Houston Astros Series Preview

I was more battling against the constant quoting of hitting with RISP that you hear on broadcasts.

Here’s a couple of other measures:

In high leverage situations, defined I think as situations that have twice (or greater) the “average” impact on games, the Reds collectively have a .313 wOBA, which ranks them 7th in the NL. So, not quite as good, but still in the top 50% of league.

By “Clutch” (which used to be referred to by the superior name “clutchiness”), they are -1.5 wins, meaning they’ve gotten 1.5 wins less than expected due to situational performance.

So there, ok, maybe hitting in situations accounts for one or two of the five win deficit.

…of course, these kinds of statistics are very rarely predictive of future performance. But it falls into the category of unlucky things, mostly.

But I agree it’s frustrating when it happens. But my feeling is that fans/announcers tend to over-focus on these things, and to have expectations that are much too high for what a typical team can achieve.
-j

Are there other schools/colleges in Indiana beside IU?

…and ends up hitting almost entirely with his upper body. That’s surprising to hear, given that he’s has to generate power with very little mass to transfer into his hands and the bat. I’m looking forward to watching him tonight.
-j

Every loss is a killer at this point, but we can’t lose to the worst team in baseball, one that’s even worse than they were a few days ago.

Sweep Stros, sweep Cubs, we’re back in this thing.

Look at our schedule this month:

Rockies
Padres
Nats
Pirates
Marlins
Nats
Phillies

If we go .667 for the month against these steaming piles of crap, we’ll be in great shape going into several divisional showdowns in Sept.

Gotta win now to have any chance later.

GO REDS!

I don’t care that they’re facing the team’s 3 “best” starters. 2 or, at most, 3 runs should be plenty to win each game.

I think B-Ref is not giving the pitching enough credit for pitching in front of a terrible defense. They list HOU’s dWAR as +0.7, which is the only source I’ve seen that rates them so highly. This probably means that the pitching has been better than -0.8. FanGraphs, however, has their pitchers at 3 WAR, and with a lower baseline. So yeah, their pitching is not good.

Their offense is worse, though. :)
-j

like Miggy said, and assume everyone is trying to kick our ass and kick theirs instead

Cairo batting 2nd – 3/1
Alonso/Bruce back to back but no Votto/Bruce back to back – 6/1
Hanigan too low – 4/1
Janish in the lineup with a flyball pitcher on the mound – 3/1

First off, no way Cairo should be batting 2nd. Second, why are Alonso and Bruce hitting back to back, but not Bruce and Votto? Third, Hanigan is batting way too low for his OBP skills. And finally, why the hell is Janish batting when there’s a flyball pitcher on the mound?

Get a brain, Dusty.

I want to marry this lineup and have its babies.

But since trading Joey this offseason has been widely discussed around here, it’s worth bringing up.

I’d definitely do it, FWIW.

TOR was almost surely scouting Corcino with a different deal in mind. Fay should’ve at least asked someone in the FO, even if they’d just say “no comment.”

Nothing wrong with a little idle speculation, but he tries to give the idea some legitimacy that isn’t warranted.

Is the notion that Bautista would have more of a trade value on the open market than Votto would. First off, isn’t Votto’s contract more favorable? They’re both elite bats at their positions, neither play at a place that has any impact on defense, but the contracts are the only thing really separating them here (other than the fact that Bautista has the added baggage of kind of sucking before he magically became good). Also, I’d think that Votto would be more valuable to them, since he’s the hometown boy and all… shouldn’t they be the ones throwing in the good pitching prospect in this deal, if anybody does?

I haven’t seen him around lately.