I'm thrilled we won. RA is aces in my book. So is Schoeneweis. I am aggravated about the direction this thread took after the win.
I'm thrilled we won. RA is aces in my book. So is Schoeneweis. I am aggravated about the direction this thread took after the win.
“The crows seem to be calling my name,” thought Caw.
Astrobuddy seems to stay pretty scarce these days!Originally Posted by oneupper
Let me tell you about J.R.
All you say is true, but here's the rest of the story. This kid is the real deal. For awhile I hoped the Reds would get him. I watched the kid play from the time he was in high school football and followed him in Florida. He was lucky that his dad is a big car dealer and he had the option of playing baseball in Florida.
Last year, while recovering from surgery, he dicided to walk-on at West Virginia to get into the mix for quarterback. I watched him in a scrimmage last year and there was no doubt he would be the starting QB before the season was over, but something happened along the way--Pat White. White was just so good that House saw the writing on the wall and went back to baseball, but I'll tell you, it was close. House got into a few games last year before White established himself as a future star and it was magic every time. He just has a feel for the game.
The same is true of baseball. With the elbow healed and all that, he'll probably become a star. I just wish it was for the Reds. His talent is wasted with the Bucs.
www.ris-news.com
"You only have to bat a thousand in two things; flying and heart transplants. Everything else you can go 4-for-5."
-Beano Cook
You told me to keep myself scarce from game threads. Maybe it is some kind of warning and not a threat. You can fill me in.
your right.Do your best to improve the grammar up there, including your own.
This is a nice repsonse. First you tell me not to show my face in game threads anymore because I am bothering YOUR enjoyment of the Reds win. But when someone tells you that YOU are bothering them, you tell them they must have something wrong with them if some words are keeping them from enjoying that win.Sooo....because of our tete-a-tete, you can no longer enjoy a great win? If this little tiff destroyed this fantastic win for you, something is wrong, and it has nothing to do with us.
I thought that was your whole problem with me?
I apologize to anyone who I bothered in this thread, with the exception of Big Lebowski
The situation with the above two posters who chose to ignore my warning has been addressed. Let's keep the board, including the game threads, free of this petty arguing, please.
I hope anyone wasn't offended by my posts on this thread. They were mostly made with I hope was a little humor and nothing more. I think they were taken that way, but I'm not sure now.
I thought your posts were hilarious. FCB and OBM were pretty darn funny as well.
I thought they were fine.
I hope they at least send a postcard - or get RBA or FCB a snowglobe or something.
Some people play baseball. Baseball plays Jay Bruce.
neither one of you is even close to the "most hated".
School's out. What did you expect?
I love your Rich Aurilia-worship posts RBA!!!
To get ready for tonight's game, I thought I'd read Houston's account. Pretty brutal.
This team's got a losing combination
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
CINCINNATI — Inside a quiet clubhouse, they seemed more numb than angry.
"Déjà vu all over again," Mike Lamb said.
This defeat was neither the ugliest nor the most painful. It was only the latest.
The Astros didn't lose Monday night just because Chad Qualls surrendered another booming home run with a game on the line. And they didn't lose just because Andy Pettitte couldn't finish the sixth inning.
And they certainly didn't lose just because they generated three or fewer runs for the 53rd time.
They lost for all those reasons and then some. They lost because for the last two summers they've had magical things happen down the stretch, and baseball's gods have a way of getting even.
The Astros were reminded of this Monday night in another punch-in-the-gut defeat, a 4-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
Time is running out
This series was their chance to position themselves for another September sprint to the playoffs. Instead, it may validate that they're not up to it this time.
"It hurts," manager Phil Garner said. "It just kills you."
The Astros trail the Reds by six games with 37 remaining in the race for the National League wild-card berth. They've got eight teams to pass and no mojo.
This was the eighth time they've lost after leading by at least three runs and the 15th time they've lost after being ahead or tied after seven innings.
It's almost time to start preparing that recruiting pitch for free-agent outfielder Carlos Lee, who almost certainly will be the club's top priority this winter.
The Astros need more than him. They need more power at the other corner outfield spot, and they may need a third baseman and a starting pitcher. They'll also need to regain their ability to compete with the game on the line.
Beyond what can be measured is the fact they've been awful in game situations. They don't get runners in from third base. They don't move them from second to third.
Garner's magic missing
It's easy to track the large failures. The Astros haven't gotten enough from Jason Lane, Morgan Ensberg and Brad Lidge. That's old news. There's something else missing.
Little plays win hundreds of baseball games a year. These are the plays the Astros aren't making.
Even if new bodies are brought in, Garner must get his team back to playing as a team, to competing the hardest when the stakes are highest.
This is the kind of thing Roger Clemens has done for 23 seasons. This is the kind of thing Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt and a few others do.
Garner had the Astros doing it as a team the last two years. His magic has left the building.
"We've probably had a hundred games like this," Garner said.
It's these intangibles that must worry general manager Tim Purpura. He can bring in players with numbers. He
can't know if they'll play as one.
Defeats like Monday's can rip the heart from a team, can test it in ways teams aren't usually tested. Go ahead and vent about the manager, general manager, owner, bullpen and everything else.
Sometimes luck plays a part, too. The Reds tied it after a liner fell in front of Berkman in right and a grounder bounced over Lamb's head at first.
Then Qualls left a pitch in the fat part of the plate for Rich Aurilia, who hit a three-run homer to tie it. Qualls came undone from there.
"Sometimes you're going to be on the other end of it," Pettitte said. "We did that to teams a lot the last two years. We've just got to keep going."
This defeat wasn't about luck. Competitive teams generate more offense. Competitive teams make the pitch that needs to be made after two fluke hits.
Let's begin at the beginning. Garner wasn't going to use Dan Wheeler, who had pitched three days in a row. Fernando Nieve isn't healthy, and Garner would prefer not to use Lidge in a close game for a while.
Garner needed more from his starting pitcher. When he didn't get it, Russ Springer did a nice job to finish the sixth, and Qualls got the Reds in order in the seventh.
Garner was forced to send Qualls back out for the eighth, and that's when the game was lost. Yet it wasn't just about the bullpen.
Do you like numbers? The Astros were perfect with runners in scoring position. They were zero-for-zero.
Their three runs were generated by homers, two by Aubrey Huff and one by Berkman. They didn't get a single runner into scoring position the rest of the game.
"It's a combination of things," Garner said. "We needed (Qualls) to close it down tonight, and he didn't. We needed to put some more runs on the board. We didn't. It just ticks me off."
Their three runs were generated by homers, two by Aubrey Huff and one by Berkman. They didn't get a single runner into scoring position the rest of the game.
For some reason this didn't register with me. They didn't have a man on second or third the entire game? How many men went to first? Crikes, if the Reds played in some other ballpark we might have been close to a no-hitter.
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. Amazing, no?
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