ALDS Gamethread: Indians vs Astros

Jordu

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Apr 30, 2003
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That was a heck of a piece of hitting by Gonzalez. The rubber is peeling of Cleveland’s wheels and here comes Andrew Miller.
 

mikeot

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Dec 22, 2006
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Strohs gonna have plenty of time to rest up while the Sox and MFY’s eviscerate each other.
 

jon abbey

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Late afternoon playoff baseball with shadows messing up the quality of play really infuriates me, thankfully all of the NY/BOS series is at night.
 

jon abbey

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The Astros look really good, the Indians second- rate. Whoever wins the other division series will have their hands full with the Astros.
HOU is 94-44 with Altuve this year, 30-9 since he came back from injury, 9-14 without him. They have been the team to beat all season long.
 

DeadlySplitter

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Astros are the new Moneyball. tank, draft well, right international FA guys (Gurriel), push all in with good trade deadline acquisitions, profit.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Astros-Dodgers are the Warriors-Cavs of MLB.

Fortunately, baseball is kinder to underdogs than hoops.
 

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
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Sweep enables Houston to line up a rested Verlander/Cole duo. Good luck, Yanks/Sox winner.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Does this presume LA gets by the Brewers, who have home field advantage?
Pretty much, just as the LeBrons trampled other Eastern teams without home court. (Edit: it also presumes they get by the Braves!)

Of course, baseball by its nature has a lot more uncertainty than hoops, and the Brewers are also a damn good team. I'd love to see them win it all — easily my #2 choice.
 
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BaseballJones

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The Astros are just so so so good. And honestly, I can't really dislike them. They're just a great team and that's all there is to it.

I was talking to a buddy of mine who's an Astros fan. We were talking about how good their pitching is and he pointed out that at every level of baseball the Astros or their minor league affiliates led their respective leagues in strikeouts (as pitchers). He said, "They've figured something out."
 

54thMA

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The Astros are just so so so good. And honestly, I can't really dislike them. They're just a great team and that's all there is to it.

I was talking to a buddy of mine who's an Astros fan. We were talking about how good their pitching is and he pointed out that at every level of baseball the Astros or their minor league affiliates led their respective leagues in strikeouts (as pitchers). He said, "They've figured something out."
There is nothing about the Astros to dislike for sure.

They play the game the right way, are a fun team to watch and have a bunch of likable players on the team as well.

If it's not the Red Sox, I hope it's them.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Sorry, man. It's kind of amazing we do this to ourselves year after year when the end is so rarely what you are hoping for.
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
 

scottyno

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Dec 7, 2008
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Cleveland has one of the best pitching staffs in the league, and the Astros have outscored them 20-5.
because their bullpen that's been terrible all year gave up 14 runs in 10 innings, the staff wasn't the problem (though bauer as a reliever didn't really work as planned)
 

Sad Sam Jones

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May 5, 2017
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I'm kind of sick of Playoff Tito. He was brilliant in 2016… did a lot of things that had me shaking my head, but it worked pretty much every time (he can't really be blamed for Kluber running out of gas in the World Series, when they had about 2.5 able-bodied starters in the playoffs). However, it's like he entered the playoffs the past two years already in full panic mode, and tries desperately to fix things and try new things instead of seeing if Plan A will work first. October is absolutely not the time to find out if Trevor Bauer can pitch 3 times in 4 days. Andrew Miller hasn't been himself since April, and it was the wrong call to see if it was "Miller Time" at the most pivotal point of Game #2. It's just bad luck that Leonys Martin came down with a life-threatening illness a week after they acquired him, but I'm going to lose my shit if Jason Kipnis is playing center field for a third consecutive October next year.

That said, I blame everyone except Lindor. Everyone else was pathetic. Jose Ramirez played worse over the past two months than he'd played for any two week stretch over the past 3 years. I'm waiting to hear that Kluber needs his knee scoped, because his performance was all over the place ever since the knee gave him problems in late June.

They now need to sign or re-sign two outfielders and a couple of relievers – my initial guess is they can bring back Michael Brantley and Cody Allen without breaking the bank, but need to replace Andrew Miller and Lonnie Chisenhall/Melky Cabrera – and then figure out why they were such a gutless team all year long, so that they don't repeat this performance next year.

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Sad Sam Jones

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I'm definitely not a "they just wanted it more" kind of guy, but there's something to be said for intangibles, and this team never had them. The parts were far more valuable than the whole. I've enjoyed losing seasons more than I enjoyed this one, because I can't recall following a less inspired team.

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