The last time the Astros played for real was almost five months ago, as they finished off the Phillies in Game 6 of the World Series on November 5, 2022. That World Championship clinching game rode on the back of two players, who are critical to the Astros’ 2023 success, Framber Valdez and Yordan Alvarez.
It has been a long time, almost a quarter of a century, since the last time a team was a repeat champion in major league baseball. The Yankees (Spit!!) won the title in 1998 against the Padres, repeated in 1999 against the Braves, and felt so good about it – took the trifecta against the Mets in 2000. The Yanks (Spit!!) were only stopped by Luis Gonzalez, and his bloop single to center that helped the D’Backs beat Mariano Rivera and the Yanks in the 2001 seventh game.
The founder of this word feast, Chip Bailey, sent me a link to an article from ESPN. The folks over at the self-proclaimed “World Wide Leader in Sports” have taken on one of those tough tasks in this recent post, so my hat is tipped to them over the effort.
No, Astros GM Dana Brown is not on the hot seat, nor will he likely get tossed aside anytime soon. The honeymoon question is actually asked from Mr. Brown’s perspective.
Rightly or wrongly, there were always two good arguments about why the Astros could survive after letting Justin Verlander go to the highest bidder.
1) The Astros had a lot of starting pitching depth with Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, and Hunter Brown.
2) The Astros’ offense would pick up some of the slack with the addition of Jose Abreu’s big bat and the return of Michael Brantley, who only played 64 games in 2022. Hey, and Jeremy Pena, who excelled in the playoffs, would bring more juice in his second season in the majors.
So, how is that working for the Astros?
Today’s assignment is pretty simple. Who is the next man up if the likely starter at each offensive position is out briefly? What about if he is out for an extended period?
A bit earlier in the off-season, we shared Astros’ Renaissance Men: Part 1 | CHIPALATTA .
Your loyal servant, Dan P, touched base with all the Astro experts he knows. They were all busy, so I will answer my questions today.
CHIPALATTA 