w/r/t: Nats.... Bryce who? 
w/r/t: Yanks/Stros - has the feeling of a 7 game series because of starting pitching "depth" or "trust" in #3+. Both listing Game4 as a "bullpen game" is interesting - probably only holds true if there's an attempt to play w/ the scheduled rain.
JohnF posted:w/r/t: Nats.... Bryce who?
w/r/t: Yanks/Stros - has the feeling of a 7 game series because of starting pitching "depth" or "trust" in #3+. Both listing Game4 as a "bullpen game" is interesting - probably only holds true if there's an attempt to play w/ the scheduled rain.
Yeah, the ALCS definitely has the feel of a 7 game series. It's like two juggernauts slugging at each other.
I'm concerned that if the NLCS ends after only 4-5 games and the winner has to wait (Nationals at this point) the momentum they have going will die and they will get swept in the WS like the Rockies did a few years back.
Regardless, I am happy for the Nats. It's the farthest they have ever gotten so each game is just gravy. Winning the NLCS will be sweet.
I'm a bit disappointed in the hitting of the cards this year. With jeff albert they signed one of the top "data gurus" out there, albert was the top guy in hitter development of the astros and had spectacular success there.
I wonder what went wrong? Of course a coach can only do so much with the talent he got but was not supported by the more oldschool cards coaching stuff?
Or does his stuff work better for developing unfinished product than squeezing out the best day to day out of an mlb lineup were it is more about mental stuff and strategy against that particular pitcher than trying to improve mechanics, EV, LA and that stuff?
Of course the lineup is also aging at some crucial positions which is not helping either.
Chico Escuela posted:Houston is a great team. And Cole is having a run for the ages The ALCS should be interesting.
As a Rays fan, I'll close with this fun fact: The combined salaries of Verlander, Cole and Greinke is is more than the entire Rays payroll. (Although I think it's great that any team's ownership is willing to spend to get players. I wish the Rays could/would do it.)
FINALLY!!!
After 40 years of whining about other teams payroll being bigger, we get the finger wagged at us. Love it!
Anyone has a higher payroll than the rays. If they want to be any cheaper they need to be outsourced to india
Astros vs nats WS. Most projection systems have the astros about a 60-70% favourite to win the series, just a deeper team.
Meanwhile the astros had a little scandal of an assistant GM aggressively shouting "thank god we have osuna" towards female journalists also using the F word in a provoking manner (likely related to the domestic violence thing).
Astros tried to downplay it but the writers especially female ones don't really appreciate that.
Let’s start with I’m all for keeping politics out of sports. Sports are supposed to be a diversion from every day life. Unfortunately there are too many flunky sportswriters who wish they were columnists for the NY Times. They take a spark and keep rubbing hoping for a bonfire. It’s no wonder a lot of athletes prefer to ignore sportswriters.
Overall, the Astros have more talent. But the Nationals have the pitching to shut down the Astros and negate their advantage.
Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
Dirtbag30 posted:Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
After Game 1 this "story" won't be a story anymore. So no they don't have to admit all the "mistakes". Because nobody cares and they are not going to fire a guy who helped but a world series team together.
But just tell me which is more believable?
Astros exec randomly went up to three female reporters out of nowhere and let them know how happy he is about signing the man on a night where he blew a world series clinching save? Because he's just that misogynistic?
or
Media members misinterpret comments?
I wasn't there and don't know what was said nor do I care. But how can discipline be called for when nobody knows what happens? Knowing how easily things get misinterpreted and taken out of context how can we say that he did anything wrong in the first place let alone needs to be disciplined for it? The Astros are playing in the world series tonight, there is no PR crisis.
PABaseball posted:Dirtbag30 posted:Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
After Game 1 this "story" won't be a story anymore. So no they don't have to admit all the "mistakes". Because nobody cares and they are not going to fire a guy who helped but a world series team together.
But just tell me which is more believable?
Astros exec randomly went up to three female reporters out of nowhere and let them know how happy he is about signing the man on a night where he blew a world series clinching save? Because he's just that misogynistic?
or
Media members misinterpret comments?
I wasn't there and don't know what was said nor do I care. But how can discipline be called for when nobody knows what happens? Knowing how easily things get misinterpreted and taken out of context how can we say that he did anything wrong in the first place let alone needs to be disciplined for it? The Astros are playing in the world series tonight, there is no PR crisis.
Well the report wasn't he went there and told them how happy he was but that he was screaming it aggressively in their direction several times including using of the f word and Astros didn't deny that.
Probably wasn't meant misogynistic either but out of the emotion. Still terrible handling by the Astros PR guys, they could probably have resolved that already had they acted like it is 2019 and not like it is 1988.
Dominik85 posted:PABaseball posted:Dirtbag30 posted:Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
After Game 1 this "story" won't be a story anymore. So no they don't have to admit all the "mistakes". Because nobody cares and they are not going to fire a guy who helped but a world series team together.
But just tell me which is more believable?
Astros exec randomly went up to three female reporters out of nowhere and let them know how happy he is about signing the man on a night where he blew a world series clinching save? Because he's just that misogynistic?
or
Media members misinterpret comments?
I wasn't there and don't know what was said nor do I care. But how can discipline be called for when nobody knows what happens? Knowing how easily things get misinterpreted and taken out of context how can we say that he did anything wrong in the first place let alone needs to be disciplined for it? The Astros are playing in the world series tonight, there is no PR crisis.
Well the report wasn't he went there and told them how happy he was but that he was screaming it aggressively in their direction several times including using of the f word and Astros didn't deny that.
Probably wasn't meant misogynistic either but out of the emotion. Still terrible handling by the Astros PR guys, they could probably have resolved that already had they acted like it is 2019 and not like it is 1988.
Here’s an assessment from the N.Y. Post, which for those who aren’t from the NY area is the city’s conservative leaning local tabloid.
https://nypost.com/2019/10/22/...tter_impression=true
I would agree that this story won’t stay in the headlines for long, likely a 24hr cycle. But it’s clear Taubman’s remarks were intended for the female reporter, and were absolutely misogynistic. It was an immature and stupid thing to do, even in a heightened emotional moment. You’re a major executive, in a big market city, representing a top tier organization. Matters were made worse by the clubs PR response, which I guarantee will end up with someone (perhaps a team of people) being fired. It was the opposite of damage control. The only response that was appropriate, intelligent and displayed any understanding of the situation came from Hinch. This will all blow over, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place and could have been diminished by a more professional initial response.
I don't think he needs to get fired, just give him a month off, let him apologize and maybe give him some harassment sensitivity training or something like that.
PABaseball posted:Dirtbag30 posted:Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
After Game 1 this "story" won't be a story anymore. So no they don't have to admit all the "mistakes". Because nobody cares and they are not going to fire a guy who helped but a world series team together.
But just tell me which is more believable?
Astros exec randomly went up to three female reporters out of nowhere and let them know how happy he is about signing the man on a night where he blew a world series clinching save? Because he's just that misogynistic?
or
Media members misinterpret comments?
I wasn't there and don't know what was said nor do I care. But how can discipline be called for when nobody knows what happens? Knowing how easily things get misinterpreted and taken out of context how can we say that he did anything wrong in the first place let alone needs to be disciplined for it? The Astros are playing in the world series tonight, there is no PR crisis.
As this ESPN story confirms, the media report was corroborated by several others who were in the room. So, I'll take the corroborated story over the AGM's disputed claims. And the Astro's attempt to blame the reporter for telling the truth is a supremely trashy move.
And, not only is it still in the news, but MLB is now investigating. But, sure ... it's all long forgotten now.
Taubman was on the Red Sox GM interview list. Not anymore according to The Sunday Globe.
Yeah, that is die cost for him. Won't costs him his job likely but Astros front office are popular to hire and promote and while he still can become a GM that probably pushes his career arc 1 or 2 years back until enough time is gone.
This won't stay a huge topic but when someone interviews him as a GM they probably remember. Maybe even good for the Astros because they now can hold him longer before he is hired away.
But back to the game: big win for the nats in game one against Cole. Astros are still the favorite to win the series as this is only one game but their fangraphs odds dropped from 70% to "only" 55% which still makes them the favorite to win.
Game 2 should be good. Verlander vs Strasburg.
Dominik85 posted:PABaseball posted:Dirtbag30 posted:Seems pretty simple and apolitical to me: Astros AGM stuck his foot in it big time and publicly in a moment of jubilation. Even worse, it was on a taboo topic (domestic violence). Then the organization compounds error by (a) falsely blaming the reporter and (b) failing to admit original mistake. Thanks to a healthy dose of arrogance, the Astros turned a bad situation worse and created a huge PR nightmare/crisis for themselves,
Time to go back to PR 101, do a bigger mea culpa, and admit ALL the mistakes. Only then will this pass.
After Game 1 this "story" won't be a story anymore. So no they don't have to admit all the "mistakes". Because nobody cares and they are not going to fire a guy who helped but a world series team together.
But just tell me which is more believable?
Astros exec randomly went up to three female reporters out of nowhere and let them know how happy he is about signing the man on a night where he blew a world series clinching save? Because he's just that misogynistic?
or
Media members misinterpret comments?
I wasn't there and don't know what was said nor do I care. But how can discipline be called for when nobody knows what happens? Knowing how easily things get misinterpreted and taken out of context how can we say that he did anything wrong in the first place let alone needs to be disciplined for it? The Astros are playing in the world series tonight, there is no PR crisis.
Well the report wasn't he went there and told them how happy he was but that he was screaming it aggressively in their direction several times including using of the f word and Astros didn't deny that.
Probably wasn't meant misogynistic either but out of the emotion. Still terrible handling by the Astros PR guys, they could probably have resolved that already had they acted like it is 2019 and not like it is 1988.
fWAR? musta been a Baseball Reference leaning reporter.
I think that Bregman blast to tie that just happened early game 2 is gonna be a huge pivotal point. Looks like it lit a fire under Verlander as well.
Never mind 
What a wacky 7th inning. Suzuki's improbable HR off Verlander followed by a walk to Robles and Turner, Eaton's bunt, the routine grounder just off the lip of Bergman's glove. Then the floodgates opened with Cabrera's hit to center, Zimmerman's slow grounder towards third. That's 33 pitches the Astro's wish they could get back.
If someone told me the Nationals would be heading back home with a 2 game lead, I would have told them they were nuts. Who would have thought there would be back to back losses by Cole and Verlander?
This what I love about baseball. You have to play the game. Anything can happen - even the improbable.
