Astros just completed their best month since July 2005. Have the best record in baseball at this point. Here's a list of teams that had 38 or more victories at this point and what happened to them. Sadly only 4 won the WS, and the Seattle Team from 2001 who won 116 games didn't win the WS. So a long way to go, but it's been great to be an Astros fan! Next up is the Rangers a team that in the past few years has owned us. Hopefully we'll break that stranglehold they've had on us this weekend.
re: Cardinals I love their starting pitchers, their closers, and their catcher. SP- I like Carlos Martinez the best. His fastball was clocked at 101mph and his slider at 90mph. With stuff like that, he has a chance to dominate the NL. C- Yadier Molina is worth the price of admission by himself. Dodger broadcaster Oral Hershiser, who is the best baseball analyst I've ever heard, loves Molina's work so much, that he can predict what he's thinking before he does it. After the pitcher walked two and seemed to be losing it, Yadier called time (on his own) and had a long talk with the pitcher. Hershiser was already snickering, explained what he was up to, and said something like "watch this." The next pitch was a double-play grounder to the shortstop to end the inning. I agree with almost everything Hershiser says. Yadier Molina may be the best defensive catcher... ever. CP- Ho and Rosenthal are a great 1-2 punch to close out games. Very few teams have a double closer team like those two. So what are the Cards missing? They have a couple of middle relievers who're not up to the job and need to be replaced. They also have a power shortage in the middle of the lineup. They might want to go shopping after the All-Star break.
Well Kershaw got his 2000th K last night, 2nd fastest to 2000 ever. Randy Johnson was the fastest. Certainly headed down the path of a HOF career. Anybody following Pujols drive for 600 HR's?
Jo'Co, Can your Dodgers just get the hell out of Milwaukee? It is good that most of our fan base are in a drunken stupor by the 5th inning as the alcohol helps anesthetize them from the pain dished out by LA in these late inning nightmare losses.
:wink: Orel Hershiser was talking about the Brewers last night, and once again I agree with everything he said. The Brewers are a very young, and very talented team. The difference between the teams is experience: the Brewers don't know how to win and the Dodgers do. When the Brewers were winning by four, late in the game, Hershiser remarked about how silly they looked: flipping their bats, turkey trotting around the bases and acting like every run scored was the last inning of the World Series. Compare that with the Dodgers. Can you imagine Adrian Gonzalez, Chase Utley or Clayton Kershaw acting that way? Even the youngest Dodgers like Seager and Bellinger seem older, because they have family who played MLB. I think the Brewers will be fine if the locals drink their suds more slowly and wait this period out. Look at the Astros. The last several years has seen their fan base in full rebellion. They demanded trades, firings and a clean sweep of the entire organization. Instead, the front office stuck with their plan like grim death... and it worked. I think these young Brewers are further along than the Stros were and everything will work out OK in the end.
I'm conflicted. The Brewers and Cubs are strong rivals. There's been trash talk already this season. The Brewers' manager is Craig Counsell, former ND player, and their bench coach is Pat Murphy, former successful ND head coach. For that reason, I want them to do well, which means I want them to finish a strong 2nd place in the NLC behind the Cubs.
Astros streak is over, we were done in by the usually reliable bullpen, our "All-Star" Closer gave up the walk off HR to them in the bottom of the 9th. Had to happen sometime. I thought with a 7-1 lead we would win but then the late inning collapse! Still have a healthy lead in the ALC. I expect that somewhere we will have a losing streak, law of averages and all.
Doc.....we give you by punishment draft picks and cash....and you have to still poke the bear in the eye....
Scooter played the past few year for the Brewers as a utility infielder. He was DFA'd this spring and picked up by his howntown team the Reds. His 4 HR game was only the second time in his career that he hit multiple homers in a game and only the second time he hit more than 3 RBI's in one game. He was a popular player in MKE for his hustle and intelligent play. When he was cut, he was classy in his comments to the media about the Brewers organization and fans. The blog comments by the Milwaukee fans after the event were interesting as very few bitched about releasing him with the great majority of comments expressing happiness the underdog Scooter became a member of a small group of players who achieved the incredible accomplishment.
What's amazing is that most guys who have hit 4 HRs in a game are not great players in the game's history. Of course, to even be in MLB you have to be among the best of the best. I recall Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves hitting 4 in a game many years ago, but I couldn't name any others off the top of my head. There was a guy on the Cardinals who did it not that long ago (or so it seems), but I couldn't tell you his name.
I saw a list and like Sid said it's not a who's who... but Gil Hodges did it and he was my 2nd favorite Dodger of the 50's.
Here is the list: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats4.shtml Babe Ruth never hit four, because pitchers were walking him anyway, and I guarantee you that any pitcher I ever knew would have drilled him in the arse after the third one. Most of these guys hit four, because the pitchers weren't afraid of them. Think about Adcock. Who else in that lineup are you going to pitch to? Hank Aaron? Eddie Mathews? Even their pitcher (Warren Spahn) was the greatest hitting pitcher of all-time, and other pitchers like Lew Burdette and Johnny Sain weren't far behind. Yes...Lou Gehrig is on the list, but batting behind him is the rest of Murderer's Row. Willie Mays is there, but the guy behind him was Hall-of-Farmer Orlando Cepeda... Most amazing to me are guys from the Dead Ball Era. Bobby Lowe was the first to hit four in 1894. That was the second year after they moved the mound back to 60' 6" and put a rubber on a mound. They also used the same ball all day and it had no cork center. That's pretty good hitting.
I know about Ed Delahanty because years ago my daughter gave me a large and well illustrated book entitled "players of Cooperstown", which included players from the earliest years of the game. Big Ed was front and center among them. Gil Hodges. Of course! Now I remember. How could I forget him? He was a southern Indiana boy.
Are the Rockies for real? I've read several places that the Dodgers and the Nationals are the 2 best teams in the NL. Nobody talks about the Rockies. The Astros have really been hit in the starting rotation. Keuchel is out, as are Musgrove and Morton. BP is really overworked. Another good start by Mike Firers who earlier lead the league in gopher balls but now is settling down. Hinch is really going to have to be creative with the pitching rotation waiting for the staff to get healthy again.
:idea: re: Rockies They're for real if Bud Black can stretch that pitching staff through August/September. They may have to go shopping before the trade deadline. re: Astros They're so far out in front, they have a chance to sew up their division before September. The big question is; will they sell prospects to add what they need? They've been unwilling to do that in recent years, but now that they're rebuilt, they may have to rethink that... re: Yankees George was right. The Yanks are a MUCH better team than the preseason magazines predicted. The main criticisms centered around lack of pitching depth to last 162 games, which is ridiculous. The Yankees aren't going to run out of money or prospects. They will obtain whatever they need to support their core of young sluggers... re: Dodgers - Bellinger had two more HRs today and Seager hit a grand slam. - Kenley Jansen is rewriting all the record books for pitchers. He has not walked a batter this SEASON while he has recorded 44 strikeouts... - Justin Turner leads the NL with a batting average of .383... re: Nationals The Nats have a major weakness: they have the WORST bullpen in MLB. if they don't fix that, they will only go as far as the starters take them.
The Yankees have three youngsters in Judge, Hicks and Sanchez who all appear to be something extremely special. I think the oldest of the three is 25. These guys have energized the whole team. As of this post, Judge is a Triple Crown winner, leading all three categories. Today he hit a 495' bomb that you'll see on Sportcenter. The amazing thing is that they have had this success with their ace pitcher totally ineffective, their first baseman, who was expected to be the best young player of the whole lot, out for mopst of the season to date as has their closer. I still say pitching is their potential undoing. But when your are clubbing teams like they are it hides a lot of sins.