This is not a “woe is me” diatribe by a fan whose team played to the very end of the postseason. This was brought on by a comment from good friend of the blog Diane in a comment a few days ago…
ChipalattAwards for 2019
After a season that came up 8 outs short of the trophy, it is time to hand out the ChipalattAwards for the 2019 Houston Astros. As always, this is one person’s opinion and all other voices are welcome.
The real Moneyball begins: Astros’ payroll options
As in the HEB commercial where Carlos Correa is “singing” about their Creamy Sensations (an ad that Astro fans, unfortunately, saw about a thousand times this season), the Astros were oh so close to a World Championship in a league that spans two countries. But now reality hits as the roster makeup of this offseason turns into payroll decisions for the team.
Thank You 2019 Astros for a Wonderful Season
In the ninth inning of Game 7 as the Nats had just extended the lead to 6-2, my youngest son who is not a sports fan, but who very sweetly watched the game with his ol’ dad last night said the following, “Well at least this is the 2nd best season in Astro’s history.” And he was right. It does not heal the hurt, but it does help to know that we are living in a golden age of Astros’ baseball where we can be “disappointed” that our team participated in and lost the final game of the baseball season.
World Series 2019: Return of the Road Warriors
In both their 2017 World Series run and their 2018 ALCS season, the Astros were a terrific regular season road team. They were 53-28 (65%) in 2017 and tied with the Indians for the best road record in the majors and stepped it up to 57-24 (70%) in 2018 when they were 6 games better than the Boston Red Sox for the top road record. In 2019, they had a good road record at 47-34 (58%) but not near the other two years. They rode a pristine 60-21 home record to the best overall record in the majors and a club record 107-74 season.
Is It Tombstone Time or Clutch City Time?
The postmortem from a two-day crash and burn of the local nine in the World Series against the Nationals is a bit soul-crushing. The Astros put their top two bullets into their gun (Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander) at home and ended up shooting blanks with Cole getting his first loss in five months and Verlander mostly pitching well, but moving to 0-5 with a 5.73 ERA in six career WS starts.
5 quick fixes for the Astros
After a disappointing 5-4 loss in Game 1 of the World Series to the Nationals, here are five quick fixes to the Astros problems:
Altuve leads the Astros to World Series matchup with the Nats
This will be a two for the price of one post as we will reflect on a terrific triumph by the Astros in the ALCS over the Yanks and then take a look at the upcoming matchup with the Washington Nationals in the World Series. (I can’t type the words Astros and World Series in the same sentence enough….)
