallasAg 94 said:
Astros are likely going to tumble in 2024... likely won't make the post-season and some how play victim.
Not make the postseason in 2024? C'mon, man. Take off your Rangers-colored glasses. The Astros team was unhealthy for most of the year. The pitching was worn out from year after year going deep in the playoffs -- AND they still pushed the Rangers to 7 games in their 7th straight ALCS.
They are returning most of the players they had this year, and they're going to get pitching help back.
To make that claim is just wrong.
So tired of the "injury" excuse from the Astros. We had 5 of our 6 All-Stars on the IL at the same time mid-season. None of us cried boohoo... it is a fact of baseball.
I tracked the rotations all summer. I predicted the Astros rotation would wear down. Not because of year-afte-year.
Javier: 162.0 IP ('23), 148.2 IP (.22), 101.1 IP ('21), 54.1 IP ('20)
Framber: 198.0 ('23), 201.1 ('22), 134.2 ('21), 70.2 ('20)
Verlander: 162.1 ('23), 175.0 ('22), 0.0 ('21), 6.0 ('20)
Brown: 155.2 ('23), 20.1 ('22), 0.0 ('21)
Urquidy: 63.0 ('23), 164.1 ('22), 107.0 ('21), 29.2 ('20)
France: 136.1 ('23), 0.0 ('22)
Javier, Brown and France all had career-highs in innings.
Framber jumped from 134 to over 200 in '22, then nearly 200 in '23.
That is a big jump for young arms. But they did wear down.
Add 97 postseason games since 2017, that's a lot of additional mileage along with a month less of rest each year. They've played 60% of a full season in postseason games since 2017.
In addition, Urquidy, Garcia and Javier pitched in the WBC.
Injuries are a big part of baseball. Astros lost Altuve for two months, Urquidy for about 2 months, Garcia for the season, LMJ for the season, Yordan only played in 114 games, Brantley played in only 15 games. Those are big pieces to be gone.
For your Rangers all-star injury claims -- the one with the fewest games played was Seager with 119 games. That's more than Yordan (114) and Altuve (90).
For pitching, Perez was the only Rangers SP in the WBC.
Since you are a "real" baseball fan, take a look at the numbers. I'm not taking anything away from what the Rangers have done. I'm just saying that we need to be real about things.