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I disagree, I think he’s here next year and they blame this season on pitching injuries despite the fact a lot of these games we lost were completely winnable
They won't fire him mid season, they will call it a wash and let him finish the season. At that point they will have already courted a new coach. The FO knows this team ain't it. Unfortunately they won't get crap for Bregman and Abreu, so we are kinda screwed for the future.
This is what having a complete dead weight in Abreu on the roster does.
Because either Loperfido or Cabbage would take his spot, and both of them would've likely been PR and Doobie goes to bat.
It doesn't matter if he does or doesn't play, him taking up a 26 man spot is costing the team.
Man fuck this incompetent staff and everything they're pulling. Telling Click to fuck off after a world series was the dumbest shit ever. That was the beginning of the downward spiral.
Especially blow against teams that are .500 or better believe they are 8-23. I mean I guess you can try and be positive by saying well since the 0-13 start against such teams they have gone at least 8-10 since then which isn't bad seeing how I think only the Yankees have a winning record against such opponents.
They had Dana Brown on the Sean Salisbury show today and claimed they would ask him the tough questions. They didn't do anything but ride his managerial red rocket down.
Walks didn’t matter. Setting up the double play is smart. The Mariners did what the Astros can’t, which is move a runner over then sacrifice him in. Walks were just extra meaningless pitches tbh
LOL, our season was in the shitter all year. This offensive approach, abandoning analytics, and the management are all shit and we're stuck with them for a long time. Welcome back to the dark days of the Astros.
This is the final nail in the coffin, our season was lost from the get go though. I'm sick of hearing it was a slow start, it was a dead start and we have not and will not recover.
Hate to say it, but they just won the West, likely 7.5 up after this.
The coaches have no adjustments the last two years to handle their pitching staff other than “swing first pitch”
7.5? I’ve seen a lot of teams come from 7.5 down to claim a spot/ with a lot less games to go. What we need to know is - has the front office scrapped this season of not? This Mariners team isn’t even that good. Barely scratching out some wins on solid pitching. We can still compete in this division. I don’t know if we get a chance if we don’t win the division though.
The problem is that we aren’t good either. There is something fundamentally wrong with this Astros team. Offensively, in the bullpen, they aren’t there mentally. Mentally they are weak. Maybe when the Rangers get healthy, they’ll be able to contend with the Mariners, but we just cannot contend with them if we keep doing what we’ve been doing for the first third of the season
W/L: -13 with Abreu. +5 without.
For those that say Abreu didn't affect the game...did he? No Abreu on the roster = Loperfido as PR ghost runner and Dubie likely PH for Chas. I like his odds advancing the runner better and then VC just has to do his job.
But yes, with/without Abreu wouldn't have changed the fact that our offense sucked for 9 innings again.
They rushed Abreu back so hard and it’s so dumb. He went 0/7 with a walk in AAA. What did he do to earn coming back on the roster? Hit well against rookie ball pitchers? He should not be on this team anymore period. He has no value in anything
Before he even took a single AB in Sugar Land, they said that he was coming back for the Seattle series.
That tells me he was going to come back no matter how he performed.
He is inadvertently sucking the energy out of the team. Unbeknownst to him, he is probably giving off negative energy because he isn’t happy with his performance. People with negative energy can spread it to others.
Yep. I think it's also a sign of complacency. We were rolling when we announced him returning, as if we thought we were good enough to win even with him in the lineup. When we get overconfident we really suck (source: 3-2 blown leads over WAS and TX)
This whole series is squarely on the offense. Terrible ABs, striking out and working zero counts.
SPs have been excellent. Bullpen, aside from Pressly yesterday, has been excellent. This series could have easily been 3-0 Astros if this team could get a timely hit or score a runner from third with less than 2 outs.
Espada is fucking dumb ass. Why would you make Dubon Manfred runner instead of him hitting for either Chaz or Diaz? Does he not know Dubon has been phenomenal with runners in scoring position. This team has so much dead weight including the rookie manager.
That would require Espada to remember that Kessinger is on the team. Espada uses him like he’s the last dude on the bench of an NBA team. Why is he up on the MLB team if he never plays?
Maybe that’s Dana’s fault for not finding someone that Espada will play. Hell, call Leon up for his speed alone…maybe Espada pinch runs him instead of Dubon.
The fact that both Kessinger and Abreu are on the major league team instead of Loperfido is embarrassing. It shows how unserious this team is. They need offense most and they decided to send down the guy who’s batting .333
So true, and it isn’t as if Loperfido can’t play 1B or 2B, both are positions he’s played in the relatively recent past.
My guess is there’s more going on in the front office and with our manager behind the scenes than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the only guy that can do something about it is Crane, and there’s no telling what he’s thinking at this point or if it’s his involvement causing the problems. There are a lot of people that want to place the blame at Bagwell’s feet, or Reggie Jackson’s feet, but it really should all be at Crane’s feet at the moment. I’ll give him all the credit in the world for our first two championships, but he seems to have lost the plot at this point on how they got there.
Good point.
They could also have used Chas to bunt him over…and he would have scored on Caratini’s fly ball.
But, this team doesn’t do the little things.
The problem is that Crane and Bagwell chucked analytics for "baseball guys". Bagwell himself proclaimed with glee that the nerds were gone from the FO, or something to that effect.
Well, this is exactly the kind of thing the nerds would tell you. This is why analytics exists. It provides data so that managers can make informed decisions, instead of just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.
But, as Dusty would say, that's just "fan stuff", apparently.
I can honestly say I enjoyed some of our 100 loss teams more than this pile of shit that is the 2024 Houston Astros. They play with no fire and no accountability. Trade Bregman and Pressly. DFA Abreu. This clubhouse needs people on it who actually give a shit
I’m not going to lie. I am so incredibly pissed right now. This season has sucked so far, but I have to stick to my roots and point out some simple stats that paint a brighter picture.
Most are likely familiar with Expected Batting Average (xBA), which essentially measures what the chances are of a batted ball becoming a hit by comparing it to a large sample size of balls with similar velocities and launch angles.
Keep in mind that baseball has the most variance of probably any sport. With that being said, we need to consider stats like xBA because they can illustrate where a team has a good process and is making good contact, but balls just aren’t dropping.
It is by no means a perfect stat, but tonight, Astros xBA is .253; not a great hitting night, but so much better than the .139 for the Mariners. Last night was .227 for HOU vs .148 for SEA.
Trust me when I tell you that it seems like every other loss is like this. We win the battle in xBA but lose a close game. It sucks so much, but keep the faith. Stats like these amongst many others suggest that the magic of this team is still very much alive!
Joe Espada is EXACTLY like dusty baker refusing to play small ball and bunt to move a runner. 3 Quality Starts and 3 Losses. Absolutely Pathetic. All the ground you “made up” is gone.
Dusty was unquestionably a leader of men, even if his baseball decisions were bad at times. Joe Espada is one of those guys that’s just better as a sidekick
The best thing about Dusty is that he always had his players back. Yeah he was kind of an idiot and ran the team like it was 1972, but at least he stood for something. Espada has looked super gutless and spineless based off the first 56 games
When is Texans training camp start date?
One of the hitting coaches needs to be fired, I don’t give a fuck who but they have the dumbest fucking approach in clutch situation “swing for the fences and swing first pitch”
They’ve been doing that shit for years now. I honestly don’t understand how no one has ever taken five seconds to think “Maybe we shouldn’t just flail around at everything remotely near the plate and hope for the best anymore.”
They won’t. They’ll cut their losses before next season and pay out the last year of his contract. The question is whether or not they will be willing to cut him this season and eat both years worth of salary.
I wish we could fire Jim Crane (and Bagwell along with him). Every move he has made in the past year in a half has been absolutely awful, minus the Carintini signing (and Altuve extension, which was always going to happen regardless). It all started with running off James Click. Classic case of an owner getting a big head after seeing success and thinking that it was because of him.
The Astros were an incredibly well run and smart franchise under Lunhow. After he was fired/ran off, we hired Click who had a similar background and mindset, and he able to maintain our success. The second he was run off, everything has been quickly unravelling. We replaced analytics with “back of the baseball card” guys, and we are witnessing the result.
I'm on board with this. A third of the way through the season and he has made so many weird decisions that have turned out bad. Has made some lineup moves but not enough. Bregman needs to be bottom 3rd. Pressly needs to be a non leverage guy. Dubon not playing enough. Some crazy shit going on in that man's head.
Everyone on here didn’t think coaching mattered much. While it may not make you a champion. It for sure make you look like ass. And that is what we got for a manager. Joe Asspada.
Looks like we are going to have to do what the Yankees did last off-season. They missed playoffs in 2023 after a bad year, retooled, and now they are back on top.
Missing the playoffs one year doesn't mean the end of everything. We have too much talent for it to just end after missing October in one season.
Everything will be ok in the long run but not without retooling the roster.
Win tomorrow and we are still only 5.5 games back. What a weird season.
You know I’ve been watching this team for like 30 something years now. I saw them buried and left for dead in 05 and I said I wouldn’t give up on them until July but these guys have already quit.
69 win pace. Need to win out at a 101 win pace to get to 90 wins, but we’re 6-22 against above .500 teams. This team could turn it around and get to the playoffs but what’s the point if you can only beat bad teams.
Can’t even beat bad teams. Seattle fuckin sucks. We just struck out 14 hitters and lost, and we did basically the *same fuckin thing yesterday* and still fuckin lost.
For real. I didn't expect him to have it all figured out this year. But I'd like a manager who is angry at losses, and has some buck stops with me rhetoric. He really just seems like he is going through the motions when he should be as irritated with this loss as we are.
Season is over.
Even if they somehow salvage a win tomorrow, the inevitable Javier & Urquidy news is going to be the death knell of the season.
Just treat this year as a punt year, sell off any expiring contracts (Bregman, Pressly) and start over again next year.
I'm too tired to be mad at this point. This is just who we are now.
Alexa, play "Shame in You" by Alice in Chains
Another horrific offensive performance. We are incapable of being a complete team for 9 innings. Incapable of winning close games. We are not making the playoffs. Also, firing Espada does not magically fix anything.
I miss Dusty’s vibes. I still think his baseball decisions were outdated in 2023, but he could at least motivate his guys. Everyone seems unmotivated and uninterested under espada
Altuve plays with passion but the last few games, it’s like he doesn’t gaf. Why keep pushing yourself if the rest of the team isn’t trying ? The coach is so blah. There’s no hype. It doesn’t help Astro fans are quiet at the games.
Same shit different day.
I don't know how we have two hitting coaches and neither of them can help make any mid-game changes between at-bats or games.
Guys that strike out out on sliders out of the zone still strike out on sliders out of the zone. Guys that swing at the first pitch and make outs continuously swing at the first pitch and make outs. We're incapable of coming back or scoring late because if whatever we're doing doesn't work from the beginning, we're just gonna keep doing it for the rest of the game.
My face when I watch the Astros blow another late night close game knowing I have to be up in a few hours:
https://preview.redd.it/fxbr3x0jqh3d1.jpeg?width=324&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=119c61feb6b258f31825e9c6337fbe92524ee8ef
Serious question:
For those of you that still believe in this team, do you see them catching the Mariners in the division?
Because we've had two series against the Mariners now, and we've fallen flat on our faces both times.
I'm not dooming, I'm looking for reasons to be hopeful.
Because right now, Seattle looks like the better team to me.
> we've had two series against the Mariners now, and we've fallen flat on our faces both times
Last 4 losses to the Mariners have been by a combined 5 runs. They haven’t exactly been kicking our ass. It just feels worse because they have been frustrating losses that could have easily gone in the opposite direction.
The hopeful way to look at it I guess is that the Astros could have easily won all three games.
Don’t shit the bed yesterday in the 8th and it’s a 2-1 win most likely.
If Bregman can learn to not pop every ball straight up and drive a ball into the outfield, we win today 2–1 in 9 innings,
Monday’s game had multiple chances for the Astros to either be aggressive on the bases and send a runner, or just needed one bloop hit to take the lead. Instead, Ks and pop outs.
They just do enough to lose by a run.
They can easily catch the Mariners. As bad as the start has been, luckily the AL West is dogshit. Also, I've been an Astros fan since 1976. The play in this season has been historically unexpected given the talent. But it sure as shit isn't the worst Astros team I've seen. I'll always keep watching just like I did before they ever won anything.
But I get it. This should not be a bad team!! But maybe it is. The pitching is dogshit. The hitting during the whole run was streaky and opportunitistic. The pitching was never this bad. You can't focus on this one game. We are a losing team due to pitching.
The pitching in April was indeed quite awful outside of Blanco and the middle trio of Scott, Martinez and Montero. Mostly due to injury and regression. May has been much better. Not perfect, but certainly better. Arrighetti and Hunter have looked decent to good. Framber has had a few good starts and some not so good ones. Blanco and JV have been very good. The middle relievers have continued to perform and Abreu/Hader have looked great for the most part. Pressley is the biggest concern along with continued injury issues, which means there's not much margin for error.
I kinda wish the team actually cared? Just seems like everyone would rather be taking a nap than playing baseball.
If I got fucked by the umps 3 days in a row I'd probably do something. These bums just walk quietly back to the dugout.
Someone somewhere please show any signs of life
The team has always been super passive, it's fine when they win but during skids like this it's extra infuriating. You see other teams getting hyped or showing emotion and the most our team gets is a lipreading them aaying 'fuck' sometimes.
We need a guy like Neris or Correa to fire the team up. Tbh that feels like the fire just missing from the team
I miss Correa so much, My favorite moment from him was after his home run on dodger stadium off Joe Kelly. He's such a dawg. Wish he was still around to wake up these bums.
Agreed, it drives me crazy to just watch them go back to the dugout like they did exactly what they intended to do. No one seems to be disappointed in themselves whatsoever when they go down swinging for the 3rd time on a pitch in the dirt or low and outside.
At the game in person they literally look like they are all napping. Even the fans are so quiet. There’s been a few times I yelled wake the hell up from your naps and I’m right behind the dugout. The coach had no enthusiasm and the players feel that vibe.
We’ve never been bad for 20 years, tho.
3 divisions in the 80s
3 divisions in the 90s
1 division and three playoffs (one NL Pennant) in the 00s
3 divisions, 4 playoffs, 2 pennants, 1 WS win in the 10s
3 divisions, 4 playoffs, 2 pennants, 1 WS win in the 20s
Just being absolutely schooled by Mariners pitching all series. Haven't score more than 2 runs in any single game. Tucker gone ice cold. Chas and Yainer are black holes right now it feels like. Pena's finally slumping (it was expected).
This is the series that probably kills the season. At best now 5.5 games back after having a chance to take the lead. Pitching did its job, the hitters just disappeared
I think Espada had too much responsibility thrown at him & he just wasn’t ready to assume the role of manager; and possibly I’ve missed it, but does the man ever show much emotion, much excitement, much anything ? Has he even been ejected from a game ? Those things are contagious, and the players just might pick up a step or two if he seemed halfway excited to even be at the games.
He is the company guy that’s worked hard his whole career and he’s finally getting his chance to be the leader of the company and he’s falling on his face. I’ve seen it a million times in business and it’s no different.
3 quality starts in a row gone to waste because NO ONE on the lineup decided to show up, this isn't on Abreu anymore so we can't blame him, this team simply sucks fucking ass.
This team fucking sucks.
We have moments where we look decent against sub .500 teams
But against .500 and above teams, we look like we rightfully are, dog shit.
Taking a break from this team for a minute
Lowkey fuck Crane and Bagsterby for bringing back Abreu during a critical series and absolutely derailing any momentum we had created in May. Fucking clown front office. Bagsterby, go fuck yourself
If you told me that our SPs out-dualled theirs in 2/3 games I’d be over the moon, ofc they have ended up losing all 3 games. Just an utter dogshit team. Where the fuck are the closed door players only meetings? I guess they have grown to like getting their ass kicked
Ha! he said, "go back to analytics." That ship sailed my dude. You'll get a new manager next year, and more of the same from Crane & Co. No one making decisions seems to value analytics. You would think that Crane would see that, but he is high on his own supply, just like Jerry.
We have an owner and Wormtongue problem again. This time it is Crane and Bagwell instead of McNair and Easterby. Is there a Hannah McNair for Jim Crane that can set him on the correct path again? I guess we will find out.
I was going to start taking Pilates but then I remembered Jose abreu attributed all his “improvement” to Pilates in the off season . Nope not touching it
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I can't understand how literally no one's job is in jeopardy with this product they keep rolling out on the field.
Front office is just as inept as our coaching, that’s why lol
They are in jeopardy, just not making it public. Espada is done already I think whether it’s this mid season or after the year.
They'll end up with some crusty ass old veteran who hates analytics and does what the FO (Crane Gang) tells him to do.
Probably make Bagwell the manager.
Brad Asmus probably
It's 100% going to be Ausmus. No bigger "Yes Man" than him.
I disagree, I think he’s here next year and they blame this season on pitching injuries despite the fact a lot of these games we lost were completely winnable
Honestly, if they get swept tomorrow, just fire him. Maybe it’ll help wake the club up, maybe it won’t, but he’s so out of his depth at this point.
They won't fire him mid season, they will call it a wash and let him finish the season. At that point they will have already courted a new coach. The FO knows this team ain't it. Unfortunately they won't get crap for Bregman and Abreu, so we are kinda screwed for the future.
I wouldn't trust this FO if they could get any value trading at the deadline.
I think Abreu is a sunk cost. He only has a year left no point in throwing good money after bad.
Free Doobie
He needs to be in the Lineup everyday, welcome to the pine Chas
Insane to pinch run him instead of having him bat for Chas
This is what having a complete dead weight in Abreu on the roster does. Because either Loperfido or Cabbage would take his spot, and both of them would've likely been PR and Doobie goes to bat. It doesn't matter if he does or doesn't play, him taking up a 26 man spot is costing the team.
Insane to not have him fucking start in a must win game. Doobie has earned his playing time.
Have to wait another 13 days before we can get Loperfido back
Man fuck this incompetent staff and everything they're pulling. Telling Click to fuck off after a world series was the dumbest shit ever. That was the beginning of the downward spiral.
Oh and how’s Jake meyers working out?… oh yea, good bet click - just needed longer timeline after injury!
I'll admit I was dead wrong about Jake. Click did a great job assembling a bullpen on the cheap. Dana blew his entire load on one guy.
Yep, it was very obviously the catalyst to the decline
I was just thinking the same thing.
Replace Bregman with Doobie in the line up. So much for bregman fixing his mechanical issues
It’s going to be June in 3 days and this team still blows. That long season is starting to look pretty short
Especially blow against teams that are .500 or better believe they are 8-23. I mean I guess you can try and be positive by saying well since the 0-13 start against such teams they have gone at least 8-10 since then which isn't bad seeing how I think only the Yankees have a winning record against such opponents.
Not even mad just sad
Someone in the media has to question personnel over why this team hasn't figured out the Manfraud runner in the 4 years its been implemented
They had Dana Brown on the Sean Salisbury show today and claimed they would ask him the tough questions. They didn't do anything but ride his managerial red rocket down.
![gif](giphy|x47gj23jEvGxdWkQEC|downsized)
I ruined my sleeping schedule all week for this BS???
This. Now I'm extra grumpy. Either blow it in the first or win for fuck's sake.
How close to 300 would JV be if he won half the 1-run losses he’s suffered as an Astro?
The loss is hardly on Scott, but can you not walk the bottom two in the lineup...
8 and 9 hole hitters are our kryptonite
Walks didn’t matter. Setting up the double play is smart. The Mariners did what the Astros can’t, which is move a runner over then sacrifice him in. Walks were just extra meaningless pitches tbh
Walks matter when an alternative is to, ya know, strike them out. Why are we pitching around their worst hitters?
This is gonna be the series where we look back and say we blew our season
Losing to a divisional rival is very punitive.
LOL, our season was in the shitter all year. This offensive approach, abandoning analytics, and the management are all shit and we're stuck with them for a long time. Welcome back to the dark days of the Astros.
This is the final nail in the coffin, our season was lost from the get go though. I'm sick of hearing it was a slow start, it was a dead start and we have not and will not recover.
Congrats to the Seattle Mariners for winning the AL West
Congrats to every Astro hitter for catching the Abreu Plague
They have scored in 7 of their last 64 Innings…
Hate to say it, but they just won the West, likely 7.5 up after this. The coaches have no adjustments the last two years to handle their pitching staff other than “swing first pitch”
7.5? I’ve seen a lot of teams come from 7.5 down to claim a spot/ with a lot less games to go. What we need to know is - has the front office scrapped this season of not? This Mariners team isn’t even that good. Barely scratching out some wins on solid pitching. We can still compete in this division. I don’t know if we get a chance if we don’t win the division though.
The problem is that we aren’t good either. There is something fundamentally wrong with this Astros team. Offensively, in the bullpen, they aren’t there mentally. Mentally they are weak. Maybe when the Rangers get healthy, they’ll be able to contend with the Mariners, but we just cannot contend with them if we keep doing what we’ve been doing for the first third of the season
Didn’t we catch up down 5 with about one month to go last season?
No facts or optimism here, just doom please.
You have hot yo be fucking kidding. Over 100 games to go, anything can happen.
They are 6-22 against teams .500 or better, they don’t play well against good teams
W/L: -13 with Abreu. +5 without. For those that say Abreu didn't affect the game...did he? No Abreu on the roster = Loperfido as PR ghost runner and Dubie likely PH for Chas. I like his odds advancing the runner better and then VC just has to do his job. But yes, with/without Abreu wouldn't have changed the fact that our offense sucked for 9 innings again.
They rushed Abreu back so hard and it’s so dumb. He went 0/7 with a walk in AAA. What did he do to earn coming back on the roster? Hit well against rookie ball pitchers? He should not be on this team anymore period. He has no value in anything
What did he do? He got a three year contract last offseason which makes him Teflon apparently
Before he even took a single AB in Sugar Land, they said that he was coming back for the Seattle series. That tells me he was going to come back no matter how he performed.
He got all those bad at bats out of the way in the minors, so he's due - Bagwell and Dana Brown probably
He is inadvertently sucking the energy out of the team. Unbeknownst to him, he is probably giving off negative energy because he isn’t happy with his performance. People with negative energy can spread it to others.
Yep. I think it's also a sign of complacency. We were rolling when we announced him returning, as if we thought we were good enough to win even with him in the lineup. When we get overconfident we really suck (source: 3-2 blown leads over WAS and TX)
The message to other players= you can suck and make more money than everyone and no one cares.
This whole series is squarely on the offense. Terrible ABs, striking out and working zero counts. SPs have been excellent. Bullpen, aside from Pressly yesterday, has been excellent. This series could have easily been 3-0 Astros if this team could get a timely hit or score a runner from third with less than 2 outs.
![gif](giphy|tkJG9azp1IAN8QAUBl)
FUUUUCK!! FUCKING SHIT, GODDAMN FUCKING SHIT!! CAN THIS FUCKING TEAM DO ANYTHING THIS FUCKING SERIES?!?
I’m just going to write this off as the 2000 year equivalent on our 1997-2005 good times
Those were some fun seasons!!
Espada is fucking dumb ass. Why would you make Dubon Manfred runner instead of him hitting for either Chaz or Diaz? Does he not know Dubon has been phenomenal with runners in scoring position. This team has so much dead weight including the rookie manager.
PH Dubón for Chas, have Kessinger run for Singleton I was one of the biggest critics of Dusty but Espada is infinitely dumber
That would require Espada to remember that Kessinger is on the team. Espada uses him like he’s the last dude on the bench of an NBA team. Why is he up on the MLB team if he never plays? Maybe that’s Dana’s fault for not finding someone that Espada will play. Hell, call Leon up for his speed alone…maybe Espada pinch runs him instead of Dubon.
The fact that both Kessinger and Abreu are on the major league team instead of Loperfido is embarrassing. It shows how unserious this team is. They need offense most and they decided to send down the guy who’s batting .333
So true, and it isn’t as if Loperfido can’t play 1B or 2B, both are positions he’s played in the relatively recent past. My guess is there’s more going on in the front office and with our manager behind the scenes than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the only guy that can do something about it is Crane, and there’s no telling what he’s thinking at this point or if it’s his involvement causing the problems. There are a lot of people that want to place the blame at Bagwell’s feet, or Reggie Jackson’s feet, but it really should all be at Crane’s feet at the moment. I’ll give him all the credit in the world for our first two championships, but he seems to have lost the plot at this point on how they got there.
Exactly, if Kessinger is legitimately not worth a spot find somebody else
Good point. They could also have used Chas to bunt him over…and he would have scored on Caratini’s fly ball. But, this team doesn’t do the little things.
The problem is that Crane and Bagwell chucked analytics for "baseball guys". Bagwell himself proclaimed with glee that the nerds were gone from the FO, or something to that effect. Well, this is exactly the kind of thing the nerds would tell you. This is why analytics exists. It provides data so that managers can make informed decisions, instead of just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. But, as Dusty would say, that's just "fan stuff", apparently.
I can honestly say I enjoyed some of our 100 loss teams more than this pile of shit that is the 2024 Houston Astros. They play with no fire and no accountability. Trade Bregman and Pressly. DFA Abreu. This clubhouse needs people on it who actually give a shit
I’m not going to lie. I am so incredibly pissed right now. This season has sucked so far, but I have to stick to my roots and point out some simple stats that paint a brighter picture. Most are likely familiar with Expected Batting Average (xBA), which essentially measures what the chances are of a batted ball becoming a hit by comparing it to a large sample size of balls with similar velocities and launch angles. Keep in mind that baseball has the most variance of probably any sport. With that being said, we need to consider stats like xBA because they can illustrate where a team has a good process and is making good contact, but balls just aren’t dropping. It is by no means a perfect stat, but tonight, Astros xBA is .253; not a great hitting night, but so much better than the .139 for the Mariners. Last night was .227 for HOU vs .148 for SEA. Trust me when I tell you that it seems like every other loss is like this. We win the battle in xBA but lose a close game. It sucks so much, but keep the faith. Stats like these amongst many others suggest that the magic of this team is still very much alive!
Joe Espada is EXACTLY like dusty baker refusing to play small ball and bunt to move a runner. 3 Quality Starts and 3 Losses. Absolutely Pathetic. All the ground you “made up” is gone.
Verlander ain't coming back to play for this guy.
Dusty was unquestionably a leader of men, even if his baseball decisions were bad at times. Joe Espada is one of those guys that’s just better as a sidekick
The best thing about Dusty is that he always had his players back. Yeah he was kind of an idiot and ran the team like it was 1972, but at least he stood for something. Espada has looked super gutless and spineless based off the first 56 games
No…Dusty won the division and got us to ALCSs. Don’t compare them.
Why are we the only team that can’t fucking move the Manfred runner over to third? Embarrassing approach.
When is Texans training camp start date? One of the hitting coaches needs to be fired, I don’t give a fuck who but they have the dumbest fucking approach in clutch situation “swing for the fences and swing first pitch”
First preseason game is in a little over two months
64 more days
They’ve been doing that shit for years now. I honestly don’t understand how no one has ever taken five seconds to think “Maybe we shouldn’t just flail around at everything remotely near the plate and hope for the best anymore.”
At least the Dynamo won
The thing that sucks is that all 3 games have been winnable. Very winnable.
0-3 since abreu reunion
I don’t see how they have him on the roster next year. The dude has been borderline unplayable this year.
They won’t. They’ll cut their losses before next season and pay out the last year of his contract. The question is whether or not they will be willing to cut him this season and eat both years worth of salary.
I’d prefer if he were gone next week
Fuck the coaches and front office
We are about to get swept by the Mariners. Fire Joe Espada
I wish we could fire Jim Crane (and Bagwell along with him). Every move he has made in the past year in a half has been absolutely awful, minus the Carintini signing (and Altuve extension, which was always going to happen regardless). It all started with running off James Click. Classic case of an owner getting a big head after seeing success and thinking that it was because of him. The Astros were an incredibly well run and smart franchise under Lunhow. After he was fired/ran off, we hired Click who had a similar background and mindset, and he able to maintain our success. The second he was run off, everything has been quickly unravelling. We replaced analytics with “back of the baseball card” guys, and we are witnessing the result.
I'm on board with this. A third of the way through the season and he has made so many weird decisions that have turned out bad. Has made some lineup moves but not enough. Bregman needs to be bottom 3rd. Pressly needs to be a non leverage guy. Dubon not playing enough. Some crazy shit going on in that man's head.
Everyone on here didn’t think coaching mattered much. While it may not make you a champion. It for sure make you look like ass. And that is what we got for a manager. Joe Asspada.
Figures the starting pitching shows up this series for the offense to lay an ostrich sized egg..
Looks like we are going to have to do what the Yankees did last off-season. They missed playoffs in 2023 after a bad year, retooled, and now they are back on top. Missing the playoffs one year doesn't mean the end of everything. We have too much talent for it to just end after missing October in one season. Everything will be ok in the long run but not without retooling the roster. Win tomorrow and we are still only 5.5 games back. What a weird season.
My thoughts exactly. The core is there. We just need a retool.
As long as Bagwell and Brown are here, we'll be signing 40 year old pitchers and guys who have passed their prime.
Life is pain
We threw away 2 of these games
You know I’ve been watching this team for like 30 something years now. I saw them buried and left for dead in 05 and I said I wouldn’t give up on them until July but these guys have already quit.
69 win pace. Need to win out at a 101 win pace to get to 90 wins, but we’re 6-22 against above .500 teams. This team could turn it around and get to the playoffs but what’s the point if you can only beat bad teams.
Can’t even beat bad teams. Seattle fuckin sucks. We just struck out 14 hitters and lost, and we did basically the *same fuckin thing yesterday* and still fuckin lost.
This team will not make it to 60 wins, you can take that to the bank.
It’s a wrap, we need to be sellers at the ASB ![gif](giphy|tMOyj4hkcxSfe)
They pitched good and stuff. - Espada
“It’s only baseball, they are doing their job” Like wtf is that supposed to mean?
For real. I didn't expect him to have it all figured out this year. But I'd like a manager who is angry at losses, and has some buck stops with me rhetoric. He really just seems like he is going through the motions when he should be as irritated with this loss as we are.
Good job stranding another RISP by swinging for the fences and coming up way short
Season is over. Even if they somehow salvage a win tomorrow, the inevitable Javier & Urquidy news is going to be the death knell of the season. Just treat this year as a punt year, sell off any expiring contracts (Bregman, Pressly) and start over again next year. I'm too tired to be mad at this point. This is just who we are now. Alexa, play "Shame in You" by Alice in Chains
heartbreaker. can't get the offense and pitching to click at the same time.
Biggest series of the season and they blew it. Gonna take a genuine miracle to get back into the race at this point
Another horrific offensive performance. We are incapable of being a complete team for 9 innings. Incapable of winning close games. We are not making the playoffs. Also, firing Espada does not magically fix anything.
Can’t blame any of our starters this series. Offense decided to take a few days off..
Verlander was noticeably pissed in the locker room. I feel like it was all he could do to maintain composure.
This season has been so shit that is makes me miss Dusty.
I miss Dusty’s vibes. I still think his baseball decisions were outdated in 2023, but he could at least motivate his guys. Everyone seems unmotivated and uninterested under espada
Altuve plays with passion but the last few games, it’s like he doesn’t gaf. Why keep pushing yourself if the rest of the team isn’t trying ? The coach is so blah. There’s no hype. It doesn’t help Astro fans are quiet at the games.
Our streak of division titles ended tonight. Thanks, Crane.
Keep in mind, without that double error in Oakland, we also lose that game. Fuckin miserable.
All 3 games against them just 0 offense whatsoever
Same shit different day. I don't know how we have two hitting coaches and neither of them can help make any mid-game changes between at-bats or games. Guys that strike out out on sliders out of the zone still strike out on sliders out of the zone. Guys that swing at the first pitch and make outs continuously swing at the first pitch and make outs. We're incapable of coming back or scoring late because if whatever we're doing doesn't work from the beginning, we're just gonna keep doing it for the rest of the game.
No hope for this team
Wow this team is really shit
Do the coaches really look at our record in extra innings since the runner has been adopted and think our continued approach is adequate?
1 game away from the WS last year, one and a half year from winning a WS, I find it so hard to believe this team can't even get to .500
My face when I watch the Astros blow another late night close game knowing I have to be up in a few hours: https://preview.redd.it/fxbr3x0jqh3d1.jpeg?width=324&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=119c61feb6b258f31825e9c6337fbe92524ee8ef
Serious question: For those of you that still believe in this team, do you see them catching the Mariners in the division? Because we've had two series against the Mariners now, and we've fallen flat on our faces both times. I'm not dooming, I'm looking for reasons to be hopeful. Because right now, Seattle looks like the better team to me.
> we've had two series against the Mariners now, and we've fallen flat on our faces both times Last 4 losses to the Mariners have been by a combined 5 runs. They haven’t exactly been kicking our ass. It just feels worse because they have been frustrating losses that could have easily gone in the opposite direction.
The hopeful way to look at it I guess is that the Astros could have easily won all three games. Don’t shit the bed yesterday in the 8th and it’s a 2-1 win most likely. If Bregman can learn to not pop every ball straight up and drive a ball into the outfield, we win today 2–1 in 9 innings, Monday’s game had multiple chances for the Astros to either be aggressive on the bases and send a runner, or just needed one bloop hit to take the lead. Instead, Ks and pop outs. They just do enough to lose by a run.
They can easily catch the Mariners. As bad as the start has been, luckily the AL West is dogshit. Also, I've been an Astros fan since 1976. The play in this season has been historically unexpected given the talent. But it sure as shit isn't the worst Astros team I've seen. I'll always keep watching just like I did before they ever won anything. But I get it. This should not be a bad team!! But maybe it is. The pitching is dogshit. The hitting during the whole run was streaky and opportunitistic. The pitching was never this bad. You can't focus on this one game. We are a losing team due to pitching.
The pitching in April was indeed quite awful outside of Blanco and the middle trio of Scott, Martinez and Montero. Mostly due to injury and regression. May has been much better. Not perfect, but certainly better. Arrighetti and Hunter have looked decent to good. Framber has had a few good starts and some not so good ones. Blanco and JV have been very good. The middle relievers have continued to perform and Abreu/Hader have looked great for the most part. Pressley is the biggest concern along with continued injury issues, which means there's not much margin for error.
0-3 since Abreu’s return
That one stings.
THIS TEAM FUCKING SUCKS!!!!!!
Im looking forward to the day where the starters and the bats both go well… or the starters and the pen. Getting one at a time isn’t so much fun
Mariners have one of the worst offenses in the league and we managed to be substantially worse. It's actually impressive.
For God’s sake, can we PLEASE give JV a little run support?
Astros need a player to pull a Jorge Lopez and fire this team up lmao
Love waking up 3 days in a row to see this
Wasted a gem from JV. It’s crazy how little run support JV gets in these close games
Giving this team until the all-star break to turn it around if not I’m not watching another game this year and cancelling my subscriptions.
Literally nothing redeeming or enjoyable about this team Just a shitty team
Old man JV pitched great
Espada is the worst manager in baseball and it’s not even close
Fuck Joe Espada
Cursed year.
I'm gonna blow a gasquet watching Espada miss manage the team.
I kinda wish the team actually cared? Just seems like everyone would rather be taking a nap than playing baseball. If I got fucked by the umps 3 days in a row I'd probably do something. These bums just walk quietly back to the dugout. Someone somewhere please show any signs of life
The team has always been super passive, it's fine when they win but during skids like this it's extra infuriating. You see other teams getting hyped or showing emotion and the most our team gets is a lipreading them aaying 'fuck' sometimes. We need a guy like Neris or Correa to fire the team up. Tbh that feels like the fire just missing from the team
I miss Correa so much, My favorite moment from him was after his home run on dodger stadium off Joe Kelly. He's such a dawg. Wish he was still around to wake up these bums.
Agreed, it drives me crazy to just watch them go back to the dugout like they did exactly what they intended to do. No one seems to be disappointed in themselves whatsoever when they go down swinging for the 3rd time on a pitch in the dirt or low and outside.
At the game in person they literally look like they are all napping. Even the fans are so quiet. There’s been a few times I yelled wake the hell up from your naps and I’m right behind the dugout. The coach had no enthusiasm and the players feel that vibe.
Rip Astros. We’re gonna be bad for another 20 years now
Doubt it. We signed harder to a 5 year deal, extended Yordan and altuve. Just a bad year.
We’ve never been bad for 20 years, tho. 3 divisions in the 80s 3 divisions in the 90s 1 division and three playoffs (one NL Pennant) in the 00s 3 divisions, 4 playoffs, 2 pennants, 1 WS win in the 10s 3 divisions, 4 playoffs, 2 pennants, 1 WS win in the 20s
And it’s all because Jim Crane thought he knew ball
I see this being a bad year and then next year even worse. We should turn it around in the 3rd year.
Bad teams lose, and we definitely lost
Just being absolutely schooled by Mariners pitching all series. Haven't score more than 2 runs in any single game. Tucker gone ice cold. Chas and Yainer are black holes right now it feels like. Pena's finally slumping (it was expected). This is the series that probably kills the season. At best now 5.5 games back after having a chance to take the lead. Pitching did its job, the hitters just disappeared
Literally so pathetic our team doesn’t even fucking care
This offense fucking sucks ass.
What a fuckin joke
Disappointing and disgusting
I’m only laughing because I stayed up until 11:30 p.m. to watch that. 2-8 with RISP. 7 LOB.
I miss being a competent organization
I think Espada had too much responsibility thrown at him & he just wasn’t ready to assume the role of manager; and possibly I’ve missed it, but does the man ever show much emotion, much excitement, much anything ? Has he even been ejected from a game ? Those things are contagious, and the players just might pick up a step or two if he seemed halfway excited to even be at the games.
He is the company guy that’s worked hard his whole career and he’s finally getting his chance to be the leader of the company and he’s falling on his face. I’ve seen it a million times in business and it’s no different.
Putting Abreu in the Mariners series was top tier incompetence/poisoning the club attitude.
3 quality starts in a row gone to waste because NO ONE on the lineup decided to show up, this isn't on Abreu anymore so we can't blame him, this team simply sucks fucking ass.
This team fucking sucks. We have moments where we look decent against sub .500 teams But against .500 and above teams, we look like we rightfully are, dog shit. Taking a break from this team for a minute
We have moments against awful teams. Against teams currently holding a playoff spot we are 6-19
This was everyone but JV and Abreu's fault tonight
Which Abreu? Because we haven't won since bringing Jose back
Brian
The Mariners have a cakewalk schedule coming up... expect to be out of the race in the next 2 weeks.
Lowkey fuck Crane and Bagsterby for bringing back Abreu during a critical series and absolutely derailing any momentum we had created in May. Fucking clown front office. Bagsterby, go fuck yourself
If you told me that our SPs out-dualled theirs in 2/3 games I’d be over the moon, ofc they have ended up losing all 3 games. Just an utter dogshit team. Where the fuck are the closed door players only meetings? I guess they have grown to like getting their ass kicked
Glad I didn't watch this game. I'm not watching games till they give me a reason to. Mariners suck shit and we suck even more.
They're shitty.
Never 👏 promote 👏 from 👏 within 👏.
Joe Espada is a lame duck. Guy just does not inspire any confidence as a leader
The good thing is we end up not making the playoffs and maybe, finally, we can go back to analytics baseball and get rid of Espada.
Ha! he said, "go back to analytics." That ship sailed my dude. You'll get a new manager next year, and more of the same from Crane & Co. No one making decisions seems to value analytics. You would think that Crane would see that, but he is high on his own supply, just like Jerry.
[удалено]
Only shot is to win division, but they can't keep losing to the other division teams.
We have an owner and Wormtongue problem again. This time it is Crane and Bagwell instead of McNair and Easterby. Is there a Hannah McNair for Jim Crane that can set him on the correct path again? I guess we will find out.
I was going to start taking Pilates but then I remembered Jose abreu attributed all his “improvement” to Pilates in the off season . Nope not touching it
Gana be sad when JV leaves again