JV has never come in as a reliever in his live. I don't think he can get hot in 2-3 minutes like a reliever can. And I don't want test that concept in a game that matters.

RED AG 98 said:

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3 innings of great JV with good location and swing and miss. Was trouble from there.

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Call me naive, but I still think that followed by 4-6 from Blanco in the playoffs would be valuable.

Same routine for JV, but functionally a bullpen # of innings.

If you max pitching only one pitcher is getting cut from the active roster. I'd rather the above situation than have Ferguson. 12 pitchers and it's between one of Ort/King vs JV, I still think I'd pick JV. Even in the wild card, what if game 2 goes 18 innings? I'd feel better using brown/spaghetti/blanco to force a game 3 knowing I can start JV instead of Ferguson in a critical 14th.

Mathguy64 said:

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JV has never come in as a reliever in his live. I don't think he can get hot in 2-3 minutes like a reliever can. And I don't want test that concept in a game that matters.

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Yeah if you've ever been to a game where JV starts he does a LOT of long toss beforehand and I think bringing him in relief is not only a bad idea but also a way to cause an injury, and at this point of his career the next injury will probably be his last.

Dumb question here- I got a Gallagher Club pass to tonights game. Is that a game ticket (it's in the Ballpark app) or do I need to buy a game ticket to get in the stadium?

Gallagher club will be your ticket. You will not need another

To be honest I'm still not comfortable with all the JV talk because until we clinch it doesn't mean crap.

Our offense has looked anemic before last night's outburst (thankfully no 10 run curse) and we all know the rangerettes are going to let the seamen sweep so I'm still nervous about us even making it.

What's ironic is I'm actually glad Seattle finishes the season against the A's as they are playing loose and really well right now. We might have to depend on some help from them if we can't close Seattle out in our series.

Harry Dunne said:

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Sorry, but I'm not that worried about the future of his career and I don't think he is either.

Again, CFM and Lance had never pitched in relief either.

I do like the starter idea better. Let him go three innings. I'm not that confident our inexperienced guys are going to make it much longer than that anyway.

But GTFO to those of you saying Ort is a better choice. I don't think anyone is wrong with their JV takes as far as where he's at performance-wise, but Ort is a journeyman in the true sense of the word.

I'll take JV NEXT fall after a year of nothing but sipping whiskey on the yacht and "cuddling" with Kate. I'll take him rusty & straight off the couch over effing Ort.

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There is a critical flaw in your comparison of LMJ and CFM to JV. Both LMJ and CFM were performing well when the season ended. JV is not. He's not going to find the fountain of youth coming out of the bullpen. I keep saying this, but putting him in the bullpen is the Robbie Ray scenario.

All I do is Nguyen said:

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Do they sell the Los Astros jerseys at the team store? Wish they sold them online

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I saw them available in the store last night.

Also, for anyone interested, space city jerseys are $50 now and space city hats $10. Most players had availability in all sizes

KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI
KUCHI

gambochaman said:

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Astros savior starter Yusei Kikuchi's wife Rumi Fukatsu walks the runaway in the ⁦@Astros Foundation luncheon and fashion show and the couple's son Leo decides to make it a double walk. Leo's goodbye wave to his dad may be the best part. pic.twitter.com/CMqV1ayr7c

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) September 20, 2024

Adorbs

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Marvin said:

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Harry Dunne said:

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You old guys most of all should know that experience counts for something.

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"Back of the baseball card"
/dana

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I love how every year we get a quote from someone in the organization that we just keep repeating. "That's just fan stuff" "Check the back of the baseball card" and so on

JPN06 said:

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DrZ said:

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In 2017 playoffs against Boston in game 4 he came in as relief for 2.2 innings. This game won the series. We went on to defeat NY next. Granted its only once but he has come out of pen before.

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THIS.

Role doesn't matter. Is he currently a better pitcher than anyone else on that playoff roster? That's all that matters.

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Roles do matter. Experience getting loose, coming in without the normal routine for the week, not knowing when your number will be called. If you ask JV is that stuff matters I would bet my watches, he'd say yes.

Obviously, that's isn't the only thing that matters. Being able to get swings and miss, strikes outs, and not give up the long ball is extremely important in October. JV was one of the best ever at the first too. Not so much anymore.

Finally, I present without comment. One is JV. One is Ort.

fairviewcrew said:

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Gallagher club will be your ticket. You will not need another

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Perfect. Thanks for the reply.

going back to the Tigers and Skubal...

it's highly unlikely Detroit can clinch the last wildcard before the final weekend of the season

so Skubal may have to pitch game 161 or 162 to get the Tigers in

and thus he would not be available for game 1 and possibly game 2

fairviewcrew said:

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Gallagher club will be your ticket. You will not need another

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Are you sure?

I think Gallagher club has two different kinds of passes. You can get actual tickets with seats, or just a pass into Gallagher club. It's my understanding that if you have the pass, no seat, you still need a ticket. But could be wrong.

blame the former players cabal

they love, love, love the old guys...regardless of skill deterioration

htxag09 said:

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fairviewcrew said:

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Gallagher club will be your ticket. You will not need another

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Are you sure?

I think Gallagher club has two different kinds of passes. You can get actual tickets with seats, or just a pass into Gallagher club. It's my understanding that if you have the pass, no seat, you still need a ticket. But could be wrong.

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That's what I understood, which is why I asked. Now I'm confused again. And of course the Astros website is literally no help.

EDIT- finally heard back from my buddy and I will need a game ticket. Anyone have a single ticket they'd sell?

JPN06 said:

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A HOF career and a career's worth of postseason pitching vs a journeyman who has barely a blip of above average MLB performance matters more.

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To be honest Ort is destined for a massive reversion to the mean. He's giving up a HR every three innings, and has an FIP of 5.5. He's done a great job not walking anyone, but 9 of the 15 hits he's given up are extra bases

As was said above, bringing a guy like JV, who has a long warmup and prep routine into the bullpen, where he is going to have to warmup quickly and won't know he will pitch until a few minutes before going in is a recipe for getting him injured. He was already saying he thought he came back too quickly from his current injury. If he has plans in his mind to pitch next year, I would be surprised if he was enthusiastic about coming out of the pen with short warmups while still coming back from a prior injury. He is a team guy and will do what they ask and what he can to help the team, but if you asked him candidly, I suspect he would rather start or be left off the roster, especially when it comes to protecting his health if he plans to pitch next year.

John Smoltz taught himself how to do this after his TJ. Obviously Dennis Eckersly transitioned from SP to RP. And like of journeymen swing both ways.

I just don't see JV being able to do that at this stage of the season.

Let him start if you want but be prepared for it to go Kaboom. I would let him start and go 2-3 but make it clear that's all we need. Let him empty his tank for 3 innings. Maybe that would increase his velo a bit.

Quo Vadis? said:

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JPN06 said:

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A HOF career and a career's worth of postseason pitching vs a journeyman who has barely a blip of above average MLB performance matters more.

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To be honest Ort is destined for a massive reversion to the mean. He's giving up a HR every three innings, and has an FIP of 5.5. He's done a great job not walking anyone, but 9 of the 15 hits he's given up are extra bases

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Not so sure I agree. He's been slightly unlucky with actual HR vs expected. xFIP being lower shows "unlucky" HR rate since it looks more at HR rate per fly ball. Then you get into xERA which looks at all his batted ball traits plus K & BB and it gets even lower than xFIP.

I think a lot of team would kill for someone of Ort's quality as their 5th or 6th best reliever.

MaxPower said:

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Am I the only one who thinks kuchi is a higher priority free agent than Bregman?

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You are not…I agree completely with you

MaxPower said:

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Am I the only one who thinks kuchi is a higher priority free agent than Bregman?

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Kikuchi will cost $$. We have Garcia, Javier and Urquidy coming back. Note I'm not including LMJ. But that's 3 guys coming back. And they won't cost money.

I doubt Javier and Urquidy will be available next year.

Can never have too much pitching and if they all somehow come back then pitching is also the easiest thing you can do trade because everyone else needs more.

Harry Dunne said:

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I do like the starter idea better. Let him go three innings. I'm not that confident our inexperienced guys are going to make it much longer than that anyway.

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I like JV as 3-4 inning opener over carrying Ort or Ferguson, provided he doesn't implode that 1st time through the lineup. Pair him up with Blanco to eat the innings until we get Abreu, Press, or Hader.