When good teams play this bad it’s because they aren’t good anymore and now they’re a bad team. I wish Espada would turn redass and make the players hate him. Too bad we can’t play just the Rockies.
Before tonight’s game, Verlander has been good this season. So, no, you don’t expect seven runs allowed in 5 innings.
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9-1
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This is a bad team that surprised everyone. The manager. The owner. The GM. All of us.
Personally, I can’t blame anyone. This is just a good ol’ fashioned bad scene.
Nothing is working in any type of cohesive fashion.
Perhaps, but there is no good reason besides injuries that a bunch of above average to good players in their primes just turn bad.
Yordan Alvarez didn’t forget how to hit. Alex Bregman has never been this bad offensively. Josh Hader has been a lights out reliever for years. Bryan Abreu was an elite reliever in 2022 and 2023. Ryan Pressly showed cracks in the armor towards the end of last season, but he was good during the postseason, and nobody expected him to be this bad.
Jose Abreu declining as a 37 year old doesn’t come as a big surprise. But, it is not normal to see a bunch of good players turn into bad ones in their primes.
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A hit!
I’d disagree.
This team was showing major faults one year ago. Starting pitching being among the most obvious closely followed by some unexplainable lineup decisions that have transcended managers.
I really can’t say that I’m super surprised that this team is struggling. It tracks with what I’ve been watching.
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Amaya, making his Astros debut…flies out
JLo grounds into FC
I’m sorry, I can’t get behind not blaming Joe Espada and Dana Brown to some extent. Someone needs to tear the Astros a new one and try lighting a fire under their ass. Instead of always saying “We believe are going to snap out of it at any time.”
Also, Joe Espada took a perfectly good thing with Alvarez batting third and decided to bat him second to start the season. He’s allowed his high-leverage relievers to go four or five days between appearances. He kept running Jose Abreu out there. He continues to bat Alex Bregman in the top four of the order when he is hitting .195.
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… and he’s hitting .184/.250/.368 since moving back to third.
To some extent? You mean like…50%?
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Yes to all of that.
But maybe, just maybe, this ain’t a good team. (That’s super easy to say tonight)
I mean, they’ve lost 8 games (after tonight) by five or more runs and we’re not yet to the quarter pole. That’s a BAD team.
The starting pitching be inconsistent is not a surprise, but the entire team sucking to this degree is. Also, the Astros won 90 games last year. Nobody expected them to be 12-23 through 35 games.
In addition, the Astros are 1-10 in one run games. Who expected the Astros to have the worst save percentage in baseball (27%, lower than the White Sox) and eight blown saves with Abreu-Pressly-Hader as their late inning bullpen?
Yes, the Astros are terrible right now, but I certainly never expected them to go from 90 wins and the ALCS to this garbage.
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I’m also 100% not blaming the manager.
This shitshow is brought to us by underperforming players.
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Yordan sucking at the plate right now is on Yordan. But, I didn’t like the decision to bat him second from the start. There wasn’t a need for a shakeup like that before the season started.
Unless Espada somehow serially desecrated the family graves of Bregman, Alvarez, McCormack, Valdez, Abreu, Pressly, and Hader, I have trouble faulting him too much.
I was being nice. I’m not inside the Astros’ clubhouse, but I’d imagine team chemistry isn’t as good as it has been most of the previous seven seasons. Dusty Baker had his flaws but he looks like a MENSA manager compared to Espada. Dana Brown has been underwhelming to say the least.
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