Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business & Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Advertise... Tailgate Donations

Featured Replies

  • Replies 37k
  • Views 1.5m
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Most Popular Posts

Posted Images

If Maldy hits for himself again Dusty should be fired. If Maldy doesn’t hit for himself Dusty should also be fired, but that is sort of beside the point. 

Edited by Wulaw Horn

"I gave Diaz a chance but he's just not ready."

Dusty, probably 

1 minute ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

no one knows exactly why Vasquez wasn't signed.  That intrigues me. 

Wasn't it because he didn't want to be a back up?

If only we had Yuli to pinch hit at the end there, maybe they get to Chas.  Really miss him, even if he would have been a bench warmer most of the time.

8 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

no one knows exactly why Vasquez wasn't signed.  That intrigues me. 

 

5 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Wasn't it because he didn't want to be a back up?

I mean, yeah.  He didn't sign here because he spent the last 2 months of the season and the playoffs sitting behind an older, worse player.  I'm not seeing the mystery.

5 minutes ago, WBT said:

 

I mean, yeah.  He didn't sign here because he spent the last 2 months of the season and the playoffs sitting behind an older, worse player.  I'm not seeing the mystery.

He only caught a no hitter in the WS. Our fans response online was to wonder if St. Maldonado called the game from the dugout. Good grief. 

So through today, the Astros’ offense as a team has a K rate of 25.4%. Last year’s was 19.5%. That’s a pretty significant jump. 

K% and BB% tend to reach their level fairly quickly in season. Hopefully this isn’t it. But probably this offense is significantly worse than last year’s. And it’s extremely likely the pitching will be  worse too. Wheeee.

3 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

He only caught a no hitter in the WS. Our fans response online was to wonder if St. Maldonado called the game from the dugout. Good grief. 

He's also a lot more expensive.

Just now, Hank Chinaski said:

So through today, the Astros’ offense as a team has a K rate of 25.4%. Last year’s was 19.5%. That’s a pretty significant jump. 

K% and BB% tend to reach their level fairly quickly in season. Hopefully this isn’t it. But probably this offense is significantly worse than last year’s. And it’s extremely likely the pitching will be  worse too. Wheeee.

Maybe. Report back in July.

4 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Maybe. Report back in July.

How many wins do you think they finish with? Give me a number or a small range. If you had to bet.

2 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

How many wins do you think they finish with? Give me a number or a small range. If you had to bet.

 

95 

8 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

He's also a lot more expensive.

Maybe. Report back in July.

He’s not. He’s making 10M per. Maldy is likely to make 8 or 9 with incentives. Also- we are like 25M under the tax. 

 
95 

You can't count spring games. This isn't Texags, Looch.
15 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

He’s not. He’s making 10M per. Maldy is likely to make 8 or 9 with incentives. Also- we are like 25M under the tax. 

Maldy has $4 - 5 million of incentives?

20 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

How many wins do you think they finish with? Give me a number or a small range. If you had to bet.

92 to 95.

3 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

92 to 95.

Fair enough. That’s what I thought before Altuve injury.

I’m seeing 85-88 at this point. This team  seems maybe a tick better than mediocre.

54 minutes ago, WBT said:

 

I mean, yeah.  He didn't sign here because he spent the last 2 months of the season and the playoffs sitting behind an older, worse player.  I'm not seeing the mystery.

the management couldn't be that stupid to bypass an obviously better option. That's why I'm not sure playing time was the reason, maybe a mix of money and pt, but it's speculation either way - no hard evidence, no quote from either side. 

7 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

the management couldn't be that stupid to bypass an obviously better option. That's why I'm not sure playing time was the reason, maybe a mix of money and pt, but it's speculation either way - no hard evidence, no quote from either side. 

What management? We didn’t need management this off-season because we’re the Astros. 



How many wins do you think they finish with? Give me a number or a small range. If you had to bet.


After seeing what we are dealing with....89
56 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

95 

Over

41 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Maldy has $4 - 5 million of incentives?

He’s got a base of 6. He made 8 last year I read. 

1 hour ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Fair enough. That’s what I thought before Altuve injury.

I’m seeing 85-88 at this point. This team  seems maybe a tick better than mediocre.

I just don’t see the loss of Verlander  making a 20 game difference. 

Just now, formermav43 said:

I just don’t see the loss of Verlander  making a 20 game difference. 

Loss of Verlander’s 1.75 ERA over 175 innings + loss of Altuve and his career-best OPS+ for at least 40% of the season (and what we do get is unlikely to be as good as last year) + regression from the bullpen. That all adds up.

46 minutes ago, WBT said:

Over

 

42 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Me too. Still. 

Over 95? What am I missing here?

1 minute ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Loss of Verlander’s 1.75 ERA over 175 innings + loss of Altuve and his career-best OPS+ for at least 40% of the season (and what we do get is unlikely to be as good as last year) + regression from the bullpen. That all adds up.

I’m more bullish on Altuve, hoping he’ll play closer to 120 games than 100.

But even so, right now, this team has 6 above average or better players in the starting lineup. Altuve makes 7. Even if he’s not as good as last year, some might be better to offset that. It’s the same lineup as last year even with nothing from Brantley, except swapping in Abreu for Gurriel. It’s hard to feel too negative about that.

There was bound to be regression from the bullpen in the aggregate. But you almost have to posit regression from EVERYONE in the bullpen AND from every starter to get to a “tick better than mediocre.”

You could be right, of course. Baseball is quirky. But I think it’s hard to objectively make that case at this point. It’s an emotional overreaction to a bad stretch at the start of the season. There was a 3-6 stretch as late as last August, including a sweep by the As. But nobody panics when you’re 100 games in.

34 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Loss of Verlander’s 1.75 ERA over 175 innings + loss of Altuve and his career-best OPS+ for at least 40% of the season (and what we do get is unlikely to be as good as last year) + regression from the bullpen. That all adds up.

 

Over 95? What am I missing here?

Don’t forget 26 fewer games against the AL west

11 minutes ago, formermav43 said:

But I think it’s hard to objectively make that case at this point. It’s an emotional overreaction to a bad stretch at the start of the season. There was a 3-6 stretch as late as last August, including a sweep by the As. But nobody panics when you’re 100 games in.

What you’re saying is reasonable and I hope you’re right; but I disagree with this part. Fangraphs projects 88 wins right now, and that’s based on nothing but objective data. Now obviously they don’t always nail it, but it is objective support for my subjective forecast.

I am probably not as high on Brown (at least for this year) as others, and he’s essentially replacing the best performing pitcher in baseball. Again, if he allows twice the runs JV did (per inning), I’d be ecstatic. I’d bet the over.

I’m also not that high on Pena. He’s good (not great) defensively (gold glove notwithstanding) and he’s not a very good offensive player. I don’t see any reason to assume he’ll improve at the plate just because he has a year in the bigs. He’s probably a 100 wRC+ guy unless he stops swinging at bullshit (which, to this point, he’s shown no inclination to do). 

Regarding Vasquez and Maldy the funny thing is that Vasquez's OPS+ after he joined the Astros was lower than Maldy's OPS+ for the season.

8 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

dusty blaming vasquez for inside info and 33 Ks over the last 2 games. 


a Manager takes up for his team 

31 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I’m also not that high on Pena. He’s good (not great) defensively (gold glove notwithstanding) and he’s not a very good offensive player. I don’t see any reason to assume he’ll improve at the plate just because he has a year in the bigs. He’s probably a 100 wRC+ guy unless he stops swinging at bullshit (which, to this point, he’s shown no inclination to do). 

He did the exact same thing last season in the middle, then made a big time big league adjustment.  He's probably not Playoff MVP at the norm, but I think he very well may be September Pena.  We'll see if he makes the adjustment, he simply just stop swinging at those pitches for most of 3+ months last year, I think he can again

There's usually 1 or 2 times each season where we go through a rough patch and just can't seem to figure out how to win, and I decide to quit watching on TV until I see that we had an easy W. I simply get tired of spending my leisure time being frustrated. Rarely ever lasts more than a game or two.

Not sure it's ever happened 9 games into the season. Woof.

Edited by Storm the Field

5 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

There's usually 1 or 2 times each season where we go through a rough patch and just can't seem to figure out how to win, and I decide to quit watching on TV until I see that we had an easy W. I simply get tired of spending my leisure time being frustrated. Rarely ever lasts more than a game or two.

Not sure it's ever happened 9 games into the season. Woof.

They’ve had stretches like this the last few years for sure. Thing is, Springer, Correa, Verlander, Cole, Altuve (for a long time) aren’t walking through that door.

10 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

It's going to be a long time before we know where this team really is.

Yes, but a 25% K rate is a signal, and we get new data points every day. 

During the opening series, I predicted we'd be 5-5 after tomorrow. Guess I was overconfident. But let's get as close to that mark as we can. 

This rough stretch isn't all about us stumbling around. Not that we haven't done our share of that, but we've also run into some decent opponents. I don't think any of them will outdo Houston for the full season, but on the proverbial "any given day"...well, we see what can happen. Time to right the ship. 
 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business & Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Advertise... Tailgate Donations

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.