I'll be at Saturday's game, 2nd row near the LF foul pole. My 8 y/o son is hoping to catch a Springer Dinger from his favorite player. Proud Parent Moment: My sister was babysitting my kids the other night, and my son told her that he and I were going to the game this weekend. My sister, who is a Rangers fan, asked him who he would be rooting for. He just started at her and said, "The Astros. The Rangers suck." She told him that just because the Astros are his favorite team that he couldn't also root for the Rangers, and he said, "I SAID, the Rangers SUCK."
What stats did I cherry pick? I acknowledged that Smith was bad in April. I pointed out that he was good in May.
Your little snarky stat report on Cole after the game. I mentioned that Cole had been regressing slowly, which the numbers do prove. Then he struggled in the first inning against the last place rangers (actually when i posted that). So you sit back and wait. He finishes strong so you just report back with his pitching line when its all over, never disproving what i actually said. Lame.
Nick, lets not go there. You know very well that isn't true and you know it. Or maybe its only those types of posts that you remember? What I would say is that many of my posts dig into areas of the team in need of improvement. Myself, id like to see the team get better or at least optimize the talent they have more fully. Which of these statements potentially addresses something that may make the team better? 1) Altuve is a great player! 2) Jake needs to go! In my mind, fixing black holes has a lot more potential upside for the team than commending someone who is already playing well.
So many people on this board react to that one bad inning or one bad game. It would be hard for Cole to not regress. As I asked, did you really think he was going to have an ERA under 2 all season? Not only that, his last 3 'regression' games you cited were statistically quality starts where he struck out 1+ hitters per inning. Tell me this. Assume last night Cole had the exact same performance but his one bad inning was the 4th instead of the 1st. Would you honestly have made the same post?
Yep, this is me and Giles's NYY game that you've accused me of making too big a deal out of at least a couple of times. Granted, I was complaining about something being wrong with Giles's slider this year before the NYY game, but that is just a mere detail.
While I don't think Giles has been good this year, he's starting to get Ks again and his slider, while he's still having command issues with it, has looked better. It would not surprise me if Giles had a good regular season run in him that is more than just the smoke and mirrors he was doing earlier in the year. Giles is still going to give up hard contact so he's going to still have bad games when those batted balls don't find defenders.
Does moving Springer out of the leadoff spot count as that? Or is that an overreaction to a small sample size mixed with archaic viewpoints on what a leadoff hitter traditionally is? My point is that you tend to constantly try to suggest solutions... meanwhile when certain "problems" get better on their own, there's no acknowledgement that maybe you were wrong to suggest a change.
Yes. But more so when I first said it than now. Over time, players change. The team around them changes. I still like the idea of George in the #3, but not as strongly. Its almost to the point where I am indifferent about it. It was a reaction to the data at the time. And perhaps for some time afterwards. As said above, my point of view does migrate. It might be more apparent to you if we had weekly discussions on the topic. We dont, so you cant.
Or, you tend to change your mind when it turns out that having him in the leadoff spot can lead to things like WS championships. That result (in large part due to him batting leadoff) tends to prove the benefit of that. Exactly. Perhaps you should self-reflect on why that happens? Its largely because whatever you were complaining about gets better... and you move on to the next complaint. Hence my original point when everybody was squawking about how Gattis should have no business being on the roster... and everybody ready to bat Stassi at DH on his non catching days... and when Gattis starts hitting, we simply forget about all that wasted effort squawking.
There isn't much wrong with Astros. Not sure if Nick agrees, but that is what I think you need to admit. Astros probably won't win World Series, and the ones that can change the WS odds are the ones in the jerseys.
I think a lot of what you complain about, or suggest needs "fixing", ends up being unfounded. Now, Marisnick is a justifiable complaint... that nobody would really question at this point... but until they call up Tucker (or get fully healthy between Correa, Marwin, Reddick), they need a backup OF who can actually play a consistent OF. Now, whether Hinch needs to start him or not is another discussion.
