A very good friend of the blog, Oldpro wrote the following post a couple days ago, something we Catholics would call a Litany of Astro problems this season.
WS hangover
WBC messing up Spring training.
Altuve’s WBC injury
Loss of Verlander
Abreu playing every ST game and then having nothing left for the regular season.
Maldonado losing weight and losing ability.
McCormick playing well and sitting on the bench
Luis Garcia having baseball take his windup away and blowing out his elbow
Brantley not playing
Oblique injuries to two key players
Hensley’s ineffective play
Urquidy and LMJ absent
Diaz hitting and sitting
No relievers in Sugarland to rely on
Bregman playing good defense but not hitting well and umpires expanding the zone constantly on him
Relying on Pena’s bat and not having it
Dusty Baker
There is nothing in that list that I could argue with, and in fact, I noted that it should have included a terrible three-month start of the season for both Rafael Montero and Ryne Stanek. But today, I am feeling less cynical than I have been lately and want to work on the more positive side of the street. So, why should we have more confidence today than we have shown over most of the season?
- One of the best position players in the AL is an Astro. OK, granted Ohtani is on his own (non-playoff) planet. And headed into 2023, there was certainly a good argument that Yordan Alvarez was the Astros’ best position player. But right now there is no doubt that Tucker, who is leading the team in hits, doubles, home runs, stolen bases, batting average and is second in runs scored, and bases on balls and barely third in OBP, SLG and OPS is the Astros’ best position player. He leads the team in OF assists and has only one error in playing 120 of the Astros 122 games. He is also about as good of a left handed hitter against lefty pitching as you will find (.336 BA/ .400 OBP/ 1.019 OPS/ 11 HR/ 39 RBIs). OK, Yordan is awfully good at this too. Tucker leads the AL in RBIs and has the most HRs for anyone with 24 SBs in the AL also. He also has been insanely good since the beginning of June. In his last 66 games he is hitting .320 BA/ .401 OBP/ 1.001 OPS with 49 runs scored, 19 doubles, 17 HRs and 59 RBIs. He has undoubtedly made himself a ton of money for any extension the Astros may try to sign him to after the season.
- The rotation has survived a number of shots and is as strong as it has been all year. Early on in the season, the Astros news should have been delivered by a special town crier, the Grim Reaper. Were you depending on Lance McCullers? Gone for the year. Luis Garcia going to help float your boat? Gone for the year and then some. Jose Urquidy going to help carry the 4th spot in the rotation? You won’t see him until August. Well, the Astros promoted J.P. France and guess what he may have been the Astros’ best starter the last two months. They welcomed back Urquidy, who had a very good start last time out. They have given Hunter Brown a chance to prove himself at this level and for a rookie he has done fine. They sent a couple of prospects for veteran Justin Verlander. Yes, they have had some up and downs from JV, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez lately, but….. Now they have a chance with six potential starters to have some fairly rested pitchers heading into the playoffs. Also, in September they have four straight Thursdays off, which allows them to not only get pitchers rested, but also to line up their rotation any way they wish.
- They’ve been there. There is no team that has won more playoff series since 2017. They know how to win in a playoff setting. They don’t always win it all, but they never panic and they are able to take advantage of the mistakes of their opponents.
- They are better road warriors than Mel Gibson. Just like in some of their best seasons, they have a better winning record on the road (37-26) than at home (33-26). This always bodes well for a playoff run, especially if the team may not have the home field advantage throughout or at all.
- The lineup could be one of the deepest by playoff time. Along with the afore mentioned Tucker, this team has Yordan Alvarez (.278 BA/ .386 OBP/ .957 OPS), Jose Altuve (.320 BA/ .419 OBP/ .955 OPS), and Chas McCormick (.288 BA/ .378 OBP/ .917 OPS). They have Alex Bregman, whose slash numbers are down a bit, but who has 79 RBIs (on par for 105 RBIs for the season). They have Yainer Diaz, who has a .811 OPS and has posted 16 HRs and 41 RBIs in only 256 ABs. They have Jeremy Pena, who, like last year has struggled a bit mid-season, but who has the talent to be the golden boy in the playoffs. They have Jose Abreu, who if he actually returns from his bad back like the hitter he has been his whole career, could be another boost to the lineup. And, of course, Michael Brantley is just a call-up away from returning to the majors. He is a hitting machine when well.
- The bullpen is peaking at the right time. The bullpen was looking pretty a bit ragged at one time. As mentioned before Montero and Stanek had very poor numbers for the first half of the season, Ryan Pressly had a bad streak in the middle of the year, Bryan Abreu had a stretch of control problems and the long relief of Seth Martinez left a lot to be desired. Flash ahead to the current situation. Kendall Graveman has been added to the bullpen to help its depth. Montero, Stanek, Pressly and Abreu have all been pitching much better lately along with Hector Neris, who has been good the whole season. One critical thing that has added to the bullpen flexibility is with more rotation folks available, we may well see more multi-inning relief appearances from J.P. France, Hunter Brown, Jose Urquidy and possible Cristian Javier. This is something that strengthens the bullpen, gives the bullpen a bit more rest and piles less innings on these starters.
- The ability to contend despite the negatives. How the heck the Astros are so close to the top spot in the AL West and in a solid Wild Card spot after looking at Old Pros’ list up top, I don’t know. They have been resilient and overcome external and internal problems to be in the hunt.
As always, your turn….what positives can you state about this Astros’ team?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
58 responses to “King Tuck and other Astros’ positives”
I still trust Yordan a smidgen more in the batters box, but Tucker is a far superior player in everything else (even hitting they are like co-aces). He is starting to get that recognition and is probably the best OFer in baseball. Doesn’t matter if we are talking about tough at bats, game saving diving catches, critical OF assists, stealing bases, 1st to 3rds, doesn’t matter, this guy isn’t a 5 tool player he is a swiss army knife. Could probably play SS if we asked him. Heck fit him for a catchers helmet.
I feel like I was on an island clamoring for the return of JV – but even I didn’t want to give him 86M. In the end the contracts to Montero, Abreu and Brantley would have equaled what JV got, and we would have been better off. You always go deep on pitching, you can’t assume every player is going to repeat what they did the year before.
That confidence of previous experience will help. It still comes down pitch by pitch execution, and even if Javier or Framber have been there if they can’t execute the pitches they could last year for whatever reason, we will lose. Fingers crossed.
The lineup is only going to be deep if Dusty quits caring about veterans feelings. Diaz isn’t going to be that dangerous batting 1 time a game in the 8th or 9th when we are down. Same for Chas, though it looks like Dusty even high fived him on his last dinger, maybe Dusty is over what ever it was about Chas he just didn’t like. Still, if he insists Chas is the LFer, there is no Yordan and Brantley in the lineup at the same time (if there even is a Brantley). And Abreu still exists.
BP – is always a roll of the dice. Pressly is still pretty effective, but probably not as shutdown as last year. Hardly anyone is though, not even Abreu. There are going to be times in the playoffs they are going to get got. Can we avoid that enough and can the offense make up for it? It won’t be like last year, it will be a bumpy ride, but they are capable.
I believe in them. A hot hitter or two, they can still do it. I don’t see them going 11-2 in the playoffs but they will be resilient. Winning the division and getting out of the first round will help, these 3 game series can be dangerous if one pitcher has a rough time, and our starters have shown a habit of having some tough times.
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Positives about this team? If you guys will permit, I’ll gladly take off my ‘chief cynic’ hat for a little while to answer that:
1. They are still ‘our Astros’. One look at what happened in Oakland [or years ago, to the Oilers] should be a reminder of how quickly things can change – and a city can be left without a gladiator force to commiserate with in hard times and rejoice with in good ones;
2. The F.O. is not afraid to spend money. We might not approve of every decision – but … well [chuckle] it’s not really our money, is it?
3. We have several potential HOF-ers in the stable. Who’s going to keep Jose Altuve out? [Jomboy?]; How about Tucker? Alvarez? JV? Framber if he can keep his head on straight? Maybe even Bregman. It does one good to see guys like that – with that elite kind of talent – representing our city.
4. Though they have not been dominating anyone this year, they have not collapsed either. Every time it looks like they are done – yet another devastating injury; a prolonged offensive funk; a total eclipse of the Start; or a nightmare week of bullpen implosions – they keep somehow managing to right the ship the split-second before it capsizes.
There are a ton of other positives, of course. But that chief cynic hat Dave B transferred to me is calling me back to the whining corner, so I’ll let the rest of you play Pollyanna while I go make sour faces in the mirror.
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Mr. Bill, we all get a day off from our cynical nature as we await tomorrows line up. Dan, as a fellow St. John Vianney alumni, I’ll be a good, positive and thankful Catholic boy for now.
We have not yet seen the best of Yordan and Alex this season.
We’ve been blessed with the emergence of a remarkably talented 24 year old catcher and hitter.
Chas McCormick has become an offensive player that none of us anticipated.
Jose Altuve, another Astro future Hall of Famer is playing like he’s still in his prime.
Frenchy Dubon helped us bridge the gap between an injured Altuve and good heath.
After more than a year of rehabilitation, it appears that Michael Brantley will return for the stretch run.
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We have healthy depth in our bullpen corps as we move into the 3/4 pole.
It looks like Rafael Montero has refound a measure of poise on the mound.
Kendall Graveman looks happy to be back with the Astros, giving up just one hit in his last four outings.
Stanek has not given up a walk or a hit in his last five outings.
With 6 starters and plenty of off days coming up, the pen gets further depth from the rotation.
Sometimes we forget Hunter Brown is a rookie. He’s shown a ton of promise.
Where might we be without JR France, “The Scholar”.
And yes, our 40 something returnee provides a level of experience that few teams possess.
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Speaking of rookies, we have 3 that could finish in the top 5 ROY voting for the AL. For a system that is constantly derided and dismissed, that will be 8 times in the last 9 years that we have had at least 1 top 5 finish and with 2 ROY’s in that time. Terrible system.
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And that probably doesn’t include McCormick, whose breakout might have happened in his rookie season had he not had it stymied by his manager.
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Ok, for anyone who thought Steven was pulling their leg, here’s the last 10 years of AL ROY:
2022: Pena – 5th
2021: Garcia – 2nd
2020: Javier – 3rd
2019: Yordan – 1st
2018:
2017: Yuli – 4th
2016: Devenski – 4th
2015: Correa – 1st
2014: McHugh – 4th, Springer – 8th
2013:
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Just like Diaz is being stymied now and all season. Don’t get me started on Dusty’s management of this team. It’s obvious why he never won a WS before with the talent he had. He’s a decent manager with lesser talent but terrible with good and great talent.
Now back to our topic of KING TUCK! Just a phenomenal player. He could be the best Astro ever. Time to do the deal this off season. Yes, you’d be rolling the dice on a long term contract but I think it’s time. One of the links on a previous post had him valued at $30MM/year if I recall. At this point that’s a bargain.
Our pitching is looking good as of lately. Hopefully it will continue. I do agree that maybe Brown should become the long man out of the pen right now. He gets rested and will be ready for the playoffs. Pretty effective too.
Altuve and Bregman heating up. Some of “our” lineups are super if “you know who” plays them. No reason we can’t rattle off a big winning streak or win at least 8 of 10 games.
Big series this weekend. Time to put the peddle to the metal.
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After his home run on Tuesday at Sugar Land, Brantley sat out Wednesday and then Thursday he was 1 for 4 with one RBI – appeared to be a single.
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What do you make of that?
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I don’t know if it means that Brantley was sore on Wednesday but better on Thursday or if they were going to do it this way (every other day?) to ease him back in. I guess we will see if he is in the lineup for the “Steve Millers” tonight.
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The plan was to sit him after his first game and then play yesterday. I don’t think there is any need to read between the lines at this point.
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Should have expected more trickery from our manager. He just can’t take sitting Maldy.
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The lineup
Altuve 2B
Bregman 3B
Tucker RF
Alvarez LF
Diaz 1B
Singleton DH
McCormick CF
Pena SS
Maldanado C
With JP France on the mound
At least Diaz is playing.
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That’s true, but every time we can get Maldy out of the lineup, and have Diaz behind the plate, we’re a better team. And what makes Dusty so committed to Singleton? Does he happen to like him, or does he know something about Abreu that we don’t?
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As Steven has pointed out – the only thing Singleton has going for him is his .344 OBP (pretty amazing with his .160 BA). You would think his .105 BAbip has got to come up and his BA with it.
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Tucker has been pulled from the line up for what ever reason.
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It’s reported as an illness – maybe he’s sick of seeing Maldy in the lineup
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That makes sense Dan. My brother reports it’s a stomach ailment.
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Chas could not hit behind Diaz tonight? Jeez!
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That’s what I said.
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Great job by France again last night.
Better job by the M’s Aggie.
Per our manager, Singleton will be back at first tonight. When does the fairy tale end?
With Maldy in the line up, we remain a dropped anchor. That’s our reality though.
If Abreu can come back healthy and hit, he temporarily fixes our first base issue.
We need Diaz’ bat in the line up, anywhere.
Outside of his first base start for the Space Cowboys this week, Brantley has not played the position since 2008.
Our last option for first base might be Joey Loperfido. He already knows how to play over there. If he keeps doing what he’s doing in AAA for the next 12 days, he needs to be brought up on August 31.
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Message received!
What the universe is telling us when we cannot open a pickle jar after struggling twice in two days. And then your daughter and granddaughter open it in three seconds.
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I laughed yesterday when I noticed the thermometer on my rearview mirror said 107.
Then I passed the bank and theirs said 107. Took a big swig of water!
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It also reminded me about the day before, when the one in the car read 115 as I was driving up our driveway to the house.
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I didn’t know they had thermometers on rear view mirrors.
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Mine does. It is connected to a sensor on the outside of the car. It also has a compass to tell an old driver which direction he should be going. Most likely he should traveling towards somewhere it isn’t 107 degrees.
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It’s hard to get lost around here. Essentially there is just one road that goes around the island.
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I had a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado that had the temp in the rear view mirror.
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Sure is tough losing Tucker to illness for multiple days.
Interesting that the manager stated last night post game that Singleton would be starting at first today.
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And Julks is back, Kessinger on the IL due to health and safety protocol. Ominous?
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https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/jose-abreu-injured-list-18293183.php
My question here, was this an issue when he signed and if so, how did the team’s medical staff miss this during his physical???
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I thought about that Sarge, so if anything was missed, our unfortunate signing of Abreu could be compounded by an insurance company not willing to pay a claim by the Astros if Abreu is done.
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Since this started out as a positive posting, I’ll just say this. I’m sure glad it isn’t my $60M he’s stealing…..
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I don’t get a very good feeling about this game. Not at all.
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Between Yordan striking out looking like MaldoNADA and Altuve’s (once again) stupid baserunning, I think I’m gonna need a barf bag. This feeling isn’t getting any better.
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If we don’t get better starting pitching soon it won’t matter if our offense improves
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Well, at least Framber hit ONE of his targets tonight.
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I was telling the Mrs. that if I were pitching and hit a batter and that batter came after me, then LOOK OUT when on first base. I would plunk him on the throw to first! LOL
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In getting 2000 hits, one might expect a guy to know how to run the bases by now……
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I’m glad Altuve has his 2000th. He needs to get his head back in the game. So far tonight, I’ve been our catcher fail to get another throw off. I’ve seen him miss a thrown pitch, saved only from a 10th passed ball on the season because it was ball four. I’ve seen Altuve give up two outs on the bases. I’ve seen Jake short arm a tough play on a ball at the fence that he should have caught, followed later by an error on a ball that was sitting on the ground in front of him. I saw our dugout ignore yet another challenge at a time when getting a hold of a game slipping away was essential. And once again I’ve witnessed another meltdown by our alleged ace only to be followed by an embarrassing intentional HBP by the same guy. Shame on the Astros. We’re lucky to be 2.5 out. We’re playing crappy ball. We’ve got no leadership.
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Agree on every point. This is the sloppiest game I’ve seen since…….last night.
I’ve actually gotten to the point where I hope they don’t make the playoffs so we don’t have to prolong the Dusty Baker era any further. Enough is enough.
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The Mariners are really coming on strong now too. Of all the teams we play they scare me the most. It’s like their hitters know what pitch is coming and we so rarely have them guessing up there. Playing poorly against them means we’re really going to have to play better against the remaining schedule or watch them take a spot from us in the postseason.
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Last night, after watching that pathetic excuse for a baseball game, I tuned in to the Brewers/Rangers game and watched that (almost) comeback they did in the ninth.
Yeah, they lost 8-9, but they made it very thrilling. That one inning of real baseball was more entertaining than the entire 9 inning debacle the Astros put forth yesterday.
It’s pretty boring when your team is down and you know in your heart that they can’t pitch, can’t field, and can’t hit. And these guys are proving that they can’t.
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Thank God it’s over.
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Good morning! Rainy, blustery day is expected, procrastination is expected.
Gosh, we’ve seen Framber throw some remarkable baseball games, and in the toughest of post season environments. But he’s really fighting some demons. Is it possible that his complete reliance on one catcher is having a negative effect on his play? For whatever reasons, Framber is a mess. He’s going to be 30 years old in a few months. Do we really want to battle with him and his agents over a long term contract for more money than we want to pay him? I think we trade him this winter. And we don’t offer a contract to Martín Maldonado. We also announce a Dusty Baker Day for early April of next year. Then he goes home to the Vineyard. Regardless of what happens over the next 6 weeks, we move on.
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If our heroes have many more implosions like last night, not only will this team not make the playoffs, they will lose their fan base. That means the Jim Crane ownership consortium will lose money. That means Dusty Baker – and probably most of his obviously ineffective coaching staff – will be gone. That means the long-term contracts our heroes think they deserve – despite pathetic performances every third or fourth night – will not be coming from this front office.
Get it together guys. This is not on Crane – or the fans. This is on YOU. You look as old as Dusty Baker, and as unhinged as Framber Valdez.
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And just to stay in the theme of this thread – yes, of all these things I am ‘positive’.
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Just give Julio Rodriguez the key to the city already. We are giving him pitches to hit why?
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My positive post went MIA so I’ll try gain if I can remember it. Good rally!
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Tried my post a 2nd time and it got flushed again. Won’t try again.
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Been watching golf but checking in on games. Obviously I didn’t miss anything. This team will either rise to the occasion or collapse into obscurity. Right now it looks like the latter.
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Just woke up to check the scores. The Astros lost again? I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Going back to sleep now. Wake me when Dusty Baker is gone.
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mlb.com: “Astros manager Dusty Baker said Tucker wanted to play, but “he’s been in bed three days.””
Yeah, so? Can you imagine being one of his kids? Talk about being in a state of confusion! I guess in some twisted, nonsensical way, that must make sense to the clown…….
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Don’t stress to hard. Dusty’s over reliance on MM could very well be his undoing. Maldy’s poor off/def is costing this tm runs/outs. Offensively Diaz makes it difficult to keep his bat out the lineup with the tm scuffling to score runs. There is absolutely no drop off when he is behind the dish.
Some of the guys on the pitching staff (and coach) must fess up to the reality that personal choices do not trump the expressed tm goal to win.
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Also mlb.com:
“Astros veteran catcher Martín Maldonado challenged the team to play better baseball, bring more energy and not be content with losing…..”
“The weekend I would say is a slap in the face,” Maldonado said. “We should have played better. Like I said to everybody after the game, this is probably the most disappointing part of the season. It’s a slap in the face and a wakeup call.”
Getting beat by Seattle was in no way as bad as hearing this crap from a lardaZZ loser like you, Mr Strikeout King. Look in the damned mirror and then take your seat on the bench. That will add wins right there.
And then for Bregman (aka: Mr popup and rollover) do the same thing tells me this season is over. These guys have no self awareness whatsoever. They’re done.
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Astros website:
“Abreu returned to the field Aug. 19 to take some ground balls at first base, and he said afterward that his back was improving. He hit off a tee on Aug. 18 and progressed to hitting soft toss on Aug. 19.”
And, to maintain the positivity slant, he only struck out twice!
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Three teams virtually tied for the division lead with about a month’s worth of games left.
From here on out, every game is a playoff game.
Which team will win the division and get a bye and a needed rest, and get home field advantage over the others and will get to play a weaker opponent for the 2nd round.
It’s playoff time, a month early!
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