Dean's World

Astros Theory

Dean

Mad Oilman has an amusing theory to explain why the Astros have had such a strange season.

Honestly, though, the Astros have been playing very good ball. All their fundamentals have been solid, and they've capitalized on almost every opportunity troughout the playoffs, and made made very few mistakes. To me it seems to come down to pitching, the Sox don't necessarily have all the best pitchers, but their bullpen is just deeper. Yet the Astros have made the Sox work hard for every victory. Astros fans should be very proud that their relatively young team has won their league pennant, made it to the World Series, and fought hard against a very, very good Chicago team.

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IB Bill (mail) (www):

The White Sox are the better team. They were the best team all year, and they're the best team now. The Astros are playing well, too, but they're outmatched.

The White Sox look a lot like the '03 Marlins and the '02 Angels -- peaking at exactly the right time.

10.26.2005 9:55am

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rvman (mail):

The Astros' Achilles heel all season has been driving in runners in scoring position - they had some appalling numbers in that area earlier in the playoffs, but they pitched through it. It has come up to bite them in this series, with Clemens hurt and Petitte and Oswalt not up to their usual levels.

The pitching has been even, and both staffs have been below their respective pars. The Astros just haven't been able to plate their runners. I'd say the biggest difference is that the White Sox have better hitters than the Bagwell-less Astros from the 4 spot on down.

Small strike zone last night - 21 walks.

10.26.2005 10:23am

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TallDave (mail) (www):

Amazing. There was some optimism before the season, but no one expected this.

And the whole playoff run without Frank Thomas. Unbelievable.

10.26.2005 10:46am

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Ken McCracken (mail) (www):

Who needs the Big Skirt?!

10.26.2005 12:20pm

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Bill Dooley:

My favorite baseball moment was in A League of Their Own, when Tom Hanks said, "There's no crying in baseball."

10.26.2005 1:25pm

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Tom S (mail):

It also helps that the Sox are batting better in the playoffs than they did during the regular season. Their regular season BA/OBP/SLG percentages were .264/.322/.425, which is decidedly middle-of-the-pack. In the postseason, their numbers are .275/.354/.484 which, if they had done it during the regular season, would have given them the third highest BA and OBP, and the highest SLG (by nearly .020). The bats got hot at the right time.

Also, their pitching has been better, even though they are facing better (on average) teams during the playoffs than they did during the regular season (for example, they're not playing the Royals in the postseason). They had the third best regular season ERA of 3.61, but their postseason ERA thus far is 2.77. So, the pitching got hot at the right time.

Put the two together and it makes your chances of winning the series highly likely. Also, I strongly doubt the Astros will pull off anything like the Red Sox did last year. The Red Sox were the best offensive team last year and the Yankees pitching was mediocre (4.69 ERA last season) and, therefore, vulnerable to a team that can hit. By contrast, Houston's offensive numbers this year are mediocre - they won with pitching, just like the Angels. Also, the White Sox' pitching is better than the Red Sox' pitching was last year.

In other words, this series is over. I just hope tonight's game is quick (I hate these late nights).

10.26.2005 4:30pm

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Dean Esmay:

Well, you called it Tom.

10.27.2005 5:23am