Heading to Boston the first week of June, for those of you that have been to Fenway, day game or night game?
Honestly, you can't go wrong with either… I always prefer night baseball games but given how beautiful the stadium is and the weather typically is the day game is also perfect
I went to both on my trip last year… Friday night, game and Saturday afternoon game.
See how many series I can keep this up, but it's a fun exercise at least.
This Series: Astros host San Francisco: Monday 7:10 p.m., Tuesday 7:10 p.m., Wednesday 3:10 p.m.
Who's pitching? Monday Ronel Blanco vs. Jordan Hicks; Tuesday Hayden Wesneski vs Logan Webb; Wednesday Framber Valdez vs. Landen Roupp
Wait, who the hell is Hayden Wesneski? The pride of Cy-Fair High School for starters. We got him with Paredes and Cam Smith for King Tucker back in December. He's 9-13 in his career over 22 games as a starter and has done some bullpen work as well. He got drafted by the Rays in the 33rd round after high school but went to Sam instead. Then he got drafted by the Yankees 3 years later and has been traded twice since then.
What's going on with the Giants? They're 2-1 but only in third place because the Dodger$ are 5-0 and San Diego is 4-0.
Who's raking for the Giants so far? That would be RF Heliot Ramos, who is on pace for 108 HR and 216 RBI (and 216 strikeouts) this year so far. After a breakout 2024 when he hit 22 HR in 121 games, he's taken off at age 25.
Who else do they have that I've heard of? Matt Chapman is on his 3rd team in four years plays there. He couldn't stop loving the 1-2 knockout of massive inflation and rampant homelessness in the Bay Area so he came home in 2024 after playing for Oaktown from 2017-2021. Somehow Toronto didn't retain him despite the 44 HR and 335 strikeouts he achieved in 2022-2023.
Why are you burying the lead? OK, Verlander is there, playing with our old pal Robbie Ray, who still goes to therapy twice a week whispering "44, 44, 44" like Brando whispering "the horror" in Apocalypse Now. JV didn't get a win, but pitched well vs Cincy on Saturday, 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 K.
Are the Giants any good? Not particularly. Since their epic 107-win, NLDS flameout in 2021, they've gone 81-81, 79-83, and 80-82. After their glory days of three World Series titles between 2010-2014, they've only been to the playoff twice, and lost both NLDS series.
What's freaking you out about the Astros today? The team batting average is .176 and its slugging percentage is .224. We've got 2 XHB and they were both in the same game. Take away Altuve (5 for 11), and the team is hitting .135.
But the good news is? The team ERA is 1.33. Framber, Hunter, and Spaghetti combined to pitch 19 innings, allow 9 hits, 3 earned runs, and strikeout 16 batters. In the words of my high school hero, MC Hammer, that's 2 legit 2 quit.
Grandpa, tells us bout the good old days? On September 24th, 1986, 71-year-old Nolan Ryan allowed 1 hit in 8 innings and struck out 12 Giants in a 6-0 victory. Particularly noteworthy in this game is that Nolan singled with 2 outs in the bottom of the second and then was somehow caught stealing with Billy Hatcher up. Then in the 4th inning, Nolan reached on a two-out error by 3B Bob Brenly, went to second on a passed ball, and scored a run on a Billy Hatcher single. That was the only run Nolan scored the entire season and one of his 3 hits. He did in fact steal three bases in his career, two in the 70s and another in 1984. The next afternoon, Mike Scott no-hit the Giants 2-0, the first and only time a division has been clinched via no-hitter. He walked two batters and hit Dan Gladden with a pitch. It was Scotty's 18th win of the year, clinched the Cy Young for him, and put him in position to strike out 8 on October 2, also against the Giants, to top the 300-strikeout barrier.
What's going on with our ex-Astros? In case you missed it, Ryan Presley treated Cubs fans to the kind of **** they're going to be having to eat all season long on Saturday. Here's the play-by-play of his first save with the Cubs.
Enters the game in the bottom of the 9th, Cubs up 4-1 on Arizona. Naylor singles to center. Suarez homers to left field (407 feet), Naylor scores (4-3) Moreno singled to right. Hampson ran for Moreno. McCarthy struck out swinging. Perdomo popped out to second. Marte walked, Hampson to second. Carroll reached on infield single, Marte to second, Hampson out at home on runner's fielder's choice.
The only reason this game ended was because the pinch runner, rounded third like a huge idiot while the Cubs' shortstop picked up a slow roller and didn't throw to first because Carroll was going to beat the throw. The shortstop's momentum was carrying him towards third and he ran the pinch runner down and tagged him out.
Starters were solid. That misplay from Rodgers, which should be a rarity, impacted Brown some. That said, all 3 had stuff that looked good.
Middle bullpen was a pleasant surprise. It is nice to have a couple of lefties to work with (Dusty is jealous). Abreu and Hader had rough first games but fought through it. They both looked sharper on Saturday.
Paredes played a solid 3rd base and I like the plate discipline. He can get more opportunities to increase the pitch counts from the 2 hole. Definitely a good replacement for Bregman.
Walker is great defensively and squared up a lot of balls at the plate.
Cam had good, patient at bats. He didn't seem pressed to make something happen. Him and Altuve will continue to get more comfortable in the OF with reps on tracking balls.
If I had to choose, I would rather see strong pitching with a scuffling offense rather than the other way around. The offense will come around and we don't need to fire the hitting coach one series in.
We have a few scheduling quirks with these early series.
Wednesday starts at 3pm for a getaway day. Thursday starts at 3pm for the Twins home opening day Off day Friday Saturday and Sunday with 1pm starts. Head to Seattle for West Coast game times (8:40pm) Monday and Tuesday with a 3pm getaway game on Wednesday.
The Astros had 6,107 PA in 2024. They saw 22,291 pitches. If they had 2025 rate for the 2024 PAs, they'd see another 2,076 pitchers (extra 13 per game)
The Astros had 6,107 PA in 2024. They saw 22,291 pitches. If they had 2025 rate for the 2024 PAs, they'd see another 2,076 pitchers (extra 13 per game)
I always thought that's what the biggest strength of the Aggie offense was the last 3 years (22-24) was their ability to chase pitchers earlier even if they were getting shut down due to high pitch counts.
But… it only works if you take advantage of it. Slugging has to still be there and hitting with RISP
First weekend positive takeaways from the offense:
Exit Velo
24: 88.9
25: 90.8 (+1.9)
Hard Hit%
24: 38.7%
25: 50.0% (+11.3%)
Pull%
24: 41.7%
25: 51.6% (+9.9%)
It was a five-hit weekend for Altuve. He passed up Mike Schmidt & Willie Stargell. Next up - John Olerud, Edgar Martinez, Jose Cruz, and Ron Santo.
Jeremy Pena - Got his first Pena Popper and showed some power at the plate. 106.7 Max EV, 20% Barrel%, and 50% HH%.
Don't worry about Walker. .073 wOBA vs xwOBA .353. 87.5% HH%, Avg EV of 99.8, and Max EV of 111.4. To put that into perspective, Judge had an all-time great season last year. He led the league in EV (96.2) & HH% (61%).
Defensive Runs Saved Paredes +2 Brown +1 Arrighetti +1 Rodgers -1 Smith -1
I gotta say the metrics match the eye test when watching Paredes and Meyers this weekend. Isaac is a delightful surprise.
Shoutout to Michael Conforto - they only play in baseball with a -2 Fielding Run Value. He did it in only 37 innings of defense. A few other names on the negative FRV: Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, George Springer, Willy Adames, Vlad Jr, Jazz Chisholm, & Jasson Domnguez (3 Yankees)
I just noticed we haven't seen Porkchop anywhere on this thread. Did a little digging and his last post was back in Jan where he said he's signing off for good due to harassment?? Anyone else have any idea what happened? I always enjoyed his posts and history knowledge of the game
No matter what!
Epstein didn't do, you know, the thing...
I'm the rare Astros/Cowboys/Spurs fan. We do exist
I just noticed we haven't seen Porkchop anywhere on this thread. Did a little digging and his last post was back in Jan where he said he's signing off for good due to harassment?? Anyone else have any idea what happened? I always enjoyed his posts and history knowledge of the game
Is anyone else sounding out the theory that Altuve is hitting great because he is now spending the other half of each inning staring into space in LF thinking about his next at-bat more?
I just noticed we haven't seen Porkchop anywhere on this thread. Did a little digging and his last post was back in Jan where he said he's signing off for good due to harassment?? Anyone else have any idea what happened? I always enjoyed his posts and history knowledge of the game
We was last seen watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers while holding a tattered copy of The Puppet Masters in his hands.
Is anyone else sounding out the theory that Altuve is hitting great because he is now spending the other half of each inning staring into space in LF thinking about his next at-bat more?
I sure hope not. he better be staring into home plate getting ready to make a play in the outfield.
