Holy crap the negativity in the game thread is unbelievable. Posted this in there but IDIOT: 2018 RUN DIFFERENTIAL: ASTROS: +201 A's +66 Mariners -32 Every season has ups and downs. Don't forget we went 11-17 last August. We have suffered injuries to three of our core guys. Just because the A's are surging doesn't mean we should panic. We have had a 5 game, 2 6 game, and a 12 game winning streak this season. We added Gerrit Cole. We have a better bullpen. We still have all our offensive pieces. Yes, we had a much bigger division lead last year, but good lord the doom and gloom in the game thread is ridiculous. Relax. Let's see how the next couple months go as we get healthy and focus up for the stretch run.
Added a public poll so we can look back and laugh at the doubters later. EDIT: i made it publicly visible, but not seeing the voters for whatever reason.
I'm with you, lots of baseball left. They need to, pretty obviously, get healthy and start playing better. Can they? Of course. Will they? Who the hell knows, but I'm gonna ride or die with this team. ETA: @theimpossibles1 you have to click on the vote counts to see who voted in which category
We're still here. Just being realistic that this team's offense is missing something (confidence? fight?) that last year's team had. Can we just field in the Fresno team?
I'll say this for the 3rd or 4th time.... we went 11 - 17 last August... They are just in a low energy cycle caused by the time of year and the injuries. We will come up again, A's will regress again. It's all very natural. PS: I find it interesting that the crybabies continue to preach dread in the game thread where their opinions will be quickly buried, but here in a fresh thread no one wants to put themselves out there.
‘Sup. I voted for the A’s because on August 18th, 2018 the A’s are looking like the better team, and have been for most of the summer. Do not get it twisted: I am not rooting for Oakland. I desperately want the Astros to win the division, and the pennant, and the World Series. I hope you are able to pull this thread up in October and relentlessly mock me. But I just see no evidence that the 2018 Astros have the same magic as last year. Not yet. Cheers to you being able to laugh in my face in a few months.
Just a fun side-note, at the season start we all thought our competition was the Angels. Funny how things change with time.
The pundits never get it right. Anyway OP, I don't have a problem with your optimism. I'm just not feeling it at the moment. I think all of us will root for the Astros until the final out, whether that's in another World Series or the regular season. We can assume regression for the A's will happen and/or the Astros will progress to the high level we know they can achieve, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes the unexpected outcome is the outcome.
I understand your sentiment. My issue is how many people seem to be giving up hope already. It is way, WAY, WAYYYYYYYY to early for that.
Astros' problem is they are subpar in close games. Their record during 1-2 run outcomes is only around .500, perhaps below. They can drop the gauntlet and blow teams out, but the offense is streaky.
Agree with the sentiment mostly here. But run differential is almost meaningless IMO. W's and L's is the only stat that matters.
so in that case, this team is right about where they were last year... with key guys coming back within 2-3 weeks.
Fangraphs still has the Astros as the WS favorites (23.5%). 98.5% to make the playoffs, 85.4% to win the division. They need Altuve and McCann back healthy. It’s still all good. I still don’t think any other playoff team has the starting pitching to keep up with Houston.
Historically, run differential is a much, much better predictor of future record than past record is. W-L is the only stat that matters looking backwards, but it's not remotely the only or most important stat when predicting future outcomes.
Astros will go on a run and win the division. Astros are in a team slump at the right time. They will break out and make a run... need to be peaking at start of playoffs.
Remember when the rockets lost like 5 games in a row last year? Remember everyone saying we were fools gold? Remember the negativity and all the doubt? You see... if you watch sports long enough, especially once with a long season with lots of games, you realize pretty much every team goes through a struggle/drought collectively at some point in the season. Tl;dr - it's a long season and long season shiit happens to every team every year. Relakz
That's fine... but when comparing last year's Astros team to this year's, I wouldn't completely scoff at the run differential. Also, I'd rather have a team with THIS pitching staff... over any other iteration possible. Provided the offense stabilizes with guys getting healthy and/or getting hot... I'll still favor their chances based on the pitching alone.
