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Last night's game had me wondering: Are there leaders on this team, and if there are, who are they?

My perception is that this team lacks what I would call situational awareness, and has almost all year. Last night, the examples included Gomez not even contemplating advancing the runner (my observation at least), three situations where after Hamels/Diekman struggled to come near the plate and walked a hitter the next batter hacked at a pitch either not dead center or off the plate and Marwin brainlocking on a base hit he could have scored on.

There is hopefully some leadership addressing these things behind the scenes, but given how they keep repeating, I wonder.

A long winded intro into the question of "who are the leaders on this team?"

7

Talk Zone / Garrido Steps Down

« on: May 30, 2016, 12:21:27 pm »

Just saw the ESPN scroll. Says he will become a special assistant.

He's accomplished a ton in college baseball.

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Beer and Queso / McHale out

« on: November 18, 2015, 10:37:33 am »

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2015/11/report-rockets-fire-kevin-mchale/

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Talk Zone / Apparently, only cowards bunt

« on: August 04, 2013, 06:28:46 pm »

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/matt-garza-takes-jabs-eric-kaycee-sogard-during-081458796.html

Baffling that a professional player gets pissed about bunting against him. Seeing him fuming and yelling at the A's reminded me of his old hothead, FTC teammate.

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Talk Zone / Harrell to the pen

« on: July 07, 2013, 02:49:20 pm »

Astros County, via a tweet from Smith, reports that Harrell is going to the pen.

Maybe they had seen enough of his attitude.

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The Bus Ride Discussion Forum / BP article on Singleton and Springer

« on: May 31, 2013, 08:06:34 am »

I think it is free. Basically a writeup on the two, wondering if they can serve as a foundation like Bagwell and Biggio. It also has lots of good info on the two.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=20772

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Talk Zone / Wandy's departure

« on: July 25, 2012, 11:11:03 am »

Not about the trade, but the scene in the dugout when he was saying his goodbyes.

I liked Wandy, and I loved watching his progress over the years from what I would characterize as a hopeless pitcher who tended to implode at the first sign of trouble, to a very solid major leaguer. Kudos to the organization for sticking with him by the way, as they saw something and held to that belief.

What kind of bothered me was the tone of his exit. Very few of the players or coaches seemed to care. Maybe he was not well liked by his teammates or maybe the team morale is so shell-shocked to be aware, or even care. It just sort of sucked to see a longtime contributor, who by all accounts never whined about things and did his job, to leave in such a manner.

13

Talk Zone / Amazing "catch"

« on: July 15, 2012, 11:07:54 am »

http://philly.sbnation.com/philadelphia-phillies/2012/7/15/3160674/video-phillies-prospect-jiwan-james-makes-amazing-hard-to-explain

I've watched it in on the tube about 10 times, and assumed he really did catch it, after he trapped it against the wall, but I am still not sure.

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Talk Zone / Lyles back down to AAA

« on: August 22, 2011, 08:16:50 am »

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2011/08/21/astros-send-lyles-to-class-aaa-bullpen-to-control-innings/

Hadn't seen this here. The idea is to move him to the pen to control his innings. I don't get the innings thing, the idea to limit him through relieving or why it can't be done in the majors. I hope after September 1, they bring him back up.

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Talk Zone / Who is gone when Keppinger returns?

« on: May 17, 2011, 10:55:59 am »

Any thoughts. I was thinking Bogusevic, but that just changes the question to Who is gone when Bourgeois returns?

Sanchez, Downs, Johnson, Hall? Would they really dump Hall?

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Talk Zone / Postolos??

« on: April 14, 2011, 09:53:53 am »

Astros County linked to an article by Ringolsby http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Slow-start-for-Boston-Red-Sox-does-not-bode-well-for-season-041311.

In the article, it implies that if Crane gets the team, then George Postolos will take Tal's spot as president. Says Postolos was president of the Rockets at some point. Any observations on this guy? Did he seem capable with the Rockets?

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Beer and Queso / The ridiculously raucous Estate Tax debate

« on: January 13, 2010, 01:34:45 pm »

Question about estate taxes. If McClane simply passed the franchise down to his children, who sets the taxable value of the inheritance? Also, if sold now, are there other benefits to the children besides saving them from the hassle of selling and having cash to pay the estate taxes from.

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Talk Zone / Fulchino

« on: September 30, 2009, 10:27:25 am »

He has been pretty dependable all year. I looked at his historical numbers, and he has really improved this year. Anyone have insights into why?

Also, any talk of him being a starter? I know they are talking about Wright trying that role, I wonder if Fulchino has ever been considered.

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The Bus Ride Discussion Forum / Polin Trinidad

« on: June 12, 2008, 01:54:39 pm »

Anyone seen him pitch? I couldn't find much on him, other than he is left-handed and has been pretty successful. I read a quote from Pankovitz after a good game to the effect of "tremendous command of fastball without great velocity, breaking stuff nothing to write home about, but he's a helluva pitcher." Kind of like, he's damn good, but he won't wow anybody.

I would appreciate any first hand observations, mainly related to the progress of his secondary pitches, or a guess as to why he is so effective.

20

Talk Zone / Astros focus on 08

« on: December 13, 2007, 01:11:56 pm »

Just curious as what people think this quote from Wade means:

Quote

"But it was a team where I felt the elements were here, where it did not have to be a rebuilding. I think what we've done here is identified what our needs were, and we've tried to go out and address those needs. In the process, we've given up a lot of young players to do it, but '08 is very important to us, and I think that has been the case since the beginning of the '07 season."

The part I am curious about is the last part "but 08 is very important to us, and I think that has been the case since the beginning of the 07 season."

Does this quote simply mean "once we realized early in 07 that we weren't very good, we started looking towards next year" or is there something significant about 08 beyond being the next chance to win?

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Talk Zone / Change in philosphies?

« on: September 21, 2007, 08:29:04 am »

I didn't hear Tal Smith or Ed Wade speak beyond the news clips, so I am basing this solely on Justice's column, and am aware of the associated pitfalls. Two of the topics Justice attributed to Tal were an emphasis on pitching and defense, which was supported by an actual quote, and Tal's apparent dissatisfaction with some aspect of player development.

The pitching and defense topic seems straightforward enough. I immediately think that it would manifest itself through trades, drafting focus, lineup chocies, etc. In other words, seeking out or preferring these skills when building a club. Is that simply what this means?

I'm not clear about Tal's concern with player development. Did Tal mention anything specifically, or does anyone have an educated guess on what his actual concerns are?

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Talk Zone / Article on Angel's offense

« on: September 13, 2007, 12:38:11 pm »

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202740.html?hpid=sec-sports

In this column, Boswell discusses the Angel's offensive success, which seems to contradict presently held offensive theories.

Some might find it interesting.

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Talk Zone / Charting pitches?

« on: June 18, 2007, 01:19:06 pm »

Every minor league game I go to, I always see one or two people (young guys and presumably not scouts) in the stands behind home plate charting the pitches.

Is this usually the next day pitcher, yesterday’s pitcher, or someone else?

How detailed are they in charting pitches? Are they simply recording pitching data, or making notes on their opinion on how to approach hitters, or observations about the pitcher?

Is this data the “official” data for the team, or simply a task to get them thinking and learning about pitching?

Any info on why the club has them do this would be appreciated.

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Talk Zone / Proper pickoff avoidance technique

« on: August 18, 2006, 10:40:31 am »

I'm not knowledgable on the proper technique for avoiding pickoffs at first, but watching Willy lately got me wondering: what is the proper technique for a runner to get back to first.

Willy's technique looks odd to me. He never dives and as he goes to touch the outfield side of the bag, he kind of rotates his upper body, leaving his right shoulder very close to the glove hand of the first baseman. Of course, they got him on the leg last night rather than the shoulder, but his technique looks weird to me. How are runners properly taught?

Another unrelated question. I saw Hirsh once in RR, and he induced quite a lot of high pops to the infield, or shallow outfield. I don't know if that is typical for him, but he did induce a lot of flies last night. What is behind him inducing so many flies. Is it as simple as a rising fastball, or does it have something to do with his height and/or trajectory toward the plate?

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Talk Zone / Use of Burke

« on: May 26, 2006, 11:52:51 am »

Sorry if this has been discussed already, but what the hay: the simple question is "can we make a better use of Burke to improve our team?"

My basic philosphy is that I am generally willing to sacrifice a good bit of defense, for a larger improvement in offense. I am not well versed in the metrics, but we have some anemic offensive players, and I am going to assume Burke could post an OPS of 800. I actually feel a higher value is much more likely than a lower.

At any rate, based on that assumption, I always look to some of my usual suspects for replacement. First is Everett. I will assume (graciously at this point in the season) that his year end OPS will be 660. I have read that the organization does not consider Burke a shortstop, and I will grant that he can't field the position like Everett, but given Burke's athleticism and experience with the position in the past, I doubt he is a stiff out there. Therefore, it seems logical to me to give Burke a lot of playing time at short. Thoughts?

My second candidate for replacement might be heresy to many Astro fans, but it is Taveras. I realize one could easily argue for Wilson, or even Lane, but I can project Wilson and Lane with OPSs of 750 (to much higher), but I just don't ever project Willy to have an OPS much over 700, certainly not this year. In fact, I read one of the sports writers this morning talk about not trading Willy and I thought "If there is just one other team that projects this guy as valuable, let's make a deal now." At any rate, one could move Burke to left, and Wilson to center.

At any rate, without a trade, or trying some minor leaguers, I see Burke as our best unused offensive talent, and would like to get him in the everyday lineup.

Disclaimer. I'm sort of new to a lot of the new offensive metrics, and used OPS as my measure. There may be better measures, but I doubt they would make Adam's or Willy's offensive production look much better.