Every team has injuries. What you need in that case is organizational depth and a manager that knows what the **** he's doing. We don't have either of those.

Astros hitting coach this year. pic.twitter.com/WcTQ3aXnRa

— TravisT (@LeftyTravis) September 27, 2025

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Astros hitting coach this year. pic.twitter.com/WcTQ3aXnRa

— TravisT (@LeftyTravis) September 27, 2025

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Tee is way to close to the batter. Need to set it in the opposite batters box instead of on home plate.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Faustus said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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The Astros activated Lance McCullers Jr. off the injured list and DFAd Nick Hernandez

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) September 27, 2025

Oh no... This is then waving the white flag

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If we're going to trot him out next season, and we are until it's untenable since he's one of our two high $ starters, they need him to get right. Might as well let him give it another go this season once it's confirmed we're eliminated.

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I would argue they should work with him to restructure his money so it's spread out over multiple years and have him retire before next year. If he loves Houston and the Astros as much as he says, he should be willing to do it to help out the team. Hell, sign his coffee business up for a spot in the diamond club in exchange for him doing it.

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His money is guaranteed so if he thought he was useless or worse he'd probably be on board. I think he loves Houston and his teammates.

I just think it would be a hard sell to convince him that after collecting a paycheck for a couple of years for doing nothing while injured, now that he's able to play we'd be better off if he was still injured.

You know he wants to help and would rather go down throwing for the team.

Really, really frustrating. On the one hand, this team had no business being in the middle of things with all the injuries they had. For that, I suppose, tip of the hat.

On the other hand, though, they were in the middle of it, and seemed to roll over with a lineup that should have been able to produce some runs. Espada's fault? Maybe, but I'm guessing our hitting staff will be let go on Monday.

When the trade deadline came, we addressed exactly what had to be addressed. Our lineup barely had a pulse, and there was hope that at least two or three of Arighetti, Garcia, McCullers, Javier, or France would be able to step in and provide some length to our starting pitching. So, we made some trades (that didn't cost us much) for some bats. Sadly, on the pitching front, only Javier survived until the end. Add insult to injury, and we lost Sousa and Hader (7th and 9th) inning guys. So, it's hard to put in on Dana Brown.

I think I will look at this season with an admiration for what we accomplished 2017-2024. It's not easy to win the number of games year in, year out that we did while avoiding a rash of injuries and other bad luck. Off the top of my head, only the Dodgers and Yankees come close, and they spent a whole lot more money to get there. I have been a fan since I was a little guy listening to Gene Elston on my AM radio back in the early 70s, and I will be ready to go come "Pitchers and Catchers Report" day in mid February.

Enjoyed most of the banter in this thread this year.

With that said...I suppose I am obligated to say, "There's always next year!"

Definitely posted and paid attention to this thread less as it turned to August, but I enjoy coming here and talking baseball and cracking jokes at the expense of our infuriating team with a great group of internet friends. Having y'all keeps me sane as I live and work up in Dallas with not many Stros fans to turn to up here.

Cheers to a not very fun season and hopefully firing our entire staff!

All of you saying we should have still made the playoffs despite the injuries need a reality check. The only reason we sniffed the playoffs is because a bunch of AAA guys somehow carried us to improbable wins in June.

Before the season, if anyone had said that Yordan would only play 48 games, I think most people would have agreed that we'd miss the playoffs. In losing Tucker and Bregman, we needed Yordan to carry this club and he wasn't there to do so.

We had pitchers starting games that no one had heard of prior to this season. LMJ and Luis did not come back from injury to contribute. Javier was limited in his starts when he came back.

The bullpen was a strength until Hader went down and other guys followed. Then it became a huge liability.

This team was still starting to look like it might be able to challenge in the postseason. Then Yordan got hurt again. Then Pena went down again. And that was all she wrote.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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List of 2025 Astros Injuries:

SP Spencer Arrighetti - Missed all but 7 starts
SP Ronel Blanco - Tommy John after 9 starts
SP Luis Garcia - Elbow injury after 2 starts (after missing most of season returning from TJ)
CL Josh Hader - Missed final 2 months
SP Lance McCullers Jr. -…

— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) September 28, 2025

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You can pencil in Blanco, Wesneski, Walter, and Garcia for 2026 too due to TJ in 2025. McCullers had the worst bWAR on the team (-1.1 to Chas' -1.0) in just 15 starts so it's a plus he was out with blisters and what have you.

If Paredes or Alvarez need surgery please let them do it now.

Hopefully this lights a fire under some of the vets. Watching Altuve half-a*** it really ticked me off.

Pad those stats

iBrad said:

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All of you saying we should have still made the playoffs despite the injuries need a reality check. The only reason we sniffed the playoffs is because a bunch of AAA guys somehow carried us to improbable wins in June.

Before the season, if anyone had said that Yordan would only play 48 games, I think most people would have agreed that we'd miss the playoffs. In losing Tucker and Bregman, we needed Yordan to carry this club and he wasn't there to do so.

We had pitchers starting games that no one had heard of prior to this season. LMJ and Luis did not come back from injury to contribute. Javier was limited in his starts when he came back.

The bullpen was a strength until Hader went down and other guys followed. Then it became a huge liability.

This team was still starting to look like it might be able to challenge in the postseason. Then Yordan got hurt again. Then Pena went down again. And that was all she wrote.

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This is valid versus the good teams but I can't accept this as a reason to miss the playoffs completely or for our record versus the crap teams. Those games smattered just a much and avoiding a sweep might have been enough...

Here it is in Starwars form if you're interested. (Ignore the awful audio) pic.twitter.com/P9SWLVrZMo

— VeryHappyAstrosFan (@veryhappyastros) September 28, 2025

Never forget all those who came before

Bligh Madris
Matt Gage
Ben Gamel
Trey Cabbage
Caleb Ferguson
Joel Kuhnel
Miguel Diaz
Ashur Tolliver

name some more Guys.

— jackson (@foreverstros) September 28, 2025

this is an awesome exercise, almost a decade of straight up guys.

— jackson (@foreverstros) September 28, 2025

TexAgs1992 said:

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When we fire Espada and are looking for a new manager, I'd hire the guy who is going to tell the starting pitcher on Friday, May 15th 2026 to go 95 fastball to the leadoff hitters head first time we face them next season to send a message for the bush league bottom of the ninth they pulled tonight to have the satisfaction of eliminating the Astros from the playoffs.

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You're the best type of fan.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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McCullers will start tomorrow

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) September 28, 2025

Hopefully this is his retirement send off

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TIL HIS ARM FALLS OFF

Marvin said:

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How did he take the heat?

I can't do that anymore, and he has almost 20 years on me.

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He's tough. He worked on an oil tanker for 20 years and he's been retired since he was 50. He still volunteers 3 time a week in the Medical Center and seems to have aged very little other than getting a hip replaced. He got a bad sunburn on his right arm, but other than that he stood the whole game and sat down only during the TV timeouts.

Not to brag too much on my dad, but he got the seats because he gave a $50,000 endowment to the Maritime Academy in Galveston a few months ago. He graduated there in '70. They had us at their tailgate party yesterday and had 2 current students from A&M-Galveston as our hosts for the whole day.

I just woke up from my 2-hour couch nap so here's the 2nd to last Astros Bingo update of the year.

It ain't over.

There are 3 squares that still can happen Sunday.

Christian Walker 90 RBI - he hit 2 HR Saturday and is up to 88 RBI.

Aaron Judge 55 HR - He's hit 4 in 3 days and is up to 53.

Rafael Montero <>4.50 ERA. That crazy SOB got a 1-inning hold Saturday and dropped his ERA to 4.48 from 4.58.

I'm assuming Kyle Tucker isn't hitting 3 HR today so I closed that one off.


Here's what all this meas.

Marvin's first with 10 squares. He's got the Judge square open.

Your handsome host has 9 squares. He's got the Montero <4.50 ERA square open.

wmitchell's got 9 squares. He's at Montero >4.50.

Chief Elko finishes with 9.

Wangus finishes with 9

ntouch finishes with 9

KAF has 8 with the Walker square open.



If wmitchell gets his 10th square, he gets the $100 as Marvin isn't eligible.

If wmitchell doesn't get his 10th square, then it's either a 4-way tie for the money between him, Chief Elko, Wangus and ntouch at $25 each.

Or a five-way tie with those 4 and KAF if Walker has 2 RBI today.

I've asked ntouch to send the tumbler to Marvin, since he will at least tie for lead, and was the first to 10 squares.

Baller shoutout to KAF and ntouch for being the old two with the guts to pick "miss the playoffs."


Several other people also have the same squares open.

tjack16 said:

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Season ultimately came down to losing to bad teams when you shouldn't, lack of clutch hitting, and your veteran ace falling off a cliff the last two months of the season.

The injuries excuse is valid to a point but we had many chances down the stretch to still make it… they failed.

Average Framber in August and September gets us into the playoffs. Splitting a 4 game home series against the A's and not being swept gets you into the playoffs. The 5 game losing streak starting last weekend sealed the deal.

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Losing our stud closer was big too

https://t.co/FdT1ldeZLT

— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) September 28, 2025

I had forgotten what it feels like to watch a meaningless Astros game.