Prove me wrong, but Maldy was better than Vazquez in Sept/Oct and in the postseason. Could be wrong, but Vazquez was a bit of a major complete and total disappointment.
Part of it may have been that Vazquez didn't get consistent ABs. But still, he struggled with the Twins this year (despite a hot start, IIRC) and was eventually demoted in favor of Ryan Jeffers.
SEVERAL posters prominently featured all over this forum were literally and EXPLICITLY rooting for the team to lose and miss the playoffs. Now they're posting as if that never happened, rooting along with the rest of us.
Name names. I saw people say we’d deserve it. I saw people say if we get back to our roots it might be worth it, but I’m really curious as to who you think actually want us to lose.
LOL! He's been doing this from day 1. In SPITE of Dusty, not BECAUSE of Dusty. But that's the 'feel over math' crap the owner decided to go with. That said, we now have data showing good luck is worth 16 games over the regular season. ie - the difference between good luck 2022 and bad luck 2023. Go Stros! Whatever lineup Dusty Plays.
Do you know the difference between a silver lining IF we lose and rooting for us TO lose? I suspect not. Saint Dusty cannot be challenged according to some. It's not like he took over a GREAT TEAM.
Relief pitchers lost 6 more games than last year. Lineup construction cost us at least another 5 games. That gets you to 101 wins. The 4th best offense and 8th best era should not limit you to just 90 wins.
Yeah, that's great... Except it has absolutely nothing to do with what I said. No need to stumble clumsily mumbling fumbled inferences - I said what I meant, and what I said is an indisputable fact. You don't have to look very hard to find examples of posters literally and explicitly expressing their preference to miss the playoffs. As for your drippingly defensive, baseless suspicion: I'm curious as to what triggered you so to have it, because it most certainly wasn't my season-spanning, predominately harsh and heavy-handed criticism of ole StroDust. To that point, if we're talking suspicions, I have my own - which, unlike yours, are based on your actual post. 'StrosFan's standard of exceeding excellence in attention is way too high to be trading out nuance for lazy, tribalistic absolutism at any time of year, much less in the days leading up to our PostSeason debut! Let's get our **** together and show up for our boys, eh? Go 'Stros, my mang.
They're still here. They just don't insist it's a requirement for virtue directly. To be clear, my problem is: 1. He plays favorites. 2. I disagree with some of his strategy. 3. Even when he implements a strategy I agree with, his tactics SUCK.. My biggest single reason for disagreement is my preference for analytics over gut feelings in decision making. Save the guts for when the analytics is too close to call.
These are my biggest issues. Last year, when he picked Gurriel, I was cool because there wasn't a clear alternative or when he played Dubon, McCormick wasn't lighting the world on fire. This year, he was playing really poor players with horrible numbers in lieu of players with all-star level numbers. Chas and Diaz have hit as well as Tucker who will get MVP votes.
