Until we get some of these 5 injured starting pitchers back this will continue .. hopefully win some games till we can get 2-3 back

As I've said before Espada has to feel like he has some sort of voodoo curse. The level of suckitude of guys who should not be sucking is unreal. Bregman and Chas 1/8 of the way through the season without a homer? Bregman on pace for 38 RBI from the cleanup spot? Abreu/Pressly/Hader with a combined ERA over 21?

This is the season from Hell. The only players we have carrying their weight are Altuve, Pena, Tucker, Blanco, Montero, Diaz, Meyers and Martinez. Everyone else is struggling mightily

tjack16 said:

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Salisbury on 790 going all in on ripping the Astros this morning.

Kind of refreshing to hear a media person not sugar coating it

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Football season starts tomorrow night. They're just getting their last last licks in before the Astros get banished to the shadow realm.

No, the rangers didn't break us, having all our starting rotation on the DL at sometime this year is. It always comes down to pitching.

The Porkchop Express said:

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There is a 0.0% chance any Astros fan would ever say the Rangers broke us. No fan base would.

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It's a stupid premise. Teams don't get "broken" by other teams. Losing to the Rangers didn't cause all of our injuries and it sure didn't cause 5-6 guys to just absolutely suck this season.

What is the timing for waiver claims on a guy who gets DFA'd? Would we know today whether the Astros picked up Cooper or not?

Below are NOT reasons the Astros suck right now

1. Rangers "breaking us". If that were the case then the nationals would have sent us into a downward spiral after 2019

2. Starting pitcher injuries. Are they injured? Yes. However Brown and France were in the rotation all year last year and they've completely crapped the bed and are a combined 0-7. We've also had great starts from Framber and Javier that still resulted in losses.
Even if we had the 2019 starting rotation we'd still be below .500 because this offense is anemic and the back end of the pen is god awful

GigEM96 said:

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If I understood it correctly, Click wanted to trade Urquidy for Contreras (or had a deal in place Crane nixed) and Crane shot that down and then disposed of Click after the season, for not being aggressive enough or something. After the team won a title.

Crane went with Brown, a talent evaluator with a very good draft history as GM but at the moment the Astros need a 'wheeler dealer' type GM, someone who can make a move or two to help right the ship.

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problem is even if the astros wanted to wheel and deal right now all of the teams would bend us over because we have zero leverage, and we have nobody in the minors worthy of a decent return.

Timing on the Javi injury is the worst part. Now you have to keep BOTH France and HB in the rotation, struggles or not. It's gotta wear on their confidence too, sending them to AAA would be pretty crushing, I feel.

If they don't start playing better very soon, the rest of the year should be focused on finding Bregs replacement and getting more pitchers up the pipeline. If we fall out of contention, I question what they would do on JVs vesting option. He still might be our next best option even next year.

Next year would still have a core of Altuve, Tuck, Alvarez, Pena, Diaz but how they would try to retool around them would be interesting.

Now go on a fifteen game win streak and make me call out my own pessimism! Dammit, Stros.

dammit stros is exactly how I feel

This team needs to get into an all out brawl with themselves or another team to wake their asses up

tjack16 said:

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Salisbury on 790 going all in on ripping the Astros this morning.

Kind of refreshing to hear a media person not sugar coating it

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Get after it. I'm all for it. Fine if they hear a few boos too.

tjack16 said:

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Below are NOT reasons the Astros suck right now

1. Rangers "breaking us". If that were the case then the nationals would have sent us into a downward spiral after 2019

2. Starting pitcher injuries. Are they injured? Yes. However Brown and France were in the rotation all year last year and they've completely crapped the bed and are a combined 0-7. We've also had great starts from Framber and Javier that still resulted in losses.
Even if we had the 2019 starting rotation we'd still be below .500 because this offense is anemic and the back end of the pen is god awful

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Yes and no with the SP injuries. We've had to have an emergency start of Henley, get Arighetti up before he was ready (who knows if he'll be), and we're forced to keep running out guys with issues without an option of replacing them. It has had a major impact, but the back end bullpen failure is a huge problem too.

I'd rather they leadoff Bregman. He has no power anyway. Leave Yordan at 2 and move Altuve to 3

Ag_07 said:

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I think the 2 shakeups I'd make are moving Yordan out of the 2 spot and moving Bregman out of the 4 spot.

Yes I know the numbers say he'll get more ABs at 2 but it's just not working. How valuable are 50 more ABs if his production takes a slight dip and everyone else is sucking?

Not sure where you'd put Bregman but I'd put Yordan in the 3 hole and Tucker at 4.

F it...Throw him back in the 2 hole with Yordan protecting him and see if that gets him going.

Altuve
Bregman
Yordan
Tucker
Diaz
Pena
Chas
Whatever craptastic 1Bman we're playing that night
Meyers/Doobie

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I'd be fine with trying Altuve at the 2 or 3 hole

That's where he hit until springer left. Maybe leadoff with Dubon or Pena? Idk might be too crazy

Pena
Altuve
Yordan
Tucker
Diaz
Bregman

Some the stat gurus can pull it but I feel like Bregman has had his most success as a 2 hole hitter.

And with Yordan behind him maybe that gets him some more pitches to hit.

I want to get him going. We need him to get going. I don't want to just hide him.

Plus I also wouldn't want to mess up any kind of mojo Pena has by moving him up and creating that extra pressure.

Frok said:

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Re-arranging the lineup is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. No matter how you line it up there are too many crappy hitters in the lineup.

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This. Some are severely overrating the lineup order.

Someone on the Tine board noticed that our home record is finally better than our road record.

Frok said:

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Re-arranging the lineup is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. No matter how you line it up there are too many crappy hitters in the lineup.

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At a high level I agree, but if we only have 3 or maybe 4 good hitters and don't stack them, we have no chance to score. At least if they're all grouped up, each time we get to that part of the order, we have a chance to pick up a run or 2. That's better than we've been doing.

Cromagnum said:

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Someone on the Tine board noticed that our home record is finally better than our road record.

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If we split the next two then they will be identical records